Double Bunnies

A-chan asked for Bunnies in today's bento. She didn't specify more than that so I took the easy road and made simple cheese cutouts. This box has lids which fit down inside a bit - something that typically throws me for a loop. I'm continually over-filling these types of bento boxes and then the lids won't fit on. Today I was very careful and made sure to leave room for the lids!

In the bento: The bunny tier is full of miniature pancakes (all from the freezer) nestled in lettuce with provolone cheese bunnies and heart. The non-bunny tier is filled with cherries, lemon slices, pluot slices, carrot flowers, baby corn slices, soy sausage links and green peas.

Sugar sprinkles got stuck to the cheese for the bunnies' eyes and to decorate the heart. Their fluffy tails are cauliflower. Inside the monkey container is strawberry icing to eat with the pancakes.

And.....Go!

A happy Mokona is going to school with A-chan today. She was a little nervous so I wanted to make her a special charaben. Ah, the magic of the bento! The sight of this one helped turn off the nervous tears and got a sweet smile started instead. For the first day of school A-chan requested fried tofu and a number 1 somewhere in the bento. I remembered the tofu, but forgot about the 1. She reminded me at breakfast and I rectified my mistake with some hasty free-hand cutting.

I can't wait to hear about her adventures today. Almost all of the children that go to her Tae Kwon Do studio are in her class this year!

In the bento: Jasmine rice with furikake, provolone cheese mokona, fried tofu, baby corn spears, blackberries, grapes, a cherry tomato and three baby carrots. Not shown is the soy sauce bottle that somehow never seems to fit :)

The furikake is a mixture of sea salt, toasted sesame seeds and tarragon. It's a very simple flavor to go on the rice and A-chan has liked it a lot in the past.

Mokona's body was cut from provolone cheese slices using an egg shaped cookie cutter for the main body and the baseball bat shape from another cutter for both the feet and the ears. The face was punched from nori, with a sugar dot for the forehead and tiny smudges of sriracha for the cheeks. It was all 'glued' together with a bit of mayo. I first assembled Mokona on a plate while the rice cooled off in the bento box. Once the rice was cool to the touch on the bottom of the box I transferred Mokona on top.

Woohoo, the first day of school photo! We managed to only be three minutes late despite the fact that school started half an hour earlier this year. I believe the reason we were late had to do with the fact that we stopped to snap a photo of her new dress for the first day of school and our cat Purrpurr just had to 'help'.

Friday means pancakes

Pancakes are not a breakfast food to me. I just don't like sweet foods for breakfast. It might be a holdover from my childhood when my Mom was very healthwise and didn't allow sugar in the house. The only exception to this rule is yogurt. I love yogurt for breakfast. In any case, pancakes in our house are good for lunch or dinner but they never appear on the breakfast menu. And I enjoy using these frozen miniatures for bentos because they are so easy to make and I can do so many cute things with them!

Today's pancakes have a thin layer of pink icing to make pancake sandwiches. I first took my tiny heart cutter and cut a heart into the center of the top pancakes.

In the bento: Baby corn covered by a provolone Hello Kitty face, baby tomatoes, soy sausage link,provolone cheese hearts, pancakes sandwiches with icing, an apple bunny and two lemon slices.

Unfortunately I did not pay attention to the type of box that I was using and packed it way too full - the lid wouldn't fit on! There was some major rearranging to get the food to fit without being squished by the lid.

The Hedgehog said to the Kitty

"Isn't this a bland bento?" Hehe :) Okay, I just realized as I was putting up this picture that there is nothing red in this bento. Total Goshiki fail! Oh well. I can't always get the five colors into every bento, but I do try!

In the bento: a small bunch of grapes, a tiny plain onigiri with kitty nori, black olives on a hedgehog pick, blackberries, Jasmine rice hidden underneath sesame carrots, green peas and scrambled tofu. (The scrambled tofu can be replaced by scrambled egg.)

To make scrambled tofu, take extra firm tofu and press the excess moisture out with paper towels. ( For one person I use a 1/6th to 1/4th of a container depending on whether it's for a child or an adult.) Heat 1 TB of sesame oil in a sautee pan. Then slowly squish the block of tofu into the pan through your fingers. It's a strange feeling but also kind of fun! I use chopsticks to stir the small bits round and round in the hot oil, adding a small amount of turmeric and garlic powders. The turmeric turns the tofu yellow and gives it the distinctive 'scrambled egg' look while the garlic takes away the bitter taste of the turmeric.

It can also be made with the classic Iri Tamago recipe by adding small amounts of mirin, soy sauce, sugar and salt.

Another quick bento

Somehow all through the winter and early spring I kept thinking that summer was going to be nice and relaxing. That I would have time to do all those things that I hadn't been able to do during the school year. Ha! This summer has been an on the go adventure of travel and performances. Today as I start to get ready for our next trip to drive to Pennsylvania and camp out for 10 days, I am forced to laugh at myself for those original ideas of summer. Next year I know what I'm getting into so I will be a little better prepared, I hope! In any case, be prepared for an onslaught of really simple and easy bentos as I spare my braincells to calculate for the trip ahead :)

In the bento: A Boca burger sauteed in teriyaki sauce and cut in half, an apple bunny, cherry tomatoes and green peas on picks, baby corn spears, cheese ravioli, and several lovely carrot flowers to top everything off.

Happy Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun. And made from yummy soy turkey, hehe. I love doing space themed bentos and this one was a very easy bento to make! Total cooking time - 5 minutes. Total decorating time - 5 minutes!

In the bento: Garlic pita toast cut into triangles, steamed broccoli, sesame carrots in a lovely pink container, garlic and basil couscous, soy turkey saturn with provolone ring and provolone cheese stars. The strawberry was carried on the side.

Saturn's face was cut from nori using nori punches and 'glued' onto the soy turkey with a tiny bit of mayo. The stars were cut with a tiny cutter but Saturn's ring was cut using my food-only scissors.

Cool guys and contest winners!

And....I'm back! No one could possibly be as surprised as I that during my packing for my multi-state trip I managed to leave my laptop's power cord at home. It was a difficult two weeks without the internet. Now I'm jumping back in with both feet - cause it's time to announce the contest winners, yay!

Akane is the winner of the Bento Donburi. AikoVenus is the winner of the Bento Zoony. Thank you guys so much! I can't wait to see what fantastic creations you make with the new bento boxes :D

I had a great time in Memphis and enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people at Anime Blues Con. I wasn't sure what the weather would hold in Memphis, but it was just as hot there as it is here. There have been way too many 1oo degree days lately! The bento above is all about these sweltering hot summer days: Sunglasses and fruit!

In the bento: Two plain onigiri with nori sunglasses, steamed broccoli, orange wedges, a sakura shaped sugar cookie, a huge strawberry, and some tofu hidden underneath the strawberry.