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!

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.

Monster High Bento

A-chan's 9th birthday was this past weekend.  I can't believe she's 9!  How did she suddenly become so grown up?  Her birthday party theme was Monster High which she loves.  She's also dressing up as a Monster High character for Halloween.  So we went all out with Monster High everything, including a bento.  My girl even made her own birthday cake this year (with a little help from a great friend) which was, of course, a Monster High cake.  I am so proud of her.

In the bento: Rice, veggie hotdogs, steamed broccoli, baby corn, grapes and a strawberry.

The Skullette was cut from nori, provolone cheese and pink egg sheet.  The letters were cut from American cheese.  I wanted to do a more complicated birthday bento, but kept it simple so that I could also work on making her school birthday treat.

For her school party this year she decided on a healthier approach to treats instead of cupcakes.  I absolutely loved doing the rainbow fruit skewers!  Not only was it fun but man was it easier than making 32 cupcakes.

She did a great job with her cake!

5 Days til Disney

The official countdown to our Disney world vacation starts with this bento lunch!  My character building skills are a little rusty, particularly in the facial detail areas and I could probably critique this bento for ages.  But honestly it's only 5 days til Disney so who cares?!  I knew that A-chan would be excited.  However, my current level of excitement was unanticipated.  I could have done a Micky Mouse bento which might have been simpler, but I wanted a challenge.  I wanted a princess.  So here is the favorite princess of my 16 year old self: Jasmine.

In the bento: Cheese sandwich hiding under Jasmine, strawberry slices, lemon slices, checkered cucumber slices and veggie hotdogs with carrot heart centers and a provolone cheese star with a carrot #5.

Jasmine was created with a background of provolone cheese, soy turkey for skin, cheddar cheese for jewelry and several colors of egg sheets for everything else.  Her little bird was made from white egg sheet, soy turkey and carrot.  I used nori for her eyelashes, nose and lips to give some definition.

I drew the character out on a piece of paper then cut each piece out around the edges of the paper with either my food scissors or an exacto knife blade.  Several different layers give a partial 3D illusion, especially with the hair.  A-chan loved it and gave me huge smiles, oohs and aahs this morning.  This might be the best loved lunch of the school year so far.

Disney owns the copyright to Princess Jasmine.

Santa!

OMG, it's only a week away! How many bento items are on your list to Santa?  I've asked the big guy for quite a lot of bento gear.   Christmas is very different for us this year and A-chan is having a rough time.  We're trying to do our best to be jolly and enjoy the season and that includes making Holiday bentos.  I love using red bell pepper in holiday bentos.  It's the only time of year that A-chan will accept them in her lunches.  Note that she doesn't actually eat them - she just allows me to put them in to make Santa hats.  And in the background is part of the Advent Calendar that I made for her this year:  cupcakes!

In the bento: Lots of rice, eggsheet, veggie hot dog, red bell pepper, lemon, black olives, steamed broccoli and raspberries.

Santa's face is made with pink eggsheet with nori for the eyes and nose.  There are hotdog slices for his cute cheeks and a huge piece of bell pepper for his hat with some lemon peel and nori for the bells. I am delighted to have found some liquid food coloring recently.  It gives a much more even color to eggsheets than the gel food coloring.  The pink turned out very nicely!  I wish now that I there was more definition between Santa's hat and his hair.

The amazing Karaimame of Acquiring Taste inspired me to start doing creative advent calendars a couple of years ago.  (Hers are incredible!)  This year I decided on a cupcake theme.  There just happened to be a mini cupcake stand in my cabinet that had never been used.   I wanted to do something with it.  Getting tiny gifts that would fit inside the miniature cupcakes was an extra challenge.  Making it was so much fun and it's very cute sitting on our kitchen counter.  The cats thought it was a great game to knock the cupcakes off the stand so in the end I taped them all on.

Failed Octopi

These guys were supposed to be Octopi.  They were great Octopi.  Until I put them in the box and then they became mountains?  Octopi are all about the legs apparently and if you can't see the legs...well, you know.   Oh well.  They were still fun to make and A-chan enjoyed eating them so they are still a success, right?

In the bento: Inari zushi, steamed broccoli, blackberries, baby tomatoes, mashed kabocha and veggie hot dogs. On the side is a container of ketchup for the hot dogs.

The Inari zushi mountains/octopi have hot dog cheeks, nori eyes and mouths with sesame seeds liven up their expressions.  On the inside of the inari was rice mixed with furikake.

Have a great Wednesday!

JapanFest Day One

JapanFest was incredible.  A-chan and I had a great time!  I am extremely grateful to my two helpers, Andy and Lucci, without whom I would have been lost.  To everyone who came to the presentation or stopped by the booth, thank you.  It was lovely to meet all of you and get to spend time chatting with so many wonderfully nice people!  I'm going to break up my post about JapanFest into two parts because otherwise it would be way too long.  At the bottom of the post are a few pics from the first day.

On Saturday I had made A-chan a bento but her allergies had aggravated her asthma and she had to stay home with her grandma.  She didn't get to eat the bento but  I got to display her lunch at the booth instead which was very cool.  Since I had made a white bear during the week I decided to make a brown bear for her to eat at the event.

In the bento: Fried rice onigiri bear, baby tomato on a panda pick, steamed cauliflower and broccoli, veggie hot dogs, baby corn spear, a strawberry, a carrot flower and some blackberries in a silicon container with a tiger pick.

To make the teddy bear I took a small portion of fried rice without veggies and made lots of little onigiri.  Since the fried rice is a little oily I used saran wrap to form the onigiri and keep the oil from getting on my hands.  His features were cut from provolone cheese and nori, stuck to his body with a tiny bit of mayo.  The nose was a pick stuck through the cheese and into the rice ball.  The vegetarian hot dogs were cooked before cutting the heart shapes with a tiny heart cutter.

The white teddy bear was awfully cute but I think that I prefer this one.  Which one do you like better?

Part of the ginza.  This booth sold yummy adzuki ice cream , dango and mochi!

I'm not sure what this structure is called.  Our booth was right across from it 

Japanese Archery!  So awesome. I got to handle a bow and practice drawing it. How I wish that I lived in Atlanta so that I could take lessons!

Hot Dog Lions

I remember when A-chan was about three years old and I was delighted with the use of hot dogs that could be cut up in clever ways for bentos.  They looked so appetizing and fun that I couldn't wait until she was old enough that it was safe to give her hot dogs that weren't cut into minuscule pieces.  This style of hot dog use was one of my favorites to look at.  I was in a big hurry so my cuts are very messy and not nearly as pretty as I would have liked, but I'm still happy with the hot dog love!

In the bento: Two tiny peanut butter circle lion sammies surrounded by hot dog manes.  Boiled edamame, baby carrots, baby corn, grapes and a large cherry tomato cut in half.

The lion faces were punched from nori and secured to the bread with a tiny dab of peanut butter on the back which was applied with the tip of a toothpick.  The hot dogs were cooked then sliced almost all the way through, then secured in a circle with small pieces of uncooked soba noodle.  In the background is the container that I filled with ketchup for dipping hot dogs in.

Boy 'n' Girl Bento

Pierogies are easy to make into fun bento pals.  These are potato and onion pierogies that were first boiled and then pan fried in a little bit of butter, yum!  I'm not very happy with how the clementine turned out.  The idea was to provide a start for A-chan to peel it herself.  My exacto knife met with a horrible rusty end over the summer though, so I had to try and cut the peel design with a regular knife.  Hmm.  Yeah, need a new exacto knife asap!

In the bento:  Two pierogies, green peas on picks, steamed broccoli, tiny clementine, pomegranate seeds and blueberries, veggie hot dogs.

This is definitely The Week of the Egg Sheet!  The boy and girl have hair cut from egg sheets, including the flowers on her ponytails.  Their faces were punched from nori.  I love how the veggie hot dogs look!  After they were cooked, I used a tiny heart shaped cutter for the centers and while it was still in place used a knife to cut around it to create the vertical slices.

Good Morning Piggy!

Here is another sweet potato bao bento.  The cute piggy is to make up for the fact that A-chan isn't getting school pizza this Friday.  My sacrificial offering (this one was supposed to be my bao) seemed to be accepted with much pleasure.

In the bento: Sweet potato bao, carrot flowers, blackberries, veggie hot dogs, apple chunks and steamed broccoli.

The piggy face was made with pink egg sheet, provolone cheese and nori.  All the pieces were 'glued' on by a tiny bit of mayo.  The tiny little cheeks were the cutouts from the nose - I didn't want to waste them!  The flowers on the apple chunks are provolone cheese with more tiny egg sheet cutouts for the centers.

I'm not sure why but bentos that contain pink egg sheet never show the real color in the picture.  One day I hope to get a perfect pink bento picture!  If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears.

The last time I posted a sweet potato bao bento I was asked for a picture of the package.  I thought it might be a good idea to post it for everyone to see - it's much easier to identify in the store if you know what you're looking for!  To cook this bao I put it into a microwaveable bowl from the freezer, covered it with plastic wrap and microwaved it for 50 seconds.  Beware cooking it for too long because it will turn into a pink rock.

Hot Dog Ballerinas

For child-size mouths eating a hot dog in a bun can be a challenge.  Cutting them into hot dog and bun rounds is one of my favorite ways of making it a little easier.  Instead of applying ketchup liberally to the bun like I normally would, there is instead a dipping container.  I gave them cute little faces out of nori but didn't try to make them look like anything in particular.  A-chan dubbed them ballerinas and pointed out how the bun parts looked like raised arms.  I loved it!

In the bento: Vegetarian hot dog and bun rounds, a halved cherry tomato, an orange wedge, blackberries, steamed broccoli, corn on the cob and cheddar cubes on musical picks.

The entire hot dog would not fit into the bento without getting smooshed so the remainder became part of my lunch.

My Friend Hello Kitty

It is possible to make a bento using only one hand.  Barely.  With a bunch of cheating. Using my left hand for things has been an adventure today!  If anyone ever tells you thumbs are over rated, don't believe them.  Since I am impaired I fell back on my favorite bento character to decorate A-chan's lunch today.

In the bento: Two cheese sandwiches, steamed broccoli, apple heart, blueberries on a pick, veggie hot dog, baby carrots and a cherry tomato.

Hello Kitty is made from provolone cheese, nori and a veggie hot dog bow.  The tools make it very easy to create Hello Kitty and I love the way she makes A-chan smile.

Hot dog mouse

The cute little mouse hiding in this bento was inspired by Maki Ogawa at Cute Obento.  Her amazingly cute hot dog and sausage characters have been making me oooh and aaah for years!  I haven't been able to come close to creating the cuteness that she does, but her tutorials and creative ideas keep me trying.

In the bento: Vegetarian hot dog mouse, cherry tomato halves, grapes on heart picks, steamed broccoli, vegetable fried rice with baby corn, green peas, carrots, onion, scrambled tofu and shitake mushrooms.

Half of a hot dog makes the mouse.  There is a wedge cut out to allow room for his ears which are just hot dog slices with provolone cheese centers.  His mouth is a provolone cheese heart with a tiny pink sugar dot for a nose.  He has a little tail but I don't know if it's really visible against the tomato.

We're off to the Georgia Aquarium for today's adventure.  I'm looking forward to it, especially spending some time watching the Beluga whales which are my favorite!  A-chan is excited about petting the sharks and rays, she thinks she's tall enough to reach into the petting tank now.  (I sure hope so!)

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.

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.

It's the Circus!

This bento was completely unplanned.  When I woke this morning and realized that I'd put not one second's thought into the bento for today, there was a moment of panic.  I rallied with the first cup of morning coffee and managed to pull together a few ideas. Since I had no plan, I decided to try and use some picks that I don't often get to use.  The loveliness of the veggie hot dogs is something of a miracle but I am rather pleased with them!

In the bento: Bowtie pasta sprinkled with feta cheese, black olive slices and carrot stars, veggie hot dogs, steamed broccoli, chunks of peaches, a black olive and carrot circle.

The seal balances three circus balls made from slices of the largest black olives that I have ever seen.  A-chan chose the can labeled 'Colossal' and they do indeed match that description.  Carrot stars and nori star centers make for a neat decoration.  Balancing happily, the elephant is on top of another circus ball made from carrot and black olive.

My husband recently let me know that he does not wish for our marriage to continue.  It was quite a shock and I'm still shaken.  I will be continuing to make bentos, of course, and to post when I can.  My posting might be a bit erratic for a while as I adjust to a new schedule.  I'm embarking on an adventure and going back to school!  I have only just applied and still have to be accepted, and I also must take a placement test in two weeks.  Demonstrating good study habits will be good not only for myself but also for A-chan. Plus,  school gives me an excuse to make more bentos for myself.

Moroccan Yumminess

Arrrgh!  No matter where I positioned the butterfly or what angle the photo was from, this butterfly just looked awkward to me.  It's still a nice butterfly and A-chan liked it a lot, so why am I worrying about it?!  I shouldn't, right?  Today I made myself a bento too.  It was yummy!  Have you ever been to a Moroccan restaurant?  If you haven't, drop everything and go now.  Yes, I mean it - now!  Both of our bentos have leftovers from the Moroccan feast that I cooked the other night.  Not only is Moroccan food delicious it makes a ton of leftovers which just tickles pink the freezer stash lover in me.

In A-chan's bento:  Garlic and Basil couscous, Moroccan chickpeas, carrot butterfly, strawberries, steamed broccoli, carrot hearts, veggie hotdog flowers with green pea centers, and a container of feta cheese.

In my bento: Garlic and basil couscous, Moroccan vegetable stew, pan seared tofu and a perilla leaf.

The sweet Julie Moore got me thinking about couscous recently, making me realize how long it had been since I'd made Moroccan food.  I am grateful - I love this stuff! Go have a peek at the post I just made with the couscous, stew and tofu recipes.

Unfortunately A-chan does not share my relish in Moroccan cuisine and totally refused to eat the Vegetable stew.  That's why her bento has only the chickpeas, each one individually picked out of the stew to go into her bento.  Yep, that's how much I love my girl :)

A Heart-full bento

This bento turned out to have a theme, though I didn't know it until I was taking the picture.  Hmm.  I guess it's almost Valentine's Day!  Oh boy, we get to make chocolates!  A-chan is already gushing about the chocolate making tradition and has started counting down the days.  I was informed this morning at breakfast that there are only 19 days til Valentine's.

In the bento: A heart shaped container filled with chickpeas and feta, steamed broccoli, baby carrots, two bamboo picks with veggie hot dog slices and provolone cheese hearts, a lemon slice, two potato and cheese pierogies, pear slices, blueberries and a tiny tomato on a heart pick.

I find it difficult to make the heart shaped container fit into my bentos so it usually sits unused in my bento gear box.  However, this bento was designed around it!  It was the first thing to go in and I worked everything else around it.

Bearly Corndogs

IchibanCon was amazing!  We had a wonderful time meeting new people and enjoying the ...well, everything! Everyone was incredibly friendly.  The hallway decorations were way cool.  I loved the panels that I got to go see and desperately wished that I had been able to get to more of them.  I'm hoping that I get to go back next year :)  And we even got home safely despite getting lost in Greenville, SC in a vain search for a Thai restaurant.  (That was an adventure...)

While I usually try to pack A-chan's bentos with more healthy food than junk food, sometimes I just can't help slipping in some good old fashioned corndogs.  These, however, are better than regular corn dogs.  They are miniature vegetarian corndogs with no sticks!  It can't get better than that!

In the bento: Three miniature corndog bears, a cherry tomato, steamed broccoli, checkerboard apple, two potato and onion pierogies, carrot flowers and two plaid picks for fun.

The corndogs took only 60 secs to microwave to perfection.  The pierogies took longer since they had to be boiled and then pan fried in butter, but they were still under the ten minute mark.

The bear faces and ears were cut from provolone cheese (surprise, surprise, lol) and nori.  Tiny pieces of uncooked somen noodles were stuck halfway through the ears and half into the dogs.  Ketchup was applied with the blunt end of a toothpick to create cheeks.

Snow Lady

Rush here, rush there, rush everywhere!  It seems like there isn't enough time to get everything done today.  We have three sick cats so I'm spending a good bit of today at the Vet's office.  Luckily this bento was really fast and easy to make, not requiring much brain power.  Which was good because I forgot to turn on the coffee maker this morning.  A snowman is always a must for winter bentos.  I realized after I had gotten the body into the box that there wasn't enough room for a hat.  So it became a snowlady instead.

In the bento: Three onigiri for the snowlady, veggie hotdogs, mango chunks, carrot flowers, steamed broccoli and a strawberry.

The Snowlady's buttons are pomegranate seeds.  Her eyes and mouth are nori but her nose is carrot and her cheeks were cut from veggie hotdog.  She has a bit of nori hair and a carrot bow.  The scarf was cut from spring onion which made a wonderfully frayed end when cut lengthwise with kitchen scissors.

A few tiny snowflakes were punched from a mamenori sheet.  I didn't have any natural color mamenori left so I had to use the orange.

Here is A-chan holding her kitten and a sneak peek of the Christmas tree.  The kitten is already getting big. I love this pic with her tongue sticking out!  We're still working on Holiday decorating.  I don't think we'll have any time for it today but hopefully tomorrow will see all the boxes emptied and Christmas cheer spread around the house.