Friday Review and Butterfly Bento Box Lunch

I bought a set of Progressive Cookie Cutters that also include an additional stencil/cut out piece - perfect for bento! Today was my first day trying one out, so I thought I'd combine my initial review of this product with the bento post. 

Below, our bento box lunch: butterfly prosciutto and cheese sandwich, veggies and ranch, and mango flowers. The butterfly wings and body are cut from cheese, using the stencil portion of the cutter (featured later in this post). Except the body...that was hard to cut out so I just did an easy rectangle. The flowers were cut using my favorite flower stainless steel cutter, which I have totally gotten my money's worth from!

The veggies are Persian cucumbers, orange bell pepper, and broccoli. 

To make this bento, I used my new butterfly cookie/sandwich cutter. It is fairly large, about 4 inches across.

It comes apart into two pieces. There are 12 cookie cutters included with the Progressive set and they all have two pieces - the cutter and the stencil. They are relatively sturdy plastic and easily cleaned, although if you use them on cheese, the stencil part has some small sections where things can get stuck. You can usually poke them out with something narrow like a chopstick or skewer.

The stencil does not really work well with the cutter for impressions (like a sandwich press), like I was hoping. The stencil part comes really close to the edge of the cutter, so they're ideal for decorating cookies with sprinkles or frosting, but not not so great for stamping. That's ok. They're good for cutting cheese and using that to decorate. Or, you could simply use a square sandwich (which would waste less bread) and impress the stencil on it. 

The cutter is deep, as displayed here against a normal piece of sliced bread. Sorry about the pic being a little off focus, I took it with my phone:

You could totally make a sandwich and then cut it, but I find it easier to cut the bread and the individual things that go inside, and then stack them. 

The set comes with a bear, bunny, circle, heart, pumpkin, duck, clover, Christmas tree, gingerbread man, star, butterfly and flower. It's most definitely worth the $12.95 Amazon is charging!

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!

Heart Sandwich Bento Box - Who Doesn't Love BBQ Pulled Pork?

We made BBQ pulled pork in the slow cooker this week, and before any Southerners jump all over me, we know it's not true smoked BBQ, it's just BBQ sauce that's on it. :) But it was delicious and the leftovers make a really good sandwich. Today's bento has those leftovers in between two slices of wheat-oat bread, which does not cut very easily. You'll find that those cute bento sandwich presses and cutters work best with crappy low-fiber, totally processed white bread, unfortunately. While that's ok once in a long while, Mike and I prefer healthier, heartier whole grain breads, and therefore have to settle with slightly-shoddily-cut sandwiches.

Heart Shaped Pulled Pork Sandwich Bento Box with Veggies, Ranch Dip and Fruit Salad

Here's a bird's eye view of the bento and how everything is laid out. 

Around the sandwich I placed a few potato chips for crunch. Below that, we have veggies (red bell peppers, celery and carrots) with ranch dip (hiding in the cute panda), and a mini fruit salad - watermelon stars, kiwis and pineapple, which all go really well with BBQ!

I've been using my silicone grass and leaves a lot lately because they add a nice color aesthetic, and they're reusable. Some bento-ers will tuck lettuce leaves around each section, which is gorgeous, but wasteful for our purposes, since Mike won't eat the garnish. 

In the end, I also decided to just put the potato chips back into the bag and attach it to the bento by squishing it in between the lid and the box. This effectively keeps them from getting stale or spilling out, and now Mike won't forget them!

And a final pic of our super adorable panda container. I just love this bento accessory! This product came with a little piggy and a chick as well. Haven't had a chance to use the chick because it's so small, but the piggy and panda get used very frequently.

Super Cute Panda Bento Accessory!

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! 

Late Friday Review - Silicone Everything! Cups, Dividers, Sushi Grass, etc.

Today I'm reviewing my favorite bento product so far - silicone cups, dividers, etc. If you are just starting out bento-ing, this should be top on your list of things to buy. You can get them easily at any store that sells baking tools or craft stuff, like Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Target, etc. Colorful and reusable, these items are super useful for keeping wet stuff away from dry stuff, separating fruits and veggies, and adding aesthetics! They are also dishwasher and microwave safe, although I never use them in either. I mostly use them for fruit and snacks, dipping sauces, and to separate things. I have used them in almost every single bento I've ever made. BUY THEM, you won't regret it!

The sushi grass and leaves I bought at Daiso Japan (see link on right). The square and flower cups can be bought on Amazon or at any store. They have all different sizes, but don't go too small if you're packing American sized lunches! It's tempting to buy mini everything, but when you're actually eating lunch you find that just a couple potato chips are not enough. The bear and heart cups were bought at Tokyo Japanese Outlet in LA's Little Tokyo, but you can also find them online at Bento USA (see link on right). 

If you're looking for things to hold sauces/dips that have lids, stay tuned! I just discovered a new bento dipping cup that I will be reviewing soon.