Salmon and Lion Egg Bento

Salmon and Lion Egg Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today I'm finally using the slender two tier stainless steel bento box set I got from Bento & Co during their sale. I didn't have one of this size and shape yet, so I was pleased to see it works beautifully for my 7 year old. I'm using only one tier for him, and I was able to fit a good amount of brown rice mixed with furikake, tricolor carrots, steamed broccoli and peapods, butter-fried salmon in lettuce leaves, and a strawberry plus grapes to round it out. You can't see it, but the box comes with a removable stainless steel divider to keep the fruit separate from the rest of the food. To decorate the rice I fried a quail egg in a flower shaped cutter, and applied nori facial details and picks for ears. Isn't it cute? It's not my idea; I saw it here at Asami's site yesterday and wanted to try it for myself. Her ideas are oh-so-cute! I also tried to vary the picture angle for a change, since I *always* seem to take a straight-down shot. I've seen megan over at bento zen take these long views (she does them so well). I still stubbornly stuck with my depth of focus though. But I do love this box a lot, so maybe I'll experiment with the angles more in the future.

Two Lions Ravioli Bento

Two Lions Ravioli Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This bento is basically no-cook. The red pepper-cheese whole wheat ravioli just got boiled along with the corn, and the broccoli and peapods got steamed with the same pot. Woo! Big lion has a nori face, and little lion has a sweet potato face on a corncob with nori details. I cut some pink flowers with a metal cutter and poked holes with a coffee straw. Fruit section has sliced plum, grapes (on bottom) and sweet strawberries. Three purple carrot discs round out the color scheme.

I'll admit I made this bento with recent bento articles in mind. Perhaps you've seen them: Here, here and here. Basically they all address the back-to-school task of preparing lunches for kids, and show pictures of cute bento examples. The responses to these articles have been mixed, with several commenters suggesting that making such a bento takes way too long for a typical busy parent to manage, and that cute lunches "cater" to spoiled kids. Well! I'm not going to argue the bento point here but I want to emphasize that what constitutes a cute detail is up to you. I can tell you that I did not take more than 15 minutes (not counting cooking time) to put this bento together. The only skill I used was the ability to punch out vegetables with a cutter and nori with a craft punch. And if I didn't have a craft punch, I would have used pieces of carrots or peas to suggest eyes and a smile (I have certainly done that before). As for spoiling kids, on the contrary: You don't spoil kids by lovingly preparing them a nutritious, fun lunch. I'd rather have them at least try the food before outright refusing it, which is what you're allowing them to do if you don't even try. I think they learn to appreciate food more when they see the care their parents put into it for them, and they'll learn to love food because it's delicious and full of positive memories. Parents can encourage this process by offering their kids' meal in an appealing way they can appreciate. I really believe this. How about you?
This bento was added at What's For Lunch. Feel free to add yours too!

Lion Ravioli Bento

Lion Ravioli Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

For this bento I used my new two tier panda bento box that I got at Marukai in Little Tokyo, L.A. It's so cute! I used spinach ravioli. These Costco brand ravioli have a curvy edge that always make me think of lions, so of course I had to cut out a nori face to decorate. In addition, I added a piece of steamed broccoli, some roasted asparagus and roasted grape tomatoes. Interestingly, these tomatoes were getting wrinkled in the fridge, which is why I decided to toss them in the pan with the asparagus. When I took them out, they had magically plumped back up. Now they look beautiful! What a trick, eh?

In the other tier I put some carrot flowers, a baby mandarin, some strawberries and blueberries. Doesn't it look nice? I didn't show the lid, but I did put the matching ice pack in the picture to show you. It fits under the lid and on top of the top tier, which comes with a tight-fitting plastic lid. The whole thing stacks together and fastens with a white belt. My boy loved this one, and it got lots of appreciative comments from his lunchtime pals too ^_^

Lions Bento

Lions Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Hangin' out with TinySprite today, she watched me make her bento and had lots of questions. By now she knew right away about the apple bunnies, but was very curious about the egg and the turkey dog thing. "You making egg? You cutting hot dog? You rolling it? You making samwich? It's hot? Don't go so close? Can I stand here? How 'bout here?" And etc. Then afterwards, "Can you take picture? Take MY picture!" So finally after putting it together I showed it to her and she yelled right away "Lion!" And knew the boy lion had a "hat". Success!

She got: turkey dog egg rollup lions with nori detail, steamed broccoli, grape tomato, grapes, mini mandarin and apple bunnies.

And yep, I think she liked it. ^_^