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!

Mustachioed Bento

It seems like a lot of the kids at my daughter's school are obsessed with mustaches.  They must be cool. That means A-chan loves mustaches too, of course.  Therefore I present the mustachioed bento!  I really love how it turned out.  Cutting the mustaches out of nori was a lot of fun.

In the bento:  Corn on the cob, blackberries, steamed broccoli, black beans, a Morning Star Farms Chik patty, veggie hot dog flowers, half of a cherry tomato and some pan fried potato slices.

I used scissors to cut the mustaches from a sheet of nori.  The eyes were cut from provolone cheese and nori.  It was very simple to do but it made a huge hit!

Minecraft Christmas

I'm going to be honest with you.  It's a difficult proposition to take a pretty picture of a pig.  Especially a Minecraft pig which is blocky and awkward and has eyes pointing in opposite directions.  But the strawberries in this picture are beautiful which totally makes up for the pig.  As you might be guessing, my daughter is in love with Minecraft.  One might even say that she is obsessed.  So I'm trying to accommodate this new found love with some charabens to match, which ought to be fairly easy considering that they are all square shapes.  I'm finding it to not be quite as easy as I'd thought!

In the bento:  Sushi rice, strawberries, asian pear, carrot flowers, soy-turkey flower, and cucumber slices.

The pig was made of pink colored egg sheet, soy turkey, nori and raw turnip slices.  His santa hat was made from half of a strawberry and a raw turnip.

It's Holiday Time!

The holidays are here again!  We are a little slower getting into the holiday spirit this year than usual.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?  Bento-wise we've been going strong.  This time of year is so much fun for character bentos with a virtual plethora of Santa-related food stuffs.  I love having an excuse to buy lots of red bell peppers.  

In the bento:  Lots of rice, red pepper, blackberries, kiwi slices, clementine slices, and some fried tofu nuggets.

Santa is made from rice, egg sheet face with nori and sugar dot details, red pepper for his hat with cucumber leaves and orange peel holly berries.  The little snowflakes are nori on top of provolone cheese circles.

Sweet Kitten

I love how this bento turned out!  So kawaii that I can't stand it.  One thing that I want everyone to know - practice is the key to cuteness.  After years of making onigiri kitties, I think I might have hit on the penultimate cute one.  Or ... maybe I'm biased.  Either way, the more you make bentos the more awesome they will get, I promise.  My girl's birthday is coming up soon and I'm already beginning to dread the day when she grows up so much that she doesn't want cute things in her lunches.  What will I do?  I'll have to start making them for me.

In the bento: Two onigiri with a bed of rice and black sesame seeds underneath, blackberries, steamed broccoli, cherry tomato, checkered apple, teriyaki tofu, lemon slice and carrot hearts.

The kitty's eyes and nose were uncooked black soy beans and his tail and other details were made with provolone cheese.  His whiskers were cut from nori.

Because it's time for Fall

There is a definite chill in the air which means that it's time for Pumpkin flavored everything, warm socks and the 'poing' sound of acorns pelting the car roof.  After so many years of making bento lunches some trends have shown up.  Fall = Totoro.  It has now become an official household tradition that the first fall bento includes Totoro.

In the bento: Totoro onigiri with black sesame seeds, black olives, strawberries, corn on the cob, clementine slices, a huge carrot leaf, steamed edamame and vegetarian hotdogs.

Totoro has black sesame seeds mixed in with the rice for a grayish color.  His belly and eyes are of provolone cheese and nori, but his nose was cut from a black olive.  The ears were made separately and are affixed to his head with uncooked udon noodles.  A-chan said that she though he looked more like a bunny than Totoro, but he was still cute so it's okay.

There was a lot of hidden food in this bento.  To get the corn perfect looking I cut off a ragged end but put it underneath Totoro to angle him up a little.  Another strawberry and clementine slice were underneath the fruit and more steamed edamame were crammed around under the black olive soot sprites.

Lions and a Tiger

This bento represents another win in the freezer stash column.  These vegetarian tsukune patties were part of a huge batch that I made over the weekend, most of which were frozen for future bento consumption.  I microwaved them for 30 seconds before pan sauteeing them for a lovely brown color.  Freezer stash is the only way to go for easy morning bento prep!

In the bento: Plain sushi rice with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds, veggie tsukune patties, a clementine, steamed edamame, a checkered apple and a cone of pomegranate seeds.

The lion's manes were cut from egg sheet.  To get a bit of color difference I used one side of egg sheet for the top lion and the opposite side for the bottom.   One side of egg sheet generally is lighter than the other.  I reversed that color for the ears so that they would stand out a little more.  Their faces are made from provolone and nori.  I've been having fun playing around with ways to decorate all the clementines that came in the huge bag I bought.  The tiger's ears were just one cut with my kitchen scissors and then a gentle pull to get them to stand up.  I 'glued' on the nori stripes and face with a tiny bit of mayo.  More steamed edamame were hidden under the apple.