Bento Corner

My daughter's preschool went to the local park on a hike and this was the bento I made for that event.

My daughter started preschool last spring when she was 3.5 years old. She has never been a big eater and even her pediatrician was worried about her growth. She would eat in small bites and chew her food morsels for what seemed like eternity. At that time, I used to make bentos for her but barely put anything in there because she took so long in eating her food. I would include only one roll of onigiri, and 2 other oakzu in small portions. When I think about that time I am amazed that she has maybe doubled to tripled her eating portion. And she comes home and eats a pretty healthy portion for snacks too!

So, for this bento, I included 3 onigiri -- 2 umeboshi and one sake (salmon)! I am so happy to just be able to write something other than umeboshi or shibazuke! Ha! I also sprinkled some denbu on the cheeks of the onigiri, but you can't really see it very well.

Bento also includes sweet teriyaki chicken; salad with orange, wakame, and shirasu; and edamame and grapes on picks.

See where my husband decided to take this photo? It's on the railing of the deck. He is really getting brave where he takes his photos. He is pretty accident prone too, so I don't even want to think about what would happen if he actually dropped the bento...

Chirashi sushi with unagi -- it's supposed to be a sunflower...

I made chirashi sushi with unagi and decided to arrange the egg that goes on top in shape of hearts. I started playing around with it and thought maybe I could pull off a sunflower. I arranged the nori in criss-cross patterns in the middle and thought that was sufficient. Then my husband looked at it and said you need seeds in the middle so I scattered the sesame in. In my opnion, I thought the criss-cross nori was enough, but I see now that is what is done in Japan -- that's how I draw sunflowers too. Big yellow petals, with criss-crosses in the middle. I never thought about seeds...

Bento also includes okra ohitashi (frozen variety), asparagus rolled in bacon, and cherries. I've never made asparagus rolled in bacon, so this was my first attempt. it was not bad except I should have tried rolling maybe 2-3 spears instead of just one. I thought one spear just ended up being too salty...I also steamed the asparagus a bit first just incase it didn't cook enough by just fying it in the pan along with the bacon.

So, this is my attempt at Currypanman. I think Anpanman and Shokupanman are relatively easier than Currypanman.

I decided I would make dry curry this morning to create Currypanman. I really should have prepped better last night then I would not have had such a rush this morning. Oh well. Next time I have to realize that if I cannot prep the night before I should stick with simple onigiri or something.

I had my husband take a taste of the dry curry first. My husband replied that it was "weird, but good". I really hate this phrase. I mean, is it good, or not? Is it bad? What the heck does this mean exactly? I have talked to him about banning this phrase from our home, so in truth he said, "I don't think I'm supposed to use that phrase anymore in reference to your cooking..."

I then gave my daughter a taste and she didn't say anything for a long time, but finally replied with, "This does not seem right...the taste" Uh-, Ohkaaaayy. The obvious lesson to be learned here was to avoid experimental cooking in the morning especially when I am rushed.

Bento also includes tamagoyaki with kanikama, cucumber and radish lightly salted, mini sausages, and blueberries with kiwi fruit.

I showed my daughter the finished bento and she screamed, "Currypanman da! Obake!!" and ran away...So I packed it anyway because by golly by the time lunch rolls around she would be so hungry that she would eat it without any problems...let's hope.

So glad it's Friday!!

P.S. For those who couldn't view the video of my goofy son, my husband changed the file format to MPEG, so hopefully it will work now.

Kuma ume onigiri with pasta shaped like Hello Kitty.

I found this pasta at the Japanese market some time ago, but never got around to using it until now. The husband recognized that it looked like Hello Kitty, but my daughter didn't even realize it. But she did say the flower pasta was cute. I sauteed some frozen spinach into the pasta along with some shallots.

Bento also includes some ribs (taken off the bone). The bento looked a bit bland with the pasta and meat which were both a reddish color, so I stuck in some steamed broccoli and added sweet tamagoyaki rolls made of quail egg for contrast. Fruit picks are made of kiwi, strawberries, and blueberries.

A bit of a cooling trend in the weather -- finally! I can't believe I was actually happy to see some fog rolling around these parts...