Orange Pepper Jack O'Lantern Bento

Orange Pepper Jack O'Lantern Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I happened to find the most perfect pumpkin-shaped mini orange sweet pepper at the farmers market last weekend. It just begged to be carved, so how could I resist? I stuffed it with cottage cheese and sunflower seeds after seeding and carving it. This box is convenient for deconstructed fish tacos in that the cod can go in one section while the tomato-onion-avocado-cilantro salsa goes in another. Of course, you can put them together, but it's prettier this way. You can pack the tortillas separately if you wish. I put a fruit selection (strawberry, plum and grapes) in the last compartment, and topped with a purple Okinawan sweet potato bat. I think it looks fresh and colorful. And my boy really did eat the whole pepper, cheese and all ^_^

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!

Brown Bear Bento

Brown Bear Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today I made a batch of mixed rice, containing black "Forbidden" rice, brown rice and regular white rice. This combinations ends up looking kind of multihued purple and black. It's nutty and chewy, and really good -- the kids love it too! Anyway, I always think this rice makes a nice bear-colored musubi, so that's what I made.

The bear face is molded by hand using fresh, hot rice, and the facial details are made from tofu and nori. I also baked some wild Alaskan salmon with just olive oil, and then dressed it in Mauna Kea sauce, which I usually use with chicken as in this bento, but which is also good with fish.

For color I added star cut baby carrots and a grape tomato puffy heart (thanks for the idea, hapa bento!)! I also roasted some brussels sprouts and mini sweet peppers. If you crosscut the sprouts, you'll see that they open up and "bloom" during cooking. Sometimes I toss with balsamic vinegar, which saturates them all the way through and they taste fanTAStic!

Fruits include strawberry, red grapes and mini mandarin.
Rawr!