Cooking Channel Bentos

Cooking Channel Bentos, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Here are two of the bentos I made for the shoot on Sunday. (See the finished commecial here!) There was another one but that was the one TinySprite grabbed and scarfed up in addition to the heaping one she made herself. Each kid made their own bento and then ate it. There wasn't any way I could take a picture of theirs. I should have taken a photo of these bentos before all the activity, but I didn't think of it, which is why these had to be shot in bad (artificial) light. Both feature Korean chicken in a lettuce leaf along with steamed broccoli, carrots and carved cucumbers; and varied berries for dessert. I added steamed corn and a shoyu bear egg to one, and a rice section (which I rarely do but which provides a very nice backdrop for a charaben design) with a matryoshka made of Okinawan purple potatoes, cheese, sweet potato and nori to the other. Some cute picks add color and whimsy.

I was surprised to find that making three bento at once wasn't much more work than one (or two, which is the most I ever make at a time for my two kids). And even though the third bento contained totally different ingredients (rollups), it still was pretty manageable. The key is to be prepared and have everything you need at hand, which saves time. MisterMan and TinySprite took these to school the next day, with furikake sprinkled on the rice. I'm thinking in addition to making their own bento, they can soon begin to cook the food for me too... ^_^

Added to What's For Lunch!