Polenta Bento

This one is a mishmash of stuff we had at dinner, including the polenta that made an appearance on my toast in the previous post. I think TinySprite would prefer a box filled completely with sausage; she's a definite meat lover🐖🐮

😊❤🍱

Happy Boys' Day Bento!

Happy Boys' Day!

This day is also known as Children's Day, Kodomo No Hi. In Hawaii when I was growing up we celebrated Girls' Day on March 3, and Boys' Day on May 5th. I made TinySprite a Pucca bento on Girls' Day and today I made a little boy with origami kabuto (samurai helmet) and koinobori (carp streamers) to signify strength. Do you know how to fold origami kabuto? It's a fun activity to do with your kids! May all the boy(s) in your life grow up to enjoy a good, happy and healthy childhood!

In our Ecolunchbox Solo Cube: roast pork, polenta, rotini pasta, carrots, tomatoes, Okinawan sweet potato, hard boiled egg, radish, strawberries.

Salmon and Veggie Yumbox Bento

This bento might not look that pretty, but it's full of good stuff. The compartmentalized box is practical for those times when you happen to have a bunch of this and that to pack for lunch. You ever have days like those?

Furikake salmon pasta, veggie hash with celery, bell pepper, and butternut squash, cucumber tomato salad with pickled red onions, strawberries and cottage cheese with granola. A few chocolate raisins finish out this Yumbox. Have a yummy day!

🍀Happy St. Paddy's Day Bento! 🍀

Green green green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, you guys! ☘☘☘ It's that green time of year; luckily there are lots of green foods to choose from. Too bad the protein has to deviate from the color scheme but maybe it's better that not EVERYthing is green...

Inside this cute green frog bento: stirfried chicken, baby bok choy and peas, tomato, strawberries, kiwi.

I made shamrock egg rings with green bell peppers (I looked for 4-lobed ones and sliced them about a half inch thick). You can fry the egg directly in the pepper ring and then put a lid on the pan to finish steam cooking. The rest of this Sistema bento contains: pesto spinach pasta, turkey bacon green bean rollups, a cucumber pot of pickled wakame (plus the cucumber balls), blueberries, strawberries and kiwi.

Hope you all have a fantastic St. Paddy's Day weekend! 🍀🍀🍀

Cold Penne Pasta Salad

Looks like we're on a cold noodle salad roll over here. I really don't know why it didn't occur to me to make pasta salads ALL SUMMER long, but the idea is now in my head. This one doesn't have a sauce, but gets all its flavor from the diced garlicky chicken sausage, roasted red peppers, and pickled onions. I parboiled broccoli that I had chopped finely and tossed that in too, because you know me, I gotta have some green in there. I loosely used a Serious Eats recipe for Spanish Pasta Salad but adapted some ingredients because it was more convenient. It still tastes good!

Spanish Pasta Salad With Chorizo, Piquillo Peppers, and Pickled Onion

(from Serious Eats recipe)

1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced (about 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup sherry vinegar

1 pound small pasta, such as macaroni (I used penne because I like the color of this carrot version)

Kosher salt

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

6 ounces Spanish chorizo (about 2 sausages), diced (I used chicken garlic sausage)

4 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 4 teaspoons)

1/4 cup chopped roasted or grilled piquillo peppers from 1 (12-ounce) brine- or oil-packed jar (I used roasted red peppers)

1/3 cup chopped parsley leaves and tender stems (about 1/2 bunch)

2 scallions, thinly sliced on the bias

2 to 3 teaspoons zest from 1 lemon

Freshly ground black pepper

1. In a small mixing bowl, cover onion with sherry vinegar and let stand until lightly pickled, at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.
2. In a pot of salted boiling water, cook pasta until very tender throughout, 2 to 3 minutes longer than al dente stage according to package. Drain in a colander, then chill under cold running water. Let drain well, then drizzle lightly with olive oil and toss to coat. Set aside.
3. In a small skillet, cook chorizo over medium-high heat until fat has rendered and chorizo is crisp, about 8 minutes; during last 1 minute of cooking, stir in garlic.
4. In a large serving bowl, toss pasta with chorizo, garlic, and its rendered fat, along with olive oil, piquillo peppers, parsley, scallions, and lemon zest. Drain onions and toss into salad. Season with salt and pepper. Serve right away at room temperature or make up to 1 day in advance, refrigerate, and return to room temperature before serving. 

The rest of the bento contains sliced plums and white nectarines, as well as a grape tomato. I hope TinySprite enjoys her Paperchase lunch box bento!

Shrimp and Pasta Magic Round Bento

Shrimp and Pasta Magic Round Bento

I think I've been using this box for at least 5 years now; it used to be MisterMan's box, and now TinySprite's appetite is big enough to pass it on to her on occasion. A couple things make it a standout box for me: it's round, which is a pleasing shape. It's divided into three wedge-shaped sections, and these sections are removable so we can use any or all as we choose. The box is pretty deep, so the amount of food I can pack is substantial. And it comes with a snap-locking clear plastic lid, so we can see the beautiful lunch waiting for us! Finally, it somehow seems that everything looks good in this kind of round box, naturally. It's, well, magic. Hence the Magic Round Bento (MRB) nomenclature. Try it yourself and see!

Today I sent TinySprite to school with buttery shrimp and pasta and one of our current summer favorite salads: chopped romaine with halved cherry tomatoes and cracked pepper. This time I tossed with fresh corn off the cob. I'll sprinkle with whatever cheese I have on hand: feta, parmesan, even grated cheddar or jack. And since we're still in the stone fruit portion of summer, we're getting our fill of plums while we can. There are a couple berries in there to fill space as well. We're well into our 3rd week of school but it still feels like summer out here in California. How's your school year going so far?

Shoyu Chicken LunchBots Cinco Bento

Second time using the big-size Lunchbots Cinco, and like the first time, I packed chicken once again! This time it's shoyu chicken, with broccoli and potatoes on top of a few lettuce leaves. Pasta goes in the side (again!) with mushrooms and parmesan. Are you sensing a theme here? On top: chopped sweet red pepper, mandarin, and carrots. I like using this box, but for some reason I get nervous that I won't have enough to fill it. Maybe the third time we'll see something really exciting! Let's hope! ^__^

Mermaid Pasta Quinoa Bento!

Hi! This one is a "just for fun" snack bento that I made for a contest. I wanted to try making a mermaid using pasta for hair and quinoa for sand. I know now why I don't regularly make decorative charaben -- it is very time-consuming! At least for me. I knew I was going to use a quail egg for her face, and cheese for her body, and Okinawan sweet potato for her colorful tail and bikini, but the execution and cutting and placement took a lot longer than I envisioned. Luckily my miniature garden kale came in handy as seaweed stand-ins, and carrots and strawberries added color as other sea creatures. It was fun though, and the littles got a kick out of it. ^__^

St. Paddy's Day Green(ish) Bento!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! In honor of this holiday, I've made a "green" Lunchbots Quad bento for TinySprite: okay, maybe half green. The right half. The green part: kiwi, pasta with pesto, and green pepper "shamrock." I also nearly every green pick I own, which turns out to be quite a few. Yay! The other half: tomato, mandarin, and sausage/mushroom. Fork/spoon/knife combo utensil by Light My Fire.

Herby Chicken Lunchbot Cinco Bento

This is my first time using the large Cinco box from Lunchbots, and I was very excited to see what my middle-schooler thought of it! We are heavy users of the company's other boxes (Duo, Trio and Quad, as well as the Clicks series) and I heartily endorse the quality of those containers. I've been packing home lunch in these boxes their whole school lives, and they are all still in use after 6-7 years, none the worse for wear. I thought this larger size would be just right for my boy, who has a pretty big appetite. I took the opportunity to pack a whole chicken thigh and a serving of spinach pasta with potatoes and asparagus in the two biggest sections. That left me still with three more, smaller, sections which I filled with pickled carrots and daikon, sliced kiwi, and grapes, strawberry and tomato. He loved  it; had no problem finishing all the food. While the box is a bit larger in size than our other Lunchbots, it still fit nicely inside his insulated tote bag. I have a feeling this new box will be getting a lot of use in the coming years. Thumbs up!

Jack o'cheese Pasta EcoLunchbox Halloween Bento

Jack o'cheese Pasta EcoLunchbox Halloween Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Remember I went through a big jack o'lantern phase at Halloween a few years back? (Check them all out here if you like) Wow, that was weird, wasn't it? I did discover plenty of ways to cut a jack-o-lantern out of food, though. This is my first jack this season, and it's an easy cheddar cutout. I used a squash/gourd cutter that makes these jacks look a little like skulls (to me). So maybe they aren't the *cutest* jacks, but lets see what TinySprite thinks. The rest of this meatless Monday bento includes rotini pasta with zucchini and mushrooms, plus a bonus broccoli sprig. This fit into the EcoLunchBox Solo Cube perfectly. I sent along an EcoDipper to hold the sliced Asian pear and cute sugar plum. A perfectly sized Halloween lunch for my 1st grader.

Sausage Rotini Pasta Mushroom Bento

Sausage Rotini Mushroom Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Okay, okay. We might have had a bento *very* similar to this one about two weeks ago. Like about when school first started. But who's keeping track? I'm still gearing up to this whole bento-every-day thing. Plus, this one is just so easy to throw together. And they like it! This time I sliced some chicken spinach feta sausages (nitrite free) and pan-fried them with some garden kale and baby bella mushrooms. Tossed them all together with rainbow rotini pasta. And that's it for the main compartment. The side contains: three bean salad, strawberry, and plum wedges. It's only the second day of the week and yet it's also mid-week. Gotta love these holidays!
Added to What's For Lunch.

First Day of School LunchBots Bento!

First Day of School Bento!, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Hi there everyone!! We're back from summer vacation and all ready to tackle another school year. MisterMan is in 5th grade, and TinySprite is now in 1st grade. Over the summer, MisterMan had been preparing bento for himself and his sister for their summer programs. Today, I put out the empty bento boxes and guess what? TinySprite asked if she could put the food inside. She arranged the fruit and veggie side sections for both of them, and her brother did the rest. With all this teamwork, maybe I can retire as head blogger at Happy Little Bento and turn the reins over to the kiddos! I wonder when he can start cooking dinner for us...? I made a quick and easy dinner for us, consisting of colorful veggie pasta, pan-fried nitrite-free chicken sausage, and steamed corn. They added shredded cheese and spinach toppings. The other side holds two color grapes, cherries, tomatoes, and pickled baby cucumbers. All packed up in the LunchBots Duo. I got so much mileage out of this box over the summer; I think my boy took it every single day. He can fill it easily, there are only two pieces to keep track of, no latches to break, and after school he even washes it for the next day's use. I sure got spoiled this summer. Let's see how this coming school year shapes up!

Salmon, Tomato Relish, and Slaw Bento

Salmon, Tomato Relish, and Slaw Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today I made TinySprite a compartmentalized bento, so I could give her a little bit of several different things. I find that she's more likely to finish everything if there isn't too much of it. She gets a piece of king salmon, pan-fried in olive oil, pepper, and parsley, served beside a red cabbage/savoy cabbage/carrot/onion slaw. Since she loves pasta, I also gave her some tricolor rotini topped with cherry tomato/shallot/garlic "relish" and shaved parmesan. I squeezed some cherries, blueberries and a halved strawberry in the rest of the sections, along with a couple of pickled cucumbers. The four dividers keep everything separate, and since there's no sauce in this bento either, there shouldn't be any crossover leakage. Hope she enjoys this one!
Added to What's For Lunch.

Angel Hair Mushroom Saute Bento

Angel Hair Mushroom Saute Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

This one involved cooking, but only very minimally, which made it an easy Monday meal. I sauteed a variety of mushrooms (crimini, beech and enoki) in butter and some olive oil until softened, along with minced shallot and garlic. Salt and peppered to taste, parsleyed, and grated some aged manchego into the pan with the heat turned off. Tossed the cooked angel hair into the pan with the mushroom sauce, and it was done. And the kids gobbled it up! I packed some for MisterMan's bento, topped with some dark-skinned purple sweet potato which I found locally. He also gets the first baby nectarines I've seen at the market this year, baby strawberries, and fresh pickled cukes, kumquats, and watermelon radish. Happy Monday!

Deconstructed Sausage Chard Pasta LunchBots Quad Bento

Eating the Quad Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Sometimes you don't really have a complete meal in mind, and sometimes it seems the separate components might go over better separately. It's weird, but TinySprite eats pasta like this. Just plain. Sometimes she puts grated cheese on top, then proceeds to eat the grated cheese, leaving the plain pasta for later. If I mix everything together, she'll still eat them all separately. Come to think of it, MisterMan does that too. If I ask whether plain pasta doesn't seem kind of well, plain, they look at me incredulously. Same with oatmeal. They'll eat all the toppings (berries, nuts, raisins) first, and then eat the plain oatmeal afterwards. Sure it's steel cut oats, which are the BEST OATS EVER, and I myself eat it plain with just a drizzle of honey, but still. Whatever. So here are the components for sausage chard pasta, all separated in the distinct sections of the awesome LunchBot Quad. The ever-present pickled cukes and onions, carrots (which came back because I forgot she currently has two loose teeth), fanned-out strawberry and grapes. She loved this selection, by the way. Woo hoo!

Penne with Meat Sauce Bento

Penne with Meat Sauce Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Tricolor veggie penne pasta tossed in the thermal food jar, with meat sauce spooned over, and cheese flowers (which promptly melted, of course) on top. If you want your child to enjoy the cheese shapes, I'd recommend you pack them separately and let them put them on just before they eat. There doesn't look like much sauce in the photo, but it's in there! It's kind of based on the bolognese recipe I used here, but with slight variations. The side box contains: blood orange chunks (which I forgot that TinySprite does NOT like because they're not sweet enough), broccoli, strawberry and grapes. This is a quick and dry post because I have to tune into Hawaii 5-0 in a few minutes. Heh. See ya tomorrow!

Pesto Pasta Panda Bento - the first bento of 2013!

Pesto Pasta Panda Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Well, it's been quite a long time (about 3 weeks) since I've made a bento, taken a photo and posted to the blog. But I'm baaaa-aack! School started last week, actually, and that's when I made this one for TinySprite. It's simply some whole wheat rotini pasta tossed with pesto and sprinkled with parmesan. Easy! And it's usually the first kind of bento I make when we get back home and face an empty refrigerator. The top tier of the beloved panda bowl bento holds some satsuma mandarin segments, a tiny cup of blueberries, a couple grape tomatoes, steamed broccoli and Okinawan sweet potato, carrot, and a piece of homemade granola bar. So glad we had enough odds and ends around the house to fill up a decent bento lunch. Welcome to the new year, friends!

Penne Pasta Bolognese Bento

Penne Pasta Bolognese Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Last time I made bolognese (here) I showed you TinySprite's bento. This time I'll show you MisterMan's version. It's the same, except he gets regular wheat pasta; this penne is made with tomato and carrot puree so it looks orange. I lay the pasta on a bed of lettuce, then spoon the sauce over, and top with parmesan and a few steamed Okinawan sweet potato cut into star shapes. In the upper tier of this cool EcoLunchBox he gets Greek yogurt with pumpkin seeds and wheat germ, and the usual fruit and veggies to the side (carrots, broccoli, strawberries and grapes).

Sausage Arugula Pasta Bento

Sausage Arugula Pasta Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Now that the kids are getting older and their appetites are getting bigger, I find myself reaching for the more spacious bento boxes more frequently these days. My preschooler can still use the cute little one tiered character boxes, but probably not for much longer. And my almost-4th-grader definitely needs more food. This summer he's been very active, with various enrichment programs such as cooking, chess, mad science, and sports. He can eat a lot. I found this nice-looking two-tiered box today and thought it would be perfect for him in the coming months. It supposedly holds over 1000ml, but I find that the containers themselves take up space and there isn't a need to pack super tightly. This one has a snug-fitting upper divided tier that sits deep into the main compartment. Thus, I have to be careful not to pack the bottom too high. I like the gasket in the lid and the two double latches, as well as the transparent nature of this Clic-Tite box, made by a company called Novo. Here I've packed a quick-cook meal of thin whole wheat spagetti, wilted arugula and spinach, and pan-fried chicken sausage to layer in the bottom on a lettuce leaf. The top holds a silicone cup of yogurt with blueberries and sunflower seeds, another of steamed corn off the cob, carrots, cherries, strawberries, lychee, Okinawan sweet potato and regular sweet potato.