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.

May the 4th Lentil Sausage Bento

May the 4th Lentil Sausage Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I know it's not May the 4th yet, but since it falls on Saturday this year, I'm sending MisterMan to school with his Star Wars bento today. I tried a new lentil potato sausage chard "salad", which can be served hot or cold. If you want to serve it cold, you can toss with balsamic vinegar or sherry vinegar. I cooked French lentils with diced purple potatoes, then added pan-fried chicken artichoke sausage, mushrooms, onion, garlic and celery. I tossed in shredded chard at the end just to wilt it a little. If you omit the sausage, it could be a vegetarian option. I thought it was pretty good, and refreshing on this hot day. The top tier holds a big strawberry, carrots, fancy-cut radish, broccoli, and pickled turnips and kumquats. Do you see the Star Wars reference? It's very simple, but I hope he gets it. Light sabers were cut from red sweet pepper and cucumber. Happy May the 4th (a few days early)!

P.S. You can see the other Star Wars bento I have made in the past here.

Star Wars Bento #4

Star Wars Bento #4, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

It's Star Wars Day: May the 4th Be With You! In celebration, I had to make a Star Wars bento for my youngling. I made some fried rice with black rice / black quinoa, ham and spinach, scooped it into a lettuce leaf, and halved 2 quail eggs to decorate with nori. I hand cut most of the details except for the circles, for which I used my hole punch. It was tedious, but actually kind of fun. It helps that the quail eggs are so tiny that it doesn't take much to finish them. I did want to make Princess Leia with her side buns, and it would have been cool to make a Yoda, but I'll have to save those for next time. Can you identify the characters I chose? (I hope so!) Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Storm Trooper and R2D2. I asked MisterMan, and he named them all immediately. Yay, success! The rest of the bento contains the first steamed white corn of the season, broccoli, cara cara oranges, strawberry and grapes. Happy Star Wars Day! ^_^

Star Wars Bento #3

Star Wars Bento #3, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

It's.... Master Yoda (brussel sprout head, cucumber ears and hands, tortilla & hummus robe and cuke lightsaber -- too short, as MisterMan immediately pointed out : )

I made fishcakes using halibut mixed with wild rice, rolled oats, green onion, yellow pepper, an egg, dry mustard, Old Bay and some flour. I refrigerated it to try to get it to keep its shape better, but it still made kind of a crumbly patty...there are 2 patties under Yoda. He also gets broccoli, broccoflower, tomato, peapods, purple carrot skewer, and sweet potato "blossoms".

Fruit side has yellow plums (I forget what these are called; I was sure they would be sour and I wouldn't need to get them again...but actually they are very sweet and I love them...too bad I can't remember which to get again :( strawberries, blackberries, golden raspberry and champagne grapes.

For all of you younglings, remember the wise words of the Master: "There is no try, only do."

Star Wars Bento #2

Star Wars Bento #2, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This is especially for you, young Padawan (Jedi Apprentice) MisterMan!
Everyone's favorite droids, C3PO (yellow pepper and radish) and R2D2 (quail egg, radish and lettuce detail)!
Butteryaki salmon, cucumbers, purple carrot skewer, roasted asparagus, peapods, black & white rice underneath. Also, black plum, lychee, strawberry, grapes and cantaloupe.
MisterMan recognized them right away (whew!) so I guess I did alright :) He's such an immense fan, he can tell me the color of everyone's lightsaber, and who uses Sith Lightning, and which episodes featured which battles. I'll hone my talents so I can do more characters for him :o)

Star Wars Bento #1

Star Wars Bento #1, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Because MisterMan is such an *avid* Star Wars fan, I had to indulge his greatest fantasy to have an actual Star Wars bento :)

Ma po tofu (minus the chili sauce), cucumber dividers, red Bhutan rice onigiri "Death Star" after destruction, TIE fighters cut from radishes (one of them was still red inside after peeling -- this is the "bloody" one -- o_o. Tofu Stormtrooper. Fruits section has black plum from friendly neighbor, strawberry, apricot, blueberries and lychee. Last section has peapods, sweet potato and Okinawan purple potato flowers.

I sort of wonder if he will even eat the fighters, or keep them to play with ;) This is #1; I know he really wants to see his favorite characters but I really have to work up to that...