Pandas in Hoodies

Brrrrr!  It was 27 degrees last night.  That's cold, y'all!  A-chan was desperately hoping for snow but the powdery white stuff did not make an appearance in our area.  Still - really cold.  And I thought these cute pandas could use some snuggly hoodies to keep warm in.

In the bento:  Panda inari zushi, an apple bunny, steamed broccoli, a carrot musical note, tofurky slices and cream cheese rolls,  and lovely chunks of plum.

The panda's faces were punched from nori and provolone cheese.  I used a tiny bit of ketchup for their cheeks, but not enough to affect the flavor.  The plum bits were arranged in a silicon container so that the juice didn't mix with everything else.  One of A-chan's new fav snacks is soy-turkey and cream cheese rolls.  They look so pretty in a bento!

I can't believe it's so cold already.  Stay warm out there!

Sleeping Pandas

A-chan had asked for panda onigiri.  I had inari that I needed to use before they went bad.  We compromised and gave each little panda onigiri their own inari bed.  I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but I think that they are absolutely adorable!  This bento has way too much orange in it - I didn't notice how many carrots were there until looking at the pictures.  That's okay, A-chan loves carrots!

In the bento: Panda inari zushi/onigiri, steamed broccoli, carrot flowers, an apple bunny, baby corn, a pick of edamame,  a container of sesame carrots and two nectarine slices.

The inari skins were lightly boiled in a mixture of water, soy sauce, mirin and brown sugar for several minutes and then dried. I folded the tops of the opening inside and pushed the onigiri halfway into the inari pockets.  Then I added the nori, sesame seed and sugar dot details.

I use mustard seeds in cooking quite a bit, particularly Indian food.  It just occurred to me recently that they would make fantastic bento decorative touches!  I like how they look on these carrot flowers and loved the fact that they were easy to put in place and didn't require as much fiddling as sesame seeds.

A Funny Bao

One of our favorite things to buy at Super H mart are sweet potato bao.  We buy them frozen and save them for treats and fun bentos.  The outside is a mix of pink and purple and is so soft when they are steamed, just perfection!  Spring is here, the sun is shining, birds are tweeting up a storm outside so today is a perfect day for a little sweet potato treat.

In the bento: Sweet potato bao, steamed broccoli, half a cherry tomato, tofu and edamame on a pick, blueberries and orange slices.

Taking inspiration from Sherimiya's bao creativity, I cut the ears from the top layer of the bao using an exacto knife.  It wasn't as easy as I'd thought it would be!  The eyes, nose and mouth are provolone and nori, the cheeks are soy bologna.  Simple, tasty and fun :)

Favorite Things

There are very few bentos where I don't use a container of some kind.  They are so useful! I love them for fruit, stirfry and cheese.  Today I used my absolute favorite container to pack black eyed peas.  The peas are a bit juicy and this container with its lid is perfect for things that might lead to a sloppy messy bento disaster otherwise.

In the bento: The smaller tier holds plain spaghetti noodles, a tomato flower and pear leaf.  The larger tier contains the panda with black eyed peas, Morningstar Farms chik nuggets, carrot flowers, steamed broccoli, orange slices and panda picks with blueberries.

Not shown are a small bottle full of grated Parmesan cheese, a container of ketchup and a soy sauce bottle.

Here is my new fun thing!  I'm calling it the Bento Treasures link-up.  I want to know what container is your favorite.  Link -up to a picture of a bento with your favorite container in use.  It can be one of your bentos, it can be one of my bentos.  It can be someone else's bento (as long as there is proper attribution, of course).  If you don't make bentos or don't own any containers yet, show me a container that you'd like to have.   I'll have a new theme for the next four weeks.  Let's find out more about our bento obsession!  

Panda Sammie Cuteness

Today is going to be a blast from the past!  I'm going to resurrect some ancient primitive technology skills to demo for A-chan's class. We're talking way back. Only a few of the artifacts that were created in our days of primitive skills glory will get to shine today.  The ones I'm most proud of were the bone needle, awl and pins that I carved with flint tools that I knapped myself - it was so cool.  The part that A-chan is looking forward to the most is the atlatl demonstration.  That's the one I'm nervous about.  While my husband is a spear throwing genius, my skills in that area generally lead to embarrassment.  But the kids will still enjoy it and get to learn about ancient techniques to go along with their early human class arc.  What does this have to do with a panda sandwich in a bento?  Um...nothing...I'm just totally excited!

In the bento: Panda sandwich filled with cheese and mayo, nectarine slices, steamed broccoli, baby tomatoes with musical picks, lemon slices, a flowery container of tofu, baby corn and carrot stirfry, cheese stars.

The panda's features were cut with a nori punch and glued to the bread with tiny amounts of mayo that I applied with a toothpick.  The same technique was used to place the sesame seeds for the eyes.  The veggies and tofu were quick stir fried with with ginger, garlic and soy sauce.

Hide and Seek Panda

Happy Monday!  Did you have a wonderful Thanksgiving?  I hope so!  Ours was peaceful and crafty.  There are wild turkeys strutting through our back yard this morning.  I wonder if they know we're vegetarians?

I'm slightly sad to greet this rainy Monday morning, we were enjoying the no-school laziness of the last week.  Bentoing helps to make up for it, though.  Knowing that I would get to play with food got me awake and through the early shower!

In the bento: Rice, apple bunny, pan-seared tofu, carrot circles, steamed broccoli, lots of tiny black olives on picks and a heart full of pomegranate seeds.

Do you see the panda playing hide and seek in the snow?  His face was punched from nori and put in place on the rice after the rice had been given a chance to cool. If you put the nori on too soon while the rice is still hot there will be nori shrinkage.  His cheeks were cut from pickled ginger (gari).

Goos luck to everyone adjusting back to regular schedules after the holiday!

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!!

Panda Luv

Whoa.  It was 35 degrees out there when we went to school this morning.  Thirty-five.  Degrees.  35!  Good thing the glove box is installed in the foyer since we certainly needed warm fingers as we ran out the door.

For today's bento I wanted to play around with my letter cutters.  My only complaint about them is that they don't have the centers cut out.  So far I've been unhappy with my efforts to cut them out by hand and wanted to try something different.  I used the inside bow area of the Hello Kitty bow cutter to create the P's space.  The D's space was cut using the teddy bear mouth cutter.  The spaces for the two A's were made with a triangle that I cut down to proper size using scissors.  I'm happy with the results!

In the bento: Grape halves, pomegranate seeds, steamed broccoli, blueberries on panda picks, a miniature corn croquette and two tiny slices of Scottish Flat Pie, provolone cheese and soy bologna letters and hearts.

The Flat Pie is our traditional Halloween meal.  It never fails to provide comfort and stamina for the long stints of candy-hunting.  Potato and onion slices lightly fried with olive oil, butter and garlic, wrapped in a biscuit crust and smothered with cheese.  Yum!