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Happy Thursday Sandwich Bento

4 Aug

Just Another Sandwich Day

Happy Thursday Everyone.  The weekend is almost here.

I struggled with this morning’s bento.  Originally, I was going to do a simple sandwich and not do a bento.  But I have a hard time doing that.  I always feel like I need to spruce it up.  🙂

Today’s bento is rather simple.  This is a good example of a bento with no accessories.  Well, unless you consider the lettuce as an accessory.  I cut the ham and cheese sandwich into four and arranged it in the top section of a two tiered bento box.  I added the carrots on the side to make everything fit tightly.  The bottom tier has strawberries, Japanese crackers and kamaboko.  The kamaboko adds a nice punch of color to the bottom tier.

Contents: Ham and cheese sandwich, carrots, strawberries, kamaboko and crackers.

Gyoza and Rice

2 Aug

I decided to actually cook something this morning for Little Miss Bubbles. Last night we had leftovers for dinner, and she said “meatballs again?!?!” so, I felt bad if I gave it to her for lunch.

What is quick and easy to make? I thought gyoza. Basically, put it in the pan, add water and you are done. Oh…I made frozen gyoza. Making fresh, handmade gyoza…. Uh, no! 🙂

Contents: gyoza, strawberries, carrots and rice.

Gyoza and Rice

Happy Musubi Boys

1 Aug

Happy Musubi Boys

This bento makes me happy, I hope it made my daughter happy!

When I was growing up, my grandma taught me how to make onigiri by hand.  First, I splashed water on my hands and then added salt.  I was instructed to put the warm rice in my hands and alternate my cupped hands until a triangle formed.  As I got older, I used molds that you can buy from almost any Asian market.  But after reading posts by other bento lovers, I realized there is nothing like a hand molded onigiri (musubi).  Except, now I use plastic wrap!  Wow… the plastic wrap makes it so much easier and is not as messy.

The two happy boys were made by hand using plastic wrap.  One boy has black sesame seeds as hair, although, it’s a little sparse and makes it look like he is balding.  The other boy has no hair.  hehehe.  Once again, the pics add the cuteness to the bento.  I just love these little hat bento picks. So cute.

Contents: Onigiri, nori for the face, sesame for the hair, chicken, carrots, green beans, and a variety of fruit.

Hello Kitty Hawaiian Style Breakfast Bento

29 Jul

Hello Kitty Hawaiian Style Breakfast Bento

 

This is a bento I made earlier in the year.  It’s was a pretty fast bento as I reused the tamagoyaki (eggs) and sausage from breakfast.  This to me is a typical Hawaiian style breakfast, right down to the furikake on the rice. The carrots is not very typical, but I always want to give my daughter some type of veggie in her lunch, and she loves carrots.

There isn’t anything too fancy about this bento, but what makes it special is the Hello Kitty bento box and the heart shaped kamaboko.  So, a quick tip for new bento makers – get a cute box and use a cutter to make cute shapes that can sit on top of your food.  🙂

 

Contents:  Tamagoyaki (eggs), sausage, rice, carrots, strawberries, grapes and heart shaped kamaboko

Sunny Side Up

28 Jul

Fried Rice Bento

Today my Bubbles (my daughter) had a field trip, so I didn’t make her a bento.  She got a sandwich thrown in a brown paper bag with an organic fruit roll-up, apple sauce and chips!  GASP!  LOL!  I’m proud to say, she listened to me and saved her chips for last and didn’t eat all of them because she ate everything else first.  But still… GASP!

The bento I’m posting today is one that I made a few months ago.  The main dish of the bento is fried rice with chicken.  The stars are made from kamaboko, and the suns are made from cheese.  Although, they do look like eggs.  I used a vegetable cutter to cut the white cheese and another cutter for the yellow part.  The faces are made from nori. Originally, I didn’t have the suns on the fried rice, but the rice looked so bare. I started to dig in my bento stash to see how I could jazz up the rice, and the eggs came to be.

Contents of bento: Fried rice with chicken, kamaboko, cheese for the suns, strawberries, carrots and rice cakes.

“Maaaamaaaa” Bento

26 Jul

Throw it Together Bento

Today’s bento was made with my little sweet pea crying the entire time. He’s got a strong-willed mind, that will bode well later in life when he will need to negotiate with people, but can cause much frustration for me at this time. This morning he wanted my husband’s toothbrush and didn’t understand why he couldn’t have it. Then he wanted to eat with his sister’s special spoon. Which, if you have kids, you know that if I gave it to him, would have caused another issue with the other kid. So, I stood my ground, and let him cry.

For me, this bento is pretty sad. I managed to put the strawberries in and then remembered I had a hard-boiled egg. But the layout and decoration just don’t jive for me. I feel like it’s off balanced, and there are no veggies. But ah well, at least she has lunch.

Contents: Ham and cheese sandwich, strawberries, egg and Japanese cigar crackers (they are sooo good. Almost like Hawaiian cream crackers, but not as sweet)

“Cheese” says the Hamburger

25 Jul

"Cheese" Hamburger

Today’s bento used a hamburger slider from a birthday party that my little one went to this past weekend.  The heart is a bit bigger than I would have liked, but it was a last minute addition to the bento.  I about to pack the bento and felt like something was missing.  So I search for the appropriate sized shape to put on the bun.  This was the closest I could get.  It’s a bit big for me, but ah well.  🙂 This bento also has carrots, green beans, strawberries and some cute Japanese crackers (I can’t remember the name…)

Miss Musubi

25 Jul

Musubi Girl

This is another bento I made for the magazine that will be published in August.  I made these bentos the day after I arrived back from vacation, so I didn’t have any leftovers in the house.  Therefore, the chicken in this bento is from Trader Joe’s.  Which by the way, is a really good stand-in for my usual teriyaki chicken.

The musubi girl is made from rice that I hand molded.  The eyes and mouth are nori, but the eye lashes are black sesame seeds.  I cut the flower carrot with the new cutters that I got from Marukai.  LOVE them!!! They come in two sizes and are awesome.

Given I just returned from vacation, I didn’t have a lot of fruit in the house either.  So, the cantaloupe is from Trader Joe’s too – pre-cut, making it so easy to use.

I usually like to use a colorful background for my bentos, and also take the photos in my kitchen.  But to ensure the best light, I decided to take these photos outside.  But, much to my dismay, it was an overcast morning, so the natural light wasn’t so great.  Although, using my black sweater as a backdrop did work out quite well.  Who knew… 😉

Where is the pot of gold?

22 Jul

Well, I had no leftovers to use, so it was a sandwich bento for my daughter. I didn’t have much time in the morning, so I accessorized with the latest dividers that I picked up from Marukai.

The bento doesn’t have enough color for me, it’s too yellow. So, I thought the rainbow dividers and flower picks would add a bit of pop.

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You are a monkey

21 Jul

As a working mom, most of my bentos will consist of leftovers. Today’s bento is no different.

Let’s see, we have spaghetti with cheese (my daughter is in an anti-sauce phases), chicken, fruit and sweet potato fries with a little bit of ketchup in the monkey container.

The monkey container is really cute, it has a small banana spoon!

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