Ninja Snowman Snack Bento

Ninja Snowman Snack Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

This one is a snack bento for TinySprite, to keep her busy after school while her brother finishes his homework. He has a biography due, and he's chosen Leonardo da Vinci. What an interesting person! But back to the bento. I squeezed a chicken egg into a snowman shape and decorated it with nori as a ninja. He's wearing a red pepper and cheese Santa hat for the occasion, but I bet he's not too happy about it. The rest of the bento contains carrots, edamame, cucumbers, Okinawan sweet potatoes, orange chunks, a blackberry and a crabapple. It should be just enough to keep her occupied (and quiet) for a half hour or so. ^_^

Santa Pucca Portuguese Bean Soup Bento

Santa Pucca Portuguese Bean Soup Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Since we're on a roll with the thermal bento food, why not continue with Portuguese bean soup? I was reminded of this Hawaii cold weather staple by a twitter pal who tweeted a photo of her pot simmering away. I get lots of meal ideas on twitter: foodie folks are always posting recipes and photos - just a quick scan through my stream brings up a whole bunch of options. One of the best things I love about twitter. This recipe is adapted from Sam Choy, except with lots of extra added veggies and stuff. Here's my version (method and recipe here).

I used kale, cabbage, carrots, zucchini, celery, onions, potatoes, lentils and kidney beans. There is Portuguese sausage too, of course, but the best part of the soup is the addition of ham hocks to the soup base; it adds a delicious smoky salty flavor. Along with the thermal jar of soup, I packed a side box with orange slices, broccoli and grapes, plus a little Pucca dressed for winter in her santa suit. Her face is a quail egg, her dress is red pepper, the trim is radish with a cabbage ruffle hem. Her hair is blackberries and her features are nori and sriracha. ^_^

Added to Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love.

Oops! Santa Bento

Oops! Santa Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today I packed cheesy enchilada casserole topped with cheesy snowflakes. I don't have a mini snowflake cutter; can you believe it? But since no two snowflakes are alike, I took some liberties and just created some using the flower and star cutters I already had. Looks like Santa is heading into the snow-covered chimney! I saw this idea as a cupcake somewhere, and decided to make a bento version. The snow is cottage cheese, Santa's pants are apples, and his boots are grapes. I held them together with dried spaghetti, which will soften by lunchtime. In order to close this Lunchbot box, I moved the silicone cup to the center between the orange slices. Ho ho ho! I hope he makes it okay! ^_^

Added to Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love.

Jack Skellington Chicken Bento

Jack Skellington Chicken Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today's menu is tebasaki (grilled - or in my case broiled - chicken wings with sea salt). See the method and recipe I used here. When I make it, I always have to make several pounds (yes, you read that right) because I tend to snack while cooking. To monitor quality, of course. I sprinkle mine liberally with shichimi togarashi (Japanese red pepper mix), which makes it totally addicting. Even though the kids eat theirs plain, they are very tasty just with the sea salt. They can eat 10 or more wings each, and I packed their bento as full as I could, while still including pan-fried garlic kabocha, tomatoes, and Okinawan sweet potato. The fruit cup contains grapes and grapefruit, and a quail egg Jack Skellington wearing a mini sweet red pepper and radish santa hat. I was going to make Sally too, but after cutting out all those tiny features for Jack, I was done! I'm really not one for itty bitty nori cutting. She would have been very cool-looking though, so I'll have to make her another time for sure :)

Hello Kitty Santa Curry Bento

Hello Kitty Santa Curry Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

It's time for curry again, with the nighttime temperatures dipping into near-freezing range these past few nights. You'll probably be seeing quite a bit of the thermal bento jars on this site over the next few months. Like last time (see this bento here) I used a ton of vegetables, but I also used ground pork, which made it very substantial. This batch contains onions, celery, carrots, sweet mini peppers, potatoes, and broccoli. I packed (and served it at dinner) over hot brown rice mixed with pearl barley. This combo results in a chewy rice batch that I really like. The little side car contains oranges, grapes, broccoli, Okinawan sweet potato flower shapes, and a little quail egg Hello Kitty santa with a strawberry hat and suit. Aww! ^_^

Added to What's For Lunch.

Quail Egg Santa Bento

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

Tomorrow is the first of December! Are you ready? I guess we'd better start with the Christmas themed bentos now. Only 2 and a half weeks of school to go! Did I already mention that yesterday? Yes, we're pretty excited here. For this bento: along with some shoyu chicken, I decided to put a layer of black rice (over more chicken) in one section of the round three-section bento so that I could have a canvas to put my santa. It's a hard-boiled quail egg with a radish hat, nose and beard. I cut the beard with a standard flower cutter and used several "petals" for an extra fluffy beard. I don't have any cute Christmas mini cutters, so most of my decorations have to be hand-cut. I'm not one to spend a lot of time doing them, so you know that whatever I make has to be quick and pretty easy. In the last section I've added another cute crabapple, some grapes and a few carrots. My girl loved her crabapple so much she saved the seeds, brought them home carefully wrapped in a napkin, and told me she wants to plant them in the yard and grow an "apple bush." Well all right then! ^_^

Santa Egg Snack Bento

Santa Egg Snack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Another snack bento for TinySprite; this time a beet-dyed hard-boiled egg decorated with nori, radish and carrot to look like Santa Claus. Or Humpty Dumpty with a Santa hat and beard on. There's also bowtie pasta, steamed broccoli, grapes and satsuma mandarin. We're almost halfway through the last week of school for 2010, people! Woo!