Bento Corner

Bu-ta-chan onigiri bento with gyoza, tamagoyaki, salad, and grapes.

My daughter is quirky sometimes. She took a look at the pig onigiri and said, "No, I don't want this bento. The pig is scary. Please make me a new bento." 

But. The pig. Is. Smiling. 

Is my daughter crazy? Sometimes I wonder...I suggested that maybe we can put a cute umeboshi ribbon on it to make it less scary. She was happy with that answer and everything was fine again.

The gyoza is made by Shirakiku -- it's the pork and nira (chives?) flavor. I think they make the best frozen gyoza around. We usually eat it without the dipping sauce since it's already pretty flavorful. The tamagoyaki has shirasu and spinach mixed in. The kids like it, but my husband refused to take a bite no matter how much my daughter yelled at him to, "DADDY JUST EAT IT!!!" I think it has to do with the eyes on the shirasu.

The salad is made of cucumber and radish slices. I decided to let the sliced vegetables sit in salt and then rinse them in water to squeeze out the excess salt and water. I then mixed it with a creamy sesame dressing. It turned out OK but I think it would have been better (and faster) to just skip that whole salt and water process the next time.

It is going to be so hot today...we turned on the AC at 8 am this morning. I know, I know. That's nothing compared to people who live in hotter climates, but where we live, these things are pretty rare...Hope you all stay cool over the weekend!

Fish onigiri bento taken on the cool glass table out on the deck...(hope the photographer is happy for the cred)

This morning I woke up kind of late with no idea what to make for bento. Although this bento was not hard to put together, it took time just because I didn't prepare the night before about what I would do the following morning.

In any case, the fish onigiri has chopped shibazuke inside per my daughter's request. Bento also includes a cream corn croquette with cabbage and bacon (frozen food item) which was pretty tasty -- I had a small taste from my son's bento. Also included some butter fried hanpen with cheese in the middle, slightly mashed kabocha, and a radish and chikuwa salad.

There is one confession...I ran out of Japanese mayo this weekend, so in an emergency, my husband had to run to the nearest market to get *deep sigh* American mayo. Gaaaahhhhhnnnn (shokku). I used American mayo mixed with the Japanese non-oil dressing for the chikuwa and radish salad and it was not too bad. I'm now contemplating when to goto the Japanese market since I only need one item from there. And although it is a critical item, I cannot seem to justify the trip for just one thing...especially with gas now priced at $3.07 a gallon...

Egg salad and ham, cheese, and cucumber sandwiches with grapes on a pick.

The giraffe and ambiguous animal (actually a cow) both contain egg salad. The heart is a ham sandwich. I use this egg salad recipe except I just use regular onions and dried tarragon. It is very good even with the substituted ingredients.

I probably should have used wheat bread for color contrast but thought of it after the fact. I think the egg salad tastes better on wheat too. Looking at the pictures you can see bits of egg salad on the white bread...yep, shoulda stuck with the wheat bread -- at least then it would hide the egg spots.

The color cups/separators help a lot with presentation. It looked so bland before I stuck the sandwiches in the various color cups.

So glad it's Friday! Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Pancake sandwiches with hotdog, edamame, and egg.

I was thinking about what to make for bento last night since these days my mornings are pretty rushed. I was thinking of pasta or maybe tuna or egg salad sandwich, but then remembered that we had pancakes left over from the weekend.

My family has been indulging in freshly whipped cream with fresh fruit and pancakes or French toast for the last few days. This is such a great combination! For French toast we use stale baguette bread and top with organic heavy whipped cream. We add about 1.5 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to one cup of cream and blend with the hand blender. Place over pancake or French toast and top with whatever fresh fruit on hand. So goooood. I could eat this for breakfast everyday but it cannot be a daily indulgence...much to my daughter's (and my) dismay.

The bento itself took very little time to prepare -- maybe 15-20 minutes or so. Mostly because everything was left over from the weekend. The pancakes have cream cheese and strawberry jam spread in the middle. Bento also includes hotdog flowers with corn, edamame picks, and quail egg chick with umeboshi beak.

I got these animal cutters from Japan. They are made specifically for sandwich bread, but I used them for pancakes this morning. We also use them for cookies, so my daughter thought she was getting cookies in her bento when she saw it this morning. Hahaha...but I bet if I had put in cookies, I would totally tip the "cool mom factor" scale.