Spooky Skull Cheese and Chili Halloween LunchBots Bento

Spooky Skull Cheese and Chili Halloween Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

It's heeeere! Halloween is today! For the final theme bento, I send the kids to school with thermal food jars of homemade chili (Thermos Funtainer brand for TinySprite, and LunchBots Thermal food jar for MisterMan). I decorated his with a mozzarella cheese and nori skull, and hers with a tiny baby bell pepper jack-o-lantern. The side boxes contain a variation of strawberries, grapes, plums and steamed purple sweet potato. With the weather getting cooler, they're welcoming the thermal bento more and more these days. Are you planning to go out trick-or-treating tonight? Have a great time, all you goblins and ghouls! Happy Halloween!

Creepy Egg Skull and Rolls plus EcoLunchbox GIVEAWAY!

Creepy Egg Skull and Rolls Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Let's keep going with the creepy skulls, shall we? This one is crafted from a hard-boiled quail egg, which is naturally skullish -- all you need to do is pinch the cheeks in a little and add some nori details. I made some turkey dog "sushi" rolls using black rice, and decorated the ends with freecut nori designs: bats and vampire faces. There are also some steamed broccoli and a little jack-o-pepper. I packed this bento for TinySprite in another stainless steel EcoLunchbox: this one is called the Solo Cube, and it's just the perfect size for my kindergartner. I packed this box along with the EcoDipper, containing some sliced peaches and berries. This size meal isn't too overwhelming for her, and she has no problem sliding off these lids. They stay on pretty well, but I secure both with elastic bands, just in case. I like the versatility that these two different shapes and sizes offer; you could fit a sandwich thin in the Cube, or some sausage skewers, some meatballs and pasta, or a chicken salad. The round Dipper is just right for a handful of nuts, trail mix, crackers, berries, or melon balls. I was so pleased with this duo that I mentioned it to the folks at EcoLunchboxes and they thought it would be a great idea to offer these two as a set to one of you, my bento-making readers! I know you'll love these as much as I do. They're well-made and look like they're built to stand up to years of daily use. If your child outgrows them, you can always use them for an afterschool or recess snack.

My kids have been taking bento to school their whole lives and I was amused recently to find my daughter bringing home disposable items (from a field trip) because she's so used to re-using. 

If you're interested in trying out the EcoLunchbox Solo Cube and the EcoDipper, please leave me a comment below telling me whether you've made any efforts lately to be more "green", and include your email address so that I can contact you. I'll leave it open until midnight on Halloween night (October 31, 2012, Pacific time). U.S. only please. Thanks a lot for your interest!

For more info, see EcoLunchboxes.
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Ecolunchbox provided the items I used to pack this bento today, but I received no other compensation, and the opinions I expressed are mine.

Added to What's For Lunch.

Skull Onigiri Chili EcoLunchbox Bento

Skull Onigiri Chili Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Are you getting into the Halloween spirit yet? I'm starting to... slowly! I figured it's time to start getting spooky so today I made a skull onigiri to go with the vegetarian chili (chock full of zucchini, corn, tomatoes, onion, carrots, and kabocha). I lay the chili on a lettuce leaf and put the skull on top. I made it kind of chunky so that there wouldn't be too much sauce to drip all over everything. I usually pack chili in a thermal jar, but I really wanted to use this cool new stainless steel Solo Rectangle box I got from EcoLunchbox. It's on the bigger side, simple and sturdy. I used a silicone cup, and these fit perfectly. They would be ideal for separating foods you want to keep apart. Besides the chili, I put in some cucumbers, a sprig of broccoli, and a mini red pepper. I put some homemade pickled cabbage, lotus root and cucumber in the cup. The lid to this box fits snugly, though not watertight, and I added an elastic band for extra insurance. Because I wanted to keep the fruit separate in case the chili moved around, I used an EcoDipper, a round lidded stainless steel half cup size container. Again, the lid fits snugly but I wouldn't use it to pack anything watery. It's perfect for a handful of fruit, though. This combo worked out very well for MisterMan. He swung his bag around, but since the silicone cup reaches the top of the box, the pickled foods stayed segregated. Although these boxes aren't leakproof, they are easy to use and should not pose a problem for your child to open and close. Having been a longtime user of Ecolunchbox products, when the company asked me to try out these newer products I didn't hesitate. I'm happy to share my experience with you, so you can feel confident before you decide to give these items a try. I've been packing bento for both a girl and a boy for almost a decade (wow!), and I have a good idea about what works and what doesn't. I have more to share tomorrow, along with a giveaway! I hope you stop by!

Ecolunchbox provided the items I used to pack this bento today, but I received no other compensation, and the opinions I expressed are mine.

Curry Dia De Los Muertos Bento

Curry Dia De Los Muertos Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today I decided to make vegetable curry, but wanted to try a new recipe. I used Nami's Keema Curry recipe at her popular blog Just One Cookbook. If you haven't checked it out, you really should! She has a lot of great recipes here, and always includes photos and step-by-step instructions. I chose this one because it looked delicious, and it seemed quick and easy (my forte!). I was right on all counts. I omitted the ground pork and added a lot of veggies I happened to have on hand: kabocha, zucchini, potatoes, carrots and onions. I made extra for bento, and it was a good thing I did because the kids inhaled it. I made it mild and added some applesauce too, and they loved it. I packed it into a thermal bento, along with a side container of cinnamon-sprinkled apples, grapes, broccoli, Okinawan sweet potato, and a colorful quail egg Dia de los Muertos skull. Happy Wednesday friends! Shared at Allergy Friendly Lunchbox and What's For Lunch.

Skull Quail Egg Bento

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

Continuing on with the skull theme, today I made a quail egg skull on black rice to accompany some shallow-fried panko chicken, broccoli and roasted kabocha. There are also carrot flowers, corn, strawberries, grapes and honeydew melon. All packed up in my supercool slim double decker Zen box from Bento & Co. I love this box so much it was hard to entrust my boy to take it to school with him, but it's proven quite sturdy and impervious to normal 8-year-old boy wear and tear. So far. You all ready for Halloween? One more day...

Skull Sandwich Bento

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

We're taking a break from jacks today because I just found this skull and crossbones cutter that a dear friend sent me last Halloween. I should have marked out the skull and bones shapes to more clearly delineate the image, because when MisterMan saw it he said "Oh, a gingerbread man!" Whatever! Come to think of it, I guess skulls and crossbones are more pirate-y than Halloween-y. Oops. I lightly pressed the cutter partially through the sweet potato bread top slice of his sandwich, which fit perfectly in one side of my Sistema box. The other side is just right for a selection of colorful fruit and vegetables: carrot, corn, broccoli, Okinawan sweet potato, strawberries, honeydew melon and grapes. I used a few grapes to cut out the face for the skull, which I sealed in place with plastic wrap. Scary or not?

Portuguese Bean Soup Bento

Portuguese Bean Soup Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's no-cook bento had Portuguese bean soup leftover from last weekend. As everyone knows, soup gets better over the next couple days as the flavors mingle and the broth thickens. So this is a win-win bento. Extra-flavorful soup that required no additional work. Yay! This soup, based on Sam Choy's recipe, contains a bunch of vegetables (tomato, carrots, cabbage, cilantro, onion, celery) along with potates, kidney beans, ham and sausage. It's a very hearty and satisfying soup. It's especially comforting on those cold Fall nights. We've been having 75 degree days, but it still looks like fall out there with the leaves flying off the trees, it feels nice and seasonal. I packed his soup in the froggie thermal container, which comes with a small upper bowl in which I placed some grapes, sliced persimmon, a few peapods, and a quail egg skull to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Okay, it's an excuse to make another quail egg skull. This time I lightly pinched in the sides closest to the tapered end to simulate the cheekbones, and it made the cranium pop out, which I think looks pretty good. You could probably do this with a hen's egg too, for larger-scale fun. Happy November, friends!

Double Skull Bento

Double Skull Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Back to Halloween bento today: it's finally just about the end of the roast pork. I layered it under the black rice on a bed of green leaf lettuce. I halved a boiled quail egg and added nori facial details to the skulls, and added carrot strips for the crossbones. Is it scary? I think my boy may be getting toward the age where he thinks scary and gross is cool, so maybe I'll have to switch out of the cute mode pretty soon. I won't be too sad, since I'll still have my sweet girl to make cute bento for! I tucked two golden cherry tomatoes in the corners, and packed some nectarines, strawberry and grapes in the fruit section. Everything seems right at home in the Pokemon box with the monsters on the lid. Two more weeks to go. Can we keep up with the Halloween theme? We'll see...
This lunch was added to What's For Lunch. Lots of other cute ones there too; take a look!

Skull Bento

Skull Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Here is my FIRST contribution to the Halloween theme bento! (I will be posting many more :) A skull onigiri with purple carrot eyes, and Okinawan sweet potato and yellow beet detail. When MisterMan saw it, he said "Cool! You made a Tusken Raider!" WHAT?! *sigh*

Lemon crusted salmon (I did not make this, alas), romanesco, yellow and purple cauliflower, peapods, sweet potato, and radish atop arugula sprouts. Fruit box has little strawberries (they are getting very tiny these days), giant black grapes, plum, golden raspberries and blueberries.

We might also call this a Day of the Dead bento.... which it also might call to mind...