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!

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! ^_^

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!

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!

Smoked Salmon Bagelwich Bento

Smoked Salmon Bagelwich Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Can't believe our week off is over already, though in a way it feels like I've been away for quite a long time! I haven't been thinking about bento at all this past week, so it was tough to get back into the bentomaking routine again. Today was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our lunch outside in the garden. As I was eating, I thought, what a delicious lunch....why not make it for bento?

I used whole wheat bagel thins (just like sandwich thins but with a hole!), spread with cream cheese, and layered smoked salmon. If I had pickled onions and dill I would have added it, but then again I think my boy prefers not quite so many levels of aromatics. I placed some green lettuce around it, and he can put it in the quartered bagelwich if he likes. I also gave him a cup of spring greens with sliced peppadews and twin kumquats. I had this exact lunch myself today, so I know what a great combo it is! For dessert I threw in a strawberry and some grapes. Since this bento looks a bit ordinary, I added a couple of cute animal baran to go along. There; now it's a fun bento!

Happy Monday!