Bento (161) Sweet Simmered Mushroom Rice Balls

One week into bento revival and I've already fallen behind on posting.  :P  Friday's bento was largely a compilation of leftovers.  The rice balls are "shiny" because I was experimenting with using saran wrap to help shape the rice balls and hold on toppings.  The left is sushi rice topped with a sweet simmered mushroom cap, the right (with the little animal face) is rice stuffed with leftover soboro.  Middle is grapes cut in half and bottom is a lovely salad J. makes that uses peppers, celery, and cucumbers instead of lettuce.  The sauce holder has Italian dressing. 

On reflection, I realized this bento didn't have much protein.  I didn't find myself getting hungry mid-afternoon, but I probably should have filled the grape-cup with scrambled eggs (which would have added some great color) - and then squished grapes in the empty spaces around the rice balls.  Ah well.  Live and learn.  J's bento was slightly different with a pepper and blueberries instead of grapes.

Bento (160) - Three Topping Bento

This is a fairly traditional soboro-type bento with ground hamburger (flavored with soy, mirin, sake, sugar, etc.), snap peas (to replace greenbeans, since J. isn't all that fond of green beans), and eggs (with sugar, dashi, and salt to add flavoring) all over a bed of rice.

The top level is sweet simmered shiitake mushrooms (::droooooool::), a mini orange bell pepper, and grapes that have been cut in half and sprinkled with dried cherries.  Goose had pretty much the same thing, only his pepper was chopped into sticks and I put his mushrooms in the pink flower-shaped cupcake holder. 

Bento (159) - Ham & Swiss Sandwich Bento

Wow.  It's been three whole years of watching my culinary skills turn to dust in a corner--years spent avoiding the reproachful stares of my bunny-covered bento boxes and cringing every time I accidentally came across a plastic fish-shaped sauce-holder.  The time has come.  This summer, Goose is enrolled in a a summer camp that doesn't provide meals--which means I'm blowing the dust out of the cupboard, washing my silicone cupcake holders, and trying to find where in the world I left my artificial sushi grass.  In short . . . Hi!  I have new pictures of adorable lunches.  :)

This bento box has always been one of my favorites (and surprisingly, is one of the first I ever purchased off of Amazon).  The three cup organization makes food separation simple.  Today's lunch was half a ham & swiss sandwich cut into thirds and separated by sushi grass.  The upper right corner is a miniature bell pepper and pickled garlic.  The bottom right is blueberries with an elephant pick.  Not only was this a quick 10 minute bento--it's even cute with the lid on!

Bento (158) - Steak and Noodles for Kidlet

Goose actually asks me for bentos every once in a while. I guess all the pain and suffering I went through while he was in Kindergarten paid off ^.^

This was a quick and easy kidlet bento. For the left, I cut several slices of steak and "fanned" them out for display. The white is plain soba noodles, and the piggy is filled with sweet soy broth (for both steak and noodles). Upper right is golden kiwi and grapes. Lower right is cherry tomatoes and pickled garlic (he picked out the garlic and left the tomatoes :P)

Bento (157) - Egg Foo Yong - Why yes, I do make this a lot!

What can I say? It's fast, it's easy, and it's tasty - which is why I make Egg Foo Yong a lot. I ran out of time to decorate the left side :( :( :( (silly work)- which is essentially a mixture of egg, imitation crab, peas, green onions, and nommy nommy sauce over rice. The right side is fruit salad (courtesy of Sams club) and peas - separated by a barrier of lettuce. I scattered carrot flowers over the top, and added a mini-food cup with umeboshi and rabbit pick.

Bento (156) - Sad Panda . . . er . . . Happy Panda

This is more panko-encrusted chicken with stir fry vegetables - but I wanted to point out the cute little butterfly I made with one of my new cookie cutters! Squee!

Top left is blueberries topped with cheese cut outs. The flower in the lower right is an umeboshi with a pea sliced in half to make the "leaves."

Bento (155) - Lion Safari

Hello! My apologies for the long delay in um . . . . healthy lunches. Rumors of my fleeing the internet have been greatly exaggerated! I haven't made many bentos lately - and sadly, for whatever reason, I forgot to post the ones I did make. So I have a little catching up to do - and then hopefully it's back to my healthy habits. ::fingers crossed:: The New Year is a good time for that, right?

Top layer is sweet potato/apple salad and tomato/pickled garlic salad. Bottom level is panko-encrusted chicken, rice, and umeboshi.

And a kawaii lion pick! That was mean of me to get all my new toys and not show them off, wasn't it? :P