Girl Scouts Bento

A friend of mine who is a Girl Scout troupe leader here in town asked me to come and talk about bentos at their meeting last night.  The girls are doing world studies and this week's theme was Japan.  I took along a lot of show and tell items including this bento.  It was a lot of fun!  The girls were a lot more interested than I initially thought they would be.  They made fantastic observations and had great questions for me.  We used the cling film method of onigiri making to let each of the girls make their own.  Most made ball shapes but some made hearts.  I took along some nori punches and nori sheets so that they could each decorate their onigiri with faces.

In the bento: Two onigiri with cucumber decoration, carrot ribbons, grapes, a corn croquette, a cherry tomato, two cucumber slices and two veggie hot dog flowers with green pea centers.

The 100 year celebration logo was carved out of cucumber with an exacto knife.  It's a bit rough around the edges but I'm pretty proud of it for a free-hand cutting that I've never done before!  It's held onto the onigiri with a tiny bit of uncooked somen noodle - one end poked into the cucumber and the other into the rice.  The numbers were cut from provolone cheese and the letters cut from more cucumber peel with my letter cutters.  This bento also features a soy sauce bottle that it actually inside the box!  The cute little pink rabbit bottle is from a set that was in my Christmas stocking.

A Study in Color

Here are two bento pictures that have bad background color choices.  The yellow is overpowering in the top one, and the red overpowers the bottom.  Even though these are not great pictures, I still like the bentos!  The top bento was one of mine while the other shows a bento for myself and one for A-chan that we recently took for lunch on a long trip.

In the top bento: Half a golden plum, sugar snap peas wrapped in soy turkey, carrot flowers, colossal black olives, Korean sweet potato slices and two curry filled onigiri.

The curry filled onigiri were an experiment.  I wasn't sure whether they would be too messy, but they turned out quite perfect!  A tiny taste of curry and vegetables in the center.  You can see the curry gravy barely peeking through the rice on the sides.

In the bottom bentos: Rice mixed with tofu soboro, apple slices, grapes, carrot flowers, raspberries , black olives.  My bento has a wonderful ribbon of sriracha hot sauce.

Normally the tofu soboro would be layered on top of the rice.  But since there was a good likelihood of eating in the car I wanted to try and prevent as much mess as possible.  

It's been a while since I've posted and I apologize.  Last week was crazy!  I did pass my huge test and the great news is that I have officially been accepted into college!  I'm both a little scared and a lot excited.  I can't wait to get started, it's going to be a great adventure.  

Pastitsio Bento

Ahhh, Monday.  The sun is shining but it is as cold as all get out!  I've never been exactly sure what that phrase meant.  My grandparents used it a lot as I was growing up and it is now part of my brain function whether I understand it or not.  Might as well use it, right?  Today's bento of leftover vegetarian Pastitsio is perfect for this weather and it's all for me.  Happy Meatless Monday!

The package of sesame leaves that I picked up last night is the excuse for making myself a bento today.  They looked so pretty and it's been a long time since I've done anything experimental food-wise.  These are actually Perilla leaves which are related to Basil and Mint, but are often marketed under the name Sesame leaves.  Since I'm allergic to Mint, today's experiment is very cautious.  If I have no reactions today I will be more adventurous later in the week.  I love how the leaf looks in the bento - can't wait to actually try tasting it!

A-chan chose Starfruit as her food experiment.  So far she hasn't liked it, but I am so proud of her for trying it!  And since she doesn't like it that just means more for me...

In the bento:  Vegetarian Pastitsio, Perilla leaf, an almond, baby carrots, a huge cherry tomato, blackberries, steamed broccoli, a slice of starfruit and an orange slice.

Pastitsio is a Greek meat and pasta casserole.  I adapted a recipe to be made with Morningstar Farms recipe crumbles.  The recipe is posted on my other blog so if you're interested, go check it out.  It makes a huge amount!  (And you can substitute real meat for the fake meat if you happen to be a carnivore.  Just sayin')