First Day of Spring Bento!

First day of Spring and of course it's gray and cloudy outside. So we'll celebrate with a cheerful bento! 

Inside our Yumbox: quartered cheese - tomato - lettuce - avocado toasted sandwiches (skewered because I saw trhe idea in Sarah Michelle Gellar's cookbook "Stirring Up Fun With Food" [I really don't have any affiliation with her or her publisher; I just happened to find a few cute ideas in there]😆), mini peppers stuffed with cottage cheese, sunflower seeds and a bit of granola, cara cara oranges, steamed Okinawan sweet potatoes, corn, radish ladybug, and chocolate raisins.

One nice thing about the cool weather is my sweet violets love it! Mine are the super fragrant pink "Rosina" variety. Happy Spring, friends!

Year Of The Sheep Bento!

Gung Hee Fat Choy! The Lunar New Year begins tomorrow, and it will be the Year of the Sheep. To celebrate, I made a sheep riceball with rolled ham horns to accompany the gyoza (see my gyoza method here) for TinySprite. She also gets Okinawan sweet potato, grape tomatoes, edamame skewers, and a carrot. She'll also take an orange, which signifies good luck. The firecracker craft is one she made in school. Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year!

Added to What's For Lunch.

Duck Fried Rice Bento and an ECOlunchbox Tri Bento GIVEAWAY!

I have some exciting news (well, for me): I got a brand new bento box set, and it's a very cool one!

It's called Tri Bento and it's made by ECOlunchbox.

This tiffin-style set is made of high-quality, food-grade stainless steel and features three interlocking round tiers that fit one on top of another. They all clip together with two latches that are easy to fasten. When the set is clipped together, it stays together tightly with no chance of accidentally opening. There are no gaskets, so I wouldn't recommend sauces or liquids, but I have not experienced any leakage during the past month I've been using this set with "dryish" foods like the bento I show above.

I packed duck fried rice for MisterMan in the lower tier: rice, with a fried egg mixed in, and sliced chopped roast duck, steamed bok choy, and chopped scallions. The middle tier holds some steamed purple sweet potato, corn off the cob, and a few grape tomatoes. The top tier contains sliced Asian pear, cara cara oranges, a strawberry and some grapes.

The three tiers look identical at first, but they must fit together in a specific way. The one with latches must go on the bottom, obviously. The middle one doesn't have an indented rim for the lid like the top one does, which you (or your child) will realize once you try to put the lid on. It's not hard to figure out. I love this set, and I think it will be able to take a bit of abuse from a lunch-swinging kid (a bonus in this house). Each layer holds about 1 1/2 cups for a total capacity of about 4 3/4 cups of food. Because it's such a large set, it would be well-suited for an older child with a bigger appetite, or an adult, or to separate snacks from lunch.

In sum, I recommend this bento set very highly. It is composed of the same sturdy stainless steel as the other ECOlunchbox sets I own (Three-In-One, Oval, Solo Cube, Solo Rectangle, and ECOdippers), resistant to dents and scratches, and strong enough to withstand everyday use. The set fits in our lunch totes easily, but the company also sells beautiful bags designed specifically for the round tiffin.

And now for the exciting news for YOU! ECOlunchbox is giving away a Tri Bento set just like this one to one of my Happy Little Bento readers! Yay! All you have to do is enter my giveaway below and leave a comment telling me what you'd like to pack in your very first Tri Bento. I would love to get some ideas from you! Restricted to U.S. only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: ECOlunchbox provided me with a Tri Bento to review. I was not compensated and the opinions I expressed are my own. 

Jack-o-lantern Calzone Bento

Jack-o-lantern Calzone Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Yes, it is in fact a Jack-O-Lantern calzone! Kind of. Instead of the half moon shape, I tried to make it rounder by closing it on the bottom instead. I found that it's not easy to cut a jack face into a calzone. I didn't want the innards to run out, so I didn't cut all the way through. And I think I made the features too small, for the same reason. Anyway. There he is, and I'm calling him a jack-o-lantern, so there! Also in the container: carrots, kabocha, Okinawan sweet potato, broccoli, star-cut radish, orange wedges, and grapes. Two more weeks to go. Can I do it??

Three Bears Chili Bento

Three Bears Chili Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today was the wintery-est summer day I've ever experienced. It was cold, gray and stormy all day long. I was very tempted to put the heat back on but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It's practically July! Weird. Anyway, it seemed a fitting day to bring chili to lunch, tucked into a lettuce leaf and topped with shredded cheddar and three mozzarella cheese bear faces. As you may recall, I was informed by MisterMan that he does in fact like "raw" (unmelted) cheese, despite what I've reported here, and that it's only STRING cheese in particular which remains undesirable. But it's the SAME cheese, you say. Whatever. I think I got the whole rainbow in here with the sides: strawberry, carrots, oranges, broccoli and blackberries. Woo! He went on a bowling field trip today and said he bowled a 110, including 5 strikes. Um, what? Turns out the kids have their own alley (probably with wider lanes and no gutters!). He had a blast, saying it was "just a hair better than the tech museum."  ^_^
Added to What's For Lunch!

Deconstructed Taco Bento

Deconstructed Taco Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

The last bento of the week is a fun one for my second-grader: deconstructed tacos -- which means he can put them together as he chooses at lunchtime. Since he's usually a classic deconstructive eater (pulling toppings off pizza, opening sandwiches to eat layers separately, etc.), I have a gut feeling he'll eat each ingredient individually. Sigh. Whatever! I guess that's his prerogative. Along with wrapped tortillas (with a dinosaur cheese design), he can choose from: turkey taco meat, lettuce, and pico de gallo. There's also a cup of yogurt with wheat germ (this condiment cup comes with a sealing lid), a strawberry, some blackberries, cherries and chopped oranges. This large two-tier stainless steel tiffin-style bento container comes in handy for meals like this one. The layers and lid close tightly with a double latch. It's sturdy and tough. Just like my boy ^_^