Yakisoba Hot Dog Bento

Yakisoba Hot Dog Bento a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Twin bento lunches today, using spinach yakisoba: I tossed the noodles along with chopped baby bok choy, sliced hot dogs and onions. Both kids love this meal so I've piled it in here. MisterMan gets a half mandarin (with blueberry and radish face), luscious strawberry and black grapes alongside while TinySprite gets nearly exactly the same stuff. Love these double bento deals!

In other exciting news, #Bento4Japan has exceeded $1500 in funds raised for Japan Disaster Relief -- and it's still going strong. I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the bento shopping community; you all have the biggest hearts!

Yakisoba Bento and Happy Mama Blogger Award

Yakisoba Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I made yakisoba for this bento, with (store-bought) spinach noodles, baby bok choy, mushrooms, chicken, carrots, garlic and green onion. A huge batch, for dinners and lunches - yay! Cucumber baran, yellow carrot skewer, peach (!?), star radish, purple potato slices, strawberry, blackberries and raspberry. MisterMan will love this bento; he had thirds for dinner!

Yakisoba is a great go-to quick and easy meal (I have lots of these; have you noticed?) especially when you use readymade noodles. I use spinach noodles for the nice green color. You simply toss in whatever veggies you have available (sound familiar? It's the same with fried rice!). We're running low on the fresh fruit, but I can still find a nice strawberry here and there. Not sure where this peach came from, but it is definitely past peach season! I'm happy to still have purple potatoes around, for that jolt of color. It'll be a challenge to keep the bento "happy and fresh" throughout the coming winter months. We'll see if I can manage it :)

And finally, thanks to Lia of MyBentolicious for passing this award to me! Lia's blog is full of cute and adorable bento ideas. She never seems to run out of sweet little touches to make the bento look nice. I get lots of ideas from her. I would like to pass on this award to some other fun and happy mamas:

Pigs Do Fly

Texasmomof4

Goldfish Bento

Goldfish Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I stir-fried spinach yakisoba with shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts, garlic and green onion; no meat because I didn't have any. Topped with carrot goldfish. These goldfish cutters are handmade with built-in eye cutouts; very intricate and precise. I have found that carrots are the optimal substrate for this cutter: they are the desired color, and they are stiff enough to hold up well to display the lovely curved shape. If you cooked sweet potato only until firm, you might get a nice result (but I like sweet potato much softer).
I also quick-sauteed horenso (spinach) in garlic and shoyu and topped with sesame seeds. Satsumaimo / Okinawan sweet potato flowers (I could have used my double flower cutter for this one, but instead I used a simple cutter for the flower, and cut out the center circle using a bit of straw -- easy and convenient!), purple cauliflower and tricolor tomato skewer. Fruit side has strawberries, raspberry, blueberries and plum.
This is quite a bright and colorful one! I think it might be the ultra-violet purple background ;)