Field Trip Bento #128

Paige went on a field trip today so I packed her bento in a disposable container.  After packing it (and taking the pictures), I realized that the box that I had chosen was too big! :0(  The lid of the box pictured has a domed lid so there was quite a bit of space at the top.  If I left the food in this container, it would have resembled a stir fry rather than a bento so I changed it to a smaller more secure container.  Paige’s bento contains a musubi, mochiko chicken, sauteed Brussels sprouts, and carrot flowers.  I cut the carrot flowers with my new and awesome Ateco cutters from the Executive Chef at Ward.  They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and the only downfall is that they were kind of pricey.  Still, I am a sucker for all new and cute things that I can use in my bentos so of course I bought them. 

Grilled Herbed Chicken Bento #127

Yesterday, Paige went to do some grocery shopping with me and expressed interest in trying Brussels sprouts.  I’ve never made them for the kids before so I was really happy that Paige was curious about them!  We ate them last night for dinner and Paige requested them for her lunch today too!  The Brussels sprouts were lightly steamed and then quickly sauteed with a little bit of olive oil, garlic, sea salt and pepper.  Paige’s lunch also included grilled chicken breast, a sweet potato heart, pineapple, and a musubi wrapped in a lion onigiri wrapper.

Three Peas in a Pod #126

Quick post today!  Paige’s lunch consisted of  mandoo (pan-fried Korean dumplings), sesame spinach, carrot hearts, a sweet potato flower, and three tiny onigiri stuffed into a silicone pea pod container.  Happy hump day everyone!

Puppy Onigiri and Mochiko Chicken Bento #125

Paige’s lunch today consisted of two onigiri disguised as puppies, mochiko chicken, edamame, and a couple of heart shaped Okinawan sweet potatoes.  I also packed her a small container of cantaloupe which I forgot to add when I took the picture this morning.  The onigiri wrappers are from the Marukai store at Ward and they also had Hello Kitty ones too.  It’s a fast and easy way to make any lunch cute!

Woof, woof!

Monkey Business #124

Many thanks to everyone for all of the well wishes for Paige.  She is back to normal and back in school.  Paige’s lunch today is a monkey turkey sandwich with goldfish and fresh pineapple stored in the smaller container.  This is my first, ooooops I mean Paige’s first Eco Lunchbox and I can’t tell you how much I love it!  It’s very durable with an easy to open tight-fitting lid.  The lunch box comes with a smaller container fitted with a plastic leakproof lid which I used to store Paige’s pineapple.  I forgot to take a picture with the lid on but just visit the Eco Lunchboxes site to see all of their different products.  It’s available at Whole Foods Kahala or buy it online!

A Fishy Sandwich #123

Paige stayed home today with a cold so there was no bento today, but here is a fishy sandwich from last week!  As you can see it was super quick and easy to make- all I needed was a few strategically placed pieces of cheese cutouts, a slice of olive, and a fun pick to make this sandwich look like a fish.  Hope you all are having a good start to the school year and are staying healthy!

Bear Cheese and Crackers Snack #122

Jenny, a reader, asked for ideas on how to make a cute snack that would wow 18 preschoolers.  So today I made this bear cheese and crackers snack for Sean, my 3 year old, and he loved it!  Between two whole wheat crackers I layered 3 slices of cheese and then decorated the top to look like a bear.  In addition to the cheese and crackers, I added on a couple of strawberries which made for a filling snack.

Piggy and Lion Sammies #121

This past month has been dedicated to a lot of home improvement at the Yuen household.  We sorted though all of our accumulated junk and we finally stored some and then donated the rest.  I find it amazing that we have collected so much junk over the years!  We also repainted all of our walls and have almost re-floored every room.  Needless to say because of all of this, my posts have become pretty sparse and I have to apologize for being so slow to answer emails, questions, and comments.  Bear with me as the end is near and I will respond to your questions.

Much love and thanks to Lynne for matching my donation from the previous post to the World Food Programme and Hawaii Food Bank!  And much thanks to Sonoma Bento who may soon start her own charitable donations per post!  You ladies are super awesome!!!

This piggy sandwich is a makeover of the piggy bagel that I made a few weeks back.  One reader asked how I keep everything in place on the bear sandwich that I recently made.  For these particular sandwiches, it’s important to chose the right sized bento box so that the sandwich doesn’t shift around during transport.  I also place a small piece of waxed paper (parchment paper works well too) over the face and close the lid.  The lid presses lightly down on the face holding it in place.  Alternatively you could just wrap the whole sammy in plastic wrap and that will keep everything in place too!

I made this lion sammy yesterday and Paige thought it was a cat.  Close enough I guess.   BTW the newsprint (and the strawberry paper for the piggy) is actually waxed paper that I picked up from Rakuten.