I Love Watermelon (Radish)! Bento

I Love Watermelon (Radish)! Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

You can't see the burger in the photo, but I tried a new meatless recipe. It consists of about a cup of roasted sweet potato, a cup of brown rice / barley, and a cup or two of black beans, processed along with sauteed onions, garlic, cumin, and Worchestershire sauce to taste. The patties stuck together pretty well, which often is not the case (in my experience) with bean burgers. I melted cheese and served with tomato slices next to a side of cabbage / onion / carrot slaw tossed with vinegar, shoyu and a bit of superfine sugar. The last section of the LunchBots Trio contains the miniature spring selection of fruit at my farmers market: strawberries, apricot and nectarine. We have watermelon too, but the cheddar bear is actually enjoying a slice of watermelon radish. Those are good too, even if they're not quite as sweet!

Angel Hair Mushroom Saute Bento

Angel Hair Mushroom Saute Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

This one involved cooking, but only very minimally, which made it an easy Monday meal. I sauteed a variety of mushrooms (crimini, beech and enoki) in butter and some olive oil until softened, along with minced shallot and garlic. Salt and peppered to taste, parsleyed, and grated some aged manchego into the pan with the heat turned off. Tossed the cooked angel hair into the pan with the mushroom sauce, and it was done. And the kids gobbled it up! I packed some for MisterMan's bento, topped with some dark-skinned purple sweet potato which I found locally. He also gets the first baby nectarines I've seen at the market this year, baby strawberries, and fresh pickled cukes, kumquats, and watermelon radish. Happy Monday!

Bento4Japan Ravioli Bento

Bento4Japan Ravioli Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today I made bento for both kids, but I'm only showing one (hers looked basically the same minus the painstaking lettering). They got cool striped ravioli filled with mushroom, spinach and ricotta; mandarin, strawberry, yogurt with black- and raspberries, and some broccoli. At first I was going to decorate the ravioli like a shipping box, since I took my two #Bento4Japan auction items in to the post office today to be shipped to my generous buyers/donors. I even went so far as to cut a stamp and address label out of cheese (and even wrote some words on them) -- but then I remembered my tiny pasta letters and thought that would be cuter. When I opened the bag I saw there were numbers in there too, so that's when I decided to make a tribute to the grass-roots fundraising effort that began as an idea between a few bentomaking buddies about a week ago and has since expanded to include participants all over the world. It took me a lot longer to find all the letters I needed than I thought it would, and I never found a "J" at all so I used a "U" and altered it. It also took me forever to find a "4" because I didn't even realize that was a "4" until I had passed it over about 20 times! Sheesh. Since the ravioli is green I didn't dye the letters. I also added twin watermelon radish hearts for contrast.

We're really pleased with the success of #Bento4Japan, which has so far raised $2000 in the 9 days it's been operating. I attribute its effectiveness to the power of social media, driving people to learn about the situation in Japan and realize the dire nature of the living conditions in the hardest hit areas. It can be hard to separate the facts from the hype, and much of the information I've been getting has been from Maki of JustBento, who has dedicated the past week and a half to culling the news from Japan and numerous other sources via her twitter account @makiwi. Along the way she's encountered a great deal of hysteria and misinformation, so she's posted a message on her site detailing what she feels is important for caring members of the world community right now: in short, to interpret the news thoughtfully and respond rationally. Yep, always a good idea.

Anyway, #Bento4Japan is still going strong. These auctions are all by donation, and 100% of sales goes to disaster relief. We've had several corporate donors join us, which makes for exciting new merchandise. For example, this LunchBots Uno I used today. You may have noticed I use it quite frequently; at least once a week. There's a reason for that-- it's a fantastic box! All stainless steel, sturdy and practical. And, it's up for auction right now. Want to skip over there and take a look? Go ahead. I don't mind. ^_^

Chicken Bento

Chicken Bento a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Sliced rotisserie chicken, the usual veggies and the usual fruits. How's that for a quick description? All these fruit are super sweet; you can tell by the intense colors -- dark red strawberries, black grapes and dark orange mandarins. Really happy with this bunch of fruit I picked up this week. Along with steamed broccoli, kabocha and asparagus, I added a yellow and purple carrot skewer, and tossed a couple watermelon radish flower cutouts in there as well. The LunchBot Trio keeps all the parts separate, which I love.

If you'd like a chance to score one of these stainless steel boxes for yourself and donate to a good cause at the same time, do check out the Bento4Japan eBay auctions going on here. Along with several LunchBots, there are all kinds of brand-new bento boxes and accessories up for bid, and more are coming soon!

Spinach Pie Bento

Spinach Pie Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I made spanakopita (Greek spinach pie) for dinner for the first time, and was happy to note that it was well-received. It seemed my daughter most enjoyed playing with the papery topping, though she did eat everything and asked for seconds afterwards. I wondered aloud whether it might be appropriate for bento, since the flaky crust wouldn't seem to keep well, and my 7-year old piped up "I don't mind if it gets soft! I like the spinach part best anyway." Well, okay then! I cut a few pieces to fit snugly on one side of the LunchBot Duo, and brightened up the drab color scheme with some watermelon radish and yellow carrot flowers. On the other side I packed some steamed broccoli, shoyu kabocha, kiwi, strawberry, grapes and blueberries. Another super quick one. Here's the recipe I used, adapted from Mollie Katzen:

Spanakopita (Greek Spinach and Cheese Pie)
2T olive oil
1C chopped green onions
1lb. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1/2C chopped flat-leaf parsley
6oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1 1/2C whole-milk, small-curd cottage cheese
1/2C finely grated Romano cheese
1 egg
8 sheets fillo dough
melted butter

Preheat oven to 400F. Heat olive oil in saucepan, saute onions until tender, then add spinach and cook 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon, parsley and feta into spinach mixture. In a separate bowl, combine cottage cheese, Romano cheese and egg. Stir until blended, then add to spinach mixture. Add salt and pepper if desired. Scrape mixture into 9-inch pie plate and bake 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Brush fillo sheets with butter, crumple, and place on top of pie. Bake another 10 minutes or so, until fillo topping is browned.

Chicken Wings Double Bento

Chicken Wings Double Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

It's chicken wings again! I know, I know. It seems like it was just yesterday, but I looked back to see when it was we had them last, and it was 2 weeks ago. Really! Of course, we did have mochiko chicken just last week. But then, don't you have chicken at least once a week too? We probably rotate a few standards throughout the week: chicken, fish, pasta and a rice meal usually make an appearance pretty regularly. Today we had chicken wings that we grilled in Korean barbeque sauce, but the ones I packed in the kids' bento were plain. They really love these. If you haven't made them yet for your kids (or yourself), you really should. Click here for the recipe. I used the EcoLunchBox to pack my second-grader's bunch o' wings in a lettuce wrap, along with red kabocha and asparagus that were roasted alongside the wings. There's also a carrot and some tomatoes for color. In the little cup he has cottage cheese with blueberries and blackberries.

TinySprite's bento has another bunch o' wings in a lettuce wrap (which ends up being decorative, unlike her brother's, which he will eat), a cup of the same kabocha and asparagus, a watermelon radish heart, a mini mandarin, grapes and a strawberry. Who can say no to wings? You should see the giant pile we cooked for dinner; and I won't tell you how many went on my plate... Addictive!
Linked this one to What's For Lunch!

Hearts of Love Bento

Hearts of Love Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today we're celebrating Valentine's Day! My boy doesn't have school so there's only a bento for my little girl. This is her favorite pink panda bento box. She loves to practice putting it together and carrying it around, so I thought I would pack it full of hearts and love. She gets spinach tamagoyaki, turkey dog, mozzarella cheese sticks, watermelon radish, carrot and edamame in the lower tier, and chopped cara cara oranges, strawberries and blueberries in the top tier. Can you spot all the hearts? I think she will squeal when she opens this one. Happy Valentine's Day, friends!

Whole Wheat Spaghetti Bento

Whole Wheat Spaghetti Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.
Hello bento friends! Another day in the week of bento. But we're half way done already, yay! Before I forget to mention it, CSN Stores has contacted me about doing a review of one of their products. Never heard of them? Me either, but it turns out they have over 200 online stores where you can find a huge variety of stuff: anything from swingsets to cookware to yes, even bento supplies. I'll be checking to see what kind of products they offer that we might be interested in using for bento or cooking purposes. Stay tuned for that in the next few weeks.

MisterMan's bento is a quick spaghetti tossed with bacon, mushrooms and chard, and topped with fresh grated parmesan. Other side of the LunchBot holds sweet orange slices, carved carrots, watermelon radish "flowers" and a couple of grapes. Super fast and easy, so I can go on to other things. Happy Wednesday!

Santa Egg Snack Bento

Santa Egg Snack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Another snack bento for TinySprite; this time a beet-dyed hard-boiled egg decorated with nori, radish and carrot to look like Santa Claus. Or Humpty Dumpty with a Santa hat and beard on. There's also bowtie pasta, steamed broccoli, grapes and satsuma mandarin. We're almost halfway through the last week of school for 2010, people! Woo!

Turkey Bento

Turkey Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Well, Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, and I just realized I never made a single Thanksgiving bento. Hmm. I'll bet there'll be lots of turkey bentos AFTER Thanksgiving, though! So here's a "turkey" bento to celebrate the upcoming holiday and get us in the mood. Spinach ricotta ravioli decorated as turkeys with purple, yellow, pink and orange carrots. There are grapes, mandarins and watermelon radish shapes as well. The tiny yellow pear tomatoes are stragglers from my home garden. Can't believe they're still producing fruit, but I actually even have flowers still blooming on my slowly withering bush. Gobble gobble, and Happy Thanksgiving bento friends!

Watermelon Radish

I found this pretty radish today. It looked very plain and ordinary on the outside. White and greenish.

But with a magenta heart inside!

It is a watermelon radish. Peppery and strong! Very pretty in bento :) Recipetips says you can use it as you would a regular radish, and that it may also be referred to a Beauty Heart, Rose Heart, Shinrimei, Misato, Asian Red Meat, or Xin Li Mei radish. I used it as an accent detail with side veggies in a recent bento, and I think it would also be good in a salad. Perhaps you can find it in your market and try it yourself :)