flowered kimbap bento

i made dinner with my bestie tonight, and then we drank cocktails together on my couch while commenting on a hot episode of intervention… what can i say, i’m a girl of extremely refined tastes!

needless to say, two vodka-cranberries in, i couldn’t be too ambitious in my bento-making.  pre-made kimbap (from yesterday’s grocery run to flushing’s H-mart) to the rescue!  i quickly packed the kimbap slices in my skinny pink bento with some fruits and veggies from the fridge — two halved, steamed brussels sprouts; 4 takuwan slices; some pea pods and bamboo leaves, clementine sections and two mini strawberries — plus vegetarian chicken tenders for protein a few pink fish sausage blossoms for a pretty accent.   done and done!

in other bento news, thanks to help from sheri and mils i was able to add the “like on facebook” bento4japan badge.  are you a fan yet?  the bento4japan auctions are still going strong… i’ve got my eye on a certain newspaper-printed furoshiki, but there are lots of lovely items up for grabs, so head on over to ebay and help us continue raising money for relief in japan!

octobre rose bento

october is breast cancer awareness month.  like those of my fellow bento bloggers, my life has been touched by this disease, and so i was moved by bento blog’s invitation to participate in a “pink october” awareness-raising project. check out the lovely themed bentos by jenn of bentobird, susan of hawai`i’s bento box cookbook, lia of my bentolicious, debra of hapa bento, and chantale of skinny mini kiki. did you participate? if so, please add a link in the comments!

my “octobre rose” bento is simple — two pale pink onigiri (the rice is mixed with ume vinegar powder, and each one is stuffed with an umeboshi) topped with breast cancer ribbons (made from the outer layer of a kamaboko log), a stamed broccoli floret and purple potato flower, two pieces of veggie tamagoyaki, two pea pods, a vegetarian chicken nugget with a cheese heart, and a two-tone tomato pick with a pink flag.

i should note that the ribbons were inspired by pikko’s cool egg sheet ribbons from her breast cancer awareness bento last year. thanks for the bento-spiration (as always) pikko!

falling ginkgo bento

i recently ordered a ginkgo leaf cutter, after more than a year of admiring its use by fellow bento-makers such as debra of hapa bento and sheri of happy little bento. the funny thing is, as soon as i got it, i realized that you can accomplish the same shape with a plain old round-fluted cutter and an x-acto knife (just cut a fluted round, and then trim away the profile of the stem — that’s how i made the smaller ginkgo leaves here).

anyway, i didn’t want to miss the opportunity to participate in the last week of hapa bento’s “fall theme” BOMB challenge, and i was inspired by sheri’s recent use of orange against black rice.  so i decided to use up my leftover forbidden rice with some simple falling leaves.

there are a number of gingko trees in my neighborhood, and these leaves remind me of my morning walks with ruby, who loves to chase, lick, or chew any leaf in her path!

my gingko leaves are cut from purple potato, sweet potato, and golden beet — all veggies that really feel autumnal to me — and the back portion of this bento has two vegetarian chicken nuggets, a zebra tomato and a red pear tomato, two pea pods, two carrot tamagoyaki slices, and a steamed broccoli floret.

this is the two-tier kyo bento from bento & co; in the other portion i have some leftover chili, which i’ll mix with rice when it’s time to eat lunch tomorrow.

happy fall!

giants pennant bento

WOO HOO!  in their last regular-season game, against their division rivals, the padres, my boys clinched the pennant.  we’re headed to our first post-season since 2003!

in the bottom half of my new iro-iro argyle bento box, i packed two panda-shaped onigiri, waving orange flags (black and orange are giants colors).  the pandas have nori stripes and facial features, cheese arms, and black bean ears.  this box also contains two vegetarian chicken nuggets, two pieces of carrot tamagoyaki, a lotus-cut baby carrot, a zebra tomato and a baby pear tomato, some steamed broccoli florets, and a slice of star fruit.

the tightly-sealing top half of this handy new box (not pictured) contains a little bit of pad ka prow with mock duck, leftovers from thai food we ordered this weekend.

everyone getting ready for the work week ahead?  hope you all had a fabulous fall weekend!

[as seen on cute food]

pikachu curry bento

we had a bit of a trying weekend with a jewish holiday that involves fasting (NOT my favorite!) and a sick puppy, so just a quick and easy dinner tonight, so that we can relax on the couch tonight watching the motoGP aragon race that we DVR’d.

golden curry to the rescue!  ours has red potatoes, spanish onions, button mushrooms, carrot chunks, and cubed tofu.  i layered some in a box with some leftover brown-and-white rice (mixed with a bit of furikake), and added a piece of corn, some steamed broccolini, one grape tomato with a leaf pick, a carrot star, and two chicken nuggets (i love something breaded with my curry!).

i realized recently that in all my bentos (more than 200 over the past year), i have never done a pikachu, despite having seen so many lovely examples — for example by shoppingmum and akinoichigo.   so for decoration, i tried a simple pikachu face cut from cheese, with nori-and-cheese eyes, nori nose, mouth and ear tips, and vegetarian ham cheeks and tongue.  a lady apple on the side, and we’re good to go — hope you all have an easy start to your work week!

radish “cherries” bento

just a quick entry today by way of explanation for my long absences and spotty posting this summer… still figuring out my schedule, and eating lunch at home most days, so no need to pack a box.  today, though, i’m helping out a friend’s art gallery, so i am bringing a little something: brown and white basmati rice layered over matar paneer (indian peas and cheese), with steamed broccoli, carrot leaves, takuwan flowers, CSA blueberries in a paper food cup, two vegetarian chicken strips, and the cutest tiny tomato from my friends’ garden.  two radish “cherries” (cilantro and mint “stem”) top off my rice.

hope you all are having a wonderful summer, full of as many possibilities and projects as mine so far!

baseball bears bento

last week i received an unexpected package from a kind and thoughtful friend — it contained picks galore!  i wanted to use the cute baseball cap and flag picks, and it’s baseball season (almost all-star time, in fact), so i put together a baseball bears bento.

i root for the san francisco giants, whose colors are orange and black… but these adorable caps were blue, so just use your imagination!  certainly the sentiments on the flags (やったね translates to “you did it!” and がんばりましよう translates variously, according to my japanese-speaking twitter pals, as “go get ’em,” “hang in there,” “keep trying,” “work harder” or “give it your best shot!”) apply to my team… it’s been a rocky season so far, with some great moments (posey’s brilliant debut; beating the hyped-up red sox), and some not-so-great moments (getting swept by the dodgers; the shameful and disgusting decision to trade loyal veteran and mentor catcher bengie molina mid-season).  um, keep trying, brian sabean. work a little harder, tim lincecum. sigh.

anyway, sorry for the baseball tangent, and thanks for the picks you-know-who, i love them!

i made these bears from a chicken egg and a quail egg, soaked in hot water with 4 drops of red food coloring.  i cut the eggs in half the long way, and added ears/muzzles made from fish sausage and eyes/noses/mouths made from nori.  my bears sit atop turmeric-dyed rice, which is layered on top of my favorite spicy stewed tofu.  i have a butter lettuce “baran” to separate the rice from one vegetarian chicken tender, a vegetarian-ham-wrapped okra pod, two grape tomatoes, more CSA blueberries (plus two lovely golden raspberries, also from my share), and a few pea pods.

GO GIANTS! (and go bengie, even if you’re on the rangers!)

fruit and onigiri snack bento

just a quick one today, as i’m running around preparing for a dinner party tonight (and will be munching while i cook!)…

three small onigiri made with my favorite chunky ume/sesame seed furikake, and wrapped with ooba leaves; three vegetarian chicken tenders and a piece of okra wrapped in vegetarian ham (you’ll be seeing a lot of that until i run out of my okra!), a bit of steamed broccoli with a clown pick, red grapes, and some perfectly plump blueberries…

the blueberries are from a GINORMOUS bucket of blueberries that we got (along with a small carton of precious golden raspberries) as this week’s share of the CSA we joined when we moved to williamsburg.  tonight i’m making blueberry crisp, but i’m in the market for other blueberry recipes (especially bento-friendly ones), so holler if you’ve got ideas!

[as seen on fada moranga]

yum-yum bento box: walruses bento

today’s lunch is based on the “walruses” bento featured on p. 52 of the book “yum-yum bento box: fresh recipes for adorable lunches.”

again, i tried to faithfully copy the character idea, while substituting ingredients as necessary.  so for instance, in the book, the walruses are brown rice.  my boyfriend isn’t a huge brown rice fan, so i mix our brown rice with white rice… the resulting onigiri is a lighter color, but i think it’s still ok for a walrus!  as another example, i didn’t have the mushroom caps or lentis recommended for the walruses’ noses, so i used edamame beans.  green noses are cute too!  finally, i don’t have a nori punch that makes small enough dots for the walruses’ whisker holes, so i just used sesame seeds, pushed into the rice with the pointy sides down.  the nori eyes, cheese “tusks,” and ketchup cheeks are all just like in the book.

the point is to make do with what you have!  if you use the basic character ideas from the book and put your own spin on them, you are sure to come up with something cute.

the rest of my box contains broccoli with corn kernels (like on p. 32), half a steamed brussels sprout, two cherries and a strawberry, two pieces of vegetarian chicken, some takuwan-and-carrot rosettes, a salami rosette, and pea pods to fill empty spaces.  my brown-and-white rice onigiri are stuffed with umeboshi.  yum!

i hope you have all enjoyed my take this week on various yum-yum bento boxes, and that you’re eager to try your own interpretations of the wonderful characters and recipes from this book… have a wonderful weekend!

squirrel sandwich bento

sunday nights are always lazy, and tonight i’m watching the giants-cardinals game… so, just a quick sandwich bento for tomorrow’s lunch.

my sandwich is a vegetarian “chick-n” patty (spicy flavor!) on sourdough with mustard, baby spinach leaves, avocado, and cheese.  i wrapped it with brown wax paper and washi tape, and topped it with a squirrel cut from white bread.

the remaining space in the bento has a paper food cup filled with thai-style soy ginger carrot salad (a tasty frozen item from trader joe’s; it’s great for my bento stash because it adds a pop of bright color and requires zero prep) and a vine-ripe tomato with a squirrel pick from this cute set, plus a few clementine slices.

hope everyone had a sunny, fun, and restful weekend!