Ham and Cheese Pinwheels Bento

Sometimes you need a no-cook bento idea because you didn't cook anything for dinner and there weren't any leftovers anyway. That's when I make sandwiches. If you've looked at my blog for awhile you'll know I don't make sandwiches often. Unless I have unusual or fun bread, I think they're a tad boring. But it's easy to make them fun by rolling pinwheels! I flattened the bread with a rolling pin, cut off the crusts and tossed them to the dog (but you can also save them for other purposes like in soup or for croutons!), then layered cheddar, spinach, and nitrite-free ham. Roll up and secure with long picks. Done! The other half of the split Sistema container holds pairs of plums, grapes, tomatoes, and carrots. Aww, I hope TinySprite will love it!

Halloween Spidery Rollups Bento

Halloween Spidery Rollups Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Halloween Spider bento number 2: This one is for TinySprite again. I used the divided 4-compartment plastic tupperware-like container. I made tortilla ham spinach cheese rollups and cut them to fit in one section. There are strawberries and grapes next to those, a cup of pickled cucumbers, sliced white peaches, corn-off-the-cob, and a purple sweet potato spider. She loves this kind of lunch! It doesn't involve any cooking at all, so it works for me too. Yay!

Lil' Sandwich Rollups EcoLunchBox Bento

Sandwich Rollups EcoLunchBox Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Even though my kids usually eat the "dinner leftovers" type of bento quite often, they are just like all other kids and love the bitesize sandwich rollups too (maybe even more). My kindergartner always prefers to eat with her fingers so a bento like this is a hit with her. Since there isn't anything saucy to drip out, a bento like this is ideal for the EcoLunchBox Solo Cube. I secure it with an elastic band and it's good to go. Besides the whole wheat spinach brie and turkey rollups (I flattened the bread with a rolling pin first), I packed a cabbage onion tomato slaw, a cup of juicy cantaloupe, a strawberry, and some blueberries. This will just about satisfy her appetite, I think!

LunchBots Quad Review for TinySprite Bento

LunchBots Quad for TinySprite Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today's bento for TinySprite was packed in the 4-sectioned stainless steel Quad bento box made by LunchBots. When I first saw this box I was so excited -- it combined my two favorite bento box elements: divided compartments and stainless steel construction. LunchBots has offered the 2-sectioned Duo and the 3-sectioned Trio previous to the Quad. I have both of those, and I know the quality and durability are excellent, but I was curious to see whether the design of the Quad is as practical as it seemed. First of all, the all-stainless steel box is as well-made as the previous versions, as far as I can tell so far, and I've used this box a handful of times already. The smaller sections make it perfect for a child with a smaller appetite, who might welcome a greater variety of food in lesser amounts, especially if they are kept separate and not touching. So here I've packed a cheesy turkey dog whole wheat rollup, cut into fourths, which fit perfectly in one section. I topped the pieces with cute picks and a few steamed Okinawan sweet potato cutouts. In another section I fit a silicone cup of yogurt topped with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and wheat germ. A few steamed broccoli florets fill out the rest of the section. A selection of fruit occupy the third part, and the last contains a homemade whole wheat blueberry muffin and some raw carrot sticks. Verdict? She loved it! I have to admit it looks pretty fun and interesting with all the different components. Keep in mind this box (like the Duo and Trio) does not keep the sections completely watertight, so I would refrain from packing saucy or drippy foods. Notice that for the yogurt I used a silicone cup, which successfully kept it contained. The lid is tight (not watertight), and will not fall off during normal usage, although you can easily slip an elastic band around it for extra safety. My preschooler can remove the lid herself without problems. In short, I love this box -- it's perfect for a child-size appetite and appeals to the younger set's natural preference for variety and separation. If you'd like a chance to win this box (or any other LunchBot of your choice), leave a comment at the giveaway post here and I'll pick a winner at random on Friday. I've been reading lots of great ideas for bento-packing there so far!

Calzone Rollups Bento

Calzone Rollups Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

It's a calzone bento, kind of, except this time I rolled up the dough with the fillings inside (salami, pepperoni, cheese, spinach), then baked and sliced into little bite-sized pieces for fun. Yeah, I'm having way too much fun with the calzone-styled foods. It's such a convenient, sandwich-y way to pack a school lunch bento, with so many filling possibilities. The rest of the bento contains roasted red kabocha, steamed Okinawan sweet potato slices, and a cup of grapes and raspberries.

Hummus Rollup Bento

Hummus Rollup Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

What's that? Didn't we just have rollups? Um, yes. I wish I had taken a cross-section photo of this one to show you the goodies inside. I smeared a whole wheat tortilla with homemade hummus (I made mine pretty thick so it would act as a sticky spread rather than a runny dip), added shredded baby spinach, caramelized onions, roasted red pepper strips and rolled the baby up. I stuck a few cute picks to hold it in place, but as it turns out, this sushi box accomodates the rollup perfectly. How's that for multipurposing? I tucked a few steamed peapods on the sides and topped with Okinawan sweet potato heart shapes. There's a strawberry, blackberries, carrots, broccoli, and sliced plum. These plums are nowhere near as sweet as the pluots of last month, but they'll have to do. And if you have been looking at my bentos for the past few years you'll know I never put these in: chocolate covered raisins! I couldn't resist. They fit so perfectly in the chopstick slot. What do you think?

Pink Bunny Egg Bento

Pink Bunny Egg Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

TinySprite's two-tiered bento holds smoked salmon and cream cheese bread rollups on sweet potato bread. To make bread rollups, it's best to use soft bread. I remove the crusts, which I don't usually do, but it looks much neater this way. You can save the crusts for another use (like mac and cheese). Flatten the bread with a rolling pin, then spread the cream cheese, layer the salmon, and simply roll up tightly. Cut into bento-size pieces, and pack snugly so they don't unroll. I added a piece of steamed broccoli and a hard-boiled beet-dyed bunny-molded egg. The upper tier contains strawberry, carrots, cucumbers, nectarines and Okinawan sweet potatoes. Easy!

Sandwich Rollups Bento

Sandwich Rollups Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Here's another bento from pre-vacation break; a super easy no-cook one. I made turkey colby cheese rollups, which is just a more fun way to pack a turkey colby cheese sandwich. First I flattened the bread with a rolling pin. You can cut off the crusts to make this neater (I didn't do this, as you can see - they might have rolled together more tightly if I had). Layer cheese, turkey, and fresh greens. You can add mustard or pickles if you like. Then roll tightly. I think I melted the cheese onto the bread first, before adding the rest of the ingredients. I rolled it in a makisu (a bamboo mat used to roll makizushi), then sliced into a thickness that would fit neatly in my stainless steel EcoLunchBox bento box. The rest of the box contains cherries and carrots, and the separate (lidded) container holds Greek yogurt topped with berries and a walnut. Can you see the face? ^_^

Added to What's For Lunch!

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

Taro Bread Rollups Bento

Taro Bread Rollups Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Here's a bento I make quite often for TinySprite, in several variations. She likes finger foods, and rollups are a favorite of hers. Sometimes I use tortillas, sometimes sushi, and sometimes -- as here -- I use flattened bread. I've posted a tutorial of how I make the bread rollups here. The purple color of this taro bread is so pretty that I decided to use it today. It's also a nice bread to use because it's soft and fluffy. Whole grain breads are often on the dry side (it can still be used though, like I did here). After rolling the bread flat with a rolling pin, I smeared cream cheese and lay some smoked salmon on top before rolling and pressing to seal. If I had arugula I would have rolled some in there as well. I also added a golden beet-dyed hen egg decorated with a face made of carrot and nori. (Been on a kind of yellow egg roll these days. Of sorts.) There's some satsumaimo (underneath) and regular sweet potato flowers as well as steamed broccoli tucked in there. Finally, I gave her some sliced yellow peaches as a sweet treat. Cheep cheep! ^_^

Bacon Rollups Bento

Bacon Rollups Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

TinySprite's bento is a bit smaller than usual. Since school has restarted after the holiday break, she's been very excited to chat and play with her friends. Unfortunately this leaves little time to actually eat her lunch. Yesterday she had to bring almost the entire thing home to finish. Sigh. Normally this would not be a problem, but she has only a limited time to nap before we have to get her up in time to pick up her brother after school. When I woke her up she complained groggily "I want to sleep some MORE!" So today I've packed a smaller bento in hopes she finishes the whole thing, and then we can have a quick snack at home if she's still hungry. She gets bacon, mozzarella and peapods rolled up in corn tortillas. After frying the bacon, I tossed in some kabocha wedges to fry up in the drippings. Smelled good! In the remainder of the spaces I added a half clementine, carved carrot sticks and a bunch of cherries. Fingers crossed it goes down quick!

Mummy Turkey Dog and Candy Corn Egg Bento

Mummified Turkey Dog Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

It's the last Halloween bento of the season. Yay! I'll put TinySprite's first since i think it's cute. I've seen people make mummified hot dogs using refrigerated puff pastry but I don't have any of that, and really should just get some since you can make all kinds of cool shapes with it. So I went with my standard whole wheat tortilla, which is just as well since TS can put it away just as is. I cut the round tortilla in a spiral, which made it easier to wrap around the cylindrical turkey dog. I melted some cheese, but used two heart picks to fasten it just behind his "head" and "feet". Two sesame seeds are his eyes. The rest of the bento includes broccoli, purple cauliflower, carrots, grapes and cubed dragonfruit. Are you familiar with this fruit? I don't usually buy it; it's very expensive here. But it does look cool.

The other cute thing I want to tell you about is the quail egg candy corn. Isn't it cute? I love quail eggs, as you may notice if you scroll through my past bento. They are so versatile and fun to use. You can even shape themy by hand. To make the pyramid (triangle) shape, just pinch the top between your thumb and forefinger while pressing the bottom flat with your other thumb. You'd do this while the egg is still warm, and it only takes a few minutes. Then, to dye it, just sit the egg down in a bowl of golden beet juice with the liquid level reaching up 2/3. After it's nice and yellow, take it out and place it in a bowl of regular beet juice, up to 1/3. The red will combine with the yellow to create orange. Voila, you have a candy corn. OKAY, I know the purists among you will say "Candy corn colors are white, then orange, then yellow on the bottom", and you are right, but it's more difficult to get the stripes in that order so you'll have to accept this substitution from me.

MisterMan got smoked salmon / cream cheese / baby arugula rollups, the same veggies, fruit and candy corn, but his dragonfruit is a dalmation, playing with a ball. Awwwww.
So that's it for this year, people! Thanks for indulging me!

Oh, and by the way -- if you haven't voted for your favorite Food Ninjas in the contest at La Fuji Mama's site, you should take a look at the very cool entries. My Ninja in the Fruit Bento is one of the contestants in the Photo category. Hapabento and Sonoma Bento are also entered. Happy Halloween!

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!

Smoked Salmon Rollups Bento

Smoked Salmon Rollups Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I'm on a "roll"! Get it? No sushi or kimbap today, but whole wheat bread rollups. These eight mini rollups resulted from two slices of bread, flattened with a glass jar (or rolling pin, but mine wasn't handy), then smeared with cream cheese, layered with arugula, capers, and smoked salmon, then rolled up tightly and sliced. Like sushi, hehe! I even gave him a pair of chopsticks to eat them with, for fun. To fill in the gaps I stuck steamed yellow cauliflower and romanesco. Also broccoli, strawberry cherries and yes, homegrown apricot. Another fresh summery bento, to go!

Added at What's For Lunch Wednesday!

Keroppi Rollups Toddler Bento

Keroppi Rollups Toddler Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

It's Keroppi! If you follow my tweets, you'll know that I was so excited to find this vintage Keroppi bento box in a second hand store I was browsing through in Hawaii recently. I was such a big fan of Keroppi as a schoolgirl, which does date me I suppose. Anyone else with me on this?

Anyway, it's such a tiny box...it's really kind of impractical. So, I decided its inaugural use would be as a snack for my toddler. After I made the rollups, though, I realized it was a pretty hefty meal after all. I used a fried egg and rolled with ham, spinach, and grated cheddar cheese, which promptly melted nicely on the hot egg and ham. I added a couple of grape tomatoes for color, which she loves, and in the tiny divided section I put 3 kumquats and some kiwi flowers.

Well, she took one bite of the kumquat and politely handed it back to me. It wouldn't be the first time I was the recipient of half-masticated foodstuffs. Such is the job of the mom, right?

Next time I think I'll slice them up thin and mix them in with pineapple or something else intensely sweet. Ha! I'll figure something out. ^_^

Mini Bento: Pancake Stack Bento

mini pancake bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I am posting a mini bento from last spring because it's a favorite of mine and I just haven't had time to do many mini bento snacks lately. This one was for my toddler daughter. It includes her favorite ham & cheese rollups, plus a selection of fruits: strawberries, tangerines, and grapes. I also put in 2 peapods, because she will only agree to eat vegetables if they are present in small (one or two pieces) quantities. The mini part of the bento is the mozzarella cheese "plate", with real mini pancakes on top, topped with a tiny square of cheddar cheese "butter" and real maple syrup. The nori utensils I made using my craft punch. TinySprite loved the pancake, calling it "Baby pancake!", cuddling it, singing to it, and kissing it. It was so funny, I wish I had taken a photo of that scene :)

I have lots more mini bento ideas, and I am such an avid mini fan... there will definitely be another one soon, I hope!

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!