Back to Basics

Okay, maybe not exactly basic, but there are carrots in one of them again! The first bento is made up of pot stickers, carrot sticks, snow peas, fresh pineapple and those shrimp and chicken Chinese dumplings.
The second one is a sandwich since she is going to the beach today with her school. Peanut butter and jelly (as per her request), snow peas and grape tomatoes and homemade sweet potato chips and there are pea shoots to stabilize the sandwich.
Almost forgot to mention, the picnic bento went over well and Paige said that there wasn't enough food. Only some rice left over.

Very, very tired

I owe you good folks two bentos today since I did not upload yesterday's bento. I also got my shipment of bento boxes that I got from a drawing at Bentofabulous a while back, so there is a picture of that also.

Yesterday's bento was as Paige's request. We had some little weenies from H-mart I believe that were frozen and hadn't been used yet because I foolishly didn't freeze them in portions. So, with her rice she has two octodogs and two crabs, both with peppercorn eyes. There is rice of course and hoisin sauce, also at her request. In the containers are watermelon balls (even small watermelons yield a lot of fruit!) and pickled vegetables. She said that she ate the whole thing, but since she washed out her own container we will never know for sure.

The next box is for today and it was thrown together at the last minute due to my incessant sleeping. I had some fried onigiri in the freezer from Trader Joe's along with a few vegetable croquettes. I sliced up some fried tofu, which she loves and cut off a strip to make it brown and white for contrast. Of course there is still melon left, so in it went along with some frozen peas.

And finally by new collection of boxes. She also sent me some very pretty teaspoons, but I didn't get them into the picture. Yesterdays lunch used the pink on and I can't wait to try the purple one! I think that the lock and lock would be great on sandwich days to bring extra stuff along to fill her up.

No Veggies, Bad Mommy

Today was made for a quick bento. This one took me all of five minutes to make. There are an assortment of lunch meats cut decoratively, two slices of whole grain bread with the crusts removed and some wedges of orange. I thought about putting some carrots in there but there wasn't any room. I also didn't put condiments because she tends to not eat them.
Another exam today, whoopee!

Nachos!

Okay, today's meal is not exactly nutritious, but I was running out of ideas and food. I am hoping to do a bento food run this weekend in between studying and showing the apartment and prepping the apartment for paint and arranging to have a flooring person and an appliance repair guy to come in. Fun! I did make a run in the sleet to the store this morning, but I hadn't planned any bentos, and quite honestly, the store didn't have anything I would normally use except for a few things like broccoli and tofu.
I guess this is all self explanatory. I used the ecolunchbox for this one because it is deep. A few of the chips got crushed anyway, but it should be fine.

Running Behind Again

I had a rough plan for this bento, but didn't work it out until I woke up half and hour late at 5:30. Suffice it to say, there is only one cooked from scratch dish. I also reheated some meatballs from a bag we got at Costco a while back, sliced up some apple (I love pink ladies as they don't brown very fast) and some frozen vegetables. I must apologize in advance for the crappy picture quality, I only took one picture because of time constraints.

Friday and Monday Bentos

I forgot to post Friday's bento, so here it is today. I thawed out the ground beef soboro and laid that on top of the rice. On the side is some uncooked baby spinach (which she likes), grape tomatoes (that she doesn't like) and broccoli and grapes which she likes well enough. It was very simple and took me about 10 minutes or less to put it together minus the cooling time.

Darned blogger wanted to make this text centered. Well I showed them with my HTML Fu. This next one is today's lunch. Again, this is pretty speedy. She has rice which is separated by green leaf lettuce, a tamagoyaki made with soy and mirin, snow peas and grapes. I expect an empty box if she is given enough time to actually eat.

A little rant about her cafeteria. She has eaten lunch there exactly twice all year. I paid for one meal and Pippy said that she put one on credit during my break because she didn't want to be bothered to make a lunch. Now they are saying that I owe them 6 dollars. This has been happening for the last three years and I can't seem to get them to believe that they are making a mistake. I am having the same problem with the library. She owes money on a book she never took out. They say she took it out when she was five, but I would have known and she refused to take out a book at that age. I love computers and all, but I have issue with the folks who like to mess them up.

One of Pippy's Favorites

I have learned that the Korean barbecue was not her favorite. She ate some and said she liked it, but there was a lot left behind and she doesn't like to hurt my feelings. Yesterday's meal was gobbled up, and the curry with rice balls that I didn't post also was eaten completely. So, that is the progress report on what I can get Pippy to eat.
Today is very simple. I took out Just Bento's "hamburgers" that I made a while ago from the cookbook and doused them in some barbecue sauce. I think put a line of the sauce on the rice because she loves that combo. I also stirfried some beansprouts with snow peas and stuffed some tomatoes, which will not get eaten, in between along with a "baby" cucumber cut in a rolling bias.
Everyone who doesn't know yet, the bento community has an auction going on at ebay called Bento4Japan.
I also won some bento from Bento Fabulous which is a fun site to get ideas from, plus- I got a purple panda box!! The other two are also very nice, but...purple...panda... the cute!

I also made the background cloth. Because I couldn't find double sided cloth, I put two sections together and sewed them together. It is a little bulky, but it does the job when I don't have a bento bag to go with the box.

Fried Rice and Fruit

Yesterday we had curry leftovers which Pippy loved so much she wanted to take it to school in a thermos. So, the curry, which had mini rice balls in it rather than meat, went into a heated thermos for her. While nutritious, it was not very photogenic.
The same could be argued about today's bento. On the top there is a simple fried rice (egg, carrots and peas) and on the bottom there is kiwi, oranges segmented and halved grapes. A little more vegetable would have been good, but I was feeling a little lazy and wasn't sure how to fit it in the shallower tier.
Don't forget! Many bento artists from Twitter are holding an auction for Japan relief efforts. It is at ebay under bento4japan.

And don't forget "What's For Lunch Wednesday"!

Bento Salad

I am using the top half of my new tiffin for this one. I got a 2 tier, but it is really big. Thank goodness I didn't get the 3 tier as I was contemplating! This one just came in yesterday, but without the side kick. Amazon was pretty good about since they were just the shipper and the actual seller was someone else. Because of stocking issues my choices were: send it back at their expense and try to re-buy it, with the hope that there would be one in stock, or get 15% off my order. I went with the 15% because this box looks like it could be fun.
Pippy woke me up this morning complaining of being sick to her stomach and vomiting, so she didn't go to school today. She told me that she could eat this tomorrow though, so that is that.
The salad was made for dinner last night with the last of the lettuce, grape tomatoes, shaved carrots and celery. The tamagoyaki is self explanatory, and then there are some rolls that have been buttered. In the sauce bottle is her favorite, raspberry dressing from Trader Joe's, which I think they discontinued.

Two Days

Because of an early class I didn't get a chance to upload pictures of Pippy's lunch yesterday, so today we have two pictures. The first one is a raisin bread sandwich of peanut butter and orange marmalade with the crusts cut off, some sun chips and her favorite fruit lately, kiwi and a couple of sandwich cookies. Not the most colorful lunch, but I was tired.
The second lunch is today's. For the first time ever, I tried to shape onigiri by hand and failed miserably. I wanted triangles but could only manage slightly wonky balls. One has black sesame seeds on it while the other is plain. Then I cut some apples, one with a checkerboard and the other as a baby bunny. In the side dish compartment there is some cut up roast beef from the other day in bulldog sauce, leftover broccoli, grape tomatoes and more kiwi.

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.

Not Ready For This Week

I have a huge exam that I have been spending every waking hour studying for tomorrow. As a result of that and the stress of losing a tenant I haven't been sleeping. This is not a good mix. Basically, this is my excuse for completely phoning it in this morning. I do intend to use up the bulk of my freezer stash and refridgerator stash this week though. I have bits of different things here and there and it is time to finish them up.
Today I thawed a pig in a blanket, cooked some frozen glazed sweet potatoes, fried up some potstickers (which will be seen a bit) and made a purple cabbage salad. With this she had rice and soy sauce as she likes it.

Called It In Today

This was a planned lazy day. I am so exhausted by Friday that I just can't think of anything to do. Still, it came out pretty nice without a tremendous amount of trying. There are two dinosaur cucumber sandwiches filled with baby cucumbers and a mayo and paprika mixture. I colored the outside of the bread a little with food safe markers to try to get some of the detail out. I am not sure I succeeded. All around them are "trees and shrubs" that are carrot sticks and cucumber sliced on a rotating bias. In one of the cups is some Smart Food popcorn which she loves (and yes, I realize it is not better than chips) and some frozen mango in the other container.

This picture was taken in my laundry room where we do get a little natural light. Besides the blah background, I like the way the picture turned out. Very crisp and pretty. I also used the Lock and Lock container which is my go to for sandwiches.

Easing Back to School

It is a mess out there and it is just snow. I am not looking forward to the change over to rain at all. The 10 both way drive to drop off Pippy took me 40 minutes today. I don't mind being cautious, but that was ridiculous.
Today's bento isn't fancy and doesn't use any interesting dishes besides giving her a serving of seaweed salad procured at Ebisuya for her to try. She probably will not eat the tomatoes, but they are pretty! Otherwise it is a standard pot sticker bento today.
I was also having trouble with the focus on the camera today. No matter what I tried the picture came out fuzzy, so it is back to the manual for me to see what I did wrong. Following the bent is a weird picture. It was the last photo I attempted for the bento, but it did not come out that way. If all of my pictures came out that way, I would have assumed it was the camera, but it was just this one shot out of seven. Weird.

On a note, I changed nothing on the camera before taking this shot. It was the same settings that I used for the last three photos. Weird.

Chicken Cutlets

The reason that you have been seeing a lot of chicken cutlets in Pippy's meals is because we got a big bag of them at Costco and I am trying to use them up. Well that and until yesterday we didn't have a lot of meat available. I do have fish sausage, but I am scared to try it and I won't pack it in her lunch until I have tasted it. Anyone out there that can tell me whether it is really fishy or not?
Her cutlet was simmered in hoisin sauce today and besides the rice, everything else is as nature made it. Yes, I was lazy. I can't even blame getting up late. I have to go over my bento books again to find some inspiration, but after well over 200 boxes, things are starting to get a little stale. There is no picture today because even though I took a few, they are all washed out, even when I tried using a back ground. I am not sure why. The rice always glares a bit, but this time everything but the blueberries were white in the picture. She also had some slices of orange bell pepper, pineapple and some red pickled ginger on top of her rice with a bottle of soy.

Leftover Day

Last night, while asking Pippy what she wanted for lunch, we realized that we had bits of leftovers in the refrigerator. I was a little leery about the penne and sauce, but she said that she liked it, even when it isn't hot, so that was the main part of the meal. Last night we had appetizers for dinner, so an egg roll and two mozzarella sticks went in along with a bit sized cannoli. To fill in the gap a little I put a silicon cupcake liner filled with frozen mango.

Back to School!

Today I am easing into the bento making. I put a little thought into it, don't get me wrong, but it is pretty standard fare. I didn't even salt the cabbage first. Still, it is pretty and has the things that Pippy likes the most in it, those things chiefly being meatballs and rice. She has found a new love that we share though, Daifuku. I love these things. The mochi is so interesting and the white bean filling is to die for! Love, love, love. I am so glad that we went to Ebisuya this weekend. I also got some fish sausage to try and picked up some aburaage. Apparently I was making the inarizushi wrong. I didn't know I had to cook the aburaage first. Live and learn. The kids liked it the easy way, but I would prefer to get rid of some of the oil.

This is my first post with the camera that a friend gave me. It has way more storage space which I love and now that the pictures are on the computer they are pretty good quality. There goes my excuse for bad photos. Today I made meatballs cooked in Bulldog sauce, there is a daifuku, edamame beans and a coleslaw with too much sesame seeds. I meant to take the little top off but instead removed the big one and poured it over the coleslaw. Thankfully it was before the mayonnaise, so I could get most of it off. There is a new ume on the rice. It is extremely salty and I can't remove the pit so we will see how that goes over. I sufficiently warned the child about it.

Finger Foods

Last night we had an appetizer night. Oddly, we also had leftovers so that is what is in the bento today. Not my best work but far better then the killer Teddy Ruskin that I did on Friday.

Underneath there are a couple of mozzarella sticks and on top of that are mini chicken tacos. I simply sliced up some yellow bell pepper and cucumbers and stuck a few pieces of dried fruit in the corner.  She also had some rice with soy sauce on the side.

I wasn't sure if I was going to post this next one. It is pretty awful. What I was trying to do was mix the food color pens together to make brown. This did not work out well at all.

The sliced fish fillet (which she actually ate) was a leftover and underneath there is a stir fried mix of green beans, cut up heirloom tiny tomatoes with soy sauce. She ate that too! Of course she ate the apple. This was my first try on this particular cut, which turned out rather well. Over on the side is my Frankenstein bear egg. She didn't eat that. First, eggs smell bad to her (she gets embarrassed) and second, well, could you eat that face?

Full of Ick

Yesterday my sweet daughter made her own bento because I was sick. When I got up to take her to school in the pouring, driving, cold rain, she said that she would walk and I was to go back to bed. That's my girl! Needless to say, I don't have a picture of that bento. She made herself two onigiri and some chopped apple. At least there was a fruit in there!

Now she is sick. I almost sent her to school because they get all kinds of upset when kids don't come in, but then I remembered how bad it was for me and that she could be infecting a bunch of other kids and she is staying home. I did make her a bento though.

Today's is made out of things I had in the freezer, including the rice. I did add some blanched broccoli and grape tomatoes to round things out though.

I would also have a picture of my birthday cake but my eldest wasn't as happy with it as I was, so I figured she didn't want me posting it. It was cute though. I like crime stuff, so she drew caution tape on it.

Giving Red Bell Peppers a Shot

Today's omelette has strips of red bell pepper in it. She likes raw bell pepper most of the time, so I thought I could make the egg colorful. Warning to those who want to try it, be careful of how much you lay in there. I put too many sticks in and it oozed out the sides. Thankfully it remained mostly whole.

I was also admonished about the heavy handed use of bottle teriyaki sauce yesterday. Apparently this one is too spicy for her. Usually I make my own, which is sweet, but I found this bottle at Trader Joe's and thought I would give it a try. We will use up the bottle, but it looks like I will be making the sauce after that. 

What is noticeably missing is some fruit this time around. I didn't realize it until I had stuffed everything in there. There is a technique that some who make cute bento use which is to outline the box on a piece of paper and draw things out. I may give that a try. Also, planning ahead is much better than winging it everyday. Even when I try to think about it the day before I often have trouble coming up with something. Next week there will be a plan, even if it is just a loose one.

She hasn't complained about the cheese yet, so I put in the last of the cheese in her box today with a couple of grape tomatoes to fill it in. I discovered a terrific natural "baran" to use to separate things in the box. Thinly sliced carrots. You just use the peeler and make strips of thin carrot. You can use this method on many things, but I think the carrot is probably best for use as a divider. As you can see, the omelette is a little wonky, but I love the way the red pokes through. At the end are some English cucumbers sliced up.  The only thing that I purchased special for this bento are the grape tomatoes so I guess this qualifies as a pantry meal.