Pancake Snack Bento

Happy Shrove Tuesday!

Do you observe this day? All I know is that it's a day to eat pancakes, so this is what I made for TinySprite's snack today.

 They are little pancakes sandwiched with peanut butter, nitrite-free chicken sausages in keeping with the breakfasty theme, sliced super sweet strawberries, and supremed mandarin oranges. I've never supremed a mandarin before but they look so cute I might do it again for fun. Short stack is topped with a cheese bear.

Enjoy your Fat Tuesday friends!

😊❤🍱

Puppy Pancakes Bento!

In celebration of Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, and National Pancake Day, we're having pancakes for lunch today! We've had breakfast for lunch recently in the past, and it was a big hit then, so I suppose it can't hurt to repeat with pancakes instead of waffles this time. I tried to make puppies, and I'd say the results improved with each successive pancake, so I put the early ones in the back. I decorated the face with cheese and nori, and even gave the lil' guy a mozzarella bone. TinySprite also gets some all-natural chicken sausages along with some ombre blood orange segments, blueberries, and a grape tomato. Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone!

Happy Pancakes Toddler Bento

Happy Pancakes Toddler Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I have been thinking about pancake sandwiches ever since I saw the picture of one in Yum-Yum Bento Box cookbook that I referred to in my mouse post. Well, I didn't get around to making a real sandwich because I wanted to try adding vegetables to the batter in order to improve the nutritious quality of these pancakes, and by then the little girl was too impatient to wait for a sandwich. I used beet juice and grated zucchini to this batch and I was hoping it would turn red so I could cut them into cute heart shapes, but I think I need to use a lot more beets for that to happen. The zucchini bits made the batter less than smooth, so the reverse of the pancakes turned out kind of lumpy as well. At least one side looks pretty good, and it's cool that she's getting a whole grated zucchini and a baby beet (for the entire batch -- which made about 12 pancakes) along with her lunch! I used a silicone flower shape to pour the batter in, and it works a lot better than metal shapes (in my experience). You don't even have to spray the silicone at all; it just pulls away cleanly as soon as the pancake is cooked on the bottom. For my 3 year old, I smeared cream cheese between two pancakes and added a chocolate chip face. She also got a little cup of edamame, a homegrown apricot, some sweet cherries and a lychee. All packed up in our new Hello Kitty bento box that I got in Little Tokyo over the 4th of July weekend. So cute.

Happy Monday, bento friends!

Bunny Pancakes Bento

Bunny Pancakes Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

MisterMan gets bunny-shaped zucchini-squash 10 grain pancakes, vinegar chicken, little rice "cupcake" with furikake and red pepper "cherry", colorful cauliflower and romanesco, peapods, cucumbers. Fruits include grapes (underneath), strawberries and tiny sugar plum.

For the veggie pancakes, I used Bob's Red Mill 10-grain mix, and added wheat germ as well as quick-cook oats. I shredded one zucchini and one yellow squash, and added this to the mix along with an egg, 1T oil, and some milk. I use only enough milk to moisten the batter; this makes the pancakes fluffier and cuter... Also, easier to form into shapes :) I tried making bears too, but the bunnies looked better to me.
It's a veggie pancake, and I didn't serve it with syrup (or anything), but the kids still loved them, ha! For packing, I had to rearrange the ingredients slightly. But I think it still packed okay. ^_^