Chess Bento:56

As a first grader, sweetPea has the option of participating in several extracurriculars this year. Chess Club meets once a week for an hour after school. I'd like to say that she's learning lots of strategy, but mostly I think she's just having fun playing chess.

The chess board is a cheese sandwich topped with white cheddar and nori squares and orange cheddar chess pieces. Also included are some early fall cucumbers, broccoli, and the very last of the peaches for the season (sigh).

Beet Hummus Bento: #55

This bento contains Red Beet and White Bean Hummus, blue corn chips, a chocolate chip coconut zucchini mini muffin, yellow tomatoes, carrot sticks, and a small red apple. This isn't a particularly "cute" bento, but it's colorful and packs a lot of nutritional punch.

I know I've mentioned it many times, but I'm not a big beet fan. Plain roasted beets bring back memories of canned lunchroom beets slopped on my tray in childhood. They make me gag, to be honest. However, when we became CSA members years ago, I was determined to find uses for them that were palatable to me. Plus, they're packed with lots of good nutrition. This hummus combines the protein power of white beens with the added folate and antioxidants of beets. It's pretty darned tasty.

The apple is a cute little Rome that is pure white inside. sweetPea had fun picking this variety last Sunday. She called them her "prize apples". The little yellow tomatoes came from a friend's garden. And you might notice a bit of frost on the muffin. Often when I make baked goods, I'll make small versions and freeze them for use in a bento. 

Apple Picking: #54

Today's bento includes a garden salad leftover from a Labor Day picnic, tiny cheese sandwiches in the shapes of apples, and an individual apple pie. I also included dressing for the salad and milk.

Early September never used to remind me of apples, but for the last few years we've been picking apples at an orchard called Hidden Hollow. They do use a small amount of spray early in the season, but it's the most natural apple orchard I've seen in the area. They have what seems like an infinite variety of apple trees and a lot of them have already started ripening. We were able to pick over a bushel of apples in very short order.

The first dishes I made with all those apples were two beautiful apple pies for our family's Labor Day picnic. While those were cooking, I put together miniature apple pies for sweetPea's lunches. All I did was put a small amount of crust in the bottom of some silicon cupcake containers, cut some of the apples from the pie filling into smaller pieces, and top with streussel. I then baked them for about half the time of the full-sized pies.

I only made three as a test, but I think I'll make more and freeze them to pop into her lunch for a special treat now and then. I also think I should have cut an apple shape out of crust for the top of the little pies. Anyway, I think they turned out awfully cute.

Shikai Maki Sushi Bento: #53

Since I first saw this beautiful bento, I've wanted to try to make shikai maki. I had some leftover rice from making the ladybugs earlier in the week and I thought the rich red jewel tones from the beets would work well here. 

My first attempt was a disaster, but sweetPea was generous enough to eat it for dinner last night. I tried to add cucumber to the roll like in the bento zen blog example, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work. This roll, where I've only used rice and tofu, turned out much better. I've also included some sliced cucumbers, cherries, and a mini zucchini coconut chocolate chip muffin. 

Here's a view from above. sweetPea especially liked that the tofu makes a diamond in the center. 

Ladybug Garden: #52

Last Sunday I taught my first ever bento making class. I was nervous, but it was great fun getting together with a group of women (and one 10yo) to discuss making healthy lunches in creative ways. The bento above was the inspiration (because no way was I walking into a room to show people how to make something I'd not tried myself).

I thought it would be fun to show variations on a theme. In other words, you can make the same thing out of many different food items. We started with some simple ladybugs on a log (celery with strawberry cream cheese and dried cranberries), then moved on to onigiri.

The two rice ladybugs are dyed with beets. The red one is made with pureed beets. The purple one is made with beet dye. I simply poured some boiling water over shredded beets and let it steep for 60 seconds. Then I poured off the water and added a bit of baking soda. That turned it a lovely lavender.

Then we made a babybel cheese ladybug and squished everything together so it wouldn't move around. We packed in steamed broccoli, cherries, cherry tomatoes, carrot flowers, and purple podded pole beans. I even took it upon myself to create a ladybug out of a cherry tomato, some nori and cream cheese (for spackling the nori in place).

It turned out okay, but my poor tomato ladybug was a little sad.

Here are some of the creations made by the rest of the class. It was really fun to see how they all turned out. (I was hurrying, so unfortunately some of the photos turned out blurry.)

Purple Podded Pole Beans: #51

This bento was so simple, I almost didn't bother to post it. But I wanted to showcase my beautiful purple podded pole beans that we grew in our garden this year. I love these beans. They're really gorgeous on the vine and very tasty. When you cook them, they turn green just like any other pole bean.

Luckily sweetPea likes to eat them raw as well as cooked. She took this lunch with some ranch dressing for dipping.

Leftover Bento: #50

I am behind in posting. I wish I'd had a more fantabulous bento to show for the 50th bento, but I figure I'll do better on number 100. Anyway, it gives me an excuse to talk about the Thermos Food Jar. (Note: I am not affiliated with this product in any way. I have received nothing from the company. I just think it works well.)

I didn't do the best job in planning out lunches this week and it shows. Usually when I make the grocery list, I start by writing the days of the week and listing the dinners I'll make every night. Then on the back, I'll sketch my bento ideas for the week. I'll usually just have maybe 3 ideas or so and then I'll fill in with whatever strikes my fancy. Only then will I start adding the ingredients to my list.

This bento was actually consumed on Thursday 8/25. The night before we had roasted broccoli and Spanish Style Quinoa. She was willing to eat her broccoli cold, but she wanted the quinoa in her "heater". In the morning, I put some very hot water into the Thermos and let it set while we ate breakfast. Then I heated up her quinoa, poured the water out of the Thermos and put the quinoa inside. At her request, I sprinkled cheese on top. Then for lunch, her quinoa was still toasty warm and the cheese was melted.

You can also use the food jar as a "cooler", too. Then you simply add iced water first.