Leftover

I just got the books Kawaii Bento and Easy Japanese Cooking this weekend. The bento are so cute! Pippy liked them, but the problem is that she doesn't like nori, which plays a pretty pivotal roll in most cute bentos. The soy wrappers are great for sushi, but they are too light colored to contrast well with rice or most any other food. I might try easing her into it by just making some faces and see where it goes from there, but I won't be able to until my Winter Break kicks in.

Speaking of cute, I don't normally do cute bento. Usually I get up very early to make her lunch, but I still take 20 minutes or so putting together a bento. Part of this is that I usually don't plan ahead like I should. I always mean to, but then stuff gets in the way.

Today's bento is not cute, but is pretty healthy. Ideally, she would be having more than three "sides" to the rice. I love the idea of making many dishes and cramming them all in the box, but again, time is a factor. I am hoping that the Japanese cookbook will give me some ideas, as well as the Kawaii one. It is hard having a child who wants Japanese food, but dislikes "fishy" flavors. 

I didn't bother getting the rice in the shot. We all know what it looks like and it just makes for glare when I try to photograph it. On the left is a quick carrot salad made with carrots, raisins and some cucumber with mayonnaise. The center is the leftover chicken cutlet from last night dressed with ketchup. I don't understand the attraction, but that is the way she likes her breaded chicken. On the right I tried to get a little fancy by doing bias cut cucumbers. You get them by slicing on the bias, then turning it 45 degrees and doing it again. It makes an interesting shape, and with winter you have to do something fun to make the food interesting since the local produce is pretty scarce here in the north east.