Cute Shroom and Bug Bento

Sausage and Cute Shroom Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's double bento have sausage patties, zucchini and assorted other veggies: cucumber, tomato, purple cauliflower. I also included more kabocha cooked a different way: I sliced 1-inch wedges and steamed briefly until just fork-tender, then pan-fried in the sausage drippings to get a crispy edge. You don't need to add anything else; it's totally yummy as is! They both get more sliced fall plum and a few pink apple pieces as well. MisterMan's cute touch is a mushroom made from satsumaimo and Okinawan purple potato, with nori and pink carrot details.

TinySprite's cute touch is a bug face made from satsumaimo, nori and pink carrot, and pink heart picks. Awww, so cuuuute. Haha! ^_^

Check out What's For Lunch: there are quite a few!

Fried Rice and Kabocha Curry Bento

Fried Rice and Kabocha Curry Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Another double bento day, and perhaps you've noticed that I've started simply making identical ones in two sizes. Well, you'd be correct. Even though my 7 year old boy is a much more adventurous eater and I can fill his bento with more interesting foods, I'll admit that often it's just easier to figure out what my 3 year old girl will accept and just go with it twice. So today I fried some leftover rice with ham and egg, and that went in one of the squares. I usually add green onion on top for color, but I forgot this time. I picked up a kabocha (Japanese squash) this weekend and decided to make curry with some of it today. Kabocha is a very versatile food and can be prepared in just about any way you can think of (baked, steamed, simmered, roasted, fried, pureed, etc.) I simply cut into cubes, microwaved a few minutes to soften, then added to a pan with a bit of ginger, garlic, 1 cup coconut milk and 1 Tbsp curry powder. Simmer until curry is desired consistency and kabocha is tender, about 15 minutes depending on how much you use. The rest of his bento contains cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, sweet Fall plum slices and a purple carrot and cauliflower skewer for contrast.

I topped TinySprite's fried rice with the always-popular quail egg Hello Kitty. If you haven't seen me make this before, it's very easy. This one is a half egg, and is decorated with nori eyes, a carrot sliver nose, radish ears, rice stick whiskers and the cutest little red bow pick. That's it! I have made so many of these I can now whip them out in a couple minutes. It's a quick and easy way to add a cute touch to an ordinary bento. I feel like I've used this phrase so often ("add a cute touch to an ordinary bento") it should be my motto. Haha! She also gets a few curry kabocha and chopped plum. Today when I picked her up from preschool her teacher said, "I noticed you gave her a big lunch today." When I asked whether she ate it all she answered "Yes, she's a very good eater!" Really? TinySprite is an *interactive* eater, and is known to spend lots of lunchtime talking, singing and gesturing. Maybe she's growing out of that phase. Or maybe she just loves her bento that much. ^_^

Chicken Salad Bento and Pancakewich Bento

Chicken Artichoke Salad Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Just in case you've been wondering if I've turned into a charaben-making mom, here is one to prove to you I haven't! I like to make special event cute bento because they're fun and it's a challenge, but for everyday bentomaking I can't (don't want to) keep that up. My main purpose when I started making bento for my kids was to provide healthy and varied, nutritious meals to sustain them throughout the day. This is still the most important objective. The bento box serves as a means to quickly and visually determine whether a range of food groups, colors and textures is present. This bento, besides being non-kawaii, is also non-cook, meaning it's a double quick one. I used leftover chicken and tossed with spinach, marinated artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes and sunflower seeds. I added a few carved carrots, grapes and sliced golden plums, and that's it. If you really need to add something cute, a few panda picks will do the trick.

Since I saved so much time with that one, I could take more time for the next one. For TinySprite I had made a batch of mini whole wheat pancakes made with pumpkin puree and evaporated milk (they come out fluffy that way), and decided to make ham and cream cheese mini sandwiches with them. Cute right? I even tried to make a bear-shaped one to add a carrot face to. The rest of her bento contains the usual: broccoli, peapods, carrots, tomato, grapes and plum. And that's it for the last double bento of the week. So there; just remember -- they don't all have to be kawaii. Yippee!

San Francisco Giants Bento

San Francisco Giants Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today in downtown San Francisco there was a big parade in celebration of the San Francisco Giants winning the 2010 World Series. I didn't really follow the team, but it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement. And since they hadn't won the World Series in over 50 years, it was a really big deal. So here is my SF Giants commemorative bento. It contains spinach ravioli, one of which is meant to suggest a baseball glove, and is holding a spherical "baseball" made of a hand-molded quail egg and purple carrot strips. I also made a cap from a halved hen's egg and cheddar cheese, covered in nori. The rest of the bento contains steamed broccoli, purple cauliflower, carrots, tomato, grapes and sliced persimmon. The orange flag picks are a gift from a bento pal and fellow SF Giants fan. I don't know if they were meant to be Giants pennants, but they did come in handy today!

Furikake Bento

Furikake Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

It's a furikake mahimahi bento set because I was able to find fresh caught mahimahi yesterday. Yay! I'm pretty sure I've posted about this "recipe" before but if you missed it, here it is: slather your filet with kewpie mayo, sprinkle liberally with your favorite furikake (aji nori or nori komi is what we usually have), then pan fry both sides until done. I cut my filet into smaller pieces for ease of eating as well as increased surface area for coating with furikake. I actually served it with furikake rice; can you believe they didn't overdose on furikake? Both kids got basically the same bento, with steamed broccoli, carrots and "cherry" tomatoes, but he got golden plum while she got some kind of black plum. Neither is very sweet, although they were sold with Fall names. Oh well. At least we get to see something different than grapes every day.

Notice anything different about the lighting in my photos recently? I moved my picture studio to a different table which I just this weekend discovered to have nice natural Fall season light. So now the light angle is different and it feels fresh to me. I'm super excited about that. Silly, right? ^_^
This is posted at What's For Lunch -- won't you post yours too?

Portuguese Bean Soup Bento

Portuguese Bean Soup Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's no-cook bento had Portuguese bean soup leftover from last weekend. As everyone knows, soup gets better over the next couple days as the flavors mingle and the broth thickens. So this is a win-win bento. Extra-flavorful soup that required no additional work. Yay! This soup, based on Sam Choy's recipe, contains a bunch of vegetables (tomato, carrots, cabbage, cilantro, onion, celery) along with potates, kidney beans, ham and sausage. It's a very hearty and satisfying soup. It's especially comforting on those cold Fall nights. We've been having 75 degree days, but it still looks like fall out there with the leaves flying off the trees, it feels nice and seasonal. I packed his soup in the froggie thermal container, which comes with a small upper bowl in which I placed some grapes, sliced persimmon, a few peapods, and a quail egg skull to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Okay, it's an excuse to make another quail egg skull. This time I lightly pinched in the sides closest to the tapered end to simulate the cheekbones, and it made the cranium pop out, which I think looks pretty good. You could probably do this with a hen's egg too, for larger-scale fun. Happy November, friends!

Temarizushi

Temarizushi, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today is Japan's National Sushi Day so to celebrate, the #twitterfoodparty decided to hold a special sushi party. There's still time to contribute if you'd like; it's only a virtual party so you can some and go as you please. I made temarizushi, which are small ball-shaped rice balls wrapped in fish or shrimp or... in my case I took a few liberties. I made one with a ham and sesame seed flower, one with carrot and radish stars and moon with furikake, one with carrot maple leaves, a black rice one with quail egg and black sesame seeds, one with purple carrots and peapod detail, and one traditional one with smoked salmon and radish and parsley. These tiny treats are perfect for parties and are dainty enough to eat neatly with your fingers, popping them into your mouth for a single tasty bite. Aren't they cute? Just right for bento too. If you'd like to join our monthly party, feel free to follow along on twitter and label your contributions with the relevant hashtag. Today? #twittersushiparty. Thanks for coming along ^_^

Mummy Turkey Dog and Candy Corn Egg Bento

Mummified Turkey Dog Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

It's the last Halloween bento of the season. Yay! I'll put TinySprite's first since i think it's cute. I've seen people make mummified hot dogs using refrigerated puff pastry but I don't have any of that, and really should just get some since you can make all kinds of cool shapes with it. So I went with my standard whole wheat tortilla, which is just as well since TS can put it away just as is. I cut the round tortilla in a spiral, which made it easier to wrap around the cylindrical turkey dog. I melted some cheese, but used two heart picks to fasten it just behind his "head" and "feet". Two sesame seeds are his eyes. The rest of the bento includes broccoli, purple cauliflower, carrots, grapes and cubed dragonfruit. Are you familiar with this fruit? I don't usually buy it; it's very expensive here. But it does look cool.

The other cute thing I want to tell you about is the quail egg candy corn. Isn't it cute? I love quail eggs, as you may notice if you scroll through my past bento. They are so versatile and fun to use. You can even shape themy by hand. To make the pyramid (triangle) shape, just pinch the top between your thumb and forefinger while pressing the bottom flat with your other thumb. You'd do this while the egg is still warm, and it only takes a few minutes. Then, to dye it, just sit the egg down in a bowl of golden beet juice with the liquid level reaching up 2/3. After it's nice and yellow, take it out and place it in a bowl of regular beet juice, up to 1/3. The red will combine with the yellow to create orange. Voila, you have a candy corn. OKAY, I know the purists among you will say "Candy corn colors are white, then orange, then yellow on the bottom", and you are right, but it's more difficult to get the stripes in that order so you'll have to accept this substitution from me.

MisterMan got smoked salmon / cream cheese / baby arugula rollups, the same veggies, fruit and candy corn, but his dragonfruit is a dalmation, playing with a ball. Awwwww.
So that's it for this year, people! Thanks for indulging me!

Oh, and by the way -- if you haven't voted for your favorite Food Ninjas in the contest at La Fuji Mama's site, you should take a look at the very cool entries. My Ninja in the Fruit Bento is one of the contestants in the Photo category. Hapabento and Sonoma Bento are also entered. Happy Halloween!

Mummy Musubi and Ghosties Bento

Mummy Musubi Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

We're coming up on the last couple days of Halloween bento, so bear with me and we'll soon be back to normal. But I really wanted to use this mummy idea since string cheese really does look like gauzy mummy wrapping, doesn't it? And since my boy has recently informed me he likes "raw" cheese now, I get to try it! I made a rice ball with black rice and criss-crossed some thin string cheese strips on top. Since the rice was warm, it melted on a little bit and needed no other fastening. Have you ever had rice and cheese? I haven't, but he said he liked it. I made some eyes with pink and purple carrot discs -- nothing could be easier. Voila: mummy.

This was accompanied by a piece of luscious misoyaki butterfish leftover from dinner the night before. I really love this fish; I think it's another one of my top ten foods of all time. I used the recipe here but this time I marinated for over 48 hours, only possible if you can procure a very fresh piece of fish. I got mine from my local farmer's market, and it was delicious. I used to think it was called butterfish due to its buttery texture; it melts in your mouth and has a very silky quality.

TinySprite is a fan of the fish too, but I decided to give her something a little more user-friendly. While her brother can neatly and deftly handle all kinds of food types, she's a little more, um, hands-on -- so the easier the food is to manipulate, the more she can end up actually eating. I made cutout ghost sandwiches with ham and cheese, and stuck some mini chocolate chips as facial features. There's also a persimmon jack-o-lantern along with carrots, broccoli, purple cauliflower, tomatoes, grapes and apples -- just as in her brother's bento. Double bento --> done!

Won Ton and Jack Bento

Won Ton and Jack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

As did many others who participated in the #twitterfoodparty yesterday, I squeezed a bento out of my contribution. I made won ton mein (soup with noodles) for dinner, and simply packed a few extra won tons into MisterMan's bento box. As good as they are in soup, won ton are also just as good by themselves. If this were my bento, I would have drizzled chili oil all over these -- yum. I used my crescent silicone cup to separate the fruit from the rest of the meal, which included purple cauliflower, peapods and a little carrot jack-o-lantern. I took a chance on this dark red plum, and luckily it was a sweet one. I waited until it achieved a little softness to ensure maximum sweetness. I filled in the rest of the cup with that old winter standby, red grapes. Do you notice we are rockin' the orange and black today? Halloween (and SF Giants) colors are in the house! Making our way to the final countdown for Halloween week ^_^

Added to What's For Lunch. Check Shannon's site to see more!

Bat and Char Siu Bao O'lantern Bento

Bat Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's double bento post is from last Friday. MisterMan got a bacon-wrapped turkey burger and roasted purple potatoes. He got a colorful selection of veggies including broccoli, purple cauliflower, carrots and a tomato, as well as a piece of corn on the cob. I think that's the first time I actually used 5 different color vegetables in a single bento. Yay! Only bummer is that this one is light on the fruit. I used a bunch of black grapes to design a bat on the corn. You might need to use a bit of imagination. My boy called it an octopus until I hinted that it fell into the Halloween category. After awhile he guessed "Uh, a bat?" Um, yee-ssss. Sigh.

TinySprite gets a more finger friendly bento -- a perfectly round char siu bao just called for transformation into a jack-o-lantern. I cut the features with a small paring knife, and rather than punch out the cutouts, I just lightly pushed them in. So much easier, and it looks fine this way. I used a piece of corn on the cob for the stem, and filled in the rest of the gaps with the same veggies as in her brother's bento. Done! Love these quick ones. Just a few more days of Halloween themed bento, but it's been fun! ^_^

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!