Egg Burger Egg

 

I saw this idea on the internets and it was so cute I thought I'd give it a try. I used a regular hen egg sliced crosswise to make the bun, and just cut smaller portions of the fillings (cheese, ham, lettuce, onions, avocado, pickles, tomato and ketchup. The "fries" are carrot sticks.

You could make a super cute miniature version with a quail egg.

Have a great Thursday!

Fried Egg Open Face Sandwich

 

Today TinySprite's snack is on the plate because we have a little time before we have to take off for activities. This sandwich might seem unusual to some people. Is it? But maybe not. I'm trying to load as much nutrition on the toast (her favorite means of caloric intake) as possible.

I already mentioned the dill pickle hummus; it has an extra tang. The split pea and quinoa I cooked on the stovetop and kept it on the spreadable consistency side. I added curry to it for flavor. The egg is sprinkled with turmeric and paprika, and the Sichuan pickles condiment I found at the Asian market. Hope she likes it!

Sardine Melt Sandwich Bento

Throughout the pandemic while the kids were distance learning at home, they handled their own lunches and snacks. Since they were on completely different schedules and the kitchen is steps away from their workstations it was easy for them. One of TinySprite's favorites was toast. Toast with all kinds of various toppings. So today I will copy one of her standards... 

Sardines on toast! Now before you make a face, did you know that sardines are high in omega-3 fatty acids, calcium and selenium, and much lower in mercury than your usual tuna? They are high in protein and very good for you. Here's how I made mine.

Toast bread til crunchy. Smear on some dill pickle hummus, then zhoug sauce (or your preferred tangy sauce; maybe even pesto, salsa or hot sauce). Drain the sardines and add them in chunks to cover the whole toast. Add cheese on top, put the sandwich back in the oven, and broil to melt.

Take out of oven and add baby spinach and pickled red onions on top. That's it! I used a slightly larger bento box today so I could add a cup of sliced dinosaur pluots. These are my favorite stone fruit and I'm surprised they're stil in season right now. Still so sweet and juicy too. Hope she likes it!

Corned Beef Reuben Bento

Sure we're hunkering down but that doesn't mean we can't still enjoy our Lunchbots Duo bento. And when there are leftovers in the fridge that just call out for a sandwich, how can we say no? So happy I was able to stock up on one last bag of blood oranges too. These are so pretty in bento!

Hope you are all weathering the isolation as best you can. If you're like me you get some happiness surfing the beautiful images on the web. Have a great Thursday friends!

😊❤🍱

Mini Sandwich Bento

The schools in our area have all closed for the next 2 weeks at least, so we will be at home isolating and socially distancing ourselves. I might therefore be experimenting with snacks and lunches; brace yourselves.

I always wanted to try making mini sandwiches. It would take a ton of these to satisfy my kids though😆

On the upside, look at these super kawaii sushi and green tea picks from Modes4u.com! I love these!

They are exquisitely detailed with cheerful cute faces, and sized perfectly for bento or tiny sandwiches. Can't wait to try it with sushi!

😊❤🍱

Egg Salad Sandwich Snack Bento

While I was going through my extensive bento stash recently, I found a ton of super cute bento boxes that my kids probably think they're too grown-up to use now. That's not what I think. Even though these boxes hold only 350 and 250 ml, I can still fill them with snack bento. And I know they are always excited (hungry) for snack bento between school and afterschool activities!

In TinySprite's big snack box: egg salad on whole wheat bread with pickled cukes and a little romaine for crunch.

In small snack box: grape tomatoes, edamame and mandarins.

Werewolf Bento

Raaaaaaawr!

What's Halloween without a werewolf bento? A piece of jagged cheese on a mini whole wheat bagel, and a few nori cutouts make this one not-too-scary. Also in our LunchBots Clicks: edamame skewer, carrots, radish, and grapes. I wish I had a wild animal type of fork to use for this lunch; that would have been cool. Good thing we have the upcoming weekend to get ready for the trick-or-treaters; if this year is anything like previous years, we're going to have to majorly stock up. Like bulk candy Costco run!

Frankenstein Bento

Still going with the Halloween bento... here is Frankenstein for TinySprite! She gets a bagel with cream cheese and cucumber, plus extra ham to make her own little DIY sandwich. I also gave her a mandarin jack-o-lantern and a hard-boiled egg (not shown). Couple more days to go! Are you folks going trick-or-treating? I don't know if my kids have outgrown it yet... I guess we'll find out this weekend! Happy Halloweek!

Planetbox Sandwich Bento

I don't know why, but Planetbox Rover seems to scream sandwich bento! to me. Today, at least. It has a nice big compartment for it, and even though it's a square, I'm putting a baguette in there, because that's how I do it. It's a sardine sandwich, and before you judge, listen: it's packed in harissa, covered in melted cheese, and laying on a whole wheat sweet French roll. The lettuce underneath he'll pack between the bread right before eating, so it doesn't get all soggy. It's good! Besides that, he gets super ripe strawberries, cara cara orange, homegrown kadota fig, tomatoes, carrots, cinnamon yogurt, and tiny bear cookies (because they fit in that little space perfectly!). Yum!

  

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!

Welcome Back To School, v. Fall 2015!

Hi Bento Friends!

If your kids haven't gone back to school yet, they probably will in the next couple weeks. Like me, you might be starting to think about packing lunches again. I didn't pack lunches all summer because MisterMan was taking over the lunchpacking duties when they were required, and other times their camp activity center provided meals. So I am wayyyy out of practice! 

I decided to start easy by packing a kid favorite. This one is for TinySprite, who is now starting 3rd grade. I made her tiny tuna melts using Mini Sandwich Thins. I love these (smaller than the regular size Sandwich Thins) because you have the option of packing more, with different fillings if you like. Plus they fit in the bento box much more easily. And they're so cute! In this standard size bento box, I filled the rest of the space in with silicone cups of fresh organic plum, strawberries, grapes, blackberries and blueberries, and fancy cut carrot sticks. I totally forgot about any kawaii details, but the Chococat box should make up for it this time.

Hope you are all gearing up to get excited for a new school year!

Hinamatsuri Girls' Day Bento!

For TinySprite this Girls' Day, I made her two mini ham sandwiches with lettuce and cheese. These rolls (King's Hawaiian sweet bread - so good) fit perfectly inside this two tier box that I think I got from Daiso many years ago. It even matches this fork with the same bunny design on the lid. Alongside the ham and cheese dolls with nori and pepper details, I have a purple sakura (Okinawan sweet potato), carrot flowers, blood oranges, kiwi, and a fan-cut radish. Happy Girls' Day to all the little (and big) girls out there!

Kitty Has a Fish Sandwich Bento!

Today I made a pair of cute mini sandwiches for TinySprite using my kitty and fish cutters. Each mini sandwich is a triple-decker spread with sunflower seed butter (no nut butters are allowed at school) and raspberry jam. I cut matching shapes from cheddar and mozzarella cheese to decorate the tops of the sandwiches, using nori for the facial features and cucumber for the scales. I also discovered my tulip cutter doubles as kitty paws. Score! The rest of the bento contains: steamed broccoli, edamame, purple Okinawan sweet potato, strawberries, and grape tomatoes (underneath). 

I packed everything pretty tightly in this stainless steel box I bought ages ago at Palama Market, a Korean market in Hawaii that also sells lots of different varieties of kimchi. This box used to have a removable divider which got lost years ago, but the box still holds up great. The two latches are secure as ever, and the gasket in the lid keeps it leakproof. The quality is superb. I'd love to get another one, but probably I won't ever need to. ^__^

Big and Small Ham & Cheese Sandwich Bento

We bought a delicious whole wheat sourdough round from b.patisserie last weekend, and we (everyone in the family) can't stop eating it. I thought it might last through the week, but it looks like it won't make it through tomorrow. I decided to make the kiddos a sandwich bento with this amazing bread, and then I wondered how fun it would be to make a mini version of it using the mini toasts I used to make the ever-so-adorable mini sandwich bento here. Turns out: really fun! The two sandwiches are identical except for size: grilled cheese breads stuffed with lettuce, ham, fried egg and sliced tomato. For the mini sandwich I used grape tomatoes. Isn't that cute? The rest of the box contains a half mandarin, carrots, and cucumbers. Happy Monday, friends!

Sardine Melt Mini-Sandwich Bento

Yes, it really is a sardine sandwich, and will my kids really like it? I learned how to make a sardine sandwich from my childhood friend who lived down the street. She made it for me and showed me exactly how she did it. She was a year older and I did whatever she said; if she liked it then I liked it too. And I still do! I use canned sardines packed in spring water with no added salt, and add pickle relish and cracked pepper. If it were for me, I would also add sriracha (or tapatio or tabasco) for extra zing. Melt some cheddar and toast the bread, and it's so good. I also added some romaine lettuce leaves. Not to mention all the healthy omega-3s you'll be getting. You should try it!
I used my Sistema Bakery Split Container to pack the sandwiches (two mini sandwich thins) with the carrots on one side and the fruit (blood orange, half a satsuma mandarin, and a grape tomato) on the other. The partition keeps the two sides separate. Anpanman character picks ensure the sandwich stays intact - aren't they cute? Happy Wednesday!

Frankenstein Sandwich LunchBots Bento

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

I made TinySprite a couple of mini ham and cheese sandwiches on sandwich thin rectangle breads. And what to do with brown sandwich rectangles? Well, besides the obvious: Domokun. That's right; Frankenstein! I decorated his face with olives (for eyes, ears and scar) and cucumber (for hair). Oh yeah, she'll love it. There's also some plum, pickled stuff, strawberries and grapes. All packed into the LunchBots Trio. Done!
Added to What's For Lunch.

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!

Nyan Nyan Nyanko Kitty Egg Salad Bento

Nyan Nyan Nyanko Kitty Egg Salad Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Guess what? I didn't feel like cooking for the bento today! So lucky TinySprite gets her favorite egg salad pita pocket sandwich. I tucked some shredded spinach into the whole wheat pocket before spooning in the egg salad mixture (this batch contains celery, onion, yogurt, curry powder and turmeric, salt and pepper). Then I decorated a radish slice with a nori kitty face. Ears and paws are also radish pieces. I snuggled some silicone cups of cantaloupe chunks, the absolute last strawberry, carrots and sesame slaw in this Chococat box as well. Happy weekend everyone!

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!

Domo Hot Dog Field Trip Bento

Domo Hot Dog Field Trip Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Field trip day! That means a finger-friendly bento packed in a disposable container for TinySprite to take to the zoo with her. The girl loves hot dogs, and I was all set to pack her dogs in rice or something, but then I saw these Sandwich Thins Hot Dog Buns. Or Hot Dog Sandwich Thins; I forgot exactly how they're marketed. All I know is that they were so cute I had to have them, and then I had to make a Domo face on top. Are you with me? Yes, there's a nitrite-free dog inside this "bun", which I decorated with blueberry eyes (stuck on with rice sticks), mozzarella teeth and a red pepper mouth. To simplify things, I used a cheese rectangle for the teeth and then just cut zigzags on two sides of a piece of red bell pepper. This way I can avoid cutting out eight separate triangle teeth. Am I a shortcutting genius or what? Inside this recycled strawberry box I also packed a small bunch of grapes, black- and strawberries, a tiny mandarin, and a couple pieces of Okinawan sweet potato. I wrapped everything in some wax paper before sealing the box closed. And look: Domo can see out the window. Yay!