Fall Colors

We noticed our first bit of Autumn color in the yard today.  Hurray for Fall!  This bento doesn't have anything to do with Fall.  In fact, it was made about two weeks ago.  However, it does have very happy onigiri in it.  And it has plenty of our new favorite food - edamame. It keeps ending up in all kinds of new recipes.  One might say that I have a crush on edamame, in fact.

In the bento: Two plain onigiri with happy faces and edamame decoration, baby tomatoes, nectarine slices, steamed broccoli and a container of stirfry that includes tofu, baby corn, carrots and edamame.

The onigiri eyes were punched out of nori but the smiles were hand cut with scissors.  Their cheeks were strawberry jam applied with a toothpick.  Tiny pieces of uncooked somen noodles help to attach the edamame to the onigiri.

Sweet Teddy Bear

We are in full swing getting ready for JapanFest tomorrow!  It is going to be so much fun and I am so excited.  And I even managed to fit the table in the car all by myself.  Go me!  To celebrate the upcoming fun  I made this cute onigiri teddy bear.  Nothing says happy like a smiling teddy bear, right?
Both of us are hoping to purchase some of our favorite Japanese sweets tomorrow: Mochi for A-chan and Dango for me.  I'm particularly looking forward to the Archery demonstrations as well.

In the bento: Lots of onigiri, carrot flowers, steamed broccoli, chickpeas, nectarine slices, frozen blueberries, strawberries and baby corn.

To make the body of the teddy I mixed scrambled tofu into the rice before making the onigiri.  Then I added two whole cloves for the buttons, making sure that A-chan knew to remove them before eating the onigiri.  The head and paws are just plain rice.  The facial features were cut from soy turkey slices, provolone cheese and nori with a few black sesame seeds for cute eyelashes.  Her cheeks were painted on with strawberry jam.  The jam might be a little weird but it seemed like a good idea at 6 am, as though jam is somehow cuter than sriracha!

Sleeping Pandas

A-chan had asked for panda onigiri.  I had inari that I needed to use before they went bad.  We compromised and gave each little panda onigiri their own inari bed.  I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but I think that they are absolutely adorable!  This bento has way too much orange in it - I didn't notice how many carrots were there until looking at the pictures.  That's okay, A-chan loves carrots!

In the bento: Panda inari zushi/onigiri, steamed broccoli, carrot flowers, an apple bunny, baby corn, a pick of edamame,  a container of sesame carrots and two nectarine slices.

The inari skins were lightly boiled in a mixture of water, soy sauce, mirin and brown sugar for several minutes and then dried. I folded the tops of the opening inside and pushed the onigiri halfway into the inari pockets.  Then I added the nori, sesame seed and sugar dot details.

I use mustard seeds in cooking quite a bit, particularly Indian food.  It just occurred to me recently that they would make fantastic bento decorative touches!  I like how they look on these carrot flowers and loved the fact that they were easy to put in place and didn't require as much fiddling as sesame seeds.

Randomness

I can't believe that it's already time for spring break!  I'm planning what A-chan and I are going to do next week.  In the meantime I'm delving into the world of statistics and physics - a true adventure.  This bento was rather random, a collection of leftover items that I pulled from the fridge without a plan in mind.  It seemed to work out okay, though that might be attributed to the implied theme imparted by the use of Pokemon picks.

In the bento: Two potato and onion pierogies, steamed broccoli, vegetarian hot dog pieces, green peas, nectarine slices, orange wedges, provolone cheese stars and a half slice of corn on the cob.

On the side I managed to photograph the elusive ketchup cup in action.  I rarely remember to put the accessories we use daily into the pictures that I take.  I'm not sure how this one happened.  It is filled not quite to the top with ketchup to dip the hotdog pieces into.

What's with the stuff on my noodles?

Normally I buy grated parmesan.  Sometimes I purchase a block of parmesan and grate it myself.  Shaved parmesan is new.  To me it's exciting.  To A-chan it's a change worthy of gasps and cries of alarm.  "What's that stuff?  That stuff on my noodles?"  There was a noticeable undercurrent of disgust in her quavering voice.  I patiently explained that it was parmesan cheese, just like we normally put on noodles. She wasn't convinced.  We compromised with a 'try it at lunch and see'.

In the bento: Spaghetti noodles, shaved parmesan, nectarine chunks, steamed broccoli, cara cara orange slices, baby corn spears, and a colossal black olive.

I've started getting back into a morning yoga routine. I'm finding that it's a great time to do some prep cooking - these noodles were boiling while I was stretching which makes for great time management!

Puppy Inari

I think that A-chan might be out growing this bento box.  She complained that there wasn't enough food in it!  What am I going to do when I can't use my favorite box any longer?  I'm sure that I will find another favorite, but darn it I love this one.

In the bento: Besides the inari there is a container filled with nectarine chunks, steamed broccoli and cara cara orange wedges.  There are also a couple of provolone cheese flowers.

I absolutely love finding new ways to decorate inari zushi and these two cute little doggies were easy to make!  I simmered three inari skins in water, soy sauce, mirin and brown sugar for 4 minutes, then dried them off and filled two of them with sushi rice.  The third got cut up to make the doggies' ears using my handy dandy food scissors.  The faces were cut from nori and the pupil highlights from provolone cheese.  Voila - puppy inari zushi!  

A Lion of a Pancake

In the jungle even a pancake can roar.  If it were so inclined.  I'm thinking that this cute little guy wouldn't roar, though.  He might just run around saying 'nyan' all day.  Continuing with this week's interesting bento moments - I learned this morning that an upside down heart shape at the end of a tail does not make a shape that is recommended for a child's bento.  Luckily I realized that in time to replace it with a flower shape. I'm sure you guys could work that out for yourselves, but I'm in the sharing mood.

In the bento: Grapes with two cute lion picks, flowered carrot sticks, veggie sausage links, nectarine chunks, and miniature pancakes.

Mr. Lion was made using the two cutting tools at the top left. I cut his mane, muzzle and tail fluff out of provolone cheese.  And of course the other facial features were punched from nori.  Since the pancakes were going to be eaten with icing, I decided to 'glue' on the face without using mayo which I thought might spoil the taste.  Instead I painted each piece of cheese and nori with a tiny bit of strawberry jelly using the sharp end of a toothpick.

Just a little flower

Coffee is one of the most wonderful things that has ever existed.  It is purely by the power of coffee that I managed to pull myself together to make a bento today.  Have I mentioned before that this is one of my favorite bento boxes?  I'm sure it's not a big surprise since I seem to use it a lot!  I love the half-size container and the fact that the lid has a little extra vertical room for decorations.

In the bento: Rice with a carrot and pea flower, corn kernals on picks, steamed broccoli, sauteed tofu, a baby carrot, pear slices and nectarine slices.

Originally the little elephant pick was stuck into the top piece of tofu.  However, it looked too much like the elephant was being sucked into a tar pit or something and I couldn't stand it.  So I moved it and tried to disguise the original placement with black sesame seeds.

Hug Me!

What is your opinion on kissing frogs?  Mine tends to be along the lines of 'Ewwwww'!  But I'm okay with hugging one.  Anyway...

It's Friday!  The happy Friday dance commenced a little later than normal this morning.  Ahhh, lovely Friday.  I am so looking forward to the weekend.  Not only am I planning to put away the Christmas decorations, there is going to be a huge cleaning spree!

In the bento: Vegetarian spaghetti, picks of black olives, a lemon slice, nectarine chunks, baby corn, a strawberry balloon, cucumber froggie and cheese letters.

The tiny letters were made with my brand new letter cutters that I got at IchibanCon.  Aren't they cute?  I'm loving them!  The frog face was cut from cucumber peel using a frog/teddy bear face cutter.  His body was cut with a knife but the arms were left over from the face cutting.  The eyes and mouth were cut from provolone and his nose is sesame seeds.

Here is a link to my vegetarian spaghetti recipe (on my other blog): http://incaseofasparagus.blogspot.com/2012/01/make-spaghetti-vegetarian-style.html

Panda Sammie Cuteness

Today is going to be a blast from the past!  I'm going to resurrect some ancient primitive technology skills to demo for A-chan's class. We're talking way back. Only a few of the artifacts that were created in our days of primitive skills glory will get to shine today.  The ones I'm most proud of were the bone needle, awl and pins that I carved with flint tools that I knapped myself - it was so cool.  The part that A-chan is looking forward to the most is the atlatl demonstration.  That's the one I'm nervous about.  While my husband is a spear throwing genius, my skills in that area generally lead to embarrassment.  But the kids will still enjoy it and get to learn about ancient techniques to go along with their early human class arc.  What does this have to do with a panda sandwich in a bento?  Um...nothing...I'm just totally excited!

In the bento: Panda sandwich filled with cheese and mayo, nectarine slices, steamed broccoli, baby tomatoes with musical picks, lemon slices, a flowery container of tofu, baby corn and carrot stirfry, cheese stars.

The panda's features were cut with a nori punch and glued to the bread with tiny amounts of mayo that I applied with a toothpick.  The same technique was used to place the sesame seeds for the eyes.  The veggies and tofu were quick stir fried with with ginger, garlic and soy sauce.