A New Obsession

So here's the new obsession in our house!  Of course, A-chan loves video games.  I suck at them.  No, really.  I'm terrible.  Most of our game play consists of my daughter asking if I want her to get me through this part.  Or with me screaming as my poor character dies.  Anyway...there's nothing better than making bentos that are as much fun as the other things we enjoy.

In the bento:  Fried rice with lots of veggies, stirfried broccoli and baby corn, soy turkey flower, lemon slice, checkered apple, blackberries, radish, cheddar cheese, and tomato.

Mario's hat was fun to make with a tomato, provolone cheese and a carrot 'm'.  The stars are made from cheddar cheese with nori eyes.  The little radish's eyes are black sesame seeds.  All in all it was a simple bento to make, but the reaction that it got was huge!

Kitty and Jack'o'lantern

A-chan loves cute kitties in her lunches.  And I love making them!  It's a perfect combination.   I tried to do something new with the Jack'o'lantern in this bento.  I have now learned to try new things at times that are not busy mornings!  Ahem.

In the bento: Rice underlaying the Jack'o'lantern and kitty, green onions, apple star, carrot star, miso crusted tofu, steamed broccoli, pineapple chunks and a cheese ghost.

The Jack'o'lantern was cut from three layers of orange eggsheet.  The new thing is that they were cut all at the same time in an attempt to make the 3d layering a little easier.  I'm sure it will get easier with practice.  The kitty has two layers - one of cheese and one of nori.  The kitty is sandwiched between the lowest pumpkin layer and the top two pumpkin layers.  My favorite parts of the Jack'o'lantern are the teeth (they are so adorable) and the kitty's hat.  I used a leftover piece of broccoli stem for the pumpkin stem.  The apple star was an ambitious project as well and though it looks great - it didn't fit once I put on the lid.  Not so much a big surprise, lol.  I ended up rearranging a few things to get the star laying down, whew!

In other news, we had a fabulous time at the Stone Mountain Highland Games this past weekend!  Doesn't A-chan look cute in her Highland dance outfit?  At 8 am it was pretty darn cold out there so she didn't want to take off her gloves for the picture and who can blame her.

Little Kittens

Today's bento is in honor of the three little kittens that are currently running our household.  They will be five weeks old tomorrow and have started learning how to cause mayhem and chaos this week.  Of course, they are the cutest things EVER!  Somehow it has been impossible for me to get a good picture of them, so here they are in inari zushi form.

In the bento: Three inari kittens, baby corn, carrot star, lemon slice, steamed broccoli (hidden behind the carrot star), a cherry, a checkered apple, half of a cherry tomato and a few green beans.

The kitten faces are made with white egg sheet and nori.  The whites of the eyes were 'glued' onto the inari skins with a tiny bit of mayo which was applied with a toothpick.  I squeezed the corners of the rectangular inari skins to make them resemble kitty ears.

Here is a picture of the kittens nursing on a very frazzled mama cat, lol.  A-chan and I have a difference of opinion in names.  She had already given them names five minutes after they were born.  The one on the left is Stripey according to the 7 year old, while I prefer Jewel.  The middle kitten is Cloudy or Quartz.  The black one is either called Brownie by A-chan or Onyx by me.

Bear with a Bow Tie

Today's bento has several of my favorite Southern staple foods, though not all can make an appearance in a bento.  Gravy, in particular, is not suited for bento lunches.  A-chan's first words upon seeing the bento this morning were, "The bear and the raspberry are going to get squished."  Yes, she has definitely started catching onto my bento packing problems!  Luckily I was able to rearrange things a bit so that neither the bear or the berry got 'squished' when I put the lid on.  It was a near thing, though.

In the bento: A raspberry, a roll, two Morningstar Farms chik nuggets, grapes on a pick, corn on the cob, steamed broccoli, orange slices, a container of black eyed peas and pan-fried potato stars and bear.

Mr. Bear was cut from a slice of raw potato, as were the stars.  They were then pan fried with a tiny bit of olive oil.  Once they cooled I was able to put the nori and cheese facial details, ketchup cheeks and dapper cucumber bow tie on Mr. Bear.  In the background is a container of ketchup to go with the chik nuggets.  Not shown was another container with a little bit of spreadable butter to go on the roll.

Christmas Stamps

Cheese ravioli is one of the most versatile pastas.  It can transform into so many things or look elegant without any interference.  Most people, myself included, prefer to eat them with a sauce.  Luckily my daughter is happy to eat them plain or with a little Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top which makes them perfect for decorating her bentos.  With so many Christmas letters, cards and packages going everywhere, I thought some Christmassy stamps would be fun to make and eat!

In the bento: Cheese ravioli, rice with black sesame seeds, fried tofu, carrot and nori stars, blackberries, and a huge cherry tomato.

The Christmas tree is zucchini with tiny strips of zucchini flesh for the garland.  Pink egg sheet left over from yesterday was used for a couple of ornaments and carrot for the others.  I cut the star from a slice of American cheese.  I used zucchini again for the holly leaves and cut berries out of tomato peel.

In the background is one of the cloth napkins that A-chan takes to school with her bento every day.  This one she decorated for Thanksgiving.  It was an easy and very economical way to get her (and me) excited about the holiday.  Please see my new blog for pretty pictures!

Pancakes, stars and a kitten

You might be wondering why there is a kitten in the title but not in the bento.  That would be because my daughter can do magic.  It's a special kind of magic where she creates kittens out of thin air.  Like the one that she wanted for her birthday.  The one that we didn't get for her but showed up on our front porch the day after her birthday party.  Yep.  The four legged, long haired, black and white prince of cuteness that currently bears the name 'Meow'.  I'm campaigning for Meow Meow McFargus.  Hubs thinks Meow Meowkins McFargus.

In the bento:  Two miniature pancakes with provolone stars, three crinkle cut french fries, soy sausage links, edamame on a pick, korean red grapes, orange wedges and a sweet panda that contains shredded cheese.

This bento took two dishes to cook: Pancakes and fries went in the oven together, edamame and sausage links went in the same pan to simmer.  The longest part of this was waiting for the oven to heat up!  The panda container was filled with shredded cheese last night and put in the fridge to await the morning bento.

On a side note - did you notice the Tare Panda chopsticks?  Kawaii!!  We arrived early for a movie this past Saturday and I found these while we wandered the mall to kill time.  Love them!!

LCE #13

Shooting Star, weee hooo :) Morningstar Farms Chik patty with cheese star & carrot star in the center. Mashed potatoes with green peas make up the tail.

Sides of blueberries & a strawberry, pickles and cut-out star carrot.

A-chan loved the mashed potatoes and actually ate the peas. (it's always been strange that she would eat champ which is potatoes & peas & onions but never eat peas on their own. If I mix them with mashed potatoes they suddenly become yummy.) I managed to bribe her into eating the carrots by giving her extra blueberries after each bite of carrot. Again, I'm figuring that anything is better than nothing :)