Miso-Glazed Salmon LunchBots Trio Bento

Today I packed TinySprite a colorful meal in our LunchBots Trio: miso-glazed salmon on a few kale leaves, pepperonata (a mixture of red and yellow peppers pan-fried in olive oil with anchovy paste and garlic, then sprinkled with basil), roasted broccoli, and assorted blueberries, tomato, carrots and Asian pear.

I've made misoyaki butterfish before many times, as it is maybe my all-time favorite fish meal, but this is the first time I made miso-glazed salmon. I used a variation on a Simply Recipes recipe:

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Miso-Glazed Salmon Recipe

1/4 cup white miso

3T sake

1T sugar

1T shoyu

Heat mixture in double-boiler until smooth, and sugar is dissolved. Let cool, and marinate salmon for 3 hours up to overnight. Bake at 425F for 10 minutes.

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It's pretty good, and a nice change from the regular way I usually prepare salmon (shoyu butteryaki or furikake style). I saw Sam Choy has a recipe that includes ginger and rice vinegar along with the miso that sounds interesting too. 

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'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.

Duck Fried Rice Ghost Halloween Bento Bowl

Duck Fried Rice Ghost Halloween Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

TinySprite gets roast duck (from the Chinese deli) fried rice with egg, choy, and green onions in her panda donburi bowl. She loves fried rice so much; why don't I make it more often? The top tier holds some baby strawberries, a smattering of grapes, and some Asian pear sliced into ghost shapes. The little musical picks celebrate her joining choir this quarter, which she has wanted to do since last year. Yay!

Pickled Sticky Rice LunchBot Bento

Pickled Sticky Rice Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I made one of my favorite one-pot meals for today: sticky rice! See my method here. Since TinySprite is allergic to soy, I omitted the lup cheong (Chinese sausage) and replaced the meat with regular ham. I've also used Canadian bacon before (in this bento) and it went over just fine. This batch got shiitake mushrooms and a new kind of green: broccoli stalks. I thought it would give a little bite to the rice. And another new kind of green as well: pickled mustard greens. I know it sounds crazy, but my kids love pickled vegetables. Even mustard greens. Weird, right? It has a very strong flavor and totally changed the way I usually think of this dish, but in a good way. They liked it! Go figure. I put my girl's portion in the LunchBot Trio alongside: fresh pear slices, blueberries, strawberries, Okinawan sweet potatoes and carrots.