May Day Flower Lei Fried Rice Bento

May Day Fried Rice Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

On May 1st we celebrate May Day in Hawaii. And May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii! So for TinySprite, I served her fried rice with a hard-boiled egg girl decorated with nori. She's wearing a lei of carrot, radish and cucumbers, and some fresh nasturtiums in her hair. The top tier contains strawberries, broccoli and cara cara oranges. Can you believe it's May already? I'm ready for the warm weather and brand new garden blooms!

"...May Day is Lei Day in Hawai`i
Garlands of flowers ev'rywhere,
All of the colors in the rainbow
Maidens with blossoms in their hair
Flowers that mean we should be happy,
Throwing aside a load of care,
Oh, May Day is Lei Day in Hawai`i
Lei Day is happy day out there."

~ Red Hawke, 1928

Added to What's For Lunch.

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!

Cooking Channel Bentos

Cooking Channel Bentos, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Here are two of the bentos I made for the shoot on Sunday. (See the finished commecial here!) There was another one but that was the one TinySprite grabbed and scarfed up in addition to the heaping one she made herself. Each kid made their own bento and then ate it. There wasn't any way I could take a picture of theirs. I should have taken a photo of these bentos before all the activity, but I didn't think of it, which is why these had to be shot in bad (artificial) light. Both feature Korean chicken in a lettuce leaf along with steamed broccoli, carrots and carved cucumbers; and varied berries for dessert. I added steamed corn and a shoyu bear egg to one, and a rice section (which I rarely do but which provides a very nice backdrop for a charaben design) with a matryoshka made of Okinawan purple potatoes, cheese, sweet potato and nori to the other. Some cute picks add color and whimsy.

I was surprised to find that making three bento at once wasn't much more work than one (or two, which is the most I ever make at a time for my two kids). And even though the third bento contained totally different ingredients (rollups), it still was pretty manageable. The key is to be prepared and have everything you need at hand, which saves time. MisterMan and TinySprite took these to school the next day, with furikake sprinkled on the rice. I'm thinking in addition to making their own bento, they can soon begin to cook the food for me too... ^_^

Added to What's For Lunch!

Girls' Day Bento

Girls' Day Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Here's my Girls' Day little snack bento for TinySprite. It's a shy, demure girl in her purple carrot kimono with green onion obi. Okay, you'll have to use your imagination. I like the irony of making a shy girl for TinySprite; it really makes me laugh. TinySprite is NOT demure. If there is one very apt word I can use to describe her, it is LOUD. She talks loud, she laughs loud, she's very outspoken and not afraid to talk to anyone. She remembers everyone's name and always addresses their parent and siblings, if present, as well. She knows everyone, everywhere we go: post office, grocery, library, school, etc., and she gets more greetings than I do. You know those kids that always ask embarrassing questions at very awkward moments? I am just waiting for those. She already "reminds" people not to smoke, litter, or run too fast. Yikes. So I should have made this girl with an "O" mouth, wide open, to truly represent my girl :)

Anyway, to make this girl, I just wrapped a carrot peel round and round a quail egg for her body. As an aside, purple carrots appear to stain quail eggs pretty well. As soon as the peel touched the egg, it left a purple mark. By the time I'd wrapped the egg, everything was streaked dark purple, including my fingers. So if you need a dark purple egg, you might consider purple carrots next time.

Her head is a second quail egg placed on its end. I cut her hair and eyes from nori, and she wears a cilantro and maroon carrot flower in her hair. Also in this little snack box are two strawberries, a grape tomato and a peapod. Yellow sweet mini pepper flowers too.

I should have taken video of her eating this one, but I forgot. She ate everything, even the green onion, which surprised me. First thing she did was totally unwrap the carrot kimono and eat that by itself, and then all the flowers, and I was a little nervous about her just popping the eggs in her mouth so I made her take a bite from each one first. She had a lot of fun with this one, I think :)

Here's a closeup of the girl:

Happy Girls' Day, bento friends!

Kimono Girl Bento

Kimono Girl Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, and kids are home from school to honor those who served our country. I made a little snack bento for TinySprite ~ a peanut butter and jam mini sandwich with a girl in a kimono. The kimono is made of sweet orange pepper with peapod as the obi; her face is swiss cheese and hair and eyes are red lettuce. Her hairbows are sweet red pepper. The flowers are cheese and purple potato. Underneath are black grapes, with raspberries and blackberry as well. Here is the inspiration for this girl:

This is one of the designs of greeting cards that my mom and I have made. This one was made by my mom and it's called the Shy Girl. Though TinySprite does not epitomize "shy" by any means, I thought it would be a cute one for her :)