Macadamia Nut Pesto Pasta with Chicken #150

 

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been almost two weeks since I last posted!  Last week, Paige’s class went camping so I didn’t have to make her lunch.  Then this past Monday was a holiday and then Paige had a class luncheon yesterday, so this was the third bento that I had to make in two weeks!  Since I had a bunch of parsley in the fridge, I decided to make a macadamia nut pesto.  The pesto is easy to make, just throw a bunch of parsley along with garlic, macadamia nuts, parmesan, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil into a food processor and blend until smooth.  To make the pasta just toss the cooked pasta with the pesto and top with a pan seared chicken breast.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

 

 

 

A Bento for Valentine’s Day #149

Yesterday, I was at Whole Foods Market Kahala and picked up these heart shaped red raviolis!  They are filled with ricotta, marscapone, and parmigiano cheeses and the pasta is colored with tomato, paprika, and annatto, giving it that rich red color.  I made Paige her Valentine’s Day lunch today since her class will be having a luncheon on Monday.  Her lunch consists of two heart shaped cheese ravioli over spaghetti with tomato sauce and some veggies.

The raviolis reminded me of the these heart shaped gyoza that I made for Paige last year.

Shaun the Sheep and the Naughty Pig Nori Cutouts #148

Thank you everyone for your well wishes to Sean!  He seems to be doing much better today.  I suspect it’s because he had a much better sleep last night, which also means I was able to sleep better too!

A while back I made Shaun the Sheep and the Naughty Pig into a sandwich bento (the tutorial here) so I decided to make Shaun and the Naughty Pig nori cutouts for musubis.  It’s basically the same idea, you just have to make the cutouts smaller to fit your musubi.

I found a couple of pictures online and printed them out.  Then using a good sharp scissors, I held the picture together with a piece of nori and cut out the outline of the animals.  To make Shaun’s eyes, I used a hole punch to punch out the white part of his eyes and then used a smaller hole punch to cut nori for the black part of his eyes.  It was really easy to do and you can apply the same technique to just about any picture you want!

Rotisserie Chicken Soup with Tomatoes & Vegetables for Sean

Sean’s been fighting a cold and has been extremely miserable with all of the coughing and congestion.  Luckily my mother in-law gave us a huge Costco chicken the other day and it has served us more than a few meals.  I turned the leftovers into a chicken soup- full of veggies and bulgar wheat, and I also made whole wheat quesadillas with chicken, Monterey Jack, and spinach.  Sean didn’t have much of an appetite, so he only ate about half of his lunch today.

Wishing you all good health!

Bunnies for Chinese New Year 2011

Bunnies, the official animal of 2011, were in both Sean’s and Paige’s lunches today.  Sean had a bunnywich with turkey and cheddar, and Paige had bunny onigiri with chicken and veggies.   I also created a Bunny set on my Flickr page for more bunny bento ideas, check it out!

Below I posted a few Chinese New Year bentos from last year, which was the year of the tiger.

Chinese New Year Gau

Chinese New Year Dragon Wonton Soup #145

This past weekend we took the kids to watch the Chinese New Year parade held in Downtown Honolulu.  Paige and Sean had such a great time “feeding” the Chinese Lions and Dragons dollar bills which is supposed to bring you good luck and prosperity.  We thought that Sean would be a little afraid but he kept asking for more dollar bills to feed the lions!

To celebrate Chinese New Year, I made wonton soup with a dragon cut from daikon, choy sum, carrots, green onions, and Chinese parsley.

The kids feeding the Lions.

Dragon Dancers

The littlest lion!  Happy Chinese New Year to you all!