Toast Of The Day: Artichoke Hearts!

Today's Artichoke Heart, Arugula & Purple Cream Cheese Toast idea came about after I read a recipe for marinating plain quartered artichoke hearts instead of buying the kind in those tiny jars. I used white wine vinegar and olive oil, as well as shallots, lemon slices and oregano. It came out tasting nothing like the jarred stuff, but still delicious!

Sure, you could eat it just as is, but why not make a fun toast with it? I used whole wheat pita again, schmeared cream cheese (into which I mashed a piece of steamed Okinawan purple sweet potato because, look how pretty!), scattered some arugula and piled on the home-marinated artichoke hearts.

Um, SO good!

😊❤🍱

Frankenstein Bento

Still going with the Halloween bento... here is Frankenstein for TinySprite! She gets a bagel with cream cheese and cucumber, plus extra ham to make her own little DIY sandwich. I also gave her a mandarin jack-o-lantern and a hard-boiled egg (not shown). Couple more days to go! Are you folks going trick-or-treating? I don't know if my kids have outgrown it yet... I guess we'll find out this weekend! Happy Halloweek!

Ham 'n Cheese Rollup Bento

Ham 'n Cheese Rollup Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Thanks for all the bento enthusiasm (benthusiasm)! Let's try to get the bento excitement going now that the new year has started. And with that, let me share with you a bento that requires even less cooking than yesterday's... All right, I'm a little slow in getting up to bento par. But still the kiddies have to eat, so luckily there's always a rollup option! Today's rollups are wrapped in multigrain tortillas smeared with cream cheese and layered with nitrite-free ham and organic baby spinach. Sliced in half to fit into this cute Sistema duo box, and stuck with girlie bow picks, it's a winner for TinySprite. The built-in divider keeps the other stuff separate: carrots, broccoli, tomato, blue- and blackberries, and a satsuma. Do you see the smiley face? I hope it brings a matching smile to my lil girl's face too. ^__^

Pink Bunny Egg Bento

Pink Bunny Egg Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

TinySprite's two-tiered bento holds smoked salmon and cream cheese bread rollups on sweet potato bread. To make bread rollups, it's best to use soft bread. I remove the crusts, which I don't usually do, but it looks much neater this way. You can save the crusts for another use (like mac and cheese). Flatten the bread with a rolling pin, then spread the cream cheese, layer the salmon, and simply roll up tightly. Cut into bento-size pieces, and pack snugly so they don't unroll. I added a piece of steamed broccoli and a hard-boiled beet-dyed bunny-molded egg. The upper tier contains strawberry, carrots, cucumbers, nectarines and Okinawan sweet potatoes. Easy!

Mini Snowman Bento

Mini Snowman Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I wanted to make a mini bento for Christmas since I haven't made one in such a long time. I initally wanted to do a miniature Christmas tree, but then I thought a tiny snowman would be so cute! I planned to make little snowballs to go with him and everything, but after working with the snowman himself I think the microsnowballs would be too much trouble. As it was the "snow" stuck to the plastic wrap and thus doesn't look quite smooth. I made three balls out of cream cheese for the snowman, and decorated his face with nori, a carrot nose and a yellow carrot corncob pipe. He also has purple carrot buttons and a carrot top hat. His arms are dry somen. As you can see, just as real snowmen do he started to melt after awhile, and began to lean to the side. I propped him up for the picture but lay him down after I was done. He is on a tofu platform and there's a bare tree next to him as well as his watermelon radish mittens. I wanted to poke the mittens on his arms but then his arms would have fallen off for sure! The rest of the bento contains a satsuma mandarin, grapes, peapods and carrots. Merrry Christmas!

Smoked Salmon Bagelwich Bento

Smoked Salmon Bagelwich Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Can't believe our week off is over already, though in a way it feels like I've been away for quite a long time! I haven't been thinking about bento at all this past week, so it was tough to get back into the bentomaking routine again. Today was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our lunch outside in the garden. As I was eating, I thought, what a delicious lunch....why not make it for bento?

I used whole wheat bagel thins (just like sandwich thins but with a hole!), spread with cream cheese, and layered smoked salmon. If I had pickled onions and dill I would have added it, but then again I think my boy prefers not quite so many levels of aromatics. I placed some green lettuce around it, and he can put it in the quartered bagelwich if he likes. I also gave him a cup of spring greens with sliced peppadews and twin kumquats. I had this exact lunch myself today, so I know what a great combo it is! For dessert I threw in a strawberry and some grapes. Since this bento looks a bit ordinary, I added a couple of cute animal baran to go along. There; now it's a fun bento!

Happy Monday!