Green Bento

Green Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Here's my Green Bento for St. Patty's day!

I made furikake cod, which I wrote about here. I added steamed broccoli and a cup of fruits: strawberry, clementine and cherry tomato.

I also made jade (bamboo) rice, which in the past has always come out very light in hue. This time I steamed some kale and used the steam water for cooking the rice, hoping to improve the color. I think it may have helped a little, but what helped a lot was adding in the minced (in processor) kale after cooking! Before you say "yuck", I have to say that the kale didn't add all that much taste to the rice, and it's such a vitamin-rich vegetable I had to try it. You can just pretend it's furikake! That's what I told the fam, and like magic, they chowed it down! It goes really well with the furikake cod (you can also use salmon). I put the rice in the cup, and decorated with an edamame clover and maroon carrot flowers.

Here's the jade rice before cooking:

Happy St. Patricks Day, bento friends. I'll be drinking green tea to celebrate! *clink* ^_^

Sausage & Polenta Bento

Sausage & Polenta Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This bento arose from some random food tweets I was reading in the morning. Someone mentioned they had sausage and homefries for breakfast and I thought that sounded good for dinner, but then I realized I only had purple potatoes. Not sure how appetizing that would look. Then someone else mentioned polenta croutons and I thought: hmm, polenta - perfect! So that's what I made. It really helps that I follow lots of "foodie" types on twitter :)

I gave MisterMan some Trader Joe's chicken / jalapeno (!) sausage alongside some sauteed mini sweet peppers and onions. I actually didn't mean to use the spicy sausages, but I forgot to check, and didn't notice until after I already started frying them up. Oh well. I decided to just give it to them without mentioning my mistake. If you mention "spicy", my girl will shriek "No! Too spicy!" without even trying it. So what do you think? They gobbled it up for dinner. Woohoo!

For some reason kids just love polenta, and I made this one without any butter at all; just cornmeal and cheese. I was going to save some for frying into croutons, but they ate it all up too fast. I decorated with maroon carrot flowers and a little broccoli. For fruits I added a sliced plum and a mini mandarin. Two little chickie pals will accompany him 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!

Chow Mein Bento

Chow Mein Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Slow Monday means another quick and easy bento. Spinach chow mein noodles get stirfried with a variety of whatever vegetables are on hand; in this case: bean sprouts, shiitake, garlic, carrots, and baby spinach. I added oyster sauce and shoyu for taste, and a little sesame oil. I also added sliced Chinese sausage as well.

We are getting so low on fruits these days -- he gets grapes, blood oranges and kiwi flowers. 2 grape tomatoes. Several maroon carrot tiny flowers scattered around to suggest spring. Is it working? It was such a dreary day too... so I couldn't get much light in the photo.

Happy March!

Furikake Fish Bento

Furikake Fish Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I know, I know. Usually you make furikake salmon or furikake mahi mahi, like I had in this bento. But, I thought I would try it with wild cod, since it was available in my market, and I figured since it is a mild-tasting fish the furikake would give it a nice shot of flavor.

Here's how to do it:

1. Spread the fish with mayo.
2. Sprinkle generously with furikake.
3. Fry in butter until done, then flip.

That's it! Fillets like salmon and mahimahi hold together well, but cod tends to fall apart so it ended up being more like chunks of furikake cod. But actually this works out well for kids, since it's easier for them to eat like this anyway. For this bento I lay the fish on some lettuce, added some garlic roasted asparagus, and decorated with tiny yellow carrot flowers. I also gave him maroon carrot sticks and Okinawan sweet potato flowers. In the fruit section he has a strawberry, grapes and a mini mandarin.

Simple but easy, and tasty :)

Olympics Bento: Snowboard Cross

Olympics Bento: Snowboard Cross, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento has a theme: Olympics! It's an easy one, and it might even provide more than one themed bento over the next week. I'll tell you what this one shows, since you may not be able to decipher it on your own: Snowboard Cross.

Yes, I know it doesn't look like a snowboard but the truth is he was supposed to be a downhill skier. After I cut out the carrot man, I couldn't get him to stand on two skis so I used only one. And didn't bother to cut a proper snowboard by that time :) But luckily this way I don't need to figure out how to put poles either.

I made honey garlic pork, using sliced pork loin instead of chops so it's easier for the kids to eat and better for bento. I also stirfried yellow zucchini (squash) and sweet red pepper with olive oil and garlic powder. There's also steamed broccoli, a maroon/purple carrot skewer and a grape tomato. The snowboarder is made of carrot with a grape head and a purple carrot ski, and he is perched on a tofu hill. In the fruit section I put sliced blood oranges, a strawberry, a yellow carrot star and some red grapes (underneath).

Double Tigers Valentine Bento

This is my final Happy Valentines Day / Chinese New Year dual bento!

I made two sweet potato tigers with nori and sesame seed detail, with a red pepper heart to show their love. Also in the box, which is a tiny bamboo steamer, broccoli, maroon carrots, yellow carrots, strawberry and red grapes. My boy brought a bunch of lay see and candies home from his class party, so I used some of them for the photo.

Hope all my bento friends enjoy a weekend of love and best wishes for an auspicious new year's beginning :D

Burrito Bento

Burrito Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

MisterMan gets a "burrito": tortilla filled with refried beans, soytaco, melted cheddar, chopped onions & tomatoes, and spring greens. We also had avocado, but I forgot to add it to this one. I folded up the tortilla, "glued" it shut with melted cheese, and cut it in half to fit in the box.

He also gets sliced maroon carrots (these are dark red on the outside, but regular orange on the inside), dry roasted baby bok choy, peapod fillers, and a fruit section including sliced strawberry and mini mandarins.

On top I placed a purple potato flower which I microwaved before cutting. You can see that cooking it this way results in a lavender color, as opposed to the dark purple (almost black) color you get when you roast them (like I did in a previous bento). I used a rose fingerling potato for the tiny flower and added sesame seed detail. Have you heard of these potatoes? Here's what they look like. That's a kiwifruit on the side for size comparison :)

I think they are officially called Rose Finn Apple Fingerling potatoes. Somehow I thought they might be rose colored inside. But they're not.

See? Just regular old plain potaters. Maybe I'll dye them next time. :)

Ghost Snack Bento

Ghost Snack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Boo! Here is TinySprite's snack bento ... she gets pasta with sweet potato flower, fresh organic raspberries from the market today, Okinawan sweet potato "apple" shapes, maroon carrot skewer, edamame skewer, and mozzarella ghost.

I have been making a whole Halloween bento series, and I realized I better start blogging them before I run out of days! This is the first one... a cheese ghost, because my girl is a cheese fiend and can always be relied upon to accept simple cheese as a last-minute snack option! Super easy way to make the bento a bit more festive.

Sausage & Forbidden Rice Bento

Sausage & Forbidden Rice Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Chicken sausage (all natural, TJ), Forbidden black / brown / white rice onigiri with radish and sweet potato detail, sesame spinach and garlic enoki. Maroon & yellow carrot skewer. Purple & yellow cauliflower, tomato, peapods.
Fruits: plum, strawberry, black grapes and golden raspberries.

This one is not so fancy, but has lots of interesting tastes :)

Garlic Shrimp Bento

Garlic Shrimp Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

MisterMan has garlic shrimp, a superfast dish cooked in minutes on the stovetop in olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. Next to the shrimp he has romanesco, which I was so excited to find locally :) At the same market I also found arugula sprouts, and the two hearts are cut from yellow beets. Purple cauliflower, tomato/artichoke salad, peapods and purple/maroon carrot skewer. Fruit section includes strawberry, golden raspberries, dapple dandy plum grapes and blueberries.

This is one of my favorite bento boxes, because of its classic round shape, 3 divided sections, and transparent lid! All important aspects of a cool box to me. The topper would be if it had all those characteristics AND were made of stainless steel... but I am still on the lookout for such a thing. :)