How To Pack a Bento Lunch

After a number of my Facebook friends teasing me that I should come over and pack lunches for their children, and one indicating she was interested in starting to do this herself, I figured I would put together a simple "how to."

Now, please know that you can use whatever foods appeal to you and your children.  For this little demo, I will try to stick pretty closely to the 1/3 carbs, 1/3 protein, 1/3 veggie & fruit that I have read about in Kawaii Bento Boxes and seen around the web.

First, we start with carbs.  I am using steamed white pearl rice.  Pack it in.

Next add the protein.  For me today this is an egg and sausage bake.  It is shaped like a cupcake because I used my friend's Damarle at Home muffin tray to make it.  One of the reasons we are putting it in next is because it isn't going to fit easily into whatever room is left over.  If you were using lunch meat, you might wait till a later step.

Next we want to fill in the gaps.  Grape tomatoes are just one of the great gap-fillers out there.  Use something that you like.  These work great because they don't mix with anything nearby, but if you want to use a little bit of some sort of side salad (potato salad, for instance) you could put it in a mini cupcake paper and fit it in there.

I still see little spaces though, so let's keep filling them up.  Broccoli is pretty to look at and can be cut into any gap-filling shape you need.  Now nothing is going to jiggle around during transport.  Mission accomplished!

Next, add a little something "just for pretties."  I chose black sesame seeds and some dried savory.  I just sprinkled it on the rice.  If you want to go further, this is where you could make little faces and such.

But doesn't that little bit sprinkled on top just make it look so much more appealing?

Now, if you only have one tier, you are done.  Congrats!  If you have two... carry on.  I like to use dark lettuce leaves to fill the gaps in my upper tier.  So I just fill it with that to start.

Next you will want to put some fruit or veggies in there.  I skewered my grapes today on little party toothpicks and plopped them in there.

I still had plenty of room, so I added a couple slices of banana, with the peel still on.

I got carried away and added blueberry embellishments, before I remembered I was showing how to fill the box up before you decorate.  Oops!

To fill the last bit of space, I cut a couple pieces of carrot into some flower shapes and wedged them in there.  Then I finished of the banana with a couple sesame seeds, just for fun.

And that's it!  Now you have a tasty, healthful lunch to take to work or send with your little ones.

Need a second opinion?  Check out what Biggie has to say on the subject over at Lunch in a Box.  Or take a quick peak at how it's done at Just Bento.  And/or Not Exactly Bento.  Think a slide show might be more your speed?  Hapa Bento has one for you.

Happy bento!

Easiest Meatballs - Step by Step

If you have been around my blog for a while, you may remember the post I did about Porcupine Balls.  These are a quick meatball you can whip up on a school night, and they are sure to be a crowd pleaser. Serve them with your favorite dipping sauce (BBQ or ketchup, perhaps) or just eat them plain.

I love to cook with a blog right in front of me showing step by step, so here are a few photos for you.

Pour beef rice-a-roni into a bowl.  Add an egg.

Add 1 lb of lean ground beef (very lean - you don't drain the fat on this recipe!) and mush it together with your fingers.

Wash off your hands and grab a cookie scoop like this.  Proceed to scoop little balls of the meat mixture into a skillet.

When you run out of meat, it is time to put the skillet on the stove top and brown the meatballs on all sides.

Like this.

Don't let Dioji's bored expression fool you.  He loves food blogging.  It often means the food gets carried to and from the sunroom for photos.

After this, add a cup and a half of hot water and the package of seasoning from the rice-a-roni.  Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low.  Let it simmer for about 40 minutes.  Check on it once to make sure that you don't need to add any water.  I haven't had to lately, but sometimes I do.  You want to make sure the meatballs are moist.

Then you are done.  Sit down and eat those porcupine balls with a smile.   Best of all, if you want to pack them the next day as a lunch, they are a great size for that!

Hungry for more?  Take a look at my Meatloaf Balls:


Or, if you want to try another porcupine ball variation, take a look at this recipe over at Food Network.  They are using ramen noodles:

 

Enjoy!

Ho-hum Bento

Not sure what it was about my lunch this morning, but I really just wasn't liking the way it turned out.  But I am trying to post consistently, so I will show it to you anyway:

This is one of those things where I have to wonder what made this lunch different than the past few.  I am using pretty much the same colors/ingredients - so why am I not thrilled?

Looking at the pictures, I think maybe it has something to do with balance.  The bottom tier (with the meatballs) just feels off kilter some how.  And when I couldn't get that to look the way I wanted, I hurriedly threw my top tier together.

This bento contains:

• porcupine meat balls
• red & yellow pepper
• tater tots
• broccoli
• grape tomatoes
• dark greens
• carrots
• a strawberry

The good news is, it was tasty and filling.  There are the left over bits of carrot and pepper (after I cut out the shapes) hidden underneath the spinach in the top tier.  Anyway, that was today's lunch.

Happy bento and enjoy your weekend! 

Colorful Leftovers Bento

Today's bento looks like this:

A little less childish, but still kinda whimsical.

This bento contains:

• brown rice
• porcupine meat balls
• roast chicken
• lettuce
• red pepper
• black pepper sprinkles
• grape tomatoes
• carrots

Here it is all packed up and ready to go.

Happy bento!

Fish Bento

This morning, my lunch looked like this:

This bento contains:

• roast chicken
• fresh rosemary
• brown rice onigiri
• cajun spices & nori accents
• carrots
• grape tomatoes
• broccoli
• a plum
• red grapes
• a strawberry

I felt that yesterday's strawberry was a missed opportunity for a big grin, so I made that happen today.  Oh, and that plum is out of my co-worker Janelle's garden.  Thanks, Janelle!

I liked how the rosemary sort of looked like seaweed.

That is all.  Thanks for looking.

Happy bento!

Tuesday's Bento

Call it childish if you will, but I love having a lunch that smiles at me when I open it.  

My windowsill is certainly getting more attention lately than it has for a while.

This bento contains:

• porcupine meatballs
• tater tots
• red pepper
• broccoli
• grape tomatoes
• carrots
• lettuce/spinach
• red grapes
• a strawberry
• black sesame seeds
• nori

This is a large strawberry and huge grapes.  Please don't worry that I am not getting enough to eat!

 Here is my lunch ready to be packed away.  I took a blueberry (soy) yogurt with me today as well.

All ready to go in my Thirty-One thermal tote:

Happy bento!

Squirrel!

For those of you who read my blog way back when, you may remember my dog, Dioji:

This bento was made with him in mind.  The lower tier has a dog and the upper tier, a squirrel.

This bento contains:

• brown rice onigiri
• turkey slices
• egg
• broccoli
• almonds
• red pepper & sunflower seed "collar" 
• food coloring / sesame seeds accents
• brownie
• mixed nuts

Here is the dog:

Here is the squirrel:

Hope you had a great Monday.

Happy bento!

First Friday Bento

Hooray for making it to Friday!  I work in a middle school, and the first week back can be a killer.  A student once asked me, "Did you cute your lunch today?"  Yes, today I did.

This bento contains:

• spaghetti topped with parsley, garlic and cajun spices
• chicken my husband grilled, seasoned with a flavorful baja citrus marinade
• broccoli florets
• red pepper decorated with black sesame seeds and a pepper seed
• my aunt's homemade applesauce (in the top tier - not pictured)

I cooked the spaghetti this morning, because I didn't have any left over rice in the fridge.  I am so out of practice at making bentos!  I don't even remember what I like to have on hand and ready.  But I'll get back in the swing of it.

Here is a close up of the little character from my bento today.  I'm calling her "little miss hot lips."

Happy bento!

Colorful Veggies

So, the last time I posted a bento on this blog was in 2010.  Occasionally I will bring my lunch (or part of my lunch) in bento form, I just haven't been good about photographing and sharing.

So, for the second day back to work, I decided to do a little bento for myself.  I brought an individual sized hummus along too and dipped the veggies in that.

Contents:

• red pepper
• broccoli
• lemon cucumber (from my sister-in-law's garden)
• black sesame seeds

I am thinking of getting a bigger bento box that would fit all the food I want to take for my lunch.  We shall see...

Happy bento!

Playing With Our European Food

This summer, my husband and I took the trip of a lifetime and toured around Europe.  We did the Railpass thing with our backpacks, and even stayed in a few hostels along the way.  But the main thing that really stood out to us was the food.  We had a great time trying all the local specialties and enjoying the sometimes novel presentation of favorite foods.  Take a look at a few snapshots from our trip:

These flower shaped ice cream cones came from Amorino.  We loved the fun presentation.

This was a delicious meal in Austria that we ate on a terrace.  You will have to imagine the accordion players in the background.

This was me trying the (surprisingly tasty) lentils cooked in bacon lard.  In my hand is a glass of new wine.  We were in a wine garden outside Vienna.

Here is the special cake the folks at Princess Cruises made us for our anniversary dinner.  Happy 7 years of marriage to us!

This is a waffle that Bryan got at one of the Greek isles.  He said it was delicious.

Here we are outside the vatican with our tremendous ice cream cones.

Pizza was a must in Italy.

We also had sandwiches.

And big sandwiches on crusty baguettes.  This and the next two dishes were in Carcassonne, France.

Bryan's artfully arranged salad.

 My more down to earth cassoulet.

And of course, we had to try the local wine.

And Bryan even got to BBQ for us while we were away.

Hope you enjoyed this little "taste" of our trip to Europe!