Salmon Butteryaki and Furikake Rice Bento

Salmon Butteryaki and Furikake Rice Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

This one is a classic favorite bento of mine: pan-fried salmon butteryaki with furikake rice, fried kabocha and steamed broccoli. TinySprite's version is miniature-sized for her preschool appetite and packed in the adorable pink Hello Kitty bento box I found at Japanese Lifestyle (I think). She won't be able to use these tiny boxes much longer, so I should really use them now as much as I can. I have a Cinnamoroll one too; I really love them a lot. The removable smaller section contains a mini clementine with a star-shaped cutout which I cut by hand using a small paring knife, some blackberries and a grape tomato. Colorful, balanced, nutritious, and gluten-free. Win!

Easter Bunny Calzone Bento

Easter Bunny Calzone Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Yes, I know Easter was yesterday, but you know I had to make a bunny calzone, right? I saw so many pictures of cute little bunny breads working up to Easter that I thought: how adorable and easy! Well, not that adorable or easy in reality. Can you see the bunny? Don't lie; it's okay -- I gave my kids unlimited guesses and they never got it. I guess I should have drawn a face in front so you can tell it's sitting there with two front paws and long ears laid against its back. I even made hind legs and a cottontail! I should have put a carrot in its paws as well. Now that would have been cute! He sits in his Sistema multicompartmental box with some broccoli, carrots, clementine, grapes, strawberries, and a lone Okinawan sweet potato star. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Happy Girls' Day Hinamatsuri Bento

Happy Girls' Day Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Here is my Hinamatsuri bento for my TinySprite. Girls' Day is on March 3rd so we'll show this bento today, even though I made it earlier this week when I was strapped on a no-cook bento day. Here are a couple other Girls' Day bento I've made (here and here). I used spinach-ricotta ravioli and arranged cut halves as a kimono with a sweet red pepper fan. The girl's face is a hard-boiled quail's egg decorated with nori and sriracha. She has a crown and some flower picks to make her pretty. The rest of the bento contains steamed broccoli, a clementine, strawberries and blueberries. I am using this two tiered Hello Kitty square bento box for the first time and I love it! I didn't realize one of the tiers comes with compartments, which I love, and there's a white cover for the bottom tier so that the top tier can sit upon it without smushing the food. After the two are stacked, there's a strap that clips through both boxes and doubles as a handle/carrier. Can you say a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e?? Perfect for this day's celebration, I think. Happy Girls' Day!

5-Spice Chicken Panda Bento

5-Spice Chicken Panda Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today's cute panda bento box holds shredded brussels sprouts (sauteed in olive oil, mirin, then tossed in sesame oil), steamed Okinawan sweet potato "flowers", some roasted 5-spice chicken, and sweet potato "fries" tossed with parmesan. The upper tier holds a mini cutie clementine, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. The lid didn't close down over the clementine completely, and I didn't want to peel off the star-shaped cap, so I just smushed it down and secured it with the elastic belt. No worries! It does seem like a big bento for my preschooler, but actually this box is pretty tiny. Her appetite varies a lot every day, but I'm hoping the different flavors in this one will keep her interested. She's not big on greens so the brussels might come home. I'm not too concerned about it because both kids down a green drink daily. I'm so happy they really love it, and even consider it dessert after dinner. Woo!

Bacon Rollups Bento

Bacon Rollups Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

TinySprite's bento is a bit smaller than usual. Since school has restarted after the holiday break, she's been very excited to chat and play with her friends. Unfortunately this leaves little time to actually eat her lunch. Yesterday she had to bring almost the entire thing home to finish. Sigh. Normally this would not be a problem, but she has only a limited time to nap before we have to get her up in time to pick up her brother after school. When I woke her up she complained groggily "I want to sleep some MORE!" So today I've packed a smaller bento in hopes she finishes the whole thing, and then we can have a quick snack at home if she's still hungry. She gets bacon, mozzarella and peapods rolled up in corn tortillas. After frying the bacon, I tossed in some kabocha wedges to fry up in the drippings. Smelled good! In the remainder of the spaces I added a half clementine, carved carrot sticks and a bunch of cherries. Fingers crossed it goes down quick!

Mini Sushi Bento II

Mini Sushi Bento II, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I've been hearing about the Japan Society Virtual Bento Box Battle for awhile now, and last weekend tried to think of what kind of bento to make. Reading over the qualifications, one of the statements stuck out to me: Representations of iconic Japanese foods, landmarks, customs, or public figures.

Well, I love iconic foods of Japan, especially sushi! Then I realized that I hadn't made a mini bento in awhile; why not make a mini sushi bento? Some of you who know me from flickr remember my mini bento set, which sprang from my joint love of miniatures and bento. In fact, I had made a mini sushi bento before, and it was a lot of fun! I figured, why not make another one to symbolize and honor this iconic food of Japan? So here is my mini faux sushi bento (part II), submitted to Japan Society.

From left: maguro (actually a piece of roasted red pepper), yellowtail (steamed satsumaimo), unagi (teriyaki chicken), salmon (raw carrot with mozzarella), and ikura (red quinoa). The rice for the nigiri is actually cut from mozzarella cheese stick. The wasabi is green-dyed cream cheese and the pickled ginger is shredded carrot. All nori details are real nori. The platter is a sheet of nori as well, and it rests upon a pb&j sandwich. I added maroon carrot/cilantro flower details, and in the other section I put clementines and a cherry tomato to show scale.

Have you entered the contest? I believe the deadline has been extended to Monday, April 5th, so you still have time to create something to submit! Have fun!

Spring Blossoms Bento

Spring Blossoms Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Okay, ready for more spring blossoms?
Pink sakura (beet-dyed satsumaimo), white plum (plain satsumaimo), and um, carrot flowers. I made chicken "medallions" using an egg/flour mix and pan-frying. The kids love chicken like this, and I don't know why! It's really easy and they don't even ask for any sauce although I like sriracha. I tried making him a smallish musubi, hoping he'll start to like eating more rice. Plus it made a nice background for the pink flowers. Steamed broccoli and enoki mushrooms complete this bowl. Other bowl contains three super juicy strawberries and a little clementine.
Am I overdoing the flowers theme bento? Can't help it. Got flowers on the brain -- everything blooming over here right now!

Green Bento

Green Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Here's my Green Bento for St. Patty's day!

I made furikake cod, which I wrote about here. I added steamed broccoli and a cup of fruits: strawberry, clementine and cherry tomato.

I also made jade (bamboo) rice, which in the past has always come out very light in hue. This time I steamed some kale and used the steam water for cooking the rice, hoping to improve the color. I think it may have helped a little, but what helped a lot was adding in the minced (in processor) kale after cooking! Before you say "yuck", I have to say that the kale didn't add all that much taste to the rice, and it's such a vitamin-rich vegetable I had to try it. You can just pretend it's furikake! That's what I told the fam, and like magic, they chowed it down! It goes really well with the furikake cod (you can also use salmon). I put the rice in the cup, and decorated with an edamame clover and maroon carrot flowers.

Here's the jade rice before cooking:

Happy St. Patricks Day, bento friends. I'll be drinking green tea to celebrate! *clink* ^_^