Kodomo No Hi Bento #79

This past week has been a crazy one for me!  Between Sean and Paige both getting sick and the book signings it’s been a challenge for me to answer emails and comments so I hope you all forgive me.  Both of the kids are better now with just a lingering cough, which means we all can get more sleep now.  :)

Yesterday, I had book signings at the Dillingham Marukai Store and the Ward Marukai location as well.  After the signings I did a little shopping at the Dillingham store and found these really cute onigiri molds and today’s bento box.   The molds are really neat because they are made so that the onigiri come out shaped at an angle.  When you look at the onigiri the face is slanted such that it looks like it is tilted toward you.  Marukai has a ton of new bento boxes, onigiri molds, and accessories that you have to check out!  The buyer for the bento supplies said that there are a lot of new items that will be coming in next month as well.

Paige’s bento today includes chicken katsu, fruit, carrots, and bear onigiri.  I also decorated the bento in honor of  Kodomo No Hi (Children’s Day) with a small fish sausage carp.  To make the bear onigiri I used a mixture of white rice and pearl barley that I cooked together.  I’ve been trying to get my kids (and hubby too) to eat more whole grains and I thought that this would be a good way to incorporate it into their diet.  My intention is to slowly increase the amount of barley to white rice ratio as well as try other whole grains.  I really was inspired to do this by Sheri of Happy Little Bento.  She makes wonderful mixtures with different varieties of rice and also incorporates a lot of whole grains too.

My first batch with 2 cups of white rice, 1/2 cup of pearl barley, and 2 3/4 cups of water.

I also wanted to share a few pictures that my sister, who lives on the Big Island, sent me.  Every year the Honpa Hongwanji put on a Kodomo No Hi festival and have a bunch of activities for the kids, food booths, and entertainment as part of the festivities.  My sister, Amy, coordinated a musubi decorating activity for the kids in which they got to design their own musubis.

My niece, Caitlin, helping out!

Some of the musubis that they all made at the festival.

Here’s a couple of pictures from my book signing at Barnes and Noble.  I even got to meet Misty and Alex from Hawaii Book Blog too!

Quick and Easy Roasted Chicken Bento #50

Paige was sick this weekend so she stayed home from school today.  I wasn’t planning on making any bentos today since Paige is at home, but Sean asked if he could have one.  I put together a quick one for him of “smoked” roasted chicken, an ume and shiso musubi, and a few veggies.  The rice is mixed with an ume and shiso mix that I picked up from Marukai and it is really delicious!  As for the chicken, I used a large half chicken breast with the bone and skin on, then seasoned it with smoked salt, garlic, pepper, and olive oil.  I oven roasted it in a pre-heated oven at 425 degrees for about 30-45 minutes (450 degrees for smaller breasts for about 25 minutes) until cooked just through.  Cooking the chicken breast with the bone and skin-on helps the breast to retain a lot of it’s natural juices, making it deliciously moist.  Regarding the smoked salt, I never knew that they existed until I read about it on Hapabento’s blog which immediately prompted me to give smoked salts a try after reading her post.

Roasted chicken seasoned with smoked salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil

Alderwood smoked salt

I also made a roasted chicken breast seasoned with Hibiscus salt, onion, pepper, and olive oil.

Hibiscus salt

Kari-kari Ume Shiso Musubi mix

PBJ Musubi Bento #27

It’s those nesting onigiri boxes again!  Today I packed peanut butter and jelly musubi sandwiches in the boxes, along with mandarin oranges and blueberries.  I used grape fruit roll ups for the nori and eyes, and used the strawberry one for the ume nose.  The fruit roll ups are pretty sticky so they stay put fairly well on the bread.  The only problem I encountered was trying to keep the bread crumbs off of the top of the fruit roll ups.

Pikko of Adventures in Bentomaking will soon be announcing the winners of the Haiti Fundraiser drawing on her blog!  Don’t forget to check it out and see how much money we managed to raise with all of your help!  Thanks to all that participated as well as those who helped to spread the word about the fundraiser.