Rudolph and Misobutterfish Bento

Rudolph and Misobutterfish Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

My favorite fish, butterfish misoyaki. So easy and so yummy! I added some red rice mini-musubi with cherry picks, carved carrots, steamed shoyu Brussels sprouts and a shoyu quail egg decorated as Rudolph with nori eyes, radish nose and ears, and the very versatile and useful bone picks for antlers. There's also a plum. I have no idea where it came from, but it's really not sweet at all. Luckily there are black grapes and satsuma mandarin to make up for it. Here's a closeup of Rudolph. Aww...

Mochiko Chicken and Kabocha Bento

Mochiko Chicken and Kabocha Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento for MisterMan contains pseudo-mochiko chicken (oven-roasted instead of deep-fried), roasted cherry tomatoes, and broccoli and kabocha which I steamed in the rice cooker. That's right, it's kabocha yet another way. I've had my Zojirushi Induction Heating rice cooker for years now, and I never realized you could open the lid during cooking to add other food to be steamed toward the end of cooking. In fact even though someone told me it was okay, I was still afraid the thing would blow up, shut down and catch fire. I tested it a few times, opening and closing the lid, before adding the steaming rack with my broccoli, satsumaimo and kabocha. I added them the last 12 minutes of cooking and it came out pretty good. The kabocha was just perfect. My kids don't like it too mushy so I left it with a little crunch and it's so sweet you don't even need to add anything else. Look how the beautiful golden hue of this squash adds to the appeal of the bento! If you haven't tried kabocha yet, I hope you can find some to try. There are nearly countless ways to enjoy this healthy and nutritious squash. I ate some, fresh steamed, atop a bowl of the fresh-cooked rice it steamed along with; and it was a simple and delicious snack. Also in this bento: fall plum, raspberry, kiwi and carrot flowers. Everything packed up nice and snug in my LunchBots Duo, which happens to be exactly the right size for my second-grader. I love it ^_^

Pork Roast and Jack Bento

Pork Roast and Jack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Continuing on with the jack o'lantern theme... Today's jack is cut simply from a regular orange carrot cross-section. I hand-cut the facial details with my tiny paring knife. Placing it on a black rice ball makes for a nice contrast. I made roast pork over the weekend and since it was so big it may make several appearances in bento in the near future. I used my mom's recipe; called Ono Pork Roast, which says it all.

Mom's Ono Pork Roast
Rub a 3-4 lb pork shoulder with the following mixture: 1-2 minced garlic cloves, salt & pepper, and 2tsp Worchestershire sauce. If using stovetop, brown on all sides in a large pot. I just put mine in my crock-pot. Add 1 cup water and 1/4 cup shoyu, and cook on high for 3-4 hours, turning occasionally.

Delicious over hot rice. This is one dish that the kids will be tricked, er, tempted to eat lots of veggies to sop up the sauce. Really! Broccoli goes well on the side. For this bento, I lay the rice and meat inside a green lettuce leaf and stuck some peapods around it. In the other cups I added broccoli, yellow carrots and yellow tomatoes, some black grapes and some red plum.

California Roll Bento

California Roll Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's temperature exceeded 90F again, and I think MisterMan might welcome a cooling bento. I made that kids' favorite: California roll. Instead of crab salad I used krab stick so I wouldn't need mayonnaise. I also used cucumber, avocado, and green onion. I made a reverse roll and sprinkled sesame seeds on the outside before flipping and rolling in cling wrap. It's easier to cut if you leave the roll wrapped in plastic and cut through the plastic wrap before unwrapping. I packed the sushi in plastic wrap to prevent drying out and also to prevent the rice from sticking to the container. I topped with pink and purple carrot skewer, as well as yellow carrot flowers. Other section has steamed broccoli, a jack o'lantern carved tangerine, some mango plum slices and some red jelly bellies. Just kidding! They're tiny grape tomatoes. Aren't they cute? We're supposed to get a bit of cooling tomorrow, so that'll be a nice relief. Our late heatwave is making up for the "summer that never was" here in the Bay Area! ^_^

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Rocket Chili Bento

Rocket Chili Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Chili and rice always makes me think of Zippy's, where as a kid I always ordered it until someone pointed out that if you order the chili cracker instead, you get more chili. So true. So I did change my order after that, but always regretted missing out on the perfect chili and rice combo. I added turkey frank to this one for fun. The rice batch is a mix of brown, pearl barley, cracked wheat, quinoa, lentils and oats. it's a nice, chewy and substantial mix that the kids seemed to like pretty well. The other side of my LunchBots contains sliced white nectarine (underneath), mango plums, strawberry, grapes, steamed broccoli and pink carrot stars. Did you notice the space theme? I made a little rocketship from a slice of cheddar with orange and purple carrot detail, and the pick on the other side is an alien boy. You may recall that my boy doesn't do "raw" cheese, as he calls it -- he prefers it melted, and won't eat cheese sticks either. Well, I didn't mention it, and he ate it. Woo!