Fabulous Feta Bento

Top tier: Kitty onigiri with carrot whiskers and ears, mamenori face, Morningstar farms chik nuggets, upside down inari zushi, steamed broccoli, carrot hearts.



Bottom tier: Radiatore Pomodore pasta with three pepper feta cheese, carrot heart, steamed broccoli and Vegetarian fillo Hors d'oeuvres by the Fillo Factory that I bought at the Farmers Market. (Have I said lately how much I looooove that place?)



This bento was for my husband when he went to play a game with some friends. As always it is rare for us to be seperated and so I try to make something special for his bento. This time the star of the show was absolutely the peppercorn feta. He adores feta and this one I bought at the Farmer's market and kept hidden as a surprise. The flavor of the feta made it unnecessary to flavor the pasta at all which made the bento even easier to make!



I am told that the kitty onigiri's facial features stuck on to the bottom of the lid, leavin behind a cheshire cat effect. Next time I need to remember to make the onigiri a little smaller so that it fits inside the box without getting squnched by the lid.

Don't Know What to Call Them Bentos

Left to right: Small onigiri with mamenori decorations, strawberries, soy bologna wrapped around carrot and cucumber sticks and held in place with a toothpick. Deep fried store bought vegetable pot stickers, udon noodles with carrot and cucumber stars, steamed broccoli.

Left tier: Udon noodles with black sesame seeds and a cucumber crown-like thing, inari-zushi, soy bologna wrapped around carrot and cucumber sticks and held together with a toothpick.

Right tier: Strawberry, deep fried vegetable pot stickers, small onigiri, steamed broccoli.

Top tier: Inari zushi, soy bologna wrap with carrot and cucumber sticks, deep fried vegetable pot stickers and a strawberry..

Bottom tier: Massive amounts of udon noodles and a cucumber crown.

I've found that when it comes to store bought pot stickers and gyoza my husband is very difficult to please, whereas I love them all (well, the vegetarian ones anyway...). In the future I will probably be making a huge batch of homemade ones just for him and eating all the store bought ones myself!

Having the pot stickers deep fried in the bentos instead of steamed was definately different. I made sure to damp all the extra oil off before packing them in the bentos and I was surprised that they stayed pretty crunchy.

Burgers with Mac'n'Cheese

Bottom tier: Morningstar Farms Veggie Burger, 3 mini cheese and potato pierogies, steamed broccoli, steamed corn on the cob, cherry tomato halves, tiny mozzarella flower.

Middle tier: The best Mac'n'cheese I've ever made, with a decorative broccoli floret and some mozzarella flowers.

Top tier: Orange wedges, Hello Kitty candies

Pretty much the exact same items are in the other two bentos, but the one for my little girl had a mozzarella umbrella with mamenori hearts for cuteness, and an added lollipop.

The mac'n'cheese was fantastic, with radiatore pasta, garlic, mozzarella, parmesan and cheddar jack cheeses.

This was the first time I had ever tried to include corn on the cob in any of my bentos. I was particularly inspired by someone on the flickr bento box group (I will put up a link tomorrow) whose boxes with corn always looked soooo yummy. But raw corn on the cob is very difficult to cut all the way through I found out. I had to enlist the aid of my husband who had trouble as well. Yes, he could have cut through it but didn't want to injure the countertop, the knife or make half the corn go spinning off onto the floor. Eventually we discovered that the corn is a lot easier to cut AFTER it's been cooked. Silly us, lol.

Oversized Rabbit Bento

A carb-filled toddler meal! I needed something in a hurry so everything but the broccoli and apple bunny were leftovers that could be heated and packed quickly.

Left to right: Soba noodles with teriyaki sauce, steamed broccoli, HUGE apple bunny, Jasmine rice, carrot hearts, Japanese Golden Curry with potatoes, carrots, onions and tofu.

Ahhh, those were the days when my little girl would still eat apple peel sometimes. That's a nearly impossible request these days. How quickly things change! I tend to prefer sweeter apples over tart ones, like Gala and Fuji. My toddler has never met an apple that she doesn't like. But she's started actually asking me to cut all the peel off. She doesn't mind having apple bunnies in her bentos as long as the peel is easy to detach.

An apology

To everyone who commented on my posts in the last several months, thank you so much and I am very sorry for not responding, etc. I've been having a difficult time getting online the last few months and hadn't been able to get to Blogger to do anything! I did read all of your comments and I will try to respond to everyone but if you have specific questions, please feel free to email me at natakiya@gmail.com :)

It's going to sound pretty silly, but I haven't been able to type for months! Now I have a laptop and can get online more often and do stuff, it's going to rock :D

I have a ton of bento pictures saved from the past few months to post and I'll start on that tomorrow.

Anyway, I really want everyone to know that I haven't been ignoring the comments that you've made and that I apologize for being gone. Please forgive me!