Sandwich Sushi

There will be more interesting bentos after my weekend grocery shopping, I swear! I'm out of pretty much everything. I must admit however, that I was quite pleased with my sandwich sushi. It contains turkey, shredded cheddar jack cheese and spinach. I've got some sliced baby carrots in with my sandwich sushi. I have some sliced tomatoes in lettuce. I also have some homemade cinnamon chips. I'd run out of almost all my fruit so that purple stuff is blueberry oatmeal (which wasn't nearly as good cold as it had been hot, will definitely not do that again).

Leftovers

This is a totally lazy bento. I've stuck in some left over chicken breast that I cubed and put some black sesame seeds on top of inside a lettuce leaf. The orange divider has a mixture of soba noodles with baby spinach, mushrooms, sesame oil, extra virgin olive oil, and some soy sauce topped with toasted white sesame seeds. There's a kiwi flower and apple cubes in the blue divider. Then I have some skittles and milk duds in the pink divider. Finally I threw a little extra soy sauce in the blue condiment cup for dipping.

Frogs and Food Coloring

I'm rather pleased with this one. I had a pretty good time with food coloring here. In the orange divider are two onigiri with salmon inside. The rice is dyed green, there are little black sesame seeds along the edges and the nori in the center is frog shaped. The green divider has a salad topped with some more salmon, mixed with a little red food coloring to make it pinker. Then there's some fruit salad, pretty basic: apples, kiwi, and blueberries. Finally some strawberry and kiwi gummies.

A nice closeup of the onigiri behind the cut:

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Stars

There are certain times when I can have a pretty good idea in advance that it's going to be an aggravating day. I usually try on such occasions to give myself something to look forward to. Last semester it was breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. This semester it seems it's going to be special lunches. So with that said, here is my special lunch. I somehow wound up with a star theme along the way here.

In the big orange divider I've got a spinach salad. It's got tomatoes, raw mushrooms, cucumber, and (obviously) spinach. The white thing slipped between the large dividers is a packet of dressing. In the green divider I have a nice thick layer of rice with furikake and sesame seeds. On top of that's some sliced chicken; the green stars are nori. In the pink divider is a fruit salad with star shaped kiwi, star shaped apple, blueberries, and mini green stars out of the apple skin. The blue divider contains a lemon poppy seed muffin. Finally in between the green and pink divider that brown package is a little piece of chocolate.

There are some additional pictures behind the cut, as well as some information on the tools used to create those fun stars.

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The little mini stars that are cut in the nori and apple skin are made using a punch. They are technically made to cut paper, but they do a great job on anything thin. They come in many different shapes and can be purchased at arts and crafts stores.



The apple and kiwi stars are made using a cookie cutter. The trick is getting a cookie cutter that's small enough to cut something smaller like fruit. You'll also want something small enough to fit in your bento box. The cookie cutters I use are plastic but I would suggest metal. They tend to cut things more cleanly.

Dilemma Lunch

I know it might sound odd that something as simple and mundane as packing lunch might present a dilemma. However, for me this evening as I went to pack the lunch I'd half planned I found myself frozen in front of the fridge. I'd cooked dinner with the intent of packing the leftovers as lunch. However, I'd decided that I wanted something light and refreshing as I should have time tomorrow morning for a decent breakfast. What I'd made for dinner was burgers and homemade french fries, not exactly a light dish.

So here's the compromise I've found. Instead of packing something heavy like rice or something in a sauce instead I packed a large fruit salad with kiwi, blueberries, and apple bunnies. In between the larger dividers I slipped a prepackaged slice of cheddar cheese. I packed the burger, but instead of a bun to accompany it I packed cucumber. I went easy on the cookies (They're Hello Panda cookies by the way, and absolutely delicious. I'd highly recommend them). The condiment container has some organic ketchup, and I packed my homemade bento-sized fries. For the simple french fry recipe click the link below.

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This recipe is unbelievably simple and convenient for days when you don't have a lot of time to prepare for lunch.

Ingredients:
Vegetable Oil
Raw Potato
Ground White Pepper
Kosher Salt
Sharp knife
Nonstick pan

Cut the potato into whatever shapes you like. For the purposes of this lunch I cut the potato in half before making it fry shaped as I knew that the divider I would be putting it in couldn't accommodate long fries. The only thing to keep in mind is that thick pieces won't cook all the way through. Keeping it thin is best. Put the vegetable oil in your pan and set on medium heat. Once the oil is hot fry the raw potato on the pan turning once it turns a golden brown on the first side. When the fries are done to your liking take them off the pan and put them on a plate with paper towel laid out on it. Dry the fries and sprinkle lightly with ground white pepper and kosher salt.

Sushi and Sweets

Contained within tomorrow's lunch is some homemade sushi with crabstick and cucumber in the green and orange dividers, packed in with sugar snap peas and baby carrots. The pink divider contains blueberries, and in the little blue condiment holder is some ranch dressing for the peas and carrots. Finally the light blue divider has some unusual sweets. To get some more info just click on the cut below.

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Here are some great unusal treats for anyone with a sweet tooth. First the pink box are Kancho from the Lotte company. These sweets are little biscuits with chocolate cream inside. Each one has a design stamped on the front of the cookie. The individually wrapped candies below are all hard candies in various flavors. The green is melon flavored, the pink lichi flavored, the blue is cider flavored, and the red is cola flavored (my personal favorite).

Puppy and Chicken *

In the orange divider are sugar snap peas, carrots, and chicken stir fried in a mixture of teriyaki and oyster sauce. In the green divider are three dog shaped rice balls with stars for the eyes and noses. In the blue divider there is some sliced kiwi, and in the pink divider there's a broken up almond cookie. In addition I have a nice water bottle full of cranberry grape juice (not included in the picture)

* No actual canines were harmed in the making of this lunch.