Angel Hair Pasta with Meat Sauce and Garlic Toast Stars Bento

Paige’s quick and easy lunch today are leftovers from the other night. I made angel hair pasta with meat sauce and to top it off, I added a couple of mozzarella stars. The pasta and sauce were heated and then packed in the Zojirushi mini thermal lunch box, so that it’ll be warm when Paige is ready for lunch. To her lunch, I added a couple of star shaped garlic parmesan toasts as well as orange slices and grapes. The picture below is the first set of garlic toasts that I stuck in the toaster oven. I wasn’t paying attention because I was too busy drinking my coffee and chatting with Mark, and as a result burnt the first set. O_O It only took me a little over 15 minutes to reheat the sauce and pasta, and put it all together including remaking the garlic toast! I was going to add in a few fun animal picks to brighten it up but I forgot and added them in after I took the picture. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Ducky Bento

Due to three loose teeth and one missing tooth Paige has been having a lot of trouble eating lately.  Even worse, the problem teeth are located all in the front so she can’t bite into anything.  I have been trying to make food that is soft or food that she can just pop into her mouth and not have to worry using her front teeth.  Both of her musubis are stuffed with chicken karaage that I cut up into small pieces and decorated with precut store-bought nori.  I also made carrot flavored somen, which in my opinion, just tastes like regular plain somen.  The orange color is pretty neat though.  We have also tried out the pink ume and yellow kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) flavored ones, but they too don’t have much taste.   

Paige’s bento includes chicken karaage, a musubi stuffed with chicken karaage (I made one for her snack too), carrot somen with a SPAM flower, some veggies, and grapes too.  

      

Bunny Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Paige took a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with apples to school today.  The peanut butter, Roasted Honey Nut Skippy,  was introduced to us by Grandma last year and has since been our family favorite.  I love sandwich days, not only do I not have to cook but I get to sleep in a little later too.  :)  The cheese bunny is made with cheddar and mozzarella cheese, and fish sausage for the nose and cheeks.  To secure the bunny to the sandwich, I stuck a flower pick between the ears.   

Pooh and Piglet Musubi Bento

Paige’s lunch today consists of Pooh and Piglet musubis stuffed with fried chicken.  I made the nori by just cutting a strip to fit the musubi and then using a Pooh and Piglet punch to cut out  the nori.  The rest of her lunch included tamago with green onions, more fried chicken, cucumbers, carrots, and pineapple which I packed in a separate container.  I love these types of bento boxes that you can store the musubis on top and the rest of the lunch on the bottom.  I picked up this box from the Mauraki Zakka Avenue at Ward and it was only $1.99.  The lunch box belt was sold separately for $1.99 as well.       

While we were in Hilo over the weekend, Paige and her cousins, made their own bentos.  We made blue rice and a variety of ocean animals for them to put into their bentos.   

Paige’s bento.

Dillon working hard on designing his bento.

Caitlin with her masterpiece.

First Day of School Bento

Today is Paige’s first day of second grade!   In anticipation of today, Paige was much too excited to sleep last night and then woke up extra early this morning.  She couldn’t wait to get to school to see her new teacher and friends.  I made her a somen bento with carrots, cucumbers, and eggs with fried gyoza.  I also packed her mandarin oranges with blueberries and pretzels for her morning snack.  Sean was a little sad to not have Paige around today, but then again I think that he was happy to have mom all to himself.

Over the weekend Paige and I went to Hilo to do a photo shoot for my upcoming cook book which will be out in the spring of 2010.  Our very talented family friend Kevin Fujitani took the photos for me.  His work is incredible and if you have a chance, check out his website Techy3 Design Studios.   Kevin’s one of three extremely talented guys that do web, print, and video services.      

Fried Fish Cake Smiley Faces and Plumeria Bento

Summer officially ends for us this week with Paige going back to school on Monday.  Bad news is that I’ll really miss having her around , but the good news is that she is really excited to go back.  We finally got all of her school supplies labeled, packed, and ready to go today.  Paige is  especially  excited to use her brand new back pack.  She’s had the same one for the last three years and it gave out this summer.

Anyway, I made this quick bento with braised short ribs that I made the night before.  Rice, fruit, veggies, kamaboko plumeria flowers, and fried fish cake smiley faces.  Hope you all had a great summer!

    

Photo taken from Wikimedia.

Julie’s Bento

Yesterday, Sally and her 7 year old daughter Julie from Australia, sent me an email with pictures of the bento that Julie made all by herself!  Julie- you are awesome and thank you for sharing your bento with us all!  Please keep sending me pictures.

Alphabet Pasta with Meat Sauce and Bear Garlic Toast

As of late, I’ve been working on the book 2 of Hawai`i’s Bento Box Cookbook which should be out in the spring of 2010.  I’ve been crazy busy trying to write out all of the recipes and take all of the photos for the book which accounts for my lack of posts.  Today’s bento is actually going to be our dinner tonight, alphabet pasta with meat sauce and garlic toast.  Paige and Sean wanted to eat the pasta for lunch today so I made them bentos and added on the cheese bears to the toasts.  Anyway hope you all are having a great week!

KHNL Morning Show Bento

This morning Paige and I were invited to be on KHNL’s morning show with Diane Ako!   We had to be there at 5:25 in the morning which meant that I had to get up at 1:30 am to make 6 bentos for the show. O_O  I made an extra bento for Diane (pictured above) with a panda bear, bunny SPAM musubi, kamaboko butterfly, fish sausage flowers, fried shrimp, chicken karaage, and tamago.  Paige and I were there for 2- three minute segments which you can check out at the KHNL site.  I have to add that I was extremely nervous but Diane was awesome, she totally made me feel at ease and was so easy to talk to.  Thank you to Diane and KHNL for having us there today!!!