Finally back!

It's been a while since I last posted here.  I can't believe 3 months have already gone by!

The last part of my pregnancy was difficult, but the delivery was surprisingly easy.  My daughter is beautiful, though she brought a lot of changes with her, as every new child does.  My son adjusted to her and accepted her pretty quickly.  He's great with her and I hope this is a sign of how things will be between them.

I returned to work a couple weeks ago, and am slowly readjusting to the schedule.  I'm also slowly getting back into putting together bentos.

So... today I hope to post the bentos and fun foods I've made thus far this week.  Each will have it's own entry, most likely, so bear with me.  I'm still trying to get this blog's new settings.

Bento Meals and Etc.: 7/3/10 - 7/7/10

I've been meaning to post for a few days now, but I've wasn't able for one reason or another. So here we go! :-)

Picnic Sushi Bentos: 7/3/10

These were made for a Fourth of July Firework event my family goes to every year with my mom, her boyfriend, and my oldest sister's family. Too bad the "red" rice looked more pink, but it was was very cute. I also didn't get a picture of the vanilla soy pudding, fruit, or other treats we took, but I think the pictures below make up for it. My nieces and mother thought they were neat and my nieces said the pieces we gave them were delicious. ;-)


The sushi rolls contain a mix of the following:

tamago (sweet omlette)

marinated shiitake

carrot strips

cucumber strips

scallions

nori stars

colored rice (red, blue, or white)

Bento Lunch: 7/6/10
My bento meal for 7/6/10 was rather simple and didn't warrant a picture. Half of it I didn't eat and repacked into my lunch for 7/7/10. What I did eat was my blueberries, grapes, and vanilla flavored soy pudding.

Bento Lunch: 7/7/10

This lunch was made of leftover items from my fridge or my previous day's bento.

Top Tier:

grilled seafood kabobs (shrimp and salmon with onions, different peppers, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms)

leftover grilled lobster tail cutlets (lobster tails curled around huge scallops)

Bottom Tier:

leftover dolmas

And Lastly...

And below is a sampling of the pancakes my husband made for my family for our Fourth of July breakfast. Nothing commemorates the rebellious actions of our fore fathers than Star Wars pancakes, right???

Bento Meal: 6/23/10

Another bento made of leftovers*. (See note after this bento's details.)

I tried to make the lunch tier look a little like a garden, with grass (scallions), ladybugs (nori), roots (zucchini noodles), dirt (zucchini-turnip side) with underground worms/bugs (dried shrimp), and a fence (nori strip). The yogurt was decorated to go with the theme, like a mosaic sun. My hubby thought this was a really cute bento, though I'm sure it could use some work. One thing he pointed out was that the bugs also looked like a ghosty face from an angle... Now I got that stuck in my head too!

Not a bad bento job for another quick throw together, though this time it was packed after dinner as I put our leftovers away. :-)


Snack Bento
vanilla yogurt with dried fruit (apricot, cranberries)
4 Hershey's Kisses (2 peppermint, 2 mint truffle)
Honey Nut Chex

Lunch Bento
risotto balls (3 cheese, shrimp, sun-dried tomatoes)
mashed potato balls w/ nori punchous and scallions
zucchini noodles w/ butter and garlic
steamed turnip slices cut as flowers
sweet turnip-zucchini side with three tiny dried shrimps


*Note:
On June 16, a member asked the BentoLunch LJ community, "Who has a bento stash and what is in it? Also what are your bento must haves on your shopping list?" The answers have been interesting to read, but mine seemed quite different. I was hoping a little that someone would also have the same idea or practice I do, but I didn't see any. That's okay though, because it reflects how diverse bentoing can be, from very practical to very artistic to both!

Here's what my response was: "I'm one of the strange ones that doesn't really have a bento stash in the way of food. I pretty much have whatever I bought from all of us to use for various meals, and I take pieces for my bentos. Or leftovers... especially the nummy leftovers. :-) I will admit that certain things are bought with bento packing in mind (like grapes). Usually, though, I do try to keep some sugar snap peas in the freezer and carrots and nori in the fridge for quicky bento sides and fillers. Rice is not uncommon to have at ready for general meals, so I don't really count that. ;-) Hm... maybe my bentos reflect this... heh heh.But this week, I did buy some broccoli, turnips, zucchini, avocados, and grapes with bento making clearly on my mind. (Though they will likely show up for dinner first...)"

But it did get me thinking about food stashes and such... and I find myself boggled. I don't think I can imagine having a food stash in my fridge or pantry that is mainly for bentos. I'm not sure why it's so hard for me to wrap my mind around. :-p

Catching Up: Another edition!

I realized last night that I had this images in a draft entry from back in January! I meant to post these but never got around to it and then completely forgot. So... I figure I might as well share, mainly because one of the bentos I was extremely proud of! :-)

My bento meals from today will be posted tonight. :-)

So first... the bento I really thought turned out uber cute!

Lunch Bento
hard boiled egg with black toasted sesame seed detailing
sugar snap peas
white rice with indian salad topping
soy sauce in fishy container

Another bento that actually turned out pretty nice, but not as cute.

Lunch Bento

kabobs (pan-fried fish balls with sauteed red onions and garlic)
daikon seasoned with rice vinegar and sugar

carrots lightly cooked with sugar, sesame oil, and sesame seeds

two types of spicy korean red pepper paste sauces

This next bento was made for my son. He was going to Grammie's for a nice visit. (I can't remember if this was a dinner and dessert bento or a dinner and breakfast one.

Son's Bento
egg fried rice (homemade, of course)

gluten free pancakes

vanilla yogurt

And as an extra... some nice pictures of a veggie soup I made around that time. It was so yummy, healthy, and pretty, I couldn't bring my self to erase the pictures from the draft entry. :-)

Bento Meals: 6/16/10

So today's bentos were also a semi rush job, but not bad. They gave me some fun ideas for later on. :-)

Lunch: 2 sweet potato balls with butter and brown sugar, 4 kimbap pieces with seasoned carrots and marinated mushrooms, a quick mashed avocado (with a little lemon and salt), and some "hint of jalepeno" tortilla chips. The sweet potato balls are decorated with a nori cat and rat.

Snack: cherry vanilla yogurt, strawberry pieces, and halved seedless red grapes.

The cat and the rat are actually a sentimental symbol for my husband and me. In college, he and his brother were the Ratones (rat-oan-aes) and one of their friends made a comic strip that featured these Ratone characters. When my hubby and I started dating, he called me his Kitty Cat (now I'm just a MankyCat) and he gave me a pendant with a cat holding a rat by the tail. To rats with cats (or mice with cats) are a lovey-dovey thing for us.

Purchases!

Star Wars bento hasn't happened yet, but I hope to make it soon... or three of them (one for me, one for my honey, and one for my baby).

We did, however, get some nifty items yesterday for belated Mother's Day, early Father's Day, and very early birthday gifts for my husband and me. Of course, we really got them to use for my son, but hey... why not? :-)

These are the items we got from Williams Sonoma:

Starwars Pancake Molds, Star Wars Cookie Cutters


Latticework Pocket Pie Mold, And Heart Shaped Pocket Pie Mold


My husband already broke-in the Latticework Pie mold last night. He made us apricot-pear pocket pies! I'm a lucky woman.

I hope to get the star shaped pocket pie mold, because the Williams Sonoma around the corner has some left, and they are not available online or in most places. I'd also love to get the Buttercup Cakelet Pan below.



Wouldn't that be just perfect for strawberry shortcakes and the like???

Bento Collection

I am a bento addict. I love them...

... I have too many that I don't use... and I would love room for more.

So, with that in mind, I have been gearing up to sell off a bunch. This would include various meal containers, sauce containers, ice packs, snack containers (which can also be used for a moist towelette holder), and more.

I will post more on this *hopefully* soon, though I'll probably post the items in separate entries... but we'll see.

:-)

IchibankanUSA is closed!

What horrible news for bento-ists! IchibankanUSA's online website is closed as of yesterday!

Such a nice online store with great prices that were very difficult to beat and wonderful shipping rates/times. Their SF location will still be open, but that doesn't do the rest of us much good. I'm actually a little surprised that they are closing their online store, given the extreme popularity they had. Items were consistently selling out, but perhaps that was the problem. Just as having too little business is not good, so is having too much. If you can't keep up with your customer demands, then you are not starving, but drowning.

Hopefully, they will re-open one day, but I do have to say that this makes me look at my bag of bento stuff I got from them with a wistful eye. I had quite a few items I was going to purchase from them soon.

Oi!

Oi! Oi! Oi!

I'm sorry I haven't updated here for a while. With the holiday season in full swing, my husband starting a new job (working evenings), and the baby, I just haven't had the time to post new bentos, let alone make ones that were all that pretty or interesting. I guess I could still put up pictures of them, but I feel like they have to pass at least one criteria (not just be rice with a topping or fried rice).

Hopefully, I'll be posting more soon, at least something more meaningful than this. Thank you all for reading!