Desert Camel and Palm Bento Lunch!

I attempted a Japanese-style bento today with rice, scrambled egg with mirin, miso-seasoned ground pork, spinach and steamed carrots. Not shown is a tiny bottle of soy for extra seasoning. It could be eaten at room temperature, but it's probably better warm. Since I am paranoid about using plastic in the microwave, I used a flat rectangular glass Pyrex dish we had as the bento box.

Also, as long as you use wheat-free soy, this is a gluten free meal!

I think it came out pretty cute! I made the rice this morning and put a layer of it on the bottom. It's pretty thin, so there should be enough toppings to mix in. The camel was made by using a camel cookie cutter. I put it down on the rice and filled it with the cooked miso ground pork, and just tapped it down with a fork. When I pulled up the cookie cutter, it surprisingly stayed in perfect shape. The palm tree is made from a slice of steamed carrot, which I sliced up so Mike can mix it in later. The leaves are boiled spinach leaves, and the sand is scrambled eggs with a little mirin added for seasoning. Mirin is a seasoned Japanese cooking wine that is just a bit sweet. It's delicious!

I hope he likes it!

CuteOBento Website Review

A lot of my bento inspiration comes from the internet. Whatever did we do in the days before internet? Today, you don't even have to have an "ah-ha!" moment, because someone out there has already had that moment and is kind enough to share it with you!

Today I'm reviewing this adorable bento site: www.cuteobento.com. Maki Ogawa is the mother of two who creates these delicious looking bentos, and she also has a book out called "Yum-Yum Bento Box." She is very talented and her bentos are just beautiful. A lot of them are Japanese style bentos with rice, but you can totally adapt her ideas to American lunches and sandwiches, salads, etc.  A few things I just love about her bentos - one, she colors everything with natural spices (like tumeric) or uses natural foods that are vibrantly colored, like radishes, beets, and heirloom potatoes. Two, she really doesn't use any fancy cutters or anything to make her creations. She uses simple tools like straws, knives, or works with the shape of the food itself. 

Some samples of her work:

In this rice bowl bento, some little fried chicken pieces are artfully arranged with lettuce, a cherry tomato, etc. The purple toadstools are made from purple potatoes. I'm not sure what the dots are made from, but you could totally use cheese or egg whites. The Japanese have a ton of different pickled radishes that are bright yellow and red and other colors, which she may have used for the cute flowers. For American tastes, you could use cheddar cheese, bell peppers, carrots (boiled, to soften them a bit and make them easier to cut, or use stainless steel cutters), or even mustard to draw a flower.

The colors and arrangement of this bento are just gorgeous!

In this bento, she used fish cake (which is white and can be cut into flat pieces) for her elephants. For American tastes, you could easily use any white cheese (like provolone), egg whites, cooked lasagna noodles, or turkey cold cuts. Ears could be made from carrots, sliced almonds, etc. 

The beautiful purple stars are purple potatoes or yams. The orange stars are carrots  (which have been pre-cooked). Again, her colors are just stunning. 

Oh, but I forgot to mention the most clever part - the little cut outs for the elephants were made using one of those large straws that they have for boba drinks; she just squeezes it a bit to get it to be the right size to cut out in between the trunk and front leg, and in between the front and back legs. So creative! 

It just goes to show you, you just need to think outside the box and add a little detail to the most basic shape to turn it into something else. I hope my brain will catch on so I can think of these more quickly in the mornings. In the meantime, I have the CuteOBento blog for inspiration. 

Owl Sandwiches Bento Lunch

I used some of our new cookie cutters today to make this owl bento lunch. I thought I'd share the whole process so you can see how the sandwiches are made, and how you can get your fixings to fit inside the sandwich. My sandwiches today were simple, just mayo and turkey, with lettuce as the "wings" of the owl. You can totally put in cheese and other things if you want, using the same method.

First, you have to find the best way to maximize the bread! I made two sandwiches from the two slices of bread. It's much easier to cut the bread first, before making the sandwich.

I'll post some recipes soon for using up all that leftover bread! I actually have a couple days worth of scraps saved in a bowl right now.

Next, you'll want to lay out your deli meat on a paper towel. Ours is from Whole Foods and it's an actual turkey breast that they roasted, so it doesn't have all that filler stuff and seasonings/water, etc to hold it together (so it's a bit dry). 

Just cut down and then use all the extra meat that's outside the cutter and pile it inside, so it fits in an owl shape.

Once they're in there, I just put mayo on the bread shape, put it on top of the meat (mayo side down, obviously), and flip the paper towel over.

That way, it fits perfectly onto your owl bread, it's all nice and even, and this way even the little ears have meat/fillings, etc. Yum!

I used my oval cutter to cut the wings out of lettuce, and a sharp knife to cut little triangles for the beaks. Almond slivers and (don't laugh) balled up bits of brownies are the eyes. Weird, I know. On the side, we have Rainier cherries from the farmer's market this week, black seedless grapes, and some pieces of skewered string cheese. Delish!

Lion on the Savannah Bento Lunch Box

I saw a cute lion on Pinterest the other day. It was made with a flower shaped cutter for the mane and a circle cutter for the face. How easy is that? I love browsing online; it's a constant source of inspiration and also reminds me to think outside the box!

For my lion, I used my tiny flower sandwich cutter for his mane (out of Colby Jack cheese). His face was made with a circle fondant cutter (out of provolone). I also added a body with my oval fondant cutter and then just used a knife to make little legs. I wanted them to be larger on one end than the other, so they'd be more like paws.  

I cut out a tail, and for the little puff on the end of his tail, I ripped the cheese with my fingers. It naturally tore that way, with the perfect little "fur" edging.

His face was made with Chinese oyster sauce (although you could totally use BBQ sauce, teriyaki sauce, or anything dark) and a toothpick.

The sandwich is prosciutto and provolone. Yum!
















On the right, I made a sun out of a mango, using my largest circle cutter and then a knife to cut the triangles around the sun. You could probably just throw in a circle though, and call it a sun. I guess I had extra time this morning to work on details. :) 

Below that we have celery "grass" and a totally-out-of-place panda with peanut butter. Oh well!

Under The Sea Bento Box Lunch with a Crab Sandwich and Seastars/Starfish

Mike and I are vacationing soon and are excited to see all things ocean-y. Following that theme, I decided to make him a crab sandwich today, with sea star accompaniments. Our crab sandwich is on one of Yamasaki's (local Japanese bakery) delicious butter rolls, with ham and cheese (no actual crab). His legs and claws are made of carrot, and his eyes are provolone cheese with carrot centers. 

I have to mention that we've been getting ham from the charcuterie counter at Whole Foods, and they make it in-house. It is absolutely delicious and the pigs are ethically raised on an organic diet, which is important to us. It was only a couple dollars more per pound than the local grocery store deli, and totally worth it!

As an accompaniment to the sandwich, I have Korean melon that I cubed, topped with blackberries and a piece of starfruit. Korean melon has a yellow, striped outside, is about the size of a large coffee mug, and smells delicious. Tastes sort of like a crunchy cantaloupe. I linked a good description and pics above if you'd like more information. Starfruit is something I get to eat all the time when I travel to Hawaii or Hong Kong, but not so much here in the States. I bought some at the local market, but I wasn't impressed with the flavor. Still, it looks beautiful in a bento!

Finally, a bird's eye view of the whole bento put together. The extra treats on the side are "jujubee" star candies from Whole Foods.

Poison Dart Frog Bento Box Lunch

Mike and I love frogs, so I thought I'd try to make a froggie bento today. I was going to try and make one from an apple, but I googled yellow dart frogs, and they were so adorable! I ended up using a yellow bell pepper. Grape fruit roll ups are the patterns on his skin; I cut them with scissors. I smushed some fruit roll up scraps for his eyes. He's sitting on top of some egg salad (hidden) and my ever so useful silicone leaves and grass. On the side, we have broccoli and hummus (in the little pig) and blackberries. 

Here's a pic of a real poison dart frog. What do you think?

Close up of my froggie: 

Tropic and Arctic (Bipolar) Bento Box Lunch

I had all the supplies to make penguins today, but I also had strawberries that I wanted to turn into alligators, so I just went with it and made them both! Alligators are tropical and penguins are from the frigid climes of Antarctica, but hey, in a bento they can peacefully coexist. 

My alligators are simple - I just cut strawberries on their sides with little teeth, used pieces of chocolate for their eyes, and put them into a "pool" of greek yogurt.

Close up:

My penguins are made from black olives and mini mozzarella balls, with carrot beaks and feet. I used a piece of pasta to spear them together. Very simple, took me only a few minutes! They are chilling next to a peanut butter and apple jam "iceberg." These would be so cute for a party appetizer. I got the idea from our Pinterest page.

Friday Review: Dip, Dressing and Sauce Containers - Panda, Pig and Chick

I just bought these items about 2 weeks ago, but they have fast become my new favorite bento accessory! Next to the silicone ware and animal picks, they are just about the most useful thing for putting together cute, yummy lunches. 

Panda, Pig and Chicken Dip and Sauce Containers - perfect for holding hummus, peanut butter, ranch, etc!

For those of you that have children who may not carry their lunch boxes all carefully into the classroom, these little guys will be invaluable. The lids are easy to put on and take off, and they keep all liquids and runny dressings secure until lunchtime. No more dressing all over the sandwich! They may look tiny, but they hold plenty enough. We've been testing them out for a week and whether it's hummus, ranch, peanut butter or just salt and pepper (for hard boiled eggs or whatever), it's just the right amount.

The containers open like Easter eggs and have enough space in them for condiments.

I bought these at the Tokyo Japanese Outlet here in Los Angeles, and they were about $5.00 for the set of 3. Totally worth it!

Garden Party Bento - Butterflies and Flowers!

Mike's a dude, but I can't help making the bentos pretty (and sometimes a little feminine). Who are we kidding? I'm sort of making these for myself. :) Today's bento is no exception. I was cutting up the pineapple and thinking, these look like butterfly wings! So it became a butterfly and the rest of the bento just built itself around that.

On the left, we have a butterfly with pineapple wings and a kiwi body. Below that we have watermelon flowers, accented with my favorite reusable silicone leaves and a little pineapple center (I used my tiniest circle cutter). On the right, we've got a turkey sandwich on wheat-oat bread, decorated with a little fruit roll up flower. There's organic hummus in the little panda and celery and carrots on the side. I just love the panda/pig/chick set I got, it's so useful and they are adorable!

Pineapple Butterfly with Kiwi body, Watermelon Flowers, Turkey Sandwich with Fruit Roll Up Flower

Close up of the watermelon flowers:

Watermelon Flowers made with Bento Flower Sandwich Cutter and Stainless Steel Vegetable Cutters

Elephants Everywhere! Flatbread Elephant Bento Lunch

I used my super handy elephant cutter set to make elephants out of flatbread. You may remember my other handy bunny cutter, which I used to make SJP's salad. I made three elephants in a vegetable enclosure, with hummus on the side for dipping. Kiwis and turkey/swiss roll ups round out this meal.

Three Little Flatbread Elephants with Turkey and Cheese Roll Ups, Hummus, Broccoli, Carrots, Cucumbers and Kiwi.

the elephant is four pieces put together to make a 3D animal

Here's a couple more close-up pics of the elephants. They came out so cute! Mike pointed out that the texture and appearance of the flat bread would be so perfect for a cow. If only they made a cow cutter set!

Close Up of Flatbread Elephant

You could also make these elephants out of vegetables; I had made the bunny out of carrots. But sometimes it's hard to find a veggie that's big enough for the body of the animal. I think I might try watermelon this summer, that would be pretty cute!

REVIEW: Everything got eaten except the cucumbers and the broccoli. Mike hates both so I wasn't surprised, but I am going to find a way to make broccoli so cute, he eats it! I did discover, through this bento, that he will eat cucumbers in sandwich form. So if your kid or favorite someone is a picky eater, keep trying it in different forms - you'll eventually find a way (and if all else fails, bake it into bread)!

Little Piggy Bento - Pig Flatbread Sandwich!

As I keep bento-ing, I learn new ways to keep offering variety with the lunches. One easy way is to change up the bread. This week we didn't buy any sliced bread and instead, we got bagels, flatbread, and butter rolls. It's like getting a new canvas! 

Today's lunch is a piggy flatbread sandwich with turkey, mayo, mustard, lettuce, provolone cheese, and avocado. YUM. I made the nose with ham and two sizes of my oval shaped fondant cutters. The ears I just cut with a knife, and the eyes were made from my tiniest round fondant cutter and the nori punch (I just put together a mouth and an eye together, overlapping, to make a round shape with a tiny hole in the middle). 

We have three kinds of fruit on the side - kiwi stars, two strawberry hearts, and honeydew flowers, with our ever-so-useful animal picks. Close up of the kiwi stars:

Mike also has celery sticks and peanut butter in the tiny piggy container. I love this container because it has a lid (no spilling, no mess) and it's SO CUTE! I also got a panda and chick with this set. 

REVIEW: This lunch got a "delicious!" rating and almost everything got eaten, although most of the peanut butter was leftover in the little piggy. Guess it holds a lot more than I thought.

Easter Duck and Bunny Sandwich Bento!

I put a little more effort into today's bento to make up for yesterday's quickie bento. Today we have a duck/chick tuna salad sandwich, and a bunny hummus and avocado sandwich. I used egg whites and nori for the eyes, fruit roll ups for the bunny nose/mouth, and carrot for the beak and feet. I also used the same cutters for the sandwich bread on the avocado, so that it would fit perfectly onto the bunny shaped bread. In retrospect, the bunny body looks a lot like a turtle, so I might have to try that sometime in the future! How fun would it be to decorate a turtle shell?

Since Mike's had two days of veggies, we went back to fruit for today. I had cut some Caracara oranges yesterday, and peeled a kiwi, so we have oranges, kiwi and pineapple, dressed up with a bunny pick. 

Here's what it looks like all together:

I hope he likes it!

REVIEW: Hummus and avocado was a hit, probably because it's something new! And it was plenty of food. Yay.

Frushi! Otherwise known as Fruit Sushi, with a Bunny Sandwich

We were out of town this past weekend so I apologize for the haphazard postings and missing Friday Review. I will post a review soon on another awesome (or un-awesome) bento product! In the meantime, I have figured out how to get posts to self-publish, so in the future we will have full bento coverage when we're on vacations. Yay!

On Sunday I played around with fru-shi, which is sushi composed entirely of fruit! It is super cute and fun. I made the rice with coconut milk (just substitute the exact same amount of light coconut milk for water in the recipe) and a little bit of sugar (about 2 tablespoons per cup of dry rice). Be sure to use light coconut milk, otherwise your rice will come out way too creamy and it won't stick together properly. You need to make it sticky Asian rice style, not Latin rice style (use a pot, not a pan, and don't use oil).

Next, you just cut up any type of fruit you want, into sticks (to put inside rolls) or into "sashimi" to lay on top of rice, like nigiri. Fruit roll ups make the perfect "nori!" Other helpful tips: use the sharpest knife possible, and wipe it with a damp towel after every cut. Dampen your hands before handling the rice, so that it won't stick (but don't dampen too much because you'll get your fruit roll ups all soggy). Also refrigerate your rice; it's easier to mold when it's cool (opposite of regular rice), due to the creamy texture of the coconut milk.

Frushi would be adorable for an afternoon tea, or as appetizers/desserts. It is also gluten free! My Sunday efforts included pineapple "rolls" and Caracara orange "nigiri":

For this morning's bento I didn't make nigiri, I just did pineapple and orange "sashimi" and mango-coconut rice "rolls." I love that I have silicone grass dividers for the frushi! I'm also trying to do an Easter theme for this week, hence the PB&J cut-out bunny sandwich. 

REVIEW: Everything got eaten, which is always a good thing. I've noticed the times that things don't get eaten is when it's a repeat, or there's not enough variety. So no fruit for tomorrow since there was an overload of fruit today!

Stars and Flowers Bento

I didn't have the energy to prep last night, so this morning I relied on good old peanut butter and jelly. It's Mike's favorite and happens to be the easiest thing to make! Luckily, I still had fruit left over from Sunday's prep, so all I had to throw together was the sandwich and some cheese and crackers. As you can tell, I made great use of the silicon cups today:

For fun, I made three separate PB&J sandwiches on multi-grain bread - two star "stackers," and one cut-out sandwich. These are just two examples of things you can do with bread! Think outside the box and remember you can make them open-faced, shaped (with cookie cutters or even just squares, rectangles, triangles, etc), cut-out, or just plain and decorated or stamped on top. They can be stacked straight up or sideways, too. I love the sideways look. 

On the right, we have Galia melon stars again, a few strawberries, and cheddar flowers with crackers. My vegetable cutters are amazing, I use them for everything! I am a huge fan of the stainless steel cutters over the plastic cookie cutters. You can see how sharp and clear the star is in the sandwich - that's from a stainless steel cutter. 

I packed everything into the small bento box to see if this will be enough food. Usually the big bento box has leftovers.

REVIEW: Mike ate everything and loved this bento, because PB&J plus fruit = favorite! He requested PB&J for every day, but really, that's not very healthy and I would imagine that at some point, you'd get sick of it, and then what would I fall back on when I'm rushed? ;) 

Friday Review: Animal Food Picks

These food picks are absolutely the go-to item out of all my bento supplies. When you're running late or your brain isn't working, or you failed to prep a single thing, these little guys are life savers. They will make anything cute. Stick a few into an ordinary sandwich, and you've got a zoo. They're handy for quail eggs, fruit, cheese, and veggies, and also eliminate the need for utensils. 

There are two different types displayed here: single picks and what I call "multi" picks. The ones on the left are from one package and came with short ones and tall ones. I've used the short ones for skewering string cheese or roll ups, which was super cute in my coworkers lunch bento, and I plan to use the tall ones for sandwich "stackers." The multi picks on the right are great for mushier things like fruit or mini sandwiches on soft breads.

I will say that I have not used both the tall single skewers or the tall (elephant and giraffe) multi skewers because they do not fit well into the bento boxes we have. If I laid them down sideways, that might work, but I tend to pack the boxes full, so there's really no room. The shorter picks all can stand straight up and still fit, so they are more useful. 

They're reusable and more durable than party picks or toothpicks, and super easy to wash - I just dump them all into a dish of hot soapy water and swish it around a bit. Just don't let them go down the drain, especially if you have a garbage disposal! 

These types of picks should cost you no more than $5.00 max, for a package of at least 10-15. They also come in lots of different varieties, like hearts, flowers, leaves, even little hats. If you don't have a store that sells this type of thing in your neighborhood, Amazon online has a pretty good selection. But if it's over $5.00, they're totally ripping you off. My single skewer picks are going for $11.99 on Amazon and I bought them for $1.50 at the Daiso store. 

Slightly Squashed Bear Bento

Bears are a popular theme in bentos, probably because they are easy to recognize and easy to make - just eyes, nose, and ears, and they can be done any number of ways. For today's bento I had bought some butter rolls at the local Japanese bakery, Yamasaki, and decided to make a bear face from it. 

You could make any type of sandwich and apply the same decorations. Mike's is a ham and cheese with lettuce/mayo/mustard sandwich. I used a mini circle sandwich cutter to make the two ears out of cheese, and then I used the flower cutter to make the nose, but just sliced off two of the "petals." I don't have a lot of cookie cutters in my repertoire so I have to get creative. I cut a triangle piece of nori for the nose. For the eyes, I used two slices of string cheese and punched some eyes from nori using one of my face punches. Originally I had just laid the cheese face on top of the bun, but then I ended up cutting into the top layer of the bun and really sticking the cheese into it, to make it more secure. You could do it either way. The ears are actually laid inside the sandwich.

This morning when I pulled out the sandwich, he was a little squashed from being in the bento overnight, but still pretty cute:

I had also prepped the fruit last night, so this morning all I did was throw in pistachios, then mix sunflower seeds with chocolate covered sunflower seeds, and put a little chocolate on top for dessert. Lots of protein, lots of fiber. Yummy lunch!

Tip: If you prepped eyes/noses/ears for a few sandwiches and put them in a baggie in the fridge, you could make sandwiches for a week in a few minutes a day. I also had the lettuce cut, washed and stored in a tupperware. It lasts for a week if there's a sprinkle of water in there for humidity. Food for thought! 

REVIEW: Mike ate everything except the pistachios and some of the sunflower seeds. Pistachios two days this week was boring, apparently. :) Also, sometimes there can be too much food in these larger bento boxes, but then the smaller one looks too small! Tough to gauge, but I think I'll figure it out as we go along. Fruit fills you up, but then digests quickly, so it's a little bit of a balancing act.

Quick and Speedy Bento with Quail Egg Faces!

I didn't have the energy last night to prep anything for our bento lunches today, so I knew it would be a fun challenge this morning to pull something together! This is where all that prepping on Monday and Tuesday came in handy. I still had a smidgen of leftover tuna salad, peeled quail eggs, and a few pieces of fruit. All I did this morning was punch out some faces from soy paper with my handy new face punches, cut up a fruit snack (for the flowers), and cut up a kiwi and a banana (I rub whatever citrus-y fruit I have all over bananas, apples and pears to keep them from turning brown/oxidizing). It took me about 10 minutes to cut and assemble everything. You could also easily make this carb-less or gluten free by substituting vegetables for the crackers:

Plenty of protein and fruit, and a nice variety of snack-y things. I hope he likes it! 

p.s. our kiwis look a little different because they are "old vine" kiwis. They grow sort of in a fan shape and they are enormous - the size of 2-3 regular sized kiwis! Grocery stores won't sell them because they aren't "normal." So we get organic, giant sized, local grown kiwis at our farmer's market for 3/$1.00! 

REVIEW: Mike loved this bento and ate everything except one cracker and the blood oranges. They were admittedly a little tart. If you want to sweeten up tart fruit, you can use caster sugar, which can be found in most specialty baking stores or restaurant/catering supply stores. It is a super fine sugar that dissolves in seconds, even on cold things. Just a tiny pinch can give a boost to a fruit salad.

Mushroom Bento

Mike and I both love mushrooms, but Mike doesn't like to eat them, he just likes the way they look. Inspired by the ones I saw online, I made Mike a salad with tomato and string cheese toadstools. I hollowed out sugar plum tomatoes for the tops, cut up a piece of string cheese for the stems, and put a tiny bit of ranch dressing on the top, which acted as "glue" for a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. They came out pretty cute!

On the left we have a salad with carrot flowers, sliced sugar snap peas, smoked gouda stars, "toadstools," and "chicks" made from quail eggs with black sesame eyes and carrot beaks. I threw in sunflower seeds to up the protein factor a little. On the right we have a fuji apple, blood orange and green grape salad, a heart shaped tuna sandwich on squaw bread, kumquats, and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds for dessert. I inserted a little bottle of ranch dressing after I took the picture; it fit right on top of the heart sandwich.

This is the first mostly veggie/fruit bento I have made for Mike, so I hope it is filling enough. I prepped the whole salad and the fruit last night, so this morning all I made was the heart, and cut up some kumquats. Which was a good thing, because I woke up late with the time change. I miss my sunlight in the morning!

REVIEW: Mike loved the salad and even ate the tomato tops of the "mushrooms" which is weird because he hates tomatoes. I would like to think it has something to do with the cute factor, but I think it's probably because they were hollowed out, then coated in ranch and parmesan. :) 

Also, chocolate covered sunflower seeds were a huge hit with both of us! They are like mini M&Ms. I love the pop of color they provide.

Daylight Savings Bento

Since an hour of sleep was stolen from me this weekend, I made sure to prep things on Sunday for bentos today. It's hard to get out of bed when it's still dark! Even my pictures are a little darker, unfortunately.

I cut up kiwis, green grapes and blood oranges, marinated some sugar plum tomatoes with fresh mozzarella balls, made tuna salad, and rolled up some ham/muenster cheese in a tortilla with mayo/mustard. 

Today I made two bento boxes, one for Mike and one for another coworker's birthday. I know I said I wouldn't make different things for everyone again...I did make these just slightly different:

Mike's bento has a half tuna sandwich on squaw bread (it's a delicious, slightly sweet dark bread from The Bread Man at the Hollywood Farmer's Market), rosemary ham/cheese roll ups, Trader Joe's baked cheese crunchies, and on the right, cut up string cheese, kiwis, blood oranges/green grapes, and a few Bunny Gummies and Friends (these all natural gummy candies from Trader Joe's). 

I am using lots of these new bento toys I found this weekend at Daiso Japan - the Japanese version of a dollar store. I got 6 silicon flower cups and 6 silicon square cups for $3.00! And the silicon "grass" that you normally see on sushi trays was only $1.50 and totally reusable, which I like. There's tons of paper/foil/plastic disposable things for bento boxes, but I try to minimize my trash in the world, so I really love these reusable dividers.

My coworker's bento has fruit salad on the side, tomato/mozzarella balls (under the parsley leaf) with crackers on the side, a few ham and cheese roll ups and an open faced cucumber/dill cream cheese/squaw bread heart sandwich. I also found a bunch of kumquat bushes outside a strip mall this weekend and plucked some! The kumquats add a nice color pop around the heart sandwich. Plus, it is important to try and fill gaps around the food, so there is not too much movement during transport.

The bento heart sandwich looks like it took a lot of time, but it's not that bad. I just cut up the cucumber nice and thin (you can do this quickly with a mandoline or any small, sharp knife) and laid it down overlapping each other on half a paper towel (to soak up extra moisture). Next, I cut the heart out of the bread and spread it with cream cheese. I used the exact same heart cutter to cut the cucumbers and removed all the excess cucumber around the edges. At this point you just fold the rest of the paper towel over the heart and flip it over. Open the paper towel, put your heart bread on top and flip it back, and voila!  

REVIEW: Mike loved everything in his lunch but the baked cheese crunchies were still stale, even though I put them into the box in the morning. We probably won't use them again in bentos, which is fine because they're not really that healthy anyway, and I'm pretty sure they use GMO corn, even if all the products in it are "natural." The crackers in my coworkers lunch stayed fresh and crispy, even after sitting all morning in the fridge at work. I have been making a habit of putting things that should be crunchy into the boxes in the morning, rather than prepping everything the night before.

Bento Snack

Mike is coming home from work early today, so I just made him a bento snack. PB&J flower stackers on whole wheat - they're two pieces of bread with PB or J in the middle and the other on the top, pretzels, and a fruit salad with kiwis, pineapple, and strawberry hearts! Obviously this fruit lends itself easily to the heart shape (I swiped these strawberries from my fruit tray at work and brought them home to use in the bento). 

REVIEW: Mike loves PB&J and fruit. Put those two together and we have a winner. Plus this snack had sweet and salty - which is lots of people's favorite taste combo!