Monday Morning

Last week I hardly made any bentos at all as I was pretty sick. I was mostly really, incredibly tired. Pippy, rather than taking the money for lunch at school decided to bring nothing. She ended up using her money for lunch.
Today, I tried to make it a little decorative, but also tasty. I made a little salad with watermelon radish, daikon and carrot with a simple rice wine and sugar dressing. I also used some of the frozen crab sticks with chopped celery for a crab salad. She claims to hate celery, but I have never seen her try it, so we will see how that goes over. I made a ham "flower" but it didn't come out as nice as I wanted. Maybe I used too big of a slice. Also, are some pretty looking strawberries. Pippy loves strawberries no matter what the season, but I am more picky than that.  She also had rice, but said she was getting a little tired of rice with soy sauce and asked for dumpling sauce instead, and more of it.  At least it is colorful!

Pantry Clean Out # 2

This week I have decided to clean out the freezer and refrigerator of all the bits and pieces we have that are perfect for bentos. I may dig into a box of pork curry buns, but other than that, everything will be made from things that are already open.
Todays bento contains the last three meatballs from the freezer stash tossed with the last of the bottled teriyaki sauce and sitting on lettuce from the other week's produce box. I also used produce from that box for the watermelon radish and carrot salad that is spiked with a little rice vinegar and mirin. We have really been bad about our produce, so on the side is brocoflower tossed with a little curry powder and butter.