Lil' Quail Egg Snowman Bento

Quail Egg Snowman Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

The last two quail eggs in the batch have become TinySprite's winter school term's last snowman bento! Yep, I did make an inordinate number of snowmen bento this season. MisterMan doesn't get a bento because his class is having a Christmas luncheon. I made inarizushi for his class, and I'm hoping the kids like them. As for my girl, she also gets chicken, one of the inarizushi, Okinawan sweet potatoes, crabapple, carrots, oranges and blackberries along with her happy snowman. The Christmas themed bento have been a lot of fun to make this year. Hope you had a chance to make something fun and festive in your lunchboxes too. ^_^

Crab Linguine Bento

Crab Linguine Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

A simple crab linguine pasta bento for my TinySprite. I tossed the noodles with spinach, roasted baby tomatoes, crabmeat, olive oil, pepper and parmesan. The top tier contains dragonfruit balls, raspberries, sliced persimmon, a bit of steamed broccoli and some Okinawan sweet potato flowers. It probably took 10 minutes to put this bento together, but it still looks bright, fresh and tasty. You don't need to spend hours making an artistic piece of edible art in order for the bento to look good. Colorful, seasonal foods will help you ensure you've packed a healthy and balanced meal that will provide nutrition for your active learner. And most importantly, my little girl gobbled it up. Yay!

Smoked Salmon Rollups Bento

Smoked Salmon Rollups Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today I'm posting TinySprite's bento for her last day at her current preschool. In July she'll switch to another school for the summer program and continue into the fall for the pre-K program there. She requested rollups, so that's what I made. There is smoked salmon, cream cheese and arugula wrapped in corn tortillas. Alongside there's a tiny cup of edamame, some carrots and broccoli, and a few slices of Okinawan sweet potato. In the top tier she has some fruit arranged into a bear's face: oranges, cherries, blackberries, grapes and strawberries. When I picked her up, she had barely touched her bento. It turns out she had been busy passing out almond cookies to her classmates and hugging them, and reporting to everyone that she'll be going to "Garrett's School" (her buddy that lives down the street) now. It was sweet. Everyone yelled "Bye!!" as we walked out. She's a very sociable girl, and while she had made several close friendships at this school, she wasn't worried about losing them or missing them too much. She is very excited about the new school though. When we got home, she made sure to sit down and finish her bento, which she really loved. She only had me to chat with, so she was able to chow down her meal pretty quickly ^_^
I am submitting this bento to the twitter group #bentocuteness, with a roundup being posted by Yuri (@chefpandita) at her site. As soon as the site goes live, I'll link to it here so you can see all the other participants. Since I was invited based on a panda bento, I thought I would enter a panda bento box -- one of my favorites. Thanks for inviting me Yuri, and I'm looking forward to seeing all the other bentos from around the world ^_^
*ETA: The BentoCuteness Roundup has gone live! Here is Chef Pandita's post of all the cute bentos. Take a look and enjoy :D

Sausage Skewers Bento

Sausage Skewers Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I sometimes hear from parents who tell me they don't know how to cook, or they don't have time to cook, so there's no way they could make such an elaborate lunch for their kids. Guess what? I'm not a professional chef either. I have two kids at home and I don't have time to spend a lot of time cooking or preparing bento either. If you take a look at my bento posts, you'll see that many of them involve leftovers, or foods that can be prepared and assembled quickly (usually under 30 minutes). You don't have to spend a lot of time to give your kids a healthy homemade lunch; all you need is a little pre-planning. Most kids won't eat an adult-size meal, so a few vegetables, some fruit, a little protein and maybe some rice (or bread or pasta) is all you need to consider.

Take this bento, for example. I made this for my 4 year old to take to preschool. She's had a slightly smaller appetite lately than usual, so this one is a bit smaller than what she typically eats for lunch. The main compartment contains two skewers of pan-fried chicken and sundried tomato sausage rounds alternating with sliced zucchini. She'll love those because they're finger foods, and it's fun to eat off a stick. I always add at least two colors of vegetables -- in this case, steamed broccoli and peapods, as well as raw carrots I've carved into flowers with my paring knife. To finish off, she'll have a sweet ripe strawberry and some blackberries. If she had more time at school (or if she were at home) I might add a half corn on the cob and a musubi (riceball), or she might ask for string cheese or a hard-boiled egg, which are foods that are easily prepared ahead of time. Once you start packing bento, it'll become easier until it's just a part of the usual school routine. You'll feel better knowing your kid is eating a healthy meal, and she'll learn to look forward to lunch. Now that's a worthwhile effort! ^_^

Hello Kitty and Octodogs Bento

Hello Kitty and Octodogs Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I haven't shown a TinySprite bento in while -- they're usually a smaller version of her big brother's, so I only snap a photo of his bento. Lately, however, her appetite has been uneven, and there've been a few times that she's only eaten the fruit and left the main part of her meal uneaten. I find that when she eats lunch at home with me she has a much bigger appetite. Her favorite things to ask for are: a hot dog wrap (with melted cheddar and lettuce), egg-in-the-hole (basically buttered toast with an egg pan-fried right into a hole cut out of the center), string cheese, "whatever meat we might have leftover in the fridge", berries and yogurt. Yes, ALL of that. So I'm thinking that it may be she's eating less at school because she talks too much with her bff Ava R. Her teacher says they do everything together: ride bikes, hold hands on walks, even paint on the same paper. Okay, fine. So I've made a little cute bento in hopes that she'll gobble this one all up. I used a whole turkey dog to make two octopi and one crab (hidden under the broccoli tree), some peapods, and a quail egg Hello Kitty with radish ears, nori eyes and a yellow carrot nose. I poked the ears into slits I made with my knife, and I also pushed the nose into a slit as well, to keep it in place. At first I pushed it too far in, so I reached in with my plastic tweezers and pulled it back out. No problem! It just occurred to me that you might even cut a hole and let the yellow yolk show through for the nose. I also added a tiny strawberry and some chopped cara cara oranges, all in the cute My Melody aluminum box I found at Marukai on sale. Yay! How can she resist this one? ^_^

Chicken and Jack o'Tangerine Bento and Hello Kitty Egg Preschool Bento

Chicken and Jack o'Tangerine Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

For MisterMan: Chicken drummettes, steamed broccoli, corn on the cob and carrot sticks for lunch today. Fruits were strawberries, grapes and a glowing jack-o-tangerine.

For TinySprite: Boiled egg decorated as Hello Kitty with radish ears and rice stick whiskers, nori eyes and corn nose. Corn on the cob, steamed broccoli, carrot sticks and gold cherry tomato. Strawberry and grapes.
Seems like hers is a miniature version of his, doesn't it? I think I got this double bento thing down! This bento seems very small for her lunch, but she hasn't been hungry lately. Maybe she's too excited. I picked her up during lunchtime and she hadn't finished the corn so she ate that when we got home. She is quite busy with the talking and gesturing during lunch, I noticed. It's a wonder she has any time to get any eating done at all. Sigh.

Chili Jack O'Cheese Bento and TinySprite's 1st Day of Preschool Bento!

Chili and "Jack" Cheese Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today MisterMan has chili and rice, with a jack-o-lantern cheddar cheese topper. I could have melted it in, but I left it "raw" and he ate it. Yay! I also roasted some cherry and pear tomatoes in olive oil and garlic and put them in a silicone cup. For fruit he got strawberries and grapes. The rest of the gaps I filled with carved carrots, steamed broccoli, and peapods. Everything fit snugly in this EcoLunchbox. I love the separate lidded container it comes with; you may have noticed I usually use it for things like chili and other gravy- or sauce-type foods. I've also used it for yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit topping.

I'm including TinySprite's first preschool bento here too. It contains tortilla rollups with ham, cheese and spinach, carrots, a strawberry, grapes and orange melon. It was her very first day today, and she did great! They had a lot of fun, went on a walking field trip, picked apples and tomatoes, and she even made a bff. The teacher told me I'd hear all about her new best friend, since they spent a lot of time chatting and playing together. I picked her up during lunchtime, and watched her interact with the other kids. Sure enough, she was so distracted talking with them that she didn't finish. I was a little disappointed about that, but figured she could finish the rest at home. Well, this is what happened when she sat down to finish:

At first I thought she was just thinking, but then I saw this:

Guess she was pretty worn out!