Kitty Has a Fish Sandwich Bento!

Today I made a pair of cute mini sandwiches for TinySprite using my kitty and fish cutters. Each mini sandwich is a triple-decker spread with sunflower seed butter (no nut butters are allowed at school) and raspberry jam. I cut matching shapes from cheddar and mozzarella cheese to decorate the tops of the sandwiches, using nori for the facial features and cucumber for the scales. I also discovered my tulip cutter doubles as kitty paws. Score! The rest of the bento contains: steamed broccoli, edamame, purple Okinawan sweet potato, strawberries, and grape tomatoes (underneath). 

I packed everything pretty tightly in this stainless steel box I bought ages ago at Palama Market, a Korean market in Hawaii that also sells lots of different varieties of kimchi. This box used to have a removable divider which got lost years ago, but the box still holds up great. The two latches are secure as ever, and the gasket in the lid keeps it leakproof. The quality is superb. I'd love to get another one, but probably I won't ever need to. ^__^

Tiger Asparagus Bento

Tiger Asparagus Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This bento isn't made from leftovers, for once. I found baby asparagus in the grocery so I decided to make turkey asparagus rolls for my boy. He really loves to eat these, and my girl is the same. If you want to see your kids gobble down asparagus, you might think of offering it this way. I blanched the asparagus first, then wrapped and pan-fried. That's it. The salty flavoring from the bacon or other cured meat is enough to make the veggies nice and tasty. I've also wrapped spinach logs this way, and you'd be surprised how many vegetables kids can eat like this. Hapa Bento made a similar bento filler recently too, here, using ham. The next section has steamed broccoli and yellow corn, along with a few cute grape and pear tomatoes. For fruit he has mango plum and red grapes. I added a sweet potato tiger face, since it's such an easy way to add a cute detail (see previous bento, heh). Voila! A healthy, yummy bento in mere minutes. Just the way I like it :)

Double Tigers Valentine Bento

This is my final Happy Valentines Day / Chinese New Year dual bento!

I made two sweet potato tigers with nori and sesame seed detail, with a red pepper heart to show their love. Also in the box, which is a tiny bamboo steamer, broccoli, maroon carrots, yellow carrots, strawberry and red grapes. My boy brought a bunch of lay see and candies home from his class party, so I used some of them for the photo.

Hope all my bento friends enjoy a weekend of love and best wishes for an auspicious new year's beginning :D

Tiger Cub Egg Snack Bento

Tiger Egg Snack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I did this tiger snack bento for my toddler girl because I really love the little quail egg animals and wanted to see if I could dye this one yellow using golden beets. I tossed a beet in with the water while I was boiling the eggs, and then after the eggs were cooked I peeled them and soaked them in a small container of beet juice overnight. I guess if I boiled them they may have come out darker, but it did turn a light yellow! I decorated his face with nori details and made yellow carrot ears. Also in his box are nice ripe strawberries, broccoli, baby carrots and red grapes (underneath).

Mew!

Oh, and Happy Chinese New Year!

Hearts, Flowers & Tiger Bento

Hearts, Flowers & Tiger Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I decided to make a double celebration bento: Chinese New Year and Valentines Day, so here's my effort.

Along with shoyu chicken in lettuce, this bento has roasted broccoli and sweet tricolor peppers. For detail interest I cut some sweet potato and pink carrot flowers. The fruit section contains the mini mandarin tiger decorated with pieces of red grape for Chinese New Year, and strawberry hearts. More red grapes underneath. The facial details took the LONGest! But it turns out that grape skin is pretty good for this purpose. You just have to cut it away from the flesh so that it lays flat enough to stay on the surface. I was happy to keep it all in the fruit family for the decoration, for taste's sake :)

This festive paper and heart doily are a gift from a bento friend, and I found this sweet dessert mini fork just for this occasion. It's kinda frilly and flowery, but my 6 year old boy won't mind! He still loves the lovey-doveyness of Valentines Day :D

Tiger Sandwich Bento

Tiger Sandwich Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

My Year of the Tiger bento!

Yes, he's a pointy-headed tiger. I'm pretty fixed on the pointy headed animals; don't know why. Maybe I should have made the ears bigger to compensate. Anyway, it's a sardine sandwich, made with tomato, basil, and celery, and I actually fit two sandwiches in this box. The lid is raised pretty high, so you can cram a lot of food in these little boxes.

In the mama box I put some kale I baked with olive oil, a la Steamy Kitchen, and it was crispy and awesome when fresh, but it probably won't be by MisterMan's lunchtime. It's okay. I'm betting he'll still inhale it :)

Finally, in the baby box I managed to squeeze in some blood orange slices, a strawberry and a tiny kumquat.

The photo is a bit busy, but I really wanted to use this bamboo forest fabric for my tiger bento, so that's how it goes. Here's how they look all closed up. It's a hippo family set!

Happy Chinese New Year, friends!

Tiger Bento

Tiger Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

MisterMan gets a tigerrrr, since this pumpkin sage ravioli (from Costco) is ready-made with stripes and everything. Facial details are cut from red lettuce using tiny scissors. He also gets roasted asparagus, sweet potato and new potato sun and clouds, & steamed broccoli and peapods to add to the jungle effect. Fruit side includes green plum, rasp- and blackberries.
Rawr!

Tiger Bento

Tiger Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

For MisterMan, Rock Cod Bento #2 -- this time steamed in ginger scallion sauce with shoyu and sesame oil. I gave him a brown / black rice onigiri with a sweet potato tiger on top, roasted asparagus, Okinawan purple potato flower, roasted cherry tomatoes, yellow capsicum rings, and a bit of broccoli. Almost all red fruits today: strawberry, raspberries, red grapes (underneath), red plum, and 2 beautiful snow-white lychee!