Duck Fried Rice Bento and an ECOlunchbox Tri Bento GIVEAWAY!

I have some exciting news (well, for me): I got a brand new bento box set, and it's a very cool one!

It's called Tri Bento and it's made by ECOlunchbox.

This tiffin-style set is made of high-quality, food-grade stainless steel and features three interlocking round tiers that fit one on top of another. They all clip together with two latches that are easy to fasten. When the set is clipped together, it stays together tightly with no chance of accidentally opening. There are no gaskets, so I wouldn't recommend sauces or liquids, but I have not experienced any leakage during the past month I've been using this set with "dryish" foods like the bento I show above.

I packed duck fried rice for MisterMan in the lower tier: rice, with a fried egg mixed in, and sliced chopped roast duck, steamed bok choy, and chopped scallions. The middle tier holds some steamed purple sweet potato, corn off the cob, and a few grape tomatoes. The top tier contains sliced Asian pear, cara cara oranges, a strawberry and some grapes.

The three tiers look identical at first, but they must fit together in a specific way. The one with latches must go on the bottom, obviously. The middle one doesn't have an indented rim for the lid like the top one does, which you (or your child) will realize once you try to put the lid on. It's not hard to figure out. I love this set, and I think it will be able to take a bit of abuse from a lunch-swinging kid (a bonus in this house). Each layer holds about 1 1/2 cups for a total capacity of about 4 3/4 cups of food. Because it's such a large set, it would be well-suited for an older child with a bigger appetite, or an adult, or to separate snacks from lunch.

In sum, I recommend this bento set very highly. It is composed of the same sturdy stainless steel as the other ECOlunchbox sets I own (Three-In-One, Oval, Solo Cube, Solo Rectangle, and ECOdippers), resistant to dents and scratches, and strong enough to withstand everyday use. The set fits in our lunch totes easily, but the company also sells beautiful bags designed specifically for the round tiffin.

And now for the exciting news for YOU! ECOlunchbox is giving away a Tri Bento set just like this one to one of my Happy Little Bento readers! Yay! All you have to do is enter my giveaway below and leave a comment telling me what you'd like to pack in your very first Tri Bento. I would love to get some ideas from you! Restricted to U.S. only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: ECOlunchbox provided me with a Tri Bento to review. I was not compensated and the opinions I expressed are my own. 

Duck Fried Rice Ghost Halloween Bento Bowl

Duck Fried Rice Ghost Halloween Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

TinySprite gets roast duck (from the Chinese deli) fried rice with egg, choy, and green onions in her panda donburi bowl. She loves fried rice so much; why don't I make it more often? The top tier holds some baby strawberries, a smattering of grapes, and some Asian pear sliced into ghost shapes. The little musical picks celebrate her joining choir this quarter, which she has wanted to do since last year. Yay!

Ma Po Tofu Bento Bowl

Ma Po Tofu Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

My "dry" ma po is perfect for bento because it minimizes leakage in bento format. I served over rice in the cute apple bento bowl, and you can top with chopped green onion or cilantro. Since my version is almost chili-free, I add spicy chili sauce after the fact into my own bowl. The top tier contains chunks of super sweet cantaloupe and scattered strawberries because we're kind of low on fruit these days. The kids gobbled so much down there wasn't any leftover at all for my next day lunch. Aww!

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Bento

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Is it just me or are these holidays coming up way too fast? I don't know where the time is going, but I can't believe it's been almost a week again between posts. I have been making bento for both kids, and I do snap a pic when I remember, but I haven't logged into the blog for a long time to post or respond to comments. Sorry! Knowing that we don't have any dietary restrictions to consider really takes a lot of pressure off, and I am very grateful for our food allergy reprieve. Since learning we don't have to keep wheat- or soy-free, I've make ma po tofu and now gyoza -- with standard wheat skins! I made a double batch as usual, so that I can snack along the way and to ensure that there will be enough for bento lunches. I used thick (medium) skins, and folded some with single pleats and some with no pleats. When I ran out of skins, I went out and bought a package of thinner skins to finish off the filling, and they worked just as well. I used the method here and packed some in my EcoLunchbox Solo Cube for TinySprite. MisterMan got a similar (heftier) bento. I added a cup of quick-pan-fried bok choy with oyster sauce and a few raw carrots. The little Dipper holds a sampling of berries as well as a couple of way-out-of-season homegrown sunsugar orange cherry tomatoes. My plants are still growing and there are still some fruit stubbornly hanging on and ripening in the cold fall weather out there. It almost tricks me into believing summer is still alive...

Sticky Rice and Canadian Bacon Bento Bowl

Sticky Rice and Canadian Bacon Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Twitterfoodparty showed up this month in the form of bacon. You can check out this month's submissions on twitter by searching the hashtag #twitterbaconparty. I rarely cook bacon at home but happened to need a gluten-free alternative to lup cheong for the sticky rice (method here) I was planning to make. Most Chinese sausages and deli meats are marinated in shoyu, making them no-nos in a gluten-free diet. I steamed some sliced lup cheong separately to be mixed in everyone else's servings, but TinySprite was satisfied with diced and pan-fried Canadian bacon in hers. The overall flavor just wasn't traditionally the same, but it'll have to do, since I don't plan on learning how to make my own Chinese sausage! It was still tasty enough, though. I packed some in her favorite panda bento bowl, along with a selection of fruit in the top tier: cherries, lychee, blackberries, peach, and sweet potato. Next month's theme will be strawberries!