Pork Veggie Rice Noodle Makizushi Bento

I made Vietnamese style pork chops and instead of packing them in lettuce wraps, which is how we ate them for dinner and how I usually pack them (which makes for a great bento, by the way), I decided to make more makizushi rolls for the kiddos. I've never put rice noodles in sushi before, but I guess it worked out all right!

I like how the black rice contrasts with the rice noodles (and the white pork). I included nuoc cham dipping sauce too, as well as pickled red onion and watermelon. The roll includes: black rice, romaine lettuce, pork chop slices, pickled carrots and daikon. Everything is packed in a stainless steel container with a leakproof clicktight lid, and an Eco Dipper container for the fruit. Perfect!

Soy Chicken Drumsticks Bento

Soy Chicken Drumsticks Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Shoyu chicken was my absolute favorite dish as a child. I always requested it if my mom ever asked. This version is one I've posted before, and it's a Vietnamese style using fish sauce and coconut water. It has a different, less sweet flavor that I really crave, and when you make it in the slow-cooker you can enjoy the aroma for hours while you dash in and out of the house between kid chauffeuring duties. We are now cutting out soy due to allergies, so I had to adapt the recipe further (substituting with coconut aminos), but as MisterMan says, "It still tastes almost the same, like you know what it's supposed to be." Well, good! I guess. Kids (my kids, anyway) really like shoyu chicken, and I served this one over rice in the bento (out of view), and all the rice got devoured. Something about chicken & rice. The rest of the round box contains: Okinawan sweet potato flower shapes, steamed broccoli, carrots, pluots and golden watermelon. I didn't mean to buy a golden one, but it wasn't labeled as such. There's something weird about a yellow watermelon, though it tasted just like the red kind. I topped with a radish cut like an apple, with sesame seed detail. Simple!

Grilled Pork Banh Mi Bento

This post is part of a collective joint post extolling the virtues of Banh Mi as a bento item. My fellow bento bloggers and I wanted to show how this sandwich can be modified to fit nicely into just about any kind of nutritional lifestyle. We all make bento with different objectives, for people with different tastes and caloric requirements, yet we are all able to utilize this item effectively. There is a banh mi for everyone! Read more about how the delicious and versatile banh mi is playing a part in:

vegan/vegetarian adult bento for Debra at hapabento,

healthy yet tasty adult bento for megan at bento zen,

and

kid-friendly bento for Susan at Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook!

Banh Mi is a Vietnamese sandwich. It is widely available where I live (California) from ubiquitous Vietnamese restaurants and delis, in any number of varieties. They usually have some kind of meat filling (such as bbq or grilled chicken, pork or beef), which is accompanied by cucumbers, pickled carrots and daikon on a crunchy soft French sandwich roll. It's very delicious, fresh and light, and also very inexpensive. The kids really like it, so naturally it's a regular go-to lunch item in our house!

MisterMan is a typical, active first-grader, so I sent him to school with a bit over half of a sandwich. To the grilled pork and pickled veggies I added more cilantro as well as dandelion greens. He'll take awhile to crunch through this big sandwich, so in the side section I added just a few fruits: kumquats, cherries and checkered apple. Recently I've noticed that I have to take time consideration into account, as he's told me a couple times that he "runs out of time" to finish! I think maybe he wants to rush out to the playground with the other kids after lunch.

Did you notice my new sandwich bento box? Up to now I have always used my Keroppi basket bento box, which you may have seen before, in a past banh mi bento post. This one has a flip-top lid and an included side cup. It's just the right size for a sandwich and a side, or some musubi and a side. But best of all, since it's not a basket, I don't have to wrap in paper to prevent drying out. It's so cute! Here's how it looks all closed up:

Do you have a favorite banh mi? Tell me about it! Or, if you've never tried it, perhaps we have piqued your interest :)