Pork Chop Strips Bento

For this simple lunch I made pan-fried Vietnamese style thin pork chops, which I sliced into strips for the kids' bento. I marinated the meat in a mixture of fish sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, shallots, and cracked black pepper before cooking them in a cast iron pan. Added the sliced peppers too, and reduced the sauce. You can serve them in a lettuce wrap with pickled veggies, or over shredded lettuce, or with baby sweet peppers like I did here. A half peach and some chopped Asian pear round out the bento for MisterMan. They both love this meat, and it's a great way to get them to eat lettuce too :)

Pork Chop and Shredded Veggies Bento

Today I made pan-fried Vietnamese style thin pork chops, which I choose because I can slice them into strips for the kiddos' bento. I lay them on a bed of shredded lettuce - I think it looks nice that way. If you like, you can drizzle some of the reduced sauce on top, but I omitted that. I also quick pickled some shredded carrots and daikon and added a couple sweet purple potato hearts. This fit nicely in the Zen box I got from Bento & Co.

In the side box: blood orange chunks, grape tomatoes, and a tiny cup of chocolate covered raisins. 

Happy Wednesday! This week is flying by!

Pikachu Chili Bento

Pikachu Chili Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today the kids got vegetarian chili in their bento; chock full of whatever I could find in the fridge and pantry. The top tier has the usual colorful fruits and such, along with what's currently pickling in my fridge: carrots + daikon, red onions, and bittermelon + cauliflower. That last one is kind of a tough sell. I think I'm going to try adding something else to counter the bitterness; I have some ideas. And since I was in a creative mood, I decided to freehand a little cheddar Pikachu. I used my tiny paring knife and carved out his face and body, but don't look too close at his back leg. A little nori and carrot detail and voila! Hey, it wasn't that hard after all. ^_^

Bearwich Bento

Bearwich Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

It's Monday and MisterMan is back from his camping trip to Gold Country! He had a fantastic time, as I expected, and he learned a lot. The kids panned for gold, baked their own cornbread in the coals, and negotiated their own solo hike (part of a 3 mile, 800 ft elevation gain trek!). I was surprised that 4th-graders were able to handle themselves responsibly and effectively (within small parentally chaperoned groups), with limited to no adult help. So proud of my young man. We spent the weekend together enjoying our reunited family, and that means the Monday bento is a quickie sandwich one. This one is a salmon burger with lettuce on a whole wheat sandwich thin, with strategically positioned steamed Okinawan sweet potatoes to depict a bear face. That's all I could manage today, along with tomatoes, blackberries and house-pickled cucumbers and carrot-daikon sticks. Hope you all had a great weekend and are ready to tackle a new week ahead!