Busy Week Last Week... Here's Some Bento's You Missed

I have no idea about dates anymore, the last 7 days are a blur
luckily Kenny helped me out when I was really tired and made some bento's for Chloe. I wish he'd taken pictures, I would of loved to seen them.

In the photo above is bistro italian sausage chunks with a cheesy filling. A side of penne pasta in vodka sauce. Green Salad and Plums for the other side.

for Miss Chloe some dinosaur ham sandwiches with pink polka dots. Penne pasta, last minute trail mix (peanuts, raisins, chocolate chips) and cottage cheese with mandarin oranges.

These last two were after my crazy week. Chloe gets a bagel ham sandwich with cream cheese spread. The face is cheese and raisin eyes, cherry tomato nose and a radish slice tongue. A radish cube is in the corner there. She also got a side of grapes, some broccoli slaw and a veggie section with tomatoes and celery and laughing cow cheese spread.

Miniture pita pockets with ham/cherry tomatoes. Carrot side, Orange section side, raisins and a wedge of Ireland Dubliner cheese (grainy, sweet cheese with strong flavor like that of parmesan)

Creativity Shortage

Lunches for my family are no doubt healthy and delicious, but I've been experiencing a creativity shortage as far as "pretty" bento boxes go. One reason is time another, is money for a larger, more interesting variety of food items. But when you get down to it, those are just excuses. I do have to say that making a few "make ahead" portions to stuff in the occasional bento is a good idea. Long time bento stars such as Biggie, at lunch in a box have been pre-preparing bento sides in order to keep bento creation down to 15 minutes or less. Perhaps a muse will visit me tonight and inspire me with beautiful bento ideas, or maybe I'll just stick with the old humdrum selections I've been giving in my plain bento rut.

Todays lunch for Chloe was a ham sandwich on whole wheat english muffin, sliced kiwi and plums, cucumber chips, radish flowers and a baby bell cheese.

Last Fridays lunches consisted of made ahead pasta sides and pizza pockets, chloe asked for cottage cheese (her favorite lunch time side) and a clementine orange. Kenny got some cucumber chips and apple chunks to eat with his pizza pockets or "sausage buns" as he claims they need to be called.

Make Ahead Pizza Pockets (for Bento)

I made some pizza pockets today for some quick bento packing in the future. If you don't like sausage you can fill them with your favorite toppings.

Mini Pizza Pockets
Pizza Dough (I used a bread machine recipe)
1/2 lb. Ground Italian Sausage
Pizza Sauce
Shreaded Cheese

Brown ground sausage.

Roll out pizza dough, I used a large glass rim to cut circles. The diameter should be about 4".

Build pockets: teaspoon of sauce in center, a tablespoon of browned sausage meat, a sprinkle of cheese. Then fold dough circles in half and seal with a fork.

Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 10-11 minutes.

Freeze on pan for 30minutes then transfer pockets to a ziploc bag for long term storage.

Bento Resurrected

Well, I've continued to make bentos. With or without my camera my family still needs food! But behold I have a new camera to document the beautiful bentos I make and so here are the lunches I made for today.



Chloe gets mini corn dogs and bbq sauce, apple sauce with some sprinkles, dried mango slices and baby bell cheese wheel, carrot sticks and milk.



Ken gets left over green chili chicken enchiladas, grapes, dried mango slices and baby bell, green salad.

Mid Week Catch Up!

Mondays meal was a hodgepodge selection of fruits and veggies, leftovers and a sandwich. Look at the cute little scalloped sandwich. I bought a Pampered Chef Bread tube five or so years ago... I have never ever used it, that is untill last weekend. It's a little big for the square inserts that come with the laptop lunch box but it was still cute enough to justify removing the trays. I added blueberry eyes and a strawberry wedge for a mouth. I used a bear shaped cookie cutter to make Mister Rice Cake Bear and put them both in the lower section with some grapes. The top half had a tray of fresh veggies and dip and some left over hot dog tortilla wraps from a restaurant dinner we had. Little baby bell cheese and some rice candy on the side. Chloe love the face sandwich.

Monday we had a roast and some veggies for dinner. So I just sliced up some pieces of roast and poured bbq sauce on them. I packed Ken some home made whole wheat dinner rolls to eat with the bbq beef. A salad fills the other side of the tray with grape tomatoes and radish roses. I used one of my little bento bottles for the first time and sent along some dressing for the salad. I also packed Ken a baby bell cheese and various fruits such as blue berries, apple wedges and kiwi slices. He said when he microwaved the BBQ beef it filled the room with a yummy smell.



Chloe got the same BBQ beef sandwich though since she gets to eat all her food cold, I pre-made the sandwich for her. She also gets apple wedges, blueberries/strawberries and cottage cheese. Some celery and graham crackers with peanut butter for dipping.

Bento Toys

Kenny's mom dropped by my new Pampered Chef mini cookie cutters today. They're really really cute and small perfect for cutting apples and cheeses into tiny bento box fun shapes. I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of these adorable little things. They come in this nifty little tin to hopefully keep them together as much as I possibly can. I can see the heart and star one getting worn out and the pumpkin will be getting a lot of use with halloween just around the corner.

I ordered a "men's" bento box set from a store in Japan. The kids thought it was pretty neat to get a package from Japan. I showed them all the different writing on the packaging and let them help me open the box. It came with a few other bento trinkets like food dividers and some soy sauce bottles. But this is what I was really buying. Something for dad to take to work. I was looking for a 2 tier one so that I could pack cold stuff and hot stuff and he could remove one tray and microwave it and leave the other tray with cold stuff on it out of the microwave. Tomorrow is a bento box day, I'll have to test this one out!

Nothing's Quite as Nice as Beans and Rice

I was so tired last night I waited till really late to start even thinking about dinner. By then I was REALLY tired. After many trips to the refridgerator (just standing in it waiting for prepared food to just pop out at me) I finally gave in and realized that I would just have to cook something. I went to the pantry and saw, black beans, brown rice, diced tomatoes and green chilies. I figure I can make something pretty good pretty easily with that stuff.

I packed Ken the hash and some left over Italian sausage chunks... corn bread and a bowl of diced pears and pluots. After just finishing a plate of tasty beans and rice for dinner, I have to say the lunch looked very appetizing.

Erin's Sleepy Hash
1 can of black beans (kidney beans, red beans whatever)
1 can of diced tomatoes
half an onion diced (just so happens I had a leftover half an onion to use up)
1 or 2 cloves (or more) chopped garlic
1 small can of diced green chilies (optional)
1 cup of brown rice (or white rice... just should be long grain probably)

So, I sautéed the onion and garlic in a bit of butter until the onions were translucent. I dumped in all the canned goods undrained. I added a little bit more water, like a 1/4 cup. When it was to a boil I added the rice. Waited for it to boil again and then covered it and turned it down to a simmer. It took about 40 minutes for the rice to cook through. Perfect time to bake some corn bread!

Chloe requested to have some of the dinner in her bento box... she also wanted some macaroni and cheese. I have a little gladware box of Arthur shaped Macaroni and cheese in the fridge, stuff that we had for dinner earlier in the week. She must of sensed that I was feeling rather zombie like, because this was a super simple lunch to pack. A little diced pears and pluots and some cucumber sticks for good measure. She was happy with it when she left this morning.

First Sushi

So, I'm not a big fan of typical sushi.

WHAT?!?!? How can that be?

We'll I grew up in Hawaii, yes. But, 95% of native Hawaiian sushi has spam in it and is lightly toasted on a hibatchi grill! (That stuff I liked. I've not had it since I was a kid though.) It seems that all of our good friends love sushi, the kind most people think of with RAW fish. I've attempted many, many times to "love" sushi. I may be able to enjoy the flavor of the food, but the texture of the raw fish is usually hard to swallow, I mean choking it down. I don't care how good it is, I don't like to continually swallow to get the sticky stuff to my belly. Unfortunately Kenny distastes the raw fish stuff as well. We have tried really. It's rare for me to not be able to like a food. It's just too darn sticky.
Luckily sushi doesn't mean "raw fish". Luckily it refers to the rice, but not fish or other toppings/fillings.

I'm making these bento boxes now and I just have to do some oriental based dishes once in a while. I decided to try my hand at making sushi last night. I made maki-zushi with avacado, cream cheese and smoked salmon. If anyone is skiddish about trying sushi, this is the way to go... mmmm, these are quite scrumptious and no raw fish to push past the palate.

Here we have Kenny's little smoked salmon and cream cheese maki. It's served with some thai style chicken chow mein and mango pieces. I made a cute tulip out of a bell pepper and left over avocado pieces. This roll was quite easy to make. I mean simple like making a sandwich! Slap the sushi rice on the nori, spread it. Put in the fillings and roll it up.

I mean it's my first time and one or two may have came out a little lopsided. I really was expecting some feat of acrobatics to be involved with this delicate dish. But no, it was as easy as making the peanut butter tortilla wraps. This side dish is definitely not going off the menu because of difficulty, It may be made a regular feature in fact.

I wanted to make something fun for Chloe's box so I used the sushi rice and made two onigiri's (rice balls with filling). I think I did pretty good. For us American mom's there is a onigiri press I can buy that will form the perfect little balls (or triangles or even onigiri fun shapes like flowers) but I just did these with wet hands and some handfuls of rice. They have a few pieces of smoked salmon in the center and are wrapped with a thin band of nori. I used nori for the cute faces. I need to watch a bit more anime so I can get some character ideas to put in the lunch box. She also has chow mein, rice and mangos and my 'it's getting late, I need to go to bed' container with cookies and peanuts. I don't know how the meal will blow over. We may have to practice eating these at home a bit before it's successful.

Sushi is ranked as a comfort food in America now. It was the most consumed food right after 9/11 by people in New York. Did you know that 13 pieces of California Roll sushi have only 9.5 Weight Watchers Flex Plan Points? (how can this be, the bulk of the roll is sugared carbohydrates) Japanese usually eat miso soup not at the beginning of the meal, but at the end—to aid digestion.

bacon - really, do I need to say more?

Kenny usually gets Mondays and Wednesdays off for restaurant grub consumption. But today there was a brown bag meeting or presentation or something at work so he asked me pack him some food. The main course was two fat and happy BLT sandwiches, with extra B. I used a large pita round cut into quarters for the bread and stuffed it full of bacon lettuce and tomatoes... I made sure to put lettuce between the tomatoes and the bread, as suggested by other bentoholics, to prevent the bread from getting soggy. Kenny said the bottom was a little moist. I either have to really be sure to dry every every piece of lettuce before sandwich making or I have to get up in the wee hours of the morning and pack. He said it was still good so I may not worry about it. I packed fruit in one half and veggies in the other. We got a mini banana, pluot (plum and apricot hybrid) and some raspberries... on the other half some broccoli and cherry tomatoes and yellow pepper strips. I made a ranch dip container out of a small section of cucumber. I was unsure about the spillage on this so I wrapped some saran wrap over the top.

Chloe got the same veggie tray as dad. Some lazy me sections with pre packed applesauce and a handful of teddy grahams oatmeal crackers.

The main container had a BLT wrap wedged in with apple chunks and a halved pluot. She finished everything at school so it must of been good.