Bento Corner

If I had my act together I would have first created the caterpillar bento and then the butterfly bento. The operative word here is if.

The caterpillar bento is a variation of this bento. Bento also includes chikuwa (fish cake) stuffed with cucumbers, kabocha croquette (frozen item) and prunes. The caterpillar is made with nori, cheese, kinako (ground soy bean mixed with a bit of salt and sugar to taste), sakura denbu (fish flakes mixed with sugar), and vegetable furikake.

You should have heard my son while I was putting this bento together.

Well, I guess the problem was that you couldn't hear him... 

me: Son! Are you causing trouble?!

son: No, I just looking! *holding the candy stash in my purse*

me: Son, that's not yours.

son: I just looking, mama.

me: Put it back, please!

son: *adamantly* MAMA! I JUST LOOKING! *fists now tightly wrapped around the candy*

me: OK, no eating.

son: OK

me: Just look.

son:  Awwight!*huffs*

Now you know what's coming. I know he isn't holding onto some candy just observing. It's quite obvious it's going to end up in his mouth eventually. But there are times when I just want him to be occupied so I can just get some peace and quiet to get things done without having to hear him whine and cry about how he just wanted to innocently look at that candy.

Unwrapped.

Apparently in his mouth.

His 5th piece.

Butterfly bento with sausage, edamame, and strawberries.

This bento was all made the morning of, including the cheese parts. I highly do not recommend creating bentos like this during your kids' waking hours -- unless you have kids who quietly occupy themselves. Mine don't ever do that -- unless they are conspiring to do some great evil (ie, "helping" organize critical documents,  pounding on the laptop until they can find nickjr.com, etc ).

I got a set of new molds which are super tiny and made for baby hands:

OK I know they don't look too small in the above photo, but to give you some perspective, the strawberries in the bento are cut into quarters and one onigiri (quarter wing of the butterfly) is equivalent to that size. About the size of the top of my thumb.

The bento shuffled about in transport but it was still recognizable with a little shift according to the girl. She was even the first one to finish her bento amongst her classmates. Quite the accomplishment for her snail-paced self.

Dolls for Hinamatsuri made by my daughter at kinder. I think there was supposed to be 5 of the blue male dolls but she said she ran out of time so just submitted her work as is.

For the doll observation on Hinamatsuri, the kinder also provided wagashi (Japanese sweets) and a very traditional Japanese tea ceremony was conducted while the kinder children admired their work in creating these dolls.

Urutoraman (Ultraman) bento made of pork bun, cheese, ham, and nori with pesto pasta, and broccoli.

I actually had 2 mini-pork buns which I was going to stick in the bento and make the other pork bun a moon and create an Ultraman in space...or at least his head floating in space. But it was a tight squeeze so I just left that bun out on the counter. After taking the photo, my daughter saw the moon pork bun the following proceeded:

the girl: Wow! It's a moon!

me: Yeah, I was going to put it in the bento, but since space was limited, I just put this in instead!! *shows the Ultraman*

the girl: Eh~, Ultraman! That is a boy bento! I want the moon! It's cute! I'm a girl and girls are...

me: *groan*

I really hate the gender distinguishing phenomenon that's been plaguing our household  lately. A lot of "girls should do things a certain way and boys do it this way". She just mentions them loosely and casually enough that it doesn't seem like much at the moment but I am bracing myself for a very long and uphill battle.

In any case I lost this round since she ended up taking the moon bento instead (which I had no time to take a picture of).

Nevertheless,  I am keeping a stiff upper lip. I may have lost the battle, but I shall win the war...or however you say it.