First Day of Spring Bento!

First day of Spring and of course it's gray and cloudy outside. So we'll celebrate with a cheerful bento! 

Inside our Yumbox: quartered cheese - tomato - lettuce - avocado toasted sandwiches (skewered because I saw trhe idea in Sarah Michelle Gellar's cookbook "Stirring Up Fun With Food" [I really don't have any affiliation with her or her publisher; I just happened to find a few cute ideas in there]😆), mini peppers stuffed with cottage cheese, sunflower seeds and a bit of granola, cara cara oranges, steamed Okinawan sweet potatoes, corn, radish ladybug, and chocolate raisins.

One nice thing about the cool weather is my sweet violets love it! Mine are the super fragrant pink "Rosina" variety. Happy Spring, friends!

Singapore Rice Stick Ladybug Bento

Singapore Rice Stick Ladybug Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

We just got back from a long weekend in L.A. visiting the in-laws, so there was no cooking done today >.< Still have yet to hit the grocery; maybe tomorrow. We had a lot of fun, but were all so exhausted. TinySprite had the longest nap in recent history this afternoon -- 3 hours. She had kung fu class this afternoon so she still was tired enough to go to bed at a decent hour. Yay! Luckily we have store-bought Singapore rice sticks, which is a semi-spicy curry type of noodle dish, mixed with egg, meat, bean sprouts and mushrooms. It used to be too spicy for MisterMan, but lately he's been getting a bit more adventurous and we're trying to "break in" his tastebuds so we can all eat more spicy foods as a family. I put a couple of grape tomato ladybugs atop the noodles, with nori decorations. I made a similar ladybug bento (here) not too long ago. Well, they are a sign of spring, aren't they? And so cute! I layered some cara cara oranges and kiwi on the other side, with grapes underneath. Hope you all had a great holiday weekend too. Welcome back to the routine ^_^

Ladybug Fried Rice Bento

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

Today's bento has fried brown rice and quinoa with spinach, red onion, mushrooms, egg and Chinese sausage. I added a beet-dyed quail egg on top decorated with nori to look like a spring ladybug. Other side has chopped cara cara oranges, strawberries and grapes. It's a quick bento today.

If you're so inclined, please take a look at the newest Bento4Japan listings. We have added handcrafted items to the usual bento books and accessories. My contribution is a pair of origami crane earrings. There are lots of books, starter kits, and a very cute knitted and felt toy bento set - so please stop by and place a bid. All proceeds go to benefit Japan charities!

Lemon Garlic Salmon Bento

Lemon Garlic Salmon Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Salmon today was broiled in olive oil with pepper, garlic and lemon juice. I served it with potato "chips" that I tossed in the same pan to crisp up. Also in this bento is steamed broccoli, yellow carrot flowers and cherry tomato ladybugs with nori detail. I stuck the nori on with olive oil. You can't use water; you'll find the nori will just curl up and fall off. The bugs are sitting on steamed baby potato halves. Everything looks so garden-y in the lettuce leaf, doesn't it?

For fruits he gets red grapes, a kumquat for contrast, a luscious strawberry and some cara cara orange wedges. These oranges are back in stock in a big way at my local market. Yay! Good thing too, since we probably each eat one a day.

Don't forget to enter the Hawaii's Bento Box Cookbook giveaway here!