Salad Nicoise Bento

I just received my prize from the Food Ninja contest ("It's a Major Award!") and I am thrilled with it. It's a ManPans frying pan with a lid. This puppy is really well made and heats up super fast. I decided to break it in with a Martha Stewart Everyday Food recipe and it came out really well. I made steaks with baslamic dijon sauce, boiled new potatoes with herbs, and steamed green beans with lemon and butter. Today's bento uses leftovers from that meal (not the steaks, we scarfed those down).

In the large container: a hard boiled egg, tuna in oil, boiled new potatoes with herbs, and steamed green beans. In the smaller container: a mandarin orange, walnuts from the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market, and a Ghirardelli chocolate. The bento boxes are from a set of four that I picked up at Border's Books.

Here's the ManPans frying pan in action. It heated up really fast and kept the heat well. Normally my burners have cool spots in the middle, but this pan heated up evenly across the surface. And the sauce came together in a flash.

Here's our dinner. This sauce was really tasty and super easy. I recommend checking out Martha's Everyday Food section for easy dinner ideas. And big thanks to La Fuji Mama, Bella Limento, and Salty Seattle for hosting the Food Ninja contest.

Rock The Vote Bento

Whew, I am tired. We did special election night coverage last night and I was at the station until midnight, then I was so amped I couldn't go to sleep so I stayed up til about 2am. Totally dragging today. But we had a great show with lots of local politicos calling in. To celebrate, a bento made quickly with leftovers and a few stars in honor of a fun election day.

In this bento: bbq pork from G&G Supermarket, a fish container of soy sauce, rice balls with nori stars, steamed edamame, a slice of mango, a piece of parsley from Quivira Winery, grapes from De'Santis, and baby carrots. I love magic round bentos!

This bento also celebrates my win in the Food Ninja contest at lafujimama.com. It was SO MUCH FUN to put together a Food Ninja video, and I am thrilled to say that my video won in the video category. My prize: 10 Inch ManPan Saute Pan (4.5 pound) by igourmet.com! Woohoo! Also congrats to Sheri of Happy Little Bento for winning in the photo category. Thank you to everyone who voted for us. You ROCK!

This bento is also included in Shannon's What's For Lunch Wednesday blog. Check it out for great lunch ideas.

Jack O'Persimmon Bento

It's the mad rush to fit in a few more spooky bentos before Halloween is over. I am following the trend of bentoists everywhere and turning more fruits and veggies into Jack O'Something-Or-Others. Today it's a fuyu persimmon.

In this bento: purple rice, a few Aidell's teriyaki chicken meatballs, steamed edamame, champagne grapes from De'Santis Farms, a few french radishes from Ridgeview Farms (it was their last farmers market this past Wednesday, goodbye until spring!), baby carrots, a Jack carved fuyu persimmon from De'Santis Farms, and two little Halloween candybars. Not that I need more chocolate or sugar today. My breakfast so far has been 1 Hersey's Nugget, 1 fun size Babyruth, and a handful of Bottlecaps and Sweetarts, and some coffee. Can you say JItTeRs?!

If you find persimmons at your farmers market, I suggest trying both the fuyu kind (which you eat hard), and the hachiya kind, which must ripen to mushiness before you eat it. Both are yummy, but the hachiya is more often used in baking.

And finally, please take a moment to vote for my entry in the Food Ninja contest! There are a few bentoists who have entered the Food Ninja contest and we would love your vote so we can win some cool kitchen swag. Debra of hapabento and Sheri of Happy Little Bento have also entered. Voting ends on Saturday, October 30th, so please take a moment to vote now, thanks!

Food Ninja Vote

I am so excited that the voting for the Food Ninja contest has begun. Three fantastic food bloggers put out a call to all Food Ninjas (basically anyone who does anything rad in the kitchen or with food), and the voting has begun! I entered a Food Ninja video, showcasing my bento making skills. Here is the video, I hope you like it!

I had so much fun making this video and the resulting bento. My 10-year old stepdaughter did the photography/filming at the farmers market, and I made my hubby do the "unsolicited" testimonial at the end. The Japanese subtitles say silly things like "Don't Try This At Home" and "My Wife Is Crazy!" I filmed each of the video segments while speaking German, just to make sure my overdub wouldn't match my mouth. It took about 3 days to put this together. And serious thanks to Sheri of Happy Little Bento for her inspirational Ninja Egg. Sheri rocks!

You can head to lafujimama.com right now and vote for the best Food Ninjas in each category. I would really appreciate a vote for Sonoma Bento in the video category. And you can vote for other bentoists as well! Debra of hapabento entered in the blog category, and Sheri of Happy Little Bento entered her awesome Ninja Egg bento in the picture category. Voting ends on Saturday, October 30th so please head over now to vote.

And just for fun, here is a Froggie Bento I made for my stepdaughter this past summer. I got the inspiration to make it from the Yum Yum Bento Box book by the wonderfully talented Pikko and Luckysundae. It's similar to another Froggy bento I made at the same time, but just slightly different. Have a great weekend, GO GIANTS!

Food Ninja Bento

Today's bento is my entry into the Food Ninja contest. Three bloggers (La Fuji Mama, Salty Seattle, and bell'alimento) have put together a fun contest in which we get to show off our mad ninja skills. I chose to make a video with a trip to the Farmers Market (naturally), a stop off at Asia Mart, and then a big reveal of my Food Ninja Bento. It's quite silly with Japanese subtitles, ninja poses, and a (forced) cameo by my husband. I'll reveal the video soon. Heather of La Fuji Mama asked me to do a guest post about my Food Ninja Bento, and I was delighted to comply. Check it out here.

In this bento: a star onigiri, a quail egg ninja with radish weapons, slices of boiled lotus root, steamed yellow beans from Orchard Farms, edamame, cherry tomatoes from Middleton Farms, boiled purple potatoes from Orchard Farms, steamed broccoli, teriyaki chicken meatballs from Aidell's, and a few fried padron peppers from Crescent Moon Farms.

A special shout out to the AMAZING Sheri of Happy Little Bento for her ninja egg inspiration. I am sure many bentoists like me admire Sheri's crazy Food Ninja skills. You too can enter the Food Ninja contest! Entry deadline is October 24th at 10pm PST. There's awesome prizes, too!