Happy Boys' Day Bento!

Happy Boys' Day!

This day is also known as Children's Day, Kodomo No Hi. In Hawaii when I was growing up we celebrated Girls' Day on March 3, and Boys' Day on May 5th. I made TinySprite a Pucca bento on Girls' Day and today I made a little boy with origami kabuto (samurai helmet) and koinobori (carp streamers) to signify strength. Do you know how to fold origami kabuto? It's a fun activity to do with your kids! May all the boy(s) in your life grow up to enjoy a good, happy and healthy childhood!

In our Ecolunchbox Solo Cube: roast pork, polenta, rotini pasta, carrots, tomatoes, Okinawan sweet potato, hard boiled egg, radish, strawberries.

Salmon and Veggie Yumbox Bento

This bento might not look that pretty, but it's full of good stuff. The compartmentalized box is practical for those times when you happen to have a bunch of this and that to pack for lunch. You ever have days like those?

Furikake salmon pasta, veggie hash with celery, bell pepper, and butternut squash, cucumber tomato salad with pickled red onions, strawberries and cottage cheese with granola. A few chocolate raisins finish out this Yumbox. Have a yummy day!

Spring Roll Bento🌸🍱

Here's one to herald spring. Spring rolls! So fun for bento, and delicious at room temperature.

Today's one of those typically unsettled days with a little of everything. Warm and sunny when we woke up, followed by the sudden disappearance of the sun and subsequent black clouds and freezing wind. I'm expecting a downpour at any second. 😂

Luckily it's a fine day for fresh spring rolls. I put rice vermicelli in mine, with lettuce, napa cabbage, shredded carrots, red bell pepper, peapods, and shrimp. I sliced one open to show you, but I'll wrap it back up to keep it from drying out. I made peanut sauce for dipping (made with sun butter instead of peanut to abide by TinySprite's nut-free school rules).

First Day of Spring Bento!

First day of Spring and of course it's gray and cloudy outside. So we'll celebrate with a cheerful bento! 

Inside our Yumbox: quartered cheese - tomato - lettuce - avocado toasted sandwiches (skewered because I saw trhe idea in Sarah Michelle Gellar's cookbook "Stirring Up Fun With Food" [I really don't have any affiliation with her or her publisher; I just happened to find a few cute ideas in there]😆), mini peppers stuffed with cottage cheese, sunflower seeds and a bit of granola, cara cara oranges, steamed Okinawan sweet potatoes, corn, radish ladybug, and chocolate raisins.

One nice thing about the cool weather is my sweet violets love it! Mine are the super fragrant pink "Rosina" variety. Happy Spring, friends!

🌱Saladbook For Lunch Bento!🌱

 Getting our greens in early this week! 🌱🌱🌱🥗🥗🥗

I got inspired by all the beautiful grain bowls I saw this weekend flying through my instafeed so decided to pull out the Smart Planet Home Saladbook and pack one of our own. This box is perfect for tossing together whatever your favorite salad fixings might be and making them look appetizing in this shallow round box. It looks like a ton of food but it's really only about an inch deep. What's great is you can go ahead and put the salad dressing on if you like since the lid is leakproof. Nice!

In our Saladbook: quinoa/millet/buckwheat, romaine lettuce, cucumber, red onion, mushroom, corn, tomatoes, egg, kimchi, and a drizzle of homemade oil and balsamic citrus dressing. Instant healthy lunch!❣😊💚🍱🥗🌱

🍀Happy St. Paddy's Day Bento! 🍀

Green green green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, you guys! ☘☘☘ It's that green time of year; luckily there are lots of green foods to choose from. Too bad the protein has to deviate from the color scheme but maybe it's better that not EVERYthing is green...

Inside this cute green frog bento: stirfried chicken, baby bok choy and peas, tomato, strawberries, kiwi.

I made shamrock egg rings with green bell peppers (I looked for 4-lobed ones and sliced them about a half inch thick). You can fry the egg directly in the pepper ring and then put a lid on the pan to finish steam cooking. The rest of this Sistema bento contains: pesto spinach pasta, turkey bacon green bean rollups, a cucumber pot of pickled wakame (plus the cucumber balls), blueberries, strawberries and kiwi.

Hope you all have a fantastic St. Paddy's Day weekend! 🍀🍀🍀

Happy π Day!

We'll celebrate March 14 (3-14) with mini blackberry & raspberry pies in the kids' bento. I made the pies in jar lids, an idea I got from Sarah Michelle Gellar's book "Stirring Up Fun with Food" - they are the perfect teeny size to fit into a bentobox. Hope you guys have a great π day!

Review: Smart Planet Home Glass Divided Bento Box!

Hello Bento friends!

Summer arrived a month and a half ago and instead of the lazy relaxing endless long days lounging at the pool and tennis club that I had envisioned, it seems like we have been going nonstop just as busy as before. Is it just me, or has summer vacation become super busy for you too?

Luckily, there's always time for bento! The good folks at Smart Planet Home have been kind enough to provide me with another cool lunch box that they thought I might like. You may remember I reviewed another box for them previously (check out my Ultrathin Saladbook review here). 

This one is called Pure Glass Bento Meal Container. It retails for $12.99 and is microwave-, dishwasher-, and oven-safe (glass box only, not lid).

This one was intriguing to me because it is made of glass! If you're like many people these days, you may be conscious of the possibility that the plastic containers you're using are not good for food storage. Some might break, leak, stain, or leach chemicals.

The other cool thing about this box is that it is divided! Have you seen a divided glass box before? I don't think Lock & Lock has one available, and I have several from that company. Smart Planet Home has up to now mainly offered plastic boxes with all kinds of extra qualities like collapsibility, the option to reheat, meal planning kits, etc. 

So I was surprised to learn of this newest product. The final selling point is that the box comes with a leakproof lid, which locks with 4 latches and a silicone gasket. The box is heavyweight glass, which I assume is meant to safeguard against breakage by dropping, but it may be too heavy for young children to manage. In addition, at least for me and my fairly new unit, the latching mechanism was quite tight at first and almost too difficult to click on. It took some elbow grease to get the last one latched. Over time, it seemed to become easier to click locked. My 14 year old was able to do it without trouble.

Once it's on, the box is completely watertight. I packed a juicy fruit salad and a fresh green salad to go to one of my dreamy summery destinations, and there was no leaking of anything. Nice! It's on the large side (this one is advertised to have a volume of 52.8 oz or 1561 ml) so it would be ideal for a picnic bento or to bring snacks to share! The glass is sturdy and won't warp in the hot sun like some plastic boxes. The company offers more glass containers in different shapes, including an even larger divided glass bento box. You can check them out at their website. 

Have fun this summer and don't forget to pack bento! 😊❤🍱

Happy Little Bento PBS TV Show "Lucky Chow" Episode now streaming on YouTube!

Hello Bento Friends! The show I told you about has aired this past month on PBS stations across the U.S. and now is viewable on YouTube, in case you missed it in your area. Click below to check it out! Happy Little Bento is featured on the program "Lucky Chow" Season 2 Episode 1: Trending Japanese. We appear at 8:25 - 15:00.
Thanks for taking a look! Happy bentomaking!

BB-8 Bento

Happy Star Wars Day, or May the 4th Be With You!
A little light bento for TinySprite includes her current favorite polenta made with cornmeal, corn grits, and millet; steamed Okinawan sweet potato, little quail egg BB8, tomato, pickled cucumbers, lotus root, daikon and carrot; raspberries and mandarin.

Anpanman Turkey Burger PlanetBox Bento

Round sandwich thin in the square section. It works! And the PlanetBox Rover smushes it down just enough so Anpanman's face doesn't move around. Score! Turkey burger with melty Swiss, romaine lettuce, and varied tomato and Okinawan sweet potato decoration, An ombre selection of blood orange segments, a little cup of cottage cheese with sunflower seeds and granola, carrots, asparagus, and pickled lotus root. Oh and a tiny cup of arare (rice crackers). Happy Bento!

Lucky Chow Sizzle Reel Season 2 Preview

Hi Bento Friends!
Remember the time last summer when a film crew came over and filmed a bento segment with Happy Little Bento family? I blogged about the experience here.

It turns out they spent the rest of the year editing our shoot for a very interesting and varied Japanese food and cooking episode. Our bentomaking piece will be part of an upcoming episode in the second season of the PBS TV show Lucky Chow, which focuses on food and culture stories.

Here above (click on embedded video or link here) is the trailer preview for the season if you'd like to take a look. We show up at 1:23 for a few seconds (don't blink or you'll miss us)! It will air here in the bay area next month on our local PBS station KQED; you can check your local PBS listings for the scheduled airing dates in your area. :D

St. Patrick's Day Pot o' Gold Bento!

Happy St. Paddy's Day!  Today TinySprite gets a rainbow's end pot o' gold made from a piece of green pepper filled with egg salad and cheddar cheese coins. There are stars cut from steamed Okinawan sweet potato, red grapes, tomatoes, and mandarin cuties. Hope it's a lucky day for you!

Soba Salad Bento

Hello! I know it's the middle of March, but it has been feeling like summer these past few days in the Bay Area. It was too hot in the kitchen to cook, believe it or not, so I decided to make a fresh cool salad for dinner. And tomorrow's lunch as well! Soba salad is convenient because everyone can use whatever toppings they choose: this one has snap peas, tomatoes, ham, egg, shiitake mushrooms, sesame seeds and green onion. The tsuyu goes into a separate small container on the side, but if you have a leakproof lunchbox you can drizzle it right on top ahead of time (or just omit it if desired). You can also sprinkle furikake as well. I hope this weather means the worst of the rainy winter season is over!

Won Ton Bowl Bento

Another bowl type bento today; this time in an actual round bowl. I really like this apple-shaped two tier metal container. It's cute and handy and just right for meals like this. I lay some soba noodles on the bottom, added shredded romaine lettuce, cilantro and green onions, then topped with as many won tons as would fit. You can drizzle a little shoyu, chili oil, and black vinegar, or use a separate condiment bottle for that. I have a current obsession with scallion ginger sauce so I ate mine with that - SO good. One day I'll share that with you but that's for another day. Since there aren't too many fruit in season right now, I cut some red grapefruit. You might think it sounds tart and sour but they are actually quite sweet! I know some folks sprinkle sugar on top but trust me, you don't need to. If it's not sweet enough for you, maybe toss in some oranges (or squeeze some juice over). I hope you try it!

Won Ton Filling

1 lb ground meat (I used turkey but pork is traditional)
1 scallion, chopped
1 t grated ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T shoyu
1/2 T cornstarch
1 egg

Mix all together and fill dumpling skins. You can change the amounts of the ingredients to suit your taste. Drop in boiling water and when they float to the surface, wait 30 more seconds and lift out gently. Serve with soup, noodles, or just as is.

Chicken Rice Salad Bowl

Welcome to my current favorite kind of lunch: the protein bowl! I like it because it's very simple to make and the only rules are that you should use as many different varieties and colors of fresh and minimally processed foods as you can. I like to use a whole grain carb base like rice or pasta, salad greens, cruciferous vegetables, fruit, and protein.
There are tons of cookbooks offering great ideas for protein bowls, and I got the idea for this bento from Bowls of Plenty by Carolynn Carreno.
:

Vietnamese Bowl with Sweet and Tangy Vinaigrette

Marinade:
1/4 C rice vinegar
1/4 C sesame oil
2 T soy sauce
2 T honey
1 lb. skinless chicken breasts, thin

Marinate chicken for 2 hours, then cook chicken until caramelized, 3 minutes, then turn and cook 5 minutes more or until juices run clear. Rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Lay over rice, add shredded cabbage, carrots, and other vegetables of choice (I used brussels sprouts and grapefruit segments). Serve with vinaigrette.

Sweet and Tangy Vinaigrette:
1/2 C canola oil (or other neutral flavored oil)
1/2 C rice vinegar (I also added ume vinegar)
3 inch fresh ginger, grated
3 T lime juice
1 T honey
2 garlic cloves, minced


For this Ecolunchbox Solo Cube I used chicken marinated in this vinegar shoyu sauce and then pan fried in a skillet. You can use other kinds of protein too, such as shrimp, beef, or even tofu. I made a mixed rice composed of brown rice, red rice, barley, black rice, and quinoa. I also added a tossed salad of shredded cabbage, grated carrot, and grapefruit segments. You can pack along this fresh citrusy gingery vinaigrette in a separate container to drizzle at lunchtime. Pan roasted brussels sprouts and halved grape tomatoes round out this square bento. So good, and good for you too! 

Chow Mein Life Without Plastic Bento

We are using the Life Without Plastic lunch container again, this time with the removable dividers in place to test out the separating quality of the separators (last time I used the box with just a round cup in the center of our somen salad - that worked very well). MisterMan doesn't usually care whether the food happens to touch each other or the pickle juice gets into the strawberries, but I still wanted to find out just how much mixing occurs. I did use a silicone cup for the pickles, as I usually do, but I probably didn't really need to.

I placed chow mein in two of the four sections, then fruit (cantaloupe, raspberries and strawberry) in one of the remaining sections and sliced Okinawan sweet potato and pickles in the last. The box held everything together without much movement of the food inside; nothing leaked or spilled. Yay!

I used spinach noodles for the chow mein, and stir-fried fresh green beans, chopped baby bok choy, and beech mushrooms alongside. I seasoned with oyster sauce and shoyu to taste, plus garlic and onion. Top with a drizzle of sesame oil and chopped green onions. Quick, easy, and tasty!

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On a side note, The Whole Foods Market blog wrote a piece focusing on Bento Box Lunch Ideas, and I share some bentomaking tips from Happy Little Bento over there. Please click over and take a look if you're interested! It's called:
Bento Box Lunch Ideas: 6 Easy (and Insta-worthy!) Options 
Thanks!
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PBS television show Lucky Chow shoot

Top: In the midst of bentomaking demo

Bottom Left: Display of various bento boxes and tools

Bottom Right: The Lucky Chow team (and me)

We had a bit of excitement last week over here at Happy Little Bento when the team from the PBS show Lucky Chow came over to shoot a segment for an upcoming episode of their second season. This episode will focus on Japanese culture and food, so I talked with host Danielle Chang about bento, and then we assembled a couple of cute bento together while her cameraman walked around filming us. I gave behind-the-scenes camera duties to MisterMan, and he took a bunch of photos I'll share with you here. Thanks MM!

They arrived at 5pm, so I spent the afternoon setting up a display on the table and preparing food and bento supplies for us to use for our bentomaking in the kitchen. TS and I think it looks all right!

They wanted to film a greeting for the opening, so TS filled in with an impromptu performance. She really got a kick out of that.

I had to wear a microphone and transmitter so that we could walk around and talk. They decided to have us talk at the table first.

I didn't realize someone was peeking around the corner here...

The bentomaking itself was a lot of fun. I've never done a bento demo alongside someone else at the same time. It encouraged me to explain exactly what I was going to do next and clearly describe the tools and foods.

Are you ready for your close-up?

Make one, teach one! 

The whole thing took about 3 hours and we were finished with our bento just as the natural light was pretty much fading. Perfect timing. I think things went well and in fact my kids couldn't tell whose bento was whose!

The completed bento sets!

 Guess who ate the bento for dinner? ^__^

It was a lot of fun. If the editing goes well and the episode airs, I'll let you know. Thanks for taking a look at our adventures. Happy bentomaking! 

Salmon Hash ECOlunchboxes Bento

Today because I happened to have potatoes, I decided to make salmon hash instead of the usual broiled teriyaki or furikake method. I made a kind of pistou with parsley and broccoli, with garlic and olive oil, to go with it. I also added some yuzu too. It was pretty good. A hash is nice because you cook it all in one pan, and you can add whatever extra veggies you have. I had some kuri squash so I diced it along with broccoli stalks and onions. It would have been good with sweet peppers too. This ECOlunchbox Oval comes with a separate container for the nectarine and grapes, so they stay out of the salmon. So handy and practical!