Mini Sandwich Bento

The schools in our area have all closed for the next 2 weeks at least, so we will be at home isolating and socially distancing ourselves. I might therefore be experimenting with snacks and lunches; brace yourselves.

I always wanted to try making mini sandwiches. It would take a ton of these to satisfy my kids though😆

On the upside, look at these super kawaii sushi and green tea picks from Modes4u.com! I love these!

They are exquisitely detailed with cheerful cute faces, and sized perfectly for bento or tiny sandwiches. Can't wait to try it with sushi!

😊❤🍱

Happy Easter Baby Chick Bento! 🐣🐰

It's not Easter yet, but one of my kids is already on school break. The other one's break is the week after Easter. Seems so late! How about your kids?

So anyway, here's my bento for the occasion. Had to make the baby chick egg, of course! If you do this, try to keep the yolk in the center. It really makes the carving much easier! My yolks were way off center so it was hard to cut neatly through so much white. In fact, the yolk was so low in the first egg I tried that I didn't even reach it at all -_-

Inside our Ecolunchbox Solo Cube: ham-spinach-tomato-enoki-furikake rice onigirazu, Okinawan sweet potato cherry blossoms, sweet baby peppers stuffed with edamame, tomato and berries.

Inside the Eco Dipper: soba, lettuce, hard boiled egg.

Happy Easter, friends!

Soba Salad Bento

Hello! I know it's the middle of March, but it has been feeling like summer these past few days in the Bay Area. It was too hot in the kitchen to cook, believe it or not, so I decided to make a fresh cool salad for dinner. And tomorrow's lunch as well! Soba salad is convenient because everyone can use whatever toppings they choose: this one has snap peas, tomatoes, ham, egg, shiitake mushrooms, sesame seeds and green onion. The tsuyu goes into a separate small container on the side, but if you have a leakproof lunchbox you can drizzle it right on top ahead of time (or just omit it if desired). You can also sprinkle furikake as well. I hope this weather means the worst of the rainy winter season is over!

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 and Cheese Pinwheels Bento

Sometimes you need a no-cook bento idea because you didn't cook anything for dinner and there weren't any leftovers anyway. That's when I make sandwiches. If you've looked at my blog for awhile you'll know I don't make sandwiches often. Unless I have unusual or fun bread, I think they're a tad boring. But it's easy to make them fun by rolling pinwheels! I flattened the bread with a rolling pin, cut off the crusts and tossed them to the dog (but you can also save them for other purposes like in soup or for croutons!), then layered cheddar, spinach, and nitrite-free ham. Roll up and secure with long picks. Done! The other half of the split Sistema container holds pairs of plums, grapes, tomatoes, and carrots. Aww, I hope TinySprite will love it!

Puppy Pals Mini-Sandwiches Ecolunchboxes Bento

These are the same Kings Hawaiian bread dinner rolls I used for the Hinamatsuri bento. Turns out they fit perfectly inside the Ecolunchboxes Solo Cube container too! Ham and cheese with lettuce sandwiches again for the little girl. This time I decorated the tops with cheese and nori for puppy faces. They are holding hands. Awww! The rest of the box contains: grapes, heart-shaped radishes, Okinawan sweet potato, blueberries, satsuma mandarin, and broccoli. I can get used to making these cute little mini buns bento. So easy and fun!

Hinamatsuri Girls' Day Bento!

For TinySprite this Girls' Day, I made her two mini ham sandwiches with lettuce and cheese. These rolls (King's Hawaiian sweet bread - so good) fit perfectly inside this two tier box that I think I got from Daiso many years ago. It even matches this fork with the same bunny design on the lid. Alongside the ham and cheese dolls with nori and pepper details, I have a purple sakura (Okinawan sweet potato), carrot flowers, blood oranges, kiwi, and a fan-cut radish. Happy Girls' Day to all the little (and big) girls out there!

Big and Small Ham & Cheese Sandwich Bento

We bought a delicious whole wheat sourdough round from b.patisserie last weekend, and we (everyone in the family) can't stop eating it. I thought it might last through the week, but it looks like it won't make it through tomorrow. I decided to make the kiddos a sandwich bento with this amazing bread, and then I wondered how fun it would be to make a mini version of it using the mini toasts I used to make the ever-so-adorable mini sandwich bento here. Turns out: really fun! The two sandwiches are identical except for size: grilled cheese breads stuffed with lettuce, ham, fried egg and sliced tomato. For the mini sandwich I used grape tomatoes. Isn't that cute? The rest of the box contains a half mandarin, carrots, and cucumbers. Happy Monday, friends!

Frankenstein Sandwich LunchBots Bento

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

I made TinySprite a couple of mini ham and cheese sandwiches on sandwich thin rectangle breads. And what to do with brown sandwich rectangles? Well, besides the obvious: Domokun. That's right; Frankenstein! I decorated his face with olives (for eyes, ears and scar) and cucumber (for hair). Oh yeah, she'll love it. There's also some plum, pickled stuff, strawberries and grapes. All packed into the LunchBots Trio. Done!
Added to What's For Lunch.

Halloween Spidery Rollups Bento

Halloween Spidery Rollups Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Halloween Spider bento number 2: This one is for TinySprite again. I used the divided 4-compartment plastic tupperware-like container. I made tortilla ham spinach cheese rollups and cut them to fit in one section. There are strawberries and grapes next to those, a cup of pickled cucumbers, sliced white peaches, corn-off-the-cob, and a purple sweet potato spider. She loves this kind of lunch! It doesn't involve any cooking at all, so it works for me too. Yay!

Soba EcoLunchBox Bento

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

Our heatwave is cooling off, but I decided to pack the kids a refreshing soba salad for their bento in the EcoLunchBox two-tier set. Toppings include shredded lettuce, ham, carrots and surimi. He'll pour the tsuyu and sprinkle furikake right before he eats. Sides include: carrot-beet salad (tossed with cider vinegar, ground ginger, and pomegranate juice), pickled cucumbers with bittermelon and kumquats, and sesame-marinated baby sweet peppers. Plus the favored farmers market strawberries. Seems like a summer lunch, and I personally can't wait!

This n' That LunchBots Bento

This n' That LunchBots Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

For TinySprite's last bento of the week, I used the LunchBots Trio and packed some makizushi (with brown rice, barley and ham), tamagoyaki with spinach and broccoli stems, carrot, broccoli, steamed Moloka'i Okinawan sweet potato, pickled cucumbers and wakame, and baby sweet strawberries. Simple, fresh and tasty for my girl. Her brother MisterMan comes home tomorrow, and we can't wait!

Shamrock Pepper Fried Rice St. Patrick's Day Bento

Shamrock Pepper Fried Rice Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Here's my contribution to St. Patty's Day, since it falls on Sunday and this will be our last bento before then. A four-leaf clover! Can we call it a shamrock if it has more than three leaves? My pepper happened to be four-lobed, so this is the shape we're going with. I fried a beaten egg inside the pepper ring, and then sprinkled some chopped spinach on top. It sits atop a bed of fried rice mixed with ham, edamame, egg and shoyu. I make sure to cook the pepper ring egg thoroughly, as it's not safe to pack uncooked egg for extended periods at warm temps. Alongside the lucky rice: cantaloupe chunks, and pickled cucumbers and onions. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Breakfast For Lunch EcoDippers Bento, Pt. 3

Breakfast For Lunch Bento, Pt. 3, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Breakfast for lunch day! (See BFL bentos 1 and 2 here) Woohoo! I was looking at my EcoDipper containers and happened to notice that they are perfectly sized for whole wheat sandwich mini thins. I took it as a sign to make a sandwich! The EcoDippers are ideal for sandwiches because while their lids slide on securely, they are not watertight. The food inside won't condense and get soggy with temperature changes, which is nice for the food I've packed today. I made a fried egg with shredded spinach in my cute mini round fry pan, which happens to be sized perfectly for both the sandwich thin and the EcoDipper. Is that cool or what? If I had some Canadian bacon, this would have been a cinch. As it was, I only had deli ham (nitrite-free), so I folded it to fit. I also toasted the breads with grated cheddar. I topped the sandwich with a jack cheese bear face and put that into one EcoDipper. I packed the other with a variety of treats: tiny satsuma mandarin, grape, strawberry, house-pickled cucumbers, and a couple of steamed Okinawan sweet potato slices. What a cute little TinySprite-sized bento set, don't you think?

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. ^__^

Anpanman Portobello Pizza Bento

Anpanman Pizza Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

We made portobello pizzas again (see my method here), and I've found that it's best to scrape out as much of the gills as you can, use a minimum amount of cheese (just enough to "glue" the toppings on but not enough to get all gooey), and leave the vegetables just a bit tender (not super grilled). Of course, these pizzas are best straight out of the oven, but the kids beg to take them to school. Whenever I see a round food now, I think of Anpanman. And I had just the round things to make his nose and cheeks (pepperoni minis). I used ham to make his eyes, eyebrows and mouth (and nori for his eyeballs). If I had waited and put the pepperonis on after (or cut smaller circles) they might have looked rounder. And you might have recognized him. But whatever! I rarely use this flip-top box, but it fits the food just too well today. Happy Wednesday!

Summer Rolls Bento, part 3.

Summer Rolls Bento, part 3., a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

We just came off a long 3-day weekend due to a teachers work day, and it's a little tough to get back into bentomaking and blogging again. And did I mention the whole weekend was the most gorgeous, summery, sparkling weekend we've had all year?! That's right; we hit our year's high temperature yesterday. The bay area is notorious for cool summers and late warming, so this is pretty typical. While everyone else is planning pumpkin soups and pot roasts, we're thinking refreshing salads and ice teas. So here's today's no-cook bento: the ever-popular summer rolls in rice paper wraps, filled with lettuce, pickled carrots and cucumbers, deli nitrate-free ham and salami. Yeah, I know it sounds weird. But the kiddos cannot get enough. Plus, the rice wraps stay closed so well (compared to tortillas) that they're hard to beat mess-free fun finger foods. How can you argue with that? Two little Okinawan sweet potato lovebirds perch upon a broccoli branch above a radish heart. Awwwwww. Summery peaches and berries complete the meal. I wonder if they'll go for summer rolls all week?

Added to What's For Lunch. 

Chick and Egg Salad Bento

Chick and Egg Salad Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I had to make egg salad since my 9-year-old informed me that he'd never had it before. What? Whoops. I remember eating egg salad sandwiches when I was about his age, with all kinds of weird stuff like sweet pickle relish inside. Or maybe those were my sardine sandwiches? My childhood friend Barb showed me how to make a sardine sandwich with relish and tabasco; I still think that sounds really good, don't you? In fact, it may be time to introduce the kiddos to a sardine sandwich! I'll try that on 'em next week, maybe. For this batch, I mixed a few hard-boiled eggs (diced up with the handy-dandy egg slicer) with plain yogurt, sweet pickle relish, mustard, onions, salt/pepper and topped with diced ham. I put it on a lettuce salad but I'd like to serve it in a pita next time (at least for MisterMan). For fun, I nestled a baby quail egg chick on top. The upper tier of her favorite panda bowl contains sliced peaches, blueberries, grapes and strawberries. For the record: they both loved it. Yay!

Summer Rolls Bento, part 2.

Summer Rolls Bento, part 2., a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

My TinySprite is so predictable; of course she asked for summer rolls again. Now I keep a stash of cooked shrimp in the freezer ready to roll anytime I need a quick no-cook bento. I'm getting better at rolling these now, too. I was able to fill the rice wrappers with lettuce, cilantro, pickled carrots and cucumbers, deli ham and a few shrimp. I made two rolls of about the same size and shape, without tearing either, and they both happened to fit exactly right in this cool new stainless steel lined double bento box set! I like the idea of the stainless interior, which is great for food which might stain, and it also seems cooler to me, like the food will stay fresher. The exteriors are plastic, and the lids are the locking gasketed type with 4 latches. They are completely watertight, which I take to mean the moisture stays in too -- thus I can pack the summer rolls without worrying that they'll dry out. One of the boxes has a removable divider, and the stainless liners of both boxes come out for easy cleaning. Look how cute the lids are, too! I love them. Along with the rolls, she gets a bunch of fruit (peach, strawberries, blackberries, champagne grapes, regular grapes, corn and a little Okinawan sweet potato bunny shape). Everything packed perfectly snugly and visibly through the translucent covers. They stack atop one another and even come with their own matching bag. Wow! Super super love them. So did she. ^_^

Somen Salad of Love Bento

Somen Salad of Love Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Note: I entered this bento in Bento & Co's contest to "Make a Bento For Someone You Love". It placed within the top 20 finalists, and won a gift certificate to the Bento & Co store!

Today's bento consists of what I think of as quintessential summer food: somen salad. Here are some other ways I've packed somen salad in bento: here and here. Have you had it? In Hawaii we eat it a lot when the weather is hot and humid. My dad had a method of making the somen noodles. These noodles are very thin, so you must not overcook them or they'll become mushy and sticky. As soon as they're done you have to cool them down to stop all further cooking. During this cooling step, my dad always pulled single serving size bundles of somen out of the basket and twirled each into a kind of little nest, keeping each bundle separate from the others. When they've cooled to room temperature, he stored the bundles next to each other in an airtight container in the refrigerator, with a paper towel just under the lid to absorb any condensed moisture. Then, when you're ready to make your salad, you can quickly and easily pull out as many servings as you need. Ta-daa! For today's salad, I used non-traditional toppings along with some of the usual: julienned omelet, ham, carrot and lettuce, grated purple carrot, and fresh corn off the cob. I arranged them atop the somen in a pleasing rainbow array. I chose the round tiffin because I like the way the ingredients look in a circular pattern. Plus, the stainless steel serves to keep everything cool. The top tier fits on top and is just deep enough to accomodate a variety of summer fruit: strawberries, cherries, lychee, black- and raspberries, and sliced yellow peach. The tiny blue container contains dressing for the salad. I almost forgot about the heart radish in the center; something needed to go there. Just now, as I was typing this, MisterMan walked over and looked at the picture of this bento he ate today. Immediately he said "Oh, I liked this one! I especially liked the radish heart because it reminded me how much I love you." ^_^