Bento 10/25/2010-10/28/2010

We are going vacation for 10 days this Friday so I am making the vacation theme bento lunch this week for girls. Since we are away, I am not planing to go food shopping this week. Therefore, the bentos are made of whatever in our refrigerator.

Monday: Leftover from Outback steak house. Sydney has mickey mouse sweet potato with ketchup and butter in the containers, dinner rolls, chicken finger and clementine.

Tuesday: Marine bento with nori sail boat, egg and shrimp, salmon and vegetable.

Wednesday: Mickey mouse cheese, grilled ham and cheese sandwich, steam vegetable and cherry tomatoes. Underneath Winnie the Pooh button is chocolate.

Thursday: Chicken Terriyaki and vegetable, cherry tomatoes and Furikake rice seasoning Mickey Mouse

Bento 10/18/2010-10/22/2010

Monday: Baked penne with meat sauce and cheese, vegetable with cheese, mini cremy cake and strawberries

Tuesday: Rice with Hello Kitty Furikake rice sesoning, Japanese Fried Chicken, sauteed Gobo and cherry tomatoes

A close look of Hello Kitty

Wednesday: Mummy hotdog with bat cheese, witch's finger, pickle on picks and Jack-O'-Lantern clementine

Thursday: Kitten rice ball with raisin eyes and mouth, Teddy Bear boiled egg and strawberries

Friday: Crab hot dog, pickle fish, corn with egg and clementine

Another Spooky Halloween Snack Bento

I made a Halloween themed snack bento for Sydney and Vienna yesterday, and the girls really liked my spooky bento a lot.

A spooky Halloween snack bento in the Lock & Lock container

Viena's favoriate witch's finger mozzarella stick. I used the food-safe marker to make the nail and knuckle lines.

Some grapes on ghost/pumpkin picks

Pumpkin and bat shape pretzel

I also turned the home made muffin into a Jack-O'-Lantern with food-safe marker

Spooky Halloween Themed Bentos

I am starting to make Halloween Themed Bentos, and I am really loving it and coming out a lot of new ideas everyday.

Upper left: veggie with blue cheese dipping and bat cheese

Upper right: strawberries and banana on pumpkin picks

Lower right: boiled egg on black cat pick

Lower left: grilled cheese and ham sandwich and ghosts cheese

 Monster rice balls (but they don't really look very scary), grilled miso chicken and vegetable stew.

Upper left: penne with meat sauce and cat shape ham

Upper right: boo ghost garlic bread

Lower right: ham and cheese roll on spider pick and pumpkin shape baked Japanese sweet potato

Lower left: blue berries and strawberries on pumpkin picks

Jack-O'-Lantern rice ball and clementine, pork and veggie stew and bat shape seaweed.

Afternoon Snack Box #1

My girls are usually busy after school. Sydney has gymnastics pre-team practice on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, art lessons on Tuesdays. Both Sydney and Vienna have swimming lessons on Wednesdays and Fridays. So I need to prepare some snack for them before those crazy lessons so they will not be too hungry and pass out.

This is Sydney's favoriate quesadilla with mini pepperoni, some pretzel fish and fresh stawberries.

Mini rice ball with Furikake rice seasoning, crakers and some rasins.

Egg salad sandwich pocket, stawberries and banana.

Donut shaped ham and cheese sandwich with icing decoration and stawberries.

Homedade raspberry muffin, graham crackers and apple chunks.

Half mini bagle with cream cheese, pretzels and banana slices.

Buttered toast and stawberries.

Mini waffle sandwich, banana slices, stawberries and yogurt.

Another Bear Bento

A friend of mine gave me a pack of rice ball molds, and I like this Teddy Bear head a lot.

I made the rice balls using the mold and I placed a piece of homemade pickle on the face to make the face stands out more.I also cut nori to make ears, eyes, nose and mouth.

There were Japanese style fried chicken, dried tofu and seasoned seaweed in this cute bento box. Sydeny and Vienna told me that they really liked their Teddy Bear bento.  

Ladybug

I had some left over grilled salmon in my refrigerator and I thought maybe I could turn it into something different. So I made this ladybug bento for Sydeny and Vienna, my younger daughter.

Instead of using food coloring to make red color rice ball, I mixed salmon with rice and make them into some little pinkish color rice balls. Then I cut nori in circles and half circles to make ladybugs' heads and spots. The ladybug antennae were made out of black color straw.

I also put some seasoned seaweed, corn on the bob and some grapes in the bento.



Field Trip Bento Box

I made Sydeny's lunch for her field trip today in a take out box because her teacher wanted their lunch to be packed in a disposable container or bag. So I told my husband to pick up a take out box at a restaurant that our friend owns.

I made a seaweed rice ball and wrapped it in the happy face little girl wrapping film. I also packed some baked Japanese sweet potato, clementine for fruit and some crackers for snack.

Tic Tac Toe Sandwich

I got the idea from Tic Tac Toe Pizza at American Girl Cafe, I use thick slice toast bought in Mitsuwa supermarket in Edgewater, NJ. I sliced the toast into 9 squares and on each square I placed either a circle ham or X shaped yellow cheese. I also use the leftover cheese and ham to make some rolls to squeeze in the space so the Tic Tac Toe sandwich can stay in the place.   

I also pack strawberries, raspberries and blueberries for fruit.



Beware of Bear

This is one of the first bento boxes I made for Sydeny. I use the cookie cutter that I bought in Taiwan to cut the white cheese to make the  face of the Teddy Bear, and I cut out the nori (Dry seaweed sheet) to make the eyes and mouth. Underneath the Teddy Bear is hamburger. I also pack Sydney's favorite egg salad with the little flower white cheese. There are strawberries and kiwi slices for fruit.

Why Bento Box??

I lived in Taiwan when I was a kid. I still remember I had to bring my steel bento box to school everyday, and there was a steam room for all the bento boxes to be heated up in school. But everything changed when I moved to another city and went to a new school where every students get free lunch from the school kitchen.

My older daughter Sydney goes to first grade this year. The school serve mostly unhealthy lunch such as popcorn chicken, hot dog, nachos, pizza and pasta. Then I decide to make bento box for Sydney to bring to school. I can control what she eats everyday for lunch and make sure she finishes her lunch.

This is how I begin my journey of making health and cute bento box. I hope everyone can enjoiy my bento box.