First Bento of the Christmas Season

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, Christmas is right around the corner!  Here is my first Christmassy sandwich bento.  To make it simple, I used a gingerbread man shaped cookie cutter for the turkey and cheese sandwich and added in a pretty snowflake pick.

I made this “Lunchables” style Fall bento a while back but never got around to posting it.

Winter Hats!

Quick post today… Paige’s bento contains two snow people onigiri, chicken kara-age, and some fruit and veggies.   The hats for the snow people are actually these cupcake picks from Bake it Pretty.  Check out their site, you’ll love them too! :)

Top Hat Frosty #138

Recently, I received my order of cupcake picks and toppers from ShopBakersNook.com!  They had a whole bunch of fun seasonal picks and cool hat toppers, like this top hat that I used for Frosty.  Cupcake picks are such a fun, quick, and easy way to decorate a bento.  Today’s bento includes a snowman onigiri, fried chicken, carrots, cucumbers, a cherry tomato, and a mini apple.

Here are some of the other cupcake picks and toppers that I picked up from ShopBakersNook.com.  Super cute right?

Rudolph, Snowmen, and a Few Kitties #135

I can’t believe that it is December already!  Only a few more weeks until Christmas and then New Years is right around the corner.  Time is flying by way too fast!

Today’s bento is inspired by Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  Along with the reindeer onigiri are garlic shrimp, sauteed Brussels sprouts and carrots, a mini apple, and fresh pineapple.

Here is another Christmasy bento with a simple snowman and snow-woman.  The bento also contains fried chicken, a mini apple, and sauteed Brussels sprouts and carrots.

The kitties are made from a combination of brown and white rice, and their noses are actually just picks.  I thought that it made them look like there were butterflies resting on their noses.  The rest of the bento includes homemade chicken nuggets with a honey & mustard dipping sauce, a mini apple, butterfly carrots, and fresh pineapples.

The Rudolph bento is posted on What’s for Lunch Wednesday!

Snowman and Fried Chicken Bento #10

This week Paige has been coming home with a lot of candy canes from school.  One of them came along with a little message explaining the symbolism of candy canes which I thought was really neat.  I’ve also read that the candy cane represents a shepherd’s crook or staff as a metaphor to Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd.  What a blessing Paige is, she inadvertently teaches me new things every day. Her bento today includes a fish cake snowman, fried chicken, carrots, cucumbers, a strawberry, and rice decorated with snowflakes and a rosemary Christmas tree.

On a different note, yesterday Green Magazine came out with an article on waste free lunches in which they featured one of my bentos!  Thanks so much Ashley!  They also had an article on where to get the best local fresh produce in Hawai`i and mentioned the KCC (Kapiolani Community College) farmer’s market.  I can personally attest to the freshness of the produce because I love to go there every Saturday.  Below are a few pictures of the KCC farmer’s market.

The bread is awesome, freshly baked!!!

They even have several vendors selling bentos!

Mini Christmas Pizza Bento and ‘Tis the Season for Giving #9

The economic crisis has been far reaching, and in the news I’ve been seeing a lot of local charitable non-profit organizations taking huge cuts in funding.  This unfortunately comes at a time when the community needs their assistance the most.  Because food is such a basic need that no person or child should go without, I decided as one of my long term commitments that I would donate regularly to the Hawaii Food Bank and the World Food Programme.  Regarding my blog, with every post I make, I will donate one dollar to those two charitable organizations.  I know it doesn’t seem like much, but at this time, it’s a start.  I marked this post #9 because I ‘m going to start from the beginning of the December and so far, including this post, I have posted 9 times.

On to Paige’s bento today.  The last time we went to Costco they had these Bagel Bites up for sampling.  Of course the kids loved them and I gave in and bought a box.  You can either microwave them or heat them up in an oven or toaster oven.  I wouldn’t recommend the microwave because they get hard in spots and really chewy.  The oven method is the best and it turns the bites soft on the inside and crusty on the outside.  Then to make them festive I added on more mozzarella cheese and cut out candy canes and stars from pepperoni.

Christmas Stocking Turkey, Bacon, and Cheddar Sandwich Bento

Soup and sandwich bento today for Paige!  So to stay with the Christmasy theme I made a Christmas stocking turkey, bacon, and cheddar cheese sandwich along with chicken and heart shaped pasta soup.  The weather has been nice and cool here on Oahu, so the soup will help to warm her up a little.  Speaking of Christmas bentos just wanted to share with you a plethora of snowmen bentos from Sherimiya on Flickr.  She is simply amazing with her use of fresh and healthy ingredients to make all of those adorable snowmen!

Chicken Tofu and Snowman Bento

It’s really great to see all of the wonderful Christmas bentos that people are making.  I loved this particular bento made by Hapabento because she posted an original story along with it.  It’s a short story about a Christmas tree and I shared it with my daughter, who loved listening to it.  There are also a bunch of Christmas bentos on Flickr, and the group that I often visit is called Kid Eats.  Check it out, they have so many cute ideas.

For Paige’s lunch today I made a snowman out of her rice, complete with a carrot nose.  I also made her chicken tofu which I packed in the thermal container to keep warm and also packed a few fruits and veggies in the other side container.

Christmas Tree PBJ Sandwich Bento

Sandwiches are always quick and easy to do because they require no cooking.  I used a Christmas tree cookie cutter to cut the bread, then added a little peanut butter and jelly, and finished the sandwich with colorful ornaments (jumbo sprinkles).  This old tree cookie cutter is my favorite because of it’s rounded edges.  17 more days until Christmas!

Spam Christmas Stockings Musubi Bento

Today I made Sean a bento since Paige didn’t have to bring lunch.  I made him Christmas stocking spam musubis along with mini chive dumplings, a few slices of pear, and some veggies.  I also made a mini wreath using a long sprig of thyme and propped it up behind a bow pick to make the bow look like it was part of the wreath.  Sean picked up the wreath and asked me “What’s dat?”.  I told him it was decoration so he put it on his finger and wore it as a ring as he finished his lunch.