Doo Bee Doo Bee Doo Bah

As Agent P's shield says, it's only two days til vacation!  One of the things A-chan is very excited about it the Agent P adventure at Epcot.  That will probably be the very first thing we do.  When I'd planned out this bento in my head a whole lot more letters fit on the banner,  but reality left me with only a small part of the theme song.  A-chan started singing it as soon as she saw her bento and we both sang Perry's theme song in the car on the way to school this morning.

In the bento: Rice, baby corn, frozen blueberries, a cherry tomato, steamed broccoli and Japanese curry.
Agent P was constructed from blue, white and orange egg sheets with some soy turkey for his hat and eyes.  His shield and theme song banner were cut from provolone cheese and carrots.

To make the character I first traced the outside of the bento box, then traced the size of the inside container.  Then I drew Agent P on the inside of the box.  Next I cut him out as one large shape, traced him on another piece in order to have two copies to work with.  The first Agent P was then cut into his various parts: Hat, eyes, bill, shield.  One large Agent P was cut out of egg sheet and then all the other bits were cut and assembled with some mayo on the backs to help keep the pieces glued in place.

Agent P is copyrighted to the Disney co.  (Is copyrighted a word?  It doesn't sound right...)

Curry with Chickens

Wow, it's already Friday!  I can't believe that the first week of school is over already.  Here are some cute chicks to usher in the weekend with my fav recipe - Curry rice.  It no longer phases A-chan when I add things to the basic curry recipe.  This time I went back to spinach, chopping it very fine in an attempt to get it past the 7 year old radar.  When we ate the first meal of the batch (one batch will usually make 3-4 meals for us) she took a few bites before challenging me on the green stuff.  "It's spinach," I said.  She proceeded to eat the rest with no comments.  Can I consider that a spinach victory?

In the bento: Vegetarian curry with two onigiri on top, egg sheet chicks, grapes, plum, steamed green beans and a carrot butterfly.

The egg sheet ovals for the chicks were cut with scissors and placed onto the onigiri with a little bit of curry gravy to hold them in place.  Their beaks were cut from carrots and the cheeks were sriracha dabbed on with the end of a toothpick.  The little flowers are egg sheet with red sugar dots in the center and they have leaves of fresh parsley.

South Korean Flag

Today we are getting ready to travel!  Our first weekend adventure this month will be in Charlotte, NC for a Tae Kwon Do tournament!  In honor of all the practice and hard work that A-chan has been doing I made a South Korean flag bento for her.  The South Korean flag is synonymous with Tae Kwon do in the US, showing up everywhere in the sport.  Many people, including myself until recently, don't realize the significance and meaning behind the symbolism.  It's fascinating - check it out on Wikipedia!

My flag is a pastel version.  I'm having trouble getting true reds and blues in my egg sheets.  But since A-chan still recognized it, I'm okay with the pretty pastel colors.

In the bento: Japanese curry and rice, raspberries, steamed broccoli, baby corn, grapes and a daikon radish flower with a cucumber leaf.

The flag is made from egg sheets and nori.  The background was cut with scissors while the center symbol was cut with a circular shaped cutter and an exacto knife.  The egg sheets made the nori start to curl up so the trigrams aren't even.  I also used the exacto knife to do a bit of radish carving to make the inner part of the flower before embellishing it with sugar sprinkles.

Just a Little Mouse

This little mouse is full of curry.  Even healthier than normal vegetarian Japanese curry to be precise.  I'm very proud of this particular curry because I managed to sneak baby spinach into it by cutting the spinach into fine strips.  I don't think A-chan noticed.  She certainly ate every bite last night so I'm considering this another triumph for nutritious eating!  So far I've managed to sneak kabocha, cauliflower, zucchini and spinach into our curry.  Only one at a time, though.  The next challenge is to add two or more and see if she balks, hehe.  I have been enjoying these small changes to our regular recipes.  Even though they are not large portions of extra vegetables, my philosophy is better some than none.  We are eating a little healthier every day!

In the bento:  Bread and curry rolls, carrot flowers, black olives, corn on the cob, a huge strawberry and steamed broccoli.

My favorite parts of the mouse are the corn kernel earrings.  Her face was made with provolone cheese, nori, ketchup cheeks and a pick for the nose.  The large carrot flowers were decorated with black sesame seeds, the small flowers have either a sugar dot or a tiny provolone cheese circle.

The filled bread rolls are inspired by Bentolicious.  Lia has a fantastic tutorial on these cute bento sandwiches!

Curry is Yummy!

Coming home from a trip to find that I had large amounts of Japanese curry already made and waiting in the freezer brought forth feelings akin to winning the lottery.  This stuff is a perfect foil to the rainy, dreary weather that is plaguing us this week.  Add to that the fact that it freezes well and was awesomely easy to reheat and you know why I'm in love with this dish!

In the bento: Japanese curry and rice, chunks of pear in a container, baby corn spears and a cherry tomato.

The curry contains onion, carrot, potato and tofu.  There is a small layer of rice underneath the curry sauce in addition to the sidewall of rice to keep the curry contained.  A carrot flower with black sesame seeds and snap pea leaves gives the curry a little pizzazz.  I am always amazed at what the black sesame seeds do to carrots - the orange color suddenly pops!  The panda pick just adds a tiny bit of cuteness :)

Here is a link to my Japanese Curry recipe.  It's very simple and totally incredible.  (I think everyone should try it!)