Bento (46) - Kitty Food Picks!

I purchased some pre-made frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for goose (called Jams) which you are theoretically supposed to throw in the kids lunch, and by the time they eat the sandwich at lunch, it is supposed to be thawed and yummy. Goose has informed me that he doesn't like cold PB&J. :P :P :P Well I bought a whole box - so cold PB&J will continue to make an appearance here and there!

I also decided to try throwing in a handful of trail mix - which went over fairly well. Predictably, he ate all the chocolate and raisins - and most of the nuts. The rest of this bento was corn (easily identifiable yellow stuff) and chopped apple.

For my bento, I created a corn/pea/rice landscape with tangy chicken, the rest of the chopped up apple, and most importantly - blue kitty food picks! Those little food picks made a drab bento "pop" . . . and when I opened it at lunch, I couldn't help but smile. I love my food picks!

Bento (45) - Ribeye Onigiri Kitty

Or at least it was supposed to be ribeye onigiri balls. I cut the ribeye into itty-bitty pieces to mix with the rice - thinking I would then moosh it all together to make cute little onigiri balls - but my rice refused to stick together! ACK! After 40 minutes of crumbling rice balls I just gave in and mooshed them into sort-of-shapes, then tacked on all the other goodies. Still . . . I'm proud of how they turned out.

Onigiri kitty (I think it looks vaguely Siamese - don't you?):

The left is frozen peas, pink heart jelly, tomatoes, and mandarin oranges. The right is egg corn-drops, frozen peas, and a holder with sauce (soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar).

I made a cute little bear for Goose - who took one look at the "meat" and promptly said: "I hate that." I forced him to eat a piece to ensure he hated it - which he spat in the trash. So, deciding the fight wasn't worth it - I let him have a school lunch today. I'll probably eat his bento tomorrow . . . heh.

Bento (44) - Fancy PB&J

This was my idea for a well balanced meal for Goose today. It has protein, fruits, and vegetables - though I don't know why I bother with the veggies - since he won't touch them - no matter how cute they are! :P :P :P


I surrounded his PB&J with corn, peas, and tomatoes. The salad is mandarin orange/kiwi, and the little alien looking thing is half a boiled egg. After I dropped Goose at school I had to throw together my bento in 10 minutes or less . . . so this is what I came up with:

The main portion was thawed tangy chicken accompanied by rice and pea/corn flowers. The bottom level was leftover crab/avacado, the second half of Goose's egg with sesame seed garnish (my garnish skills are still sadly lacking), and mandarin orange/kiwi salad. The green leafy separators are, as usual, kale. (I ate the piece that had the crab/avacado salad, since it had been "contaminated" with lemon juice. Yummy! Side salad anyone?

Bento (43) - Flower PB&J

So I've apparently been bitten by the bento lazy-bug (though as near as I can tell, anyone who plans to do daily bento for any length of time figures out how to cut corners and do it in 15 minutes or less - or they give up). I guess you could say I'm over the "honeymoon" stage - and now we find out if I have what it takes to be a real bento-mom!

Take this morning. I hit snooze a few times. Then T. finally got up and I mumbled something like: "What do you want in your bento? Crab? Soy beef? Popcorn?"

To which he replied: "It's a moot point, I have to leave in 6 minutes."

I sprang out of bed and had his lunch done in 3! HAH!

I didn't say it was spectacular . . . just that I got it done on time. (And maybe it really took 6 minutes, since I had to chop the avacado . . . ). The top level was mandarin oranges, edamame, and a car-shaped boiled egg, while he bottom is just avacado/crab salad drizzled with lemon juice and a kale garnish.

And Goose got a creative sandwich arrangement!

He was supposed to have a fishie-egg in the lower right-hand corner, but sadly - when I opened the fishie-mold, the fishie split into two halves, both of which had sealed themselves to the mold like superglue . . . and the yolk fell out. So rather than try my hand at reconstructing egg-salad fishie, I threw in some of the leftover soy beef. The rest is mandarin oranges, edamame, and a commercial fruit jelly.

Bento (42) - Sams Club Surprise

I finally made it to the store . . . and the bento kitchen has been restocked. YAY!!!! >.< The main protein in this bento was Sams Club General Tsao's chicken, which is accompanied by a pink bunny filled with soy sauce, rice with decoraive edamae, and a kale seperator. The bottom is kiwi, tomotoes, and a new idea - artificial crab and pepper-jack cheese squares skewered by yellow fish and dolphin food picks. NUM!

You can make out the crab/cheese skewers better in T.'s bento. He has a cute turtle and a snifty purple and pink sea-snail pick.

And Goose actually requested a bento today. For the first time ever! YAY!!! Then again . . . maybe that means he likes storebought Sams Club food better than my cooking! Heh.

Bento (41) - Desperation Bento

This was the very last of my bento food supplies (okay - not really, I remembered later that I had some spaghetti sauce and frozen tortellini that could have made an appearance - but as I totally forgot about them, I don't think they count).

Leftover potato salad, Sweet Soy Beef (which I made last minute from a ribeye steak I meant to cook for dinner but didn't get around too), last of the rice, and edamame flowers (no corn for color . . . ::sigh::). The penguin (in mine) and the green kiwi (in T.'s) are holding a special sauce for the beef. The beef was marinated in oil, sake, and soy sauce and then the dipping sauce is made from sake, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. MmmmmmMMMMMMmmmmm.

Terrible, isn't it? I debated not posting . . . but it shows the importance of having a good variety of foods and color to work with . . . YIKES!

Bento (40) - Freezer Burn Survivor Bento

Over Thanksgiving, my fridge decided to try life as a freezer and introduced massive amounts of ice into my produce. Grrrrrrrrr. And as I didn't make it to the store over the weekend, this morning's bento was put together from freezer burn survivors. Freezer burn. In the FRIDGE.

Goose got a boring PB&J - though I used a cookie cutter to make it into a cute little flower shape and then cut the flower in half so it would fit in the box. The grapes survived their arctic tour - (as long as you didn't look too close) . . . . and the mandarin oranges were still floating in liquid instead of acting like frozen jello . . . so they made up the fruit salad. Luckily - chicken nuggets already live in the freezer, and I rounded out his box with fresh made potato salad with a ketchup flower (in the hopes that the ketchup would entice him to at least TRY the potato salad. It didn't >.< ) For myself and T. I raided the freezer and discovered I still had bacon-wrapped scallops. YUM! In retrospect, I would have flipped the fruit salad and the potato salad to better balance the white . . . but *eh* T. needed to bolt out the door.

It's amazing what a few pea and corn flowers can do to brighten up rice! And the bacon and potato salad were excellent together. I'll definitely have to make a note to make this combo again!