Butterfish Misoyaki Trio Bento

Butterfish Misoyaki Trio Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Butterfish misoyaki; woo! See the recipe and method I used here. In Hawaii you can find frozen butterfish everywhere, but here I buy it fresh. So good over hot rice. This Lunchbot Trio is perfect to keep the fish (and Okinawan sweet potato stars) separate from the roasted parmesan kabocha and pencil asparagus spears, with the final section going to the grapes, strawberry and cutie mandarin. I put the little piggie dango pick in because otherwise there's nothing very cute about this bento. But on the upside, it only took a few minutes (most of it going to the mandarin carving) to throw together. Yay!

Hello Kitty Chinese New Year Dragon Bento

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

Since this was a no-cook bento I took advantage of the extra time to use a Chinese New Year theme. Since 2012 is a Year of the Dragon, today's ravioli are shaped into this mythical creature -- or rather, Hello Kitty dressed in a dragon costume. She's wearing a spinach-ricotta ravioli mask, her face made of cheese, nori and yellow pepper. Her whiskers are ume somen. I used picks liberally to achieve my charaben objective, showing that you can use ready-made items (and a bit of imagination) to reach your desired decorative goal. This bento was for MisterMan, and I realized that it was probably more appropriate for TinySprite, but he didn't mind. The girls teased, "You're eating Hello Kitty!" The rest of the bento includes: baby tangerine, cucumbers, carrot, peapod, strawberry and blueberries. Chinese New Year falls on January 23rd this year. Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Back to Bento!

Back to Bento!, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Welcome to 2011! Are you ready for a new year? We had a nice long break of two weeks during which time I easily forgot about making bento, meals and cooking, and worrying about school and scheduling in general. It was nice, but now it's time to get back to business. Although I went grocery shopping today, I of course forgot to pick up various bento essentials, so my bento may be lacking in areas for awhile. Today I decided to use my LunchBots Trio, a stainless steel rectangular bento box with rounded corners and two permanent dividers. It may not look like it, but the three sections are equal in volume. I know because I tested it with water. The dividers do not keep the sections completely leakproof, but unless you're packing something very soupy or runny it works fine. I made pan-fried balsamic vinegar chicken and put the pieces in one section along with a tiny brown rice / barley / lentil furikake musubi. Another section has pan-fried garlic purple potatoes, pickled cucumber and carved carrots. Last section has a honey tangerine and peapods. There are also two bunny picks to celebrate the new year. Happy New Year friends!

Boo! Bento

Boo! Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

For MisterMan's bento I made balsamic vinegar chicken, based on Maki's recipe. I simply mixed equal volumes of balsamic vinegar and shoyu, marinated overnight, and oven-roasted the next day. I cut the chicken into smaller pieces so they'd cook faster, and also for ease of eating. You can sprinkle with sesame seeds, but I totally forgot about that. It's really good, and I love the way the chicken comes out a rich dark brown color. Since I was using the oven I also roasted some tomatoes and brussels sprouts. These I tossed with garlic powder. Everything nestles in a green lettuce leaf, as usual, along with a piece of corn on the cob decorated with purple and orange carrots. In the fruit section I put some black grapes, a few nectarine slices and a tiny tangerine. Since I had another section I scooped some yogurt and topped with letters spelling Boo! cut from nectarine and purple carrots. Only one bento today; TinySprite hung out with me for the day. I've noticed that the days she has off from preschool are days she seems to catch up on napping. Yay!

Shoyu Chicken and Jack Bento

Shoyu Chicken and Jack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Shoyu chicken bento today, with sliced lotus root (renkon) simmered in the same sauce. Also, roasted baby Brussels sprouts and purple potato slices. I filled in with an orange and a yellow pear tomato for color. Other section has a purple carrot skewer, white nectarine, strawberry, black grapes (underneath) and a carved jack o'lantangerine. Today's the first day I've thought about roasting stuff in a long time -- guess that means fall is just about here. I hope we cool off gradually though; today was a perfectly comfortable 76F. ^_^

California Roll Bento

California Roll Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's temperature exceeded 90F again, and I think MisterMan might welcome a cooling bento. I made that kids' favorite: California roll. Instead of crab salad I used krab stick so I wouldn't need mayonnaise. I also used cucumber, avocado, and green onion. I made a reverse roll and sprinkled sesame seeds on the outside before flipping and rolling in cling wrap. It's easier to cut if you leave the roll wrapped in plastic and cut through the plastic wrap before unwrapping. I packed the sushi in plastic wrap to prevent drying out and also to prevent the rice from sticking to the container. I topped with pink and purple carrot skewer, as well as yellow carrot flowers. Other section has steamed broccoli, a jack o'lantern carved tangerine, some mango plum slices and some red jelly bellies. Just kidding! They're tiny grape tomatoes. Aren't they cute? We're supposed to get a bit of cooling tomorrow, so that'll be a nice relief. Our late heatwave is making up for the "summer that never was" here in the Bay Area! ^_^

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Banh Mi, Early Summer Version Bento

Banh Mi, Early Summer Version Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

What, you say we've already had a banh mi bento recently? Really? Let me check...nope, last one was 2 months ago! But it's true I've made other kinds of sandwich bento in the meantime. Let's face it: sometimes it's easier to make a sandwich bento than prepare "real food" and there's nothing wrong with that. Today was such a lovely day, we spent most of it outside and I didn't do any cooking at all. We got Vietnamese takeout and took home some banh mi for lunch. Today it is chicken. I cut it in half and added extra spinach and cilantro to fill out the green veggies, then wrapped in wax paper and snuggled them into the basket part of my Keroppi bento box. The lower tier is just big enough for some early summer fruits: white peach, rich red plum, golden apricot, tangerine, blueberries, and more homegrown strawberries. Oh, and some purple cauliflower because I am in love with the vivid hue. I live for summer fruits, and these are just the beginning. The plum is still a little tart, but I really do like them like this. The peaches are super sweet. And the strawberries -- well, these are bigger than the mini ones I packed a few days ago, and they are bursting with sweet flavor. It's such a treat to enjoy fresh picked fruit, and if you can't grow a fruit tree, you can definitely try a strawberry plant. They're very small and prolific; you can enjoy a handful of fruit with each bloom. And they're so cute! I'll try to remember to take pictures of the baby fruit as it matures from a tiny green berry into a luscious red one. You'll be hooked.

This is MisterMan's last bento of the first grade. It makes me a little nostalgic, just like at the end of kindergarten. He's growing up so fast and I always wonder how long he'll be agreeable to taking bento for lunch. He's still the only one in his class having bento for lunch, and so far the response by the other kids has been positive. The girls especially -- he says they come over and say "Awwww, so cuuuuute." I guess the boys are too manly for that. Anyway, I'll still have TinySprite to make bento for. She'll start preschool this summer, hopefully. She's much pickier than her brother, so it'll be more of a challenge!

End of school marks the beginning of summer for us so.. Happy Summer, Bento Friends!!

Sunny Side Kimchi Fried Rice

Sunny Side Kimchi Fried Rice, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I had extra rice from the last batch of Thai purple jasmine, so I decided to make kimchi fried rice. This time I used chopped onions, garlic, baby bok choy, red capsicum, shredded carrot and green onion. And chopped kimchi of course! This time I added equal amounts of shoyu and kimchi juice; I'm trying to get my kids accustomed to more spicy foods so we can all eat the same stuff. My husband and I LOVE spicy food, the hotter the better. Korean is one of our favorite cuisines, and kimchi jigae is my favorite Korean soup! If we order it at the restaurant, I eat most of it. Wouldn't it be great if the kids liked it too? Then we could all enjoy it. Anyway, back to the bento.

Kimchi fried rice is a good way to introduce spicy food because you can control the level of hotness using more or less of kimchi and kimchi juice. If you like it very spicy you can add a lot, until the rice turns a beautiful orange color. It's a delicious and substantial meal-in-one, and if you add meat it's even more so. Traditionally you can top with a fried egg, and you may remember last time I made a fried egg bunny. Here I fried the quail egg inside a red capsicum ring, which is an idea I got from a flickr friend, Cathryn3. Nori and sesame seeds make the facial details. I also added some yellow carrot flowers for color punch. For fruits I put in a tangerine, strawberry and some kiwi flowers. This is my Pokemon box, which always seems too small to me at first, then ends up being a perfect size for my 6 year old. Go figure.

Happy Friday, bento friends!

Bento Box

Piggie Bento

Piggie Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento is the very convenient "More Leftovers" bento; yay! Are you familiar with this type of bento? It happens when you make an extra large batch of kiddos' favorite meals, some to eat over the next day or two and perhaps some to freeze for later as well. Love them. I tucked the balsamic chicken pieces in a lettuce leaf and snuggled some steamed broccoli next to them (sound familiar?). I made a fresh batch of mixed rice: this one consists of Thai red rice, white, brown, bulgur, tricolor quinoa and oats. Adding a mix of various grains to your rice gives an extra nutrional boost. Plus, it adds interesting texture and flavor too. It's a lot more substantial than plain white rice and goes great alongside all kinds of food. Luckily we all love it, but if your family is hesitant, try adding just one or two extras, like quinoa or pearl barley, to start. You might be surprised at how much you grow to like it!

Okay, so back to the bento. I used the mixed red rice to form an onigiri, since yesterday's came back totally eaten (yippee!). Piggie details are made from purple and white potato and purple carrot. The usual sides are here: carrots, strawberries, blackberries, grapes and tangerine half. All packed in my new LunchBots divided stainless steel lunchbox. It's very cool; the divider is permanent and the stainless steel lid "snaps" on without latches. It seems pretty secure but I wouldn't put liquids inside since it's not watertight. We'll see what my boy thinks of it tomorrow. Happy Hump Day, bento friends!

Before & After Bento Project

The Before and After Bento Project came about when my fellow bentomakers and I were sharing photos of our bento from days long past. Debra (Hapabento), Megan (Bento Zen), Susan (Hawaii's Bento Box Cookbook) and I had a laugh over how much our styles have changed over the months and years. After all, we can't help but learn and grow from experience -- what tastes good, what holds up well, what looks good. Debra had the idea for us to each take our first posted bento and "remake" it, using the same ingredients and the same box, to see how it might turn out today. What an interesting project it turned out to be.
First of all, I had been making bento for my son for many years, although it never occurred to me to make them "look good". The first time I posted a bento on flickr was just out of curiosity. I had been reading Just Bento and happened upon the flickr group there. So here goes; my first "published" bento, from February 16, 2009:

As it happens, I still have this box, and use it from time to time, but I have since come to realize that it's pretty large for my kid's appetite. As you can see, I don't come near to filling it up. One thing I've learned over the years is that a tightly packed smaller size bento box forces you to think about the type of calories you choose to fill it with. As a bonus, the foods are less likely to move around in a tightly packed box. However, I wanted to see if I could use this box and the same foods, and arrange it in a more pleasing manner. I was happy to discover that basically all these foods are ones that I still make and pack. So I didn't have to compromise in terms of nutrition. My main objective was to "rearrange". Here's what I did:

So what do you think? I'll admit that my 2009 bento was probably packed in a couple of minutes max, while the re-do version bento took time for me to cut nori and carve cucumbers and carrots. I also took some liberties with the kind of rice (I used a red/brown mix). But, overall I think the extra effort was not unreasonable.

It was fun to do this. Perhaps you might get a kick out of looking back through your old bento archives and reminisce about your changing tastes and techniques as well. If I do it again in another year, I bet I'll come up with something completely different again :)

Don't forget to check out my fellow bento-makers' takes on the Before and After Project. We all have differing bento backgrounds and our "first" bento comes from varying timeframes. You may be surprised!

Debra at Hapabento

Megan at Bento Zen

Susan at Hawaii's Bento Box Cookbook

Finally, thanks to Debra, Megan and Susan for collaborating with me on a fun post! We've all learned a lot; I know I have from all of you!