Red Spring Bento

Red Spring Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This bento ended up with lots of red in it, which wasn't planned, but which nicely represents the feeling of spring awakening with lots of color!

Along with more chicken and furikake rice, I added a piece of steamed broccoli and a giant cherry tomato. The salad is composed of watercress tossed with diced Cara Cara oranges (with their nice dark orangey-red hue) and crushed walnuts. The third section has cottage cheese studded with ripe strawberry slices and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and wheat germ.

And because I am currently obsessed with beet-painting satsumaimo sakura blossoms, there are a bunch of those too! Instead of fingerpainting them, you can also simply steam a slice of satsumaimo with a slice of beet on top (you can layer them alternately too) and the beet color will stain the imo it's touching. The color comes out uneven, lending a kind of "tie-dye" effect which is really cool! It might have been prettier to make a lighter pink color, but I guess I got kinda carried away. Well, plenty of chances to try again! ^_^

Vinegar Chicken and Rice Bento

Vinegar Chicken and Rice Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.
A simple yet brightly colorful bento lunch for my boy. Red wine vinegar chicken (recipe from maki at JustBento.com), 2-color carrot skewer, roasted tomato & artichoke with feta, brown rice makizushi with 2 color sweet potato detail, peapods and a tiny yellow pear garden tomato balloon. Fruit side has dinosaur egg plum, black grapes and blackberry.
If you ever find yourself out of ideas to beautify your bento, perhaps you can take a tip from me: sometimes just a small flower or leaf cutout is enough to draw the eye to a corner and bring a sense of nature and serenity. I will often not take the effort to cut any fancy characters or themes, due to lack of time or energy! But I think the bento still looks nice this way. I also like the contrast of an organized skewer of vegetables amidst the general randomness. You may notice that many of my bento look similar to this one. I think a simple presentation shows a calming kind of respect to the natural beauty of the food. Just my opinion.

Goldfish Bento

Goldfish Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I stir-fried spinach yakisoba with shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts, garlic and green onion; no meat because I didn't have any. Topped with carrot goldfish. These goldfish cutters are handmade with built-in eye cutouts; very intricate and precise. I have found that carrots are the optimal substrate for this cutter: they are the desired color, and they are stiff enough to hold up well to display the lovely curved shape. If you cooked sweet potato only until firm, you might get a nice result (but I like sweet potato much softer).
I also quick-sauteed horenso (spinach) in garlic and shoyu and topped with sesame seeds. Satsumaimo / Okinawan sweet potato flowers (I could have used my double flower cutter for this one, but instead I used a simple cutter for the flower, and cut out the center circle using a bit of straw -- easy and convenient!), purple cauliflower and tricolor tomato skewer. Fruit side has strawberries, raspberry, blueberries and plum.
This is quite a bright and colorful one! I think it might be the ultra-violet purple background ;)

Burrito Bento

Burrito Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Chicken-rice-bean burrito on lettuce with Okinawan sweet potato bamboo leaf cutouts and satsumaimo flowers. Tomatoes, peapods, broccoflower, broccoli, purple cauliflower, and purple-yellow carrot skewer. Fruit side has green plum, strawberries, and (not olives but) red grapes.

Pad Thai Garden Bento

Pad Thai Garden Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Homemade vegetarian pad thai, which the kids LOVE! I made a huge batch so you may see this lunch again in a slightly different form. Top shallow tier is lined with lettuce and filled with pad thai, with broccoflower, purple and yellow carrot skewers, and tomato flowers with peapod and yellow carrot detail. Lower tier has strawberry, tangerine, Dapple Dandy baby plum, green plum, raspberries, and satsumaimo elephant.

Did you notice my brand-new stainless steel two-tier bento?! I found it at the Autumn Moon Festival in San Francisco and it's so neat and cool I can barely stand it. The shallow top tier fits snugly into the top lip of the bottom. The tight-fitting lid even has handles you can lift up for carrying and press flat for packing ~ isn't it cute? ;)

New Flower Cutter Bento

New Flower Cutter Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Yeah, it's the hand-cut metal flower cutter with internal flower cut-out... and I love it!! I used it to cut satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato) and regular sweet potato flowers. There is also a yellow carrot flower, peapods, purple and yellow cauliflower, cherry and pear tomatoes, and purple carrot skewer. Main meal is leftover pasta with sausage and mushroom, onion and peppers. Fruit side has the sweet green plum, strawberries and grapes underneath.

We spent the day at the Autumn Moon Street Festival in SF Chinatown, and got back late, and it was too dark in the house so I had to take the pic outside on the patio... so this explains the stray twigs and grass (no time to sweep for a neat photo).

I did get more hand-made vegetable cutters... and I will post about them when I get around to using them. One in particular is quite large, and I need to find a vegetable with enough girth to use it!!

Red & Orange Ravioli Bento

Red & Orange Ravioli Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

MisterMan gets vegetable & cheese ravioli, yellow and purple cauliflower, yellow and purple carrot skewers, peapods, sweet potato and satsumaimo flowers, radish, cherry tomatoes and ocean salad. All-red fruit side includes Elephant Heart plums, red grapes, strawberries and organic raspberries.
Hm, looking at it now, it's kind of flowery and "heart-y"... but I don't think he'll mind!
I'll be sure to make him a "boy" one next week for sure, eh?

My new hand-cut double Flower Cutter

This is how the cutting edge looks. The flower petals are crimped and soldered to stay in place and connected to the little center flower. It's so cute and supercool at the same time! They had lots of other designs and I will definitely want to go back for more :)

And here's how big it is. The cutter itself is attached to a sturdy "handle" to allow for easier pressing!

Salmon Misoyaki Bento

Salmon Misoyaki Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Wild salmon misoyaki with roasted asparagus, peapods, purple and yellow cauliflower, tricolor cherry tomatoes skewer, purple and yellow carrots skewer, and satsumaimo & sweet potato.

Fruits include strawberries, blackberries, Dapple Dandies plum, and red grapes (underneath).

The kids ate the salmon in sandwiches with crusty French bread for dinner, and used the sauce on all the veggies :) This bento box has a clear lid, and I should have taken a pic of it in MisterMan's lunchbag -- it looks so cool, like a little garden in his bag ^ - ^

Chili Pasta Bento

Chili Pasta Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Chicken chili over pasta, with superbright purple and gold cauliflower (from farmers market today), cucumber dividers, peapods, purple carrot discs, 3 tomato skewer, flowers made from satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato), regular sweet potato and yellow carrot. Broccoflower underneath.
Fruit cup has Dapple Dandy plum (supersweet!! from farmers market today too), blackberries and golden raspberry.

I took this photo outside since it was such a cloudy, dark day (too dark in the house), and it looks so much brighter (and overexposed) than usual! Right as I was taking it, it started to pour, so I got lucky ....

Pretty Pink Bento (Bento #200!)

Pretty Pink Bento (Bento #200!), originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

TinySprite's bento had: nitrite-free ham, cream cheese, roasted red pepper and spinach rollups, honeydew nectarines, broccoli, carrot stars, tamagoyaki with spinach, strawberry, blackberries, yellow pear tomatoes, and champagne grapes. Oh, and cheese flowers right on top!