Review: Smart Planet Home Glass Divided Bento Box!

Hello Bento friends!

Summer arrived a month and a half ago and instead of the lazy relaxing endless long days lounging at the pool and tennis club that I had envisioned, it seems like we have been going nonstop just as busy as before. Is it just me, or has summer vacation become super busy for you too?

Luckily, there's always time for bento! The good folks at Smart Planet Home have been kind enough to provide me with another cool lunch box that they thought I might like. You may remember I reviewed another box for them previously (check out my Ultrathin Saladbook review here). 

This one is called Pure Glass Bento Meal Container. It retails for $12.99 and is microwave-, dishwasher-, and oven-safe (glass box only, not lid).

This one was intriguing to me because it is made of glass! If you're like many people these days, you may be conscious of the possibility that the plastic containers you're using are not good for food storage. Some might break, leak, stain, or leach chemicals.

The other cool thing about this box is that it is divided! Have you seen a divided glass box before? I don't think Lock & Lock has one available, and I have several from that company. Smart Planet Home has up to now mainly offered plastic boxes with all kinds of extra qualities like collapsibility, the option to reheat, meal planning kits, etc. 

So I was surprised to learn of this newest product. The final selling point is that the box comes with a leakproof lid, which locks with 4 latches and a silicone gasket. The box is heavyweight glass, which I assume is meant to safeguard against breakage by dropping, but it may be too heavy for young children to manage. In addition, at least for me and my fairly new unit, the latching mechanism was quite tight at first and almost too difficult to click on. It took some elbow grease to get the last one latched. Over time, it seemed to become easier to click locked. My 14 year old was able to do it without trouble.

Once it's on, the box is completely watertight. I packed a juicy fruit salad and a fresh green salad to go to one of my dreamy summery destinations, and there was no leaking of anything. Nice! It's on the large side (this one is advertised to have a volume of 52.8 oz or 1561 ml) so it would be ideal for a picnic bento or to bring snacks to share! The glass is sturdy and won't warp in the hot sun like some plastic boxes. The company offers more glass containers in different shapes, including an even larger divided glass bento box. You can check them out at their website. 

Have fun this summer and don't forget to pack bento! 😊❤🍱

Bunny Eats a Rainbow Bento!

This one is just a fun snack I threw together for the kiddos to take advantage of all the colorful fruit and veggies slowly starting to appear in the markets these days. I can't wait until we are in full spring fruit season! This one, packed in the "Zen" box from Bento & Co, contains a rainbow of goodies: strawberry, satsuma mandarins, tamagoyaki (okay, not a fruit or veggie, but the egg contributed such a bright sunny effect here), kiwi, blueberries, and Okinawan sweet potato. I added a cheese bunny holding a mini fresh garden carrot too. Don't fear, spring will be here before you know it!

Chili and Pepper Jack Bento

Chili and Pepper Jack Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

We had our first rainy day of the season today. It started out nice and sunny, so I got a nice swim in the morning, and the clouds moved in this afternoon. It was full on raining by the time I picked the kids up from school; good thing I had a big pot of chili simmering. It hit the spot perfectly. Best of all, there's enough for tomorrow's bentos for all! Both kids get chili in their respective thermal food jars, plus a separate container for the fruit sides. I even carved a mini sweet pepper jack-o-lantern just for fun. Happy Fall!

Domokun Sandwich Bento

Domokun Sandwich Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

RAWR! It's Domo today! I recently realized I hadn't made a Domokun charaben in a long time. Here's another Domo sandwich I made. And another one. (Seems I only made him on field trips! How funny.) And why not? He's so cute. I made a tiny cream cheese sandwich using rye cocktail bread, which is square-shaped and comes in a long loaf. His eyes are bits of grapes, his mouth is a red plum, and his teeth are cut from mozzarella. This was a snack bento for TinySprite, so she got a few little cups of fruit: peach, nectarine and raspberries, along with cherries and grapes. I also squeezed a few peapods, carved carrots and tiny broccoli florets next to him. He looks like he wants a hug, doesn't he?
Added to What's For Lunch!

Summer Sushi Bento

Summer Sushi Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Our summer sunshine came back today, which put us in the mood for some cool food. I hadn't made sushi for awhile, and I have the perfect bento box for it, so I decided to make a roll for MisterMan. His has krab, cucumber and omelet, plus furikake, inside. One roll fits just about exactly on each side of this cute 2-roll box, but I elected to pack the other side with broccoli, Rainier cherries, blackberries, a little strawberry, carrots, and the delicious Flavor Rosa pluots. This variety is my favorite pluot this season. The flesh (like the skin) is dark red - almost black - and it's extremely juicy and sweet. I've seen my favorite variety from last year (Dapple Dandy) but the batch I got wasn't quite sweet enough. Maybe they'll come through later in the season. I added some edamame in the little side section that's meant to contain either wasabi or ginger, and I packed it all up with a pair of chopsticks in the center slot. Cute, right? The lid (which I forgot to show) is even domed to accomodate the cylindrical sushi. I also have one half this size, which holds one roll and one pair of chopsticks. So handy ^_^

Wonton Tulips Panda Bento

Another TinySprite bento today: homemade pork scallion wontons (see my method here) scattered with Okinawan purple sweet potato tulips and peapod leaves on the bottom tier, with the most delicious summer hybrid fruit ever in the top: dark red pluots and deep orange apriums. They're both apricot-plum variants, but very different in appearance and flavor. I'm not a huge apricot fan, but these are fantastic. I'm looking forward to more as the summer goes on! Yippee! Happy panda bento! ^_^

Hot Jook Thermal Bento

Hot Jook Preschool Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Double bento today for my son and daughter are nearly identical. They both get true comfort food: black/white rice jook with turkey and ginger, green onion scattered on top. I packed them in thermal food jars: the Stanley jar which you've seen me use before many times (and which I recommend highly) and the Thermos brand Hello Kitty jar which I hadn't used before. First thing I noticed is that the Thermos is much lighter. Of course, it is smaller (I have the 10 oz version), but also the lid is plastic and there seems to be quite a bit of heat loss through the lid. Immediately after filling the jar and closing the lid, I could feel it getting warm right away. The Stanley has a double lid: an inner plastic screw lid which is set inside the jar, and an outer plastic-lined metal cap which can be used as a bowl. If there is heat loss through the inner lid, it's not detectable through the outer lid, as fas as I could tell. I tested the Hello Kitty jar with boiling water, and found that the temperature of the water began dropping within an hour after sealing. That was pretty disappointing to me. We'll see what my preschooler says. Both kids toted along a side bento filled with strawberry, grapes, cara cara wedges, broccoli and carrots.

Many of you may be following the terrible events unfolding in Japan following Friday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake; the resulting tsunami devastated towns and destroyed thousands of lives. The people of Japan face a long journey towards healing and rebuilding, even while aftershocks still rock the country and rescuers continue to search for survivors. I and many fellow bento-bloggers have been keeping up with real-time developments via @makiwi on twitter, who has embarked on a labor of love to translate and update the rest of us on the news from Japan, seemingly without sleep. If you are looking for a way to help, please consider making donations to The Red Cross at IFRC.org or Doctors Without Borders at doctorswithoutborders.org.

Totoro and Girl's Day Empanadas Bento

Totoro Empanada Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

We were gifted with handmade empanadas today, so the kids get a treat for their bento. There are a variety of flavors, and they are a hit. As an enclosed baked pocket of goodies, an empanada (and other similar types of foods) makes an ideal candidate for bento. They are easy to eat, neat to pack, and require no utensils. Perfect for kids! I decorated MisterMan's as Totoro, with yellow carrot and watermelon radish details, and on the side I packed some strawberries, carrots, grapes, lightly steamed broccoli and yellow cauliflower.

TinySprite's empanada is decorated as a girl in honor of Girls' Day, which is celebrated on March 3rd. Her head is a quail egg with nori detail and a flower pick, and her kimono has yellow carrot and watermelon radish detail. I was able to squeeze in some strawberries, a carrot and some peapods as well. This bento is an enameled metal bowl (from Daiso) with a plastic sealing lid. It's lightweight and a perfect size for my 4 year old. Added this one to What's For Lunch!

Fish Tacos and Hello Kitty Bao Bento

Deconstructed Fish Tacos Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Fish tacos, without the tacos, is what I packed for MisterMan in the 4-square bento, and I think it's what I packed in this box the last time too. There's grilled cod with lemon pepper on a bed of lettuce wraps, cabbage tossed with chopped cara cara oranges for citrus zest and topped with cilantro and green onions, a veggie cup with broccoli, yellow cauliflower, carrot, kabocha and peapods, and a fruit cup with grapes, blueberries and strawberry. Looks kinda nice and fancy, even, when you lay it out like this, right?

TinySprite asked for char siu bao Hello Kitty. I said, "Again?" But when I went back to see how many I'd done already, I couldn't find a single one. Could that be right? Am I missing something? I remember going through a huge Hello Kitty phase over the summer, but for some reason I never used baked char siu bao. The closest I could find was the steamed one here. So here we go: the first ever HK char siu bao. I whipped her out in a couple minutes; still not out of practice yet! I got a bow cutter from my cousin that I used with watermelon radish, then poked blueberries for eyes, carrot for nose, and purple carrots for whiskers. And cut two triangular slits for ears. Done! I thought it would be cute to add a separate HK box for the fruit and veggies. Awwww... ^_^

Portuguese Bean Soup Thermal Bento

Portuguese Bean Soup Thermal Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's wacky weather included warm (50F) sunshine, rain, dark clouds, blue sky and even hail. Whew! This unsettled weather calls for hearty nourishing food. I made Portuguese bean soup, a local Hawaii favorite and a hit with everyone in the family. I adapted Sam Choy's recipe to make mine.

Portuguese Bean Soup

2 smoked ham hocks
4C chicken broth and 4C water (or all chicken broth if you prefer)
1C diced carrots
1C diced potato
1 diced onion
1C diced celery
1 head cabbage, cut into 1" cubes
1 bunch kale, chopped
1 head cauliflower, chopped into 1" cubes
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 Portuguese sausage, sliced
1/2C dried macaroni
Cilantro

In a large stockpot, boil ham hocks in broth and water, then simmer until meat is tender. This part makes the house smell REALLY good and gives the soup its distinctive rich taste. Remove skin and bones from ham hocks, return meat to pot. Add remaining ingredients except beans, sausage and macaroni and continue to cook about 20 minutes. Return soup to a boil and add beans, sausage and macaroni, then simmer another 15 minutes or until macaroni is done. Garnish with cilantro. You don't even need to add salt or pepper; this soup is very flavorful and delicious. The recipe is easy to adapt to your preferences; you may add or subtract whatever vegetables you choose. My kids each asked for seconds, and I bet yours will too. The recipe makes a lot of soup, and it tastes even better the next day.

I took this opportunity to pack my other thermal jar; this one from Stanley. I'd used it before for chili, and I know it works very well, but I didn't show a picture last time. So here's what it looks like packed. As with the Zojirushi container, I preheated with hot water for a few minutes, then replaced the water with my preheated soup.

The side bowl of fruit was packed separately in his lunch tote. The Stanley jar insulates very well, and the heat doesn't conduct to the outer surface so this method worked well. He gets sliced blood oranges, a strawberry, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, a carrot and some peapods. I love this jar because it comes with a sealing lid as well as an outer cap which can be inverted and used as a soup bowl (shown with a spoon in the picture). A nice option for kids who have a hard time eating out of the jar itself. Can you tell I love this jar?

Bento Side With Black Rice Jook

Bento Side To Go With Jook, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I'm only showing part of MisterMan's bento today. It includes pomelo (or jabong), cherries and carrots. The rest of it will be packed in the thermal jar you see in the background, right before he gets in the car to go to school. It's not the greatest container for keeping food warm, but I tested it with boiling water and it stayed pretty hot after 3 hours. Today I made jook, but this time I used black (Forbidden) rice to see if it was possible, and if so, how it would turn out. Perhaps you've read recently about the health benefits being attributed to black rice (high in iron and fiber, rich in antioxidants, cancer-fighting, improves memory, etc). Well, I've seen people make black rice pudding, and I thought it would be cool to make black rice jook. I actually made two different batches; one with black and white mixed in a 3:1 ratio, and one with black rice alone. I discovered that the white rice is necessary to provide the glutinous thickness we love about congee. The batch with black rice only kind of turned out like thin rice gruel, as you can see from the picture.

I wish I had taken a picture of the other batch to compare, but that got eaten up quick. I even cooked it longer than usual (about 2 hours), to see if it would eventually become thick and creamy. Nope. Anyway, it's still good -- I added roast duck, baby bok choy and green onions to give it flavor. It's cool how it came out very black. Even after rinsing the rice thoroughly, the black color is released when the rice breaks apart, and you can see it's a regular white color inside the grain. If you try it, don't forget to add some white rice. The resulting jook looks more purplish too; very cool-looking! In case you are interested, my basic jook recipe is here.

Basic Jook Recipe
1C rice
6C water (or more -- up to 8C, depending on how thin you like it)
2C broth (chicken or vegetable -- you can also increase the broth instead if you like)
Diced kabocha (as much as you like)

Bring rice and liquids to a bubbling simmer, and maintain, stirring occasionally, until soup is of desired consistency. About an hour. Add the diced kabocha near the end of cooking, to soften in the soup about 20 minutes or so (or less, if you like it firmer). Add salt to taste. Other things to add: chicken / turkey / duck bones with meat (remove bones after cooking), shiitake mushrooms, salted pork, salted salmon, green onions.

Bat and Char Siu Bao O'lantern Bento

Bat Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's double bento post is from last Friday. MisterMan got a bacon-wrapped turkey burger and roasted purple potatoes. He got a colorful selection of veggies including broccoli, purple cauliflower, carrots and a tomato, as well as a piece of corn on the cob. I think that's the first time I actually used 5 different color vegetables in a single bento. Yay! Only bummer is that this one is light on the fruit. I used a bunch of black grapes to design a bat on the corn. You might need to use a bit of imagination. My boy called it an octopus until I hinted that it fell into the Halloween category. After awhile he guessed "Uh, a bat?" Um, yee-ssss. Sigh.

TinySprite gets a more finger friendly bento -- a perfectly round char siu bao just called for transformation into a jack-o-lantern. I cut the features with a small paring knife, and rather than punch out the cutouts, I just lightly pushed them in. So much easier, and it looks fine this way. I used a piece of corn on the cob for the stem, and filled in the rest of the gaps with the same veggies as in her brother's bento. Done! Love these quick ones. Just a few more days of Halloween themed bento, but it's been fun! ^_^

Frankenstein Bento

Frankenstein Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Only one bento today, since TinySprite only goes to preschool 3 days a week. I used my two-tier red usagi box and put pan-fried chicken and red pepper sausage on a lettuce leaf in the bottom tier, plus a Frankenstein musubi made from broccoli rice and decorated with nori facial details plus sriracha cheeks. Upper tier has carrots (yellow carrot flowers in the bottom too), purple cauliflower, grapes, strawberry and golden cherry tomato. MisterMan told me his classmates thought it was The Hulk, but he set them right, telling them it was "FrankenstEEn". Uh huh, okay.
I added this bento to What's For Lunch; head over there to see more!

Fishy Bento

Fishy Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I haven't used this box in a very long time; not since last school year, I think. It seems a tad big, but you don't have to fill up the sections completely to the top. The lid on this box is not tight sealing anyway, so it must remain upright (or use a belt). I decided to use it because I wanted to give him some snapper we made for fish tacos along with some cabbage cilantro slaw in the next section. The slaw is good with citrus, so I put his mini mandarin in that section alongside. I was also able to fit in a partial corncob, some grape tomatoes and a pink carrot - Japanese sweet potato skewer in another section, and a fruit selection in the last: green plum, peach and grapes. To finish out the fish theme, I cut a fish shape from sweet potato and decorated it with nori detail. It sits on top of the inner boxes just under the convex part of the lid. Done!

Hello Kitty Quail Egg Bento

Another Hello Kitty Quail Egg Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I haven't posted a TinySprite bento for awhile so here's one from last week. It's a post-nap snack bento, with various fruit: pluot, kiwi and superripe saturn peach; a cup of edamame, carrot sticks and a little furikake mahimahi. I boiled a quail egg and tried to use a metal star cutter to form a star, but you can see it didn't really work. So instead I stuck some radish ears, rice stick whiskers, nori eyes and a yellow carrot nose (and the very useful red bow pick) and turned it into baby Hello Kitty. She was so excited about this bento; I was glad I had the presence of mind to take some pics of her eating it. The last time I did was almost 6 months ago. She looks so much older now, doesn't she? But still sitting in the baby booster seat, haha! She still prefers to eat with her hands, even though I always provide a utensil. So, things usually end up getting kind of.. messy. Ah, well. ^_^

A Tree Grows In Jook Bento

A Tree Grows In Jook Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Super duper easy bento again; woo! Today I made brown rice jook, which entails all of cooking some rice in a bunch of water for a really long time. I actually tried using the "porridge" setting on my Zojirushi, but it wasn't nearly long enough. Maybe because I used brown rice instead of white. I was afraid the brown rice just wouldn't get mushy at all, but after transferring the half-cooked jook to the stovetop and cooking for another hour or so, it really did get nice and creamy. I added Chinese sausage (lup cheong) and shiitake to mine, which added lots of flavor. You can also add fish, chicken, turkey, duck, or pretty much whatever you desire; and instead of water you could also use chicken or other stock. After ladling it into the green thermal container which I am really liking a lot these days, it looked pretty blah. So I added some shiitake mushrooms and chopped green onions in a tree design. The top tier bowl contains the fruits and veggies: grapes, strawberry, raspberries, tomatoes, broccoli and pink carrot flower. The bowl sits just under the lid, which screws on to secure both sections tightly. You don't even need a lunch tote since the lid has a built-in handle. How great is that?

Mouse Wraps Tiffin Bento

Mouse Wraps Tiffin Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This bento is another example of no-cook bento. I just realized that I have posted several no-cook bento lunches in the past few weeks, possibly due to the hectic nature of back-to-school and the feeling of having no time as we transition back into the school routine. Sound familiar? It's a good idea to have a series of no-cook bento ideas to fall back on in times like this, just in case you find yourself too busy or tired or maybe you just forgot to go grocery shopping in time. Oh, that's just me? Oops. Anyway, we'd just got back from a Labor Day weekend out of town, and I wasn't in the mood to cook anything after unpacking and all in the 80F heat. So my boy got turkey dog rollups with cheddar, spinach, roasted red peppers, and baby dills in a whole wheat tortilla. I cut it into three pieces and held the wraps together with leaf picks. Then, as I was looking at the three cross-sections, I noticed they looked like little faces with pickle ears, so I decided to add some nori faces. I put the fruit assortment into a stainless steel cup (strawberries, grapes, rasp- and blueberries), then filled in the gaps with steamed broccoli and little baby tomatoes. I also stuck in two tri-color (pink, purple and orange) carrot skewers; I think they look so pretty just aligned together like that. No need to even cut shapes with them. I put everything in my round stainless steel tiffin, which always seems so cool during the hot days. This one comes with a top, shallow tier but I left it out and the lid fastens on perfectly well without it. Score! Totally love this box a lot!

Chasoba and Fruit Bento

Chasoba and Fruit Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

More hot weather means we need another cold (and non-cook) lunch for relief. I love eating out of an icy stainless tiffin, so that's what I used to pack today's bento. He gets chasoba on a bed of crispy lettuce, accompanied by shiitake, krab sticks, ocean salad and green onion. I packed the soba tsuyu in a separate squeeze bottle which I lay in the top tier. The top tier also contained a clementine and a variety of fresh summer berries. I used an ice pack so it all stays super cold for him in this heat. No cute details in this bento, but the variety of fresh colors and flavors should serve to bring out his appetite :)

Astro Boy Bento

Astro Boy Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Yes.... it is field trip time again! Even though MisterMan's summer program provides lunches and snacks, they still require a "brown bag" lunch on field trip days, so I get to try my hand with fully disposable bento and the oft-revisited char siu bao. I almost went with sandwich thins since I have smoked salmon and cream cheese in the fridge, but when TinySprite and I went to the deli to pick up lunch they gave me this perfectly domed bao. Wow, how could I resist? Last week, in anticipation of the field trip bento, I borrowed an Astro Boy dvd so I could see what he really looks like. It really surprised me when Chantale posted an Astro Boy bento the very day after! What are the odds of that? Well, so maybe I was inspired by her cutie just a little... hehe! I cut his hair from red cabbage, and guess what? He ate it :) His eyes are radish and nori, all stuck on with honey, and his mouth is a berry fruit leather. I know his hair isn't exactly pointy (or black for that matter), but cabbage will only take on the shape (and color) it grows in -- so you'll have to use some imagination! Fruit and veggies went in the other box: grapes, cherries, broccoli, carrots, strawberry and plum.

Oh, and LunchBots giveaway is still open! Enter here!

All Fruits Snack Bento

All Fruits Snack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I thought I'd make an all-fruit snack bento for TinySprite before the summer is completely over. When these beautifully colorful fruit finally go out of season, I'll miss them and the pretty effect they had in our bento. Strawberry, kiwi, grapes, cherries, plum, pluot and nectarine all appear in this bento, as well as a tiny purple carrot flower. Admit it; didn't you have at least one all-fruit meal sometime this summer? When it was so hot you just didn't feel like cooking and couldn't bear to eat anything heavy? Summers are made for fruit. And did you notice the ultra cute Moomin utensils? I got them as a gift from a sweet bento friend and I love them to pieces! Today was overcast and cloudy but this bright bento helped perk us up ^_^

If you haven't already, don't forget to enter the LunchBots giveaway here. Contest is open til next Wednesday!