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!

Friday Review - Flower Egg or Pancake Shaper!

Mike is sick today, so no bento. Instead, I made a "flower egg" for breakfast and took pictures so you can see how this product works! I'm apologizing in advance if the pictures seem poor; I couldn't really spruce them up since our laptop decided to go to laptop heaven. Hopefully we'll have a new one by the end of this weekend.

Today's review is on these silicone egg or pancake shapers. They come in lots of different shapes but we have a car and a flower. Silicone can handle heat up to 500 degrees and is easily washable, durable, and flexible. So these tend to be a little more forgiving then the metal shapers, especially if your pan isn't perfectly flat or is non-stick and you don't want to accidentally scrape it.

The little straight part coming off the side is the "handle," but luckily silicone doesn't really get too hot, so you can touch it even in the pan. This is another advantage of silicone over metal.

So the first and most important step is to oil your silicone shaper! I forgot to do this. Whoops. You'll see that you can still make a good shaped egg, it's just a little more delicate...anyways, oil your shaper lightly and then heat up your pan a little.

Put your shaper into the pan and crack an egg into it.

The silicone egg shapers are made for medium sized eggs - but most American eggs are large or jumbo! The sides aren't very high and a big egg will spill over. You can crack your eggs into a measuring cup and then just pour what you need into the shaper. I used our backyard chicken eggs, which are small  and very firm, so I actually had to help this guy spread out a bit.

I like to flip my eggs, so I waited a bit and then flipped the whole thing over. After about 30 seconds or so, I turned off the heat and peeled off the silicone shaper, very carefully.

If you oiled yours, this part will be a lot easier and it should just lift off!

And then I peeled off the silicone edge, very carefully. If you oiled yours, this part will be a lot easier and it should just lift off!

This is when I flipped it back again. Then I plated it and ate it. Yum!

I imagine if you want to make pancakes, you can follow the same instructions, but using pancake batter. Don't forget that pancake batter puffs a little, so don't pour too much! 

More Easter Bento Fun...sort of!

I failed to prep again last night since I had a headache. Boo. So my dreams of deviled eggs that look like little chicks was a major fail; I'll have to try that again some time in the future. At least the eggs got boiled (thanks to Mike)!

This morning I made some quick deviled eggs for Mike's lunch, on top of a little bit of folded pita, with veggies and hummus on the side. Super fast bento! Forgot to cut the veggies all cute and pretty so I ended up cutting some fruit roll up flowers and throwing them on top. It's amazing how much better lunch can look with just a few little decorations and some awesome reusable grass/leaves! The pink silicone cup doesn't hurt, either. Eliminate the pita and this lunch is gluten free.

REVIEW: Everything got eaten, but both Mike and I noticed that the egg whites on our backyard chicken eggs are different than store bought eggs. The backyard chickens have a more varied diet that includes grass, seeds, insects, etc. The yolks are delicious! But texture/palate-wise, the egg whites are really firm. They definitely work better as egg salad or poached, scrambled, fried, etc. For some reason in the hard-boiled form, it's just harder to eat since the whites are not jello-y like conventional eggs.

Easter Egg Bento

This morning I wanted to do something with Easter egg shapes, but my oval cutter is pretty small. So instead, I made mini tuna salad stuffed pitas, and decorated the tops with Easter eggs made from provolone cheese. One has cheddar polka dots (I think one dot fell off in this pic, whoops!) and the other has fruit roll up stripes. They came out really cute and I made very good use of all my fun silicone grass/leaves! If you put the tuna salad on lettuce or on the silicone grass directly, this lunch would be carb-less and gluten free. 

The rest of the box was a lesson in "speed" bento-ing - chopped up some extra celery leftovers from the tuna salad, put in a little container of peanut butter, and threw in pistachios and roasted plantain chips. Lots of protein, crunch, and healthiness today! If you have a little kid, you may want to invest in the tiny containers that have lids, for things like ranch dressing, peanut butter, etc. Luckily, I have a big kid who will transport this bento box safely to work.

As a side note, this bento took me 30 minutes this morning because I had to make the tuna salad (mayo, celery, relish, cilantro, pepper) from scratch. If I had made it last night, this bento would have taken me 10-15 minutes (the eggs took a little bit). If I had made the decorations last night, this bento would have taken 5 minutes or less! Prepping is key!

REVIEW: Not enough food! Which is weird because this is the large bento box. And, the mini pitas are not very good when cold. I've taken some myself, for lunch, and they are a little dry. Next time, we'll put the tuna separate so Mike can use the toaster at work for the pitas, or we'll just pair the tuna with crackers. 

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!

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.

Getting Crazy With The Bento

I received some feedback from Mike about my past two lunches, so I'll post those as "reviews" to each post going forward, so we can keep a log of what works and what doesn't! :) I imagine this will be an ongoing learning process.

I made today's bento for Mike in a simplified way, just making the cute part the top! Here I've decorated chicken salad (with celery and carrots) with black sesame seeds (which add calcium, always a good thing) and red pepper letters. I kept it separated from the rest of the bento with carrot cut-outs that are pressed into the side (you can just barely see them). My chicken salad is not runny or drippy, so it should be fine. 

Just in case, though, I put the fruit (blueberries and pineapple) into little silicon cups, with animal picks for easy eating. There's clementine segments at the back and sugar snap peas flanking the cups (it's important to make sure everything is pretty tightly packed so it travels well). I also made him a Greek yogurt/brown sugar fruit dip, which is in the dip cup in the back. This bento box is from the website Fab, which we love. It comes with two insertable containers that both have lids (only using one today), and the top, which locks down, also has a spot to store a fork. Perfect for today's lunch (which is gluten-free)!

I also made a lunch for my coworker, whose birthday is this week and I am missing her birthday dinner celebration. She loves Asian food so I made her a soba noodle nest (soba noodles are Japanese buckwheat noodles that can be eaten cold or hot) with quail eggs, and those are shitake mushroom slices I tucked into the corners, for added sustenance. On the side is a salad with tomato hearts, star carrots, and little red bell pepper pieces for color.

The other little box has flower toasts with cream cheese sprinkled with chives, and a smoked salmon flower. They came out pretty cute and I would totally make these for an afternoon tea! Close up:

My own lunch was a pocket sandwich with turkey, smoked gouda and cucumbers. I learned you should not overstuff pocket sandwiches...and maybe just put the cheese on top as a decoration. It's much better that way. My pocket sandwich wouldn't stay sealed. I also made myself a fruit salad with yogurt dip - yum. Very colorful and cute even without fun shapes:

Whew! That's it for today. It did take me awhile to prep stuff last night because I made three  different bento lunches with completely different items. That will be the last time I do that! From now on Mike and I will eat similar or the same food each lunch, which will make the lunches quicker and easier. 

REVIEW: Mike ate everything in his lunch except one cup of blueberries (there were two). So it was a success! My coworker loved her lunch, too, but wasn't able to finish all the noodles - too many. I used one serving size (they come packaged that way) of noodles, which I usually eat for lunch alone, so with all the sides I think it would be best to cut down the amount of noodles and maybe add more condiments, like nori seaweed or an extra egg.

Salad for SJP (our bunny)

I bought a bunch of bento stuff over the last week and finally got to test it out! It was a lot of fun cutting out veggie shapes. I am contemplating how best to do this so I don't feel stressed about putting together a healthy lunch during the week. I did pre-cut a bunch of veggies - celery, red bell peppers, carrots and cucumbers, and I put them with a smidgen of cold water into glass tupperware in the fridge. We'll see how they hold up!

The first thing I made was a salad for my bunny, SJP, who will be helping us use all the trimmings from veggies and stuff. There is a lot of waste with bento and my goal is to have the least amount of waste as I can. Luckily we have a bunny, but she can't eat too many sweets (carrots, apples, etc)...so I eat a lot of the trimmings as we go, and I also thought I could put some into carrot muffins or bread, and omelettes, or soups! Be creative with your leftover trimmings. If you have a compost pile, that would be perfect.

The little rabbit is made from a veggie cutter set I bought in Little Tokyo at Marukai Market (I also bought an elephant - can't wait to try it out!). It cuts three pieces that you just slide together. It was simple and the results are adorable! The little flower carrots are from a four piece stainless steel veggie cutter set I bought on Amazon. Threw everything together with some Upland Cress and voila! SJP mowed it down.