Simple Quesadilla Bento

Often I am in a bit of a rush, and I need something quick and easy to throw into my bento box. I had two tortillas from La Tortilla Factory leftover in the bread box, and it wasn't enough to make a meal for myself and my hubby, but it's just enough for a bento!

I thinly sliced pepper jack cheese and took a slice of deli turkey meat and placed that between two tortillas in a pan over medium heat. I flipped it after the cheese got melty, then let it cool while I added the grapes and carrots to the bento box. Then I cut up the quesadilla and popped it into the box. A simple bento, and still tasty.

Chow Mein Bento

Leftovers are a great bento ingredient! I had a bit of pork chow mein leftover from our dinner the other night, so I added it to this bento for a tasty lunch.

I actually think chow mein is just as tasty cold as it is hot, so this one works as a summer bento too! Also in this lunch: steamed edamame, carrots, grapes, and a little red radish. 

Happy bentoing!

Spanish Tortilla Bento

Today's bento features a Spanish dish that I was first introduced to in Germany, ha ha! I was on exchange there and some other girls also on the same exchange (but from Spain) cooked up this meal for us called "Tortilla". Now this tortilla is different than the one most of us in the US are used to, namely the corn or flour breads we eat with tacos.

This tortilla is a potato filled omelette. I found a great recipe/tutorial here for making this Spanish staple. You can eat it hot or cold. I had most of the tortilla for dinner with my husband, and used the leftovers in this bento. I added onions and a bit of red bell pepper to the tortilla. Also in this bento: kalamata olives, carrots, prosciutto, jalapeno jack cheese, and grapes, with a little sprig of parsley. 

Sloppy Jack Bento

Today I made a sloppy joe with some leftover ground beef from the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market. Yup, you can get local ground beef at our market! I had a little of it left after making sliders for my family this weekend, so I cooked it together with onions, peppers from Triple T Ranch, garlic from The Patch, seasonings, sugar, salt, pepper, and tomato paste, and voi la: Sloppy Joes! I cut out a jack o'lantern face from a piece of habernero cheese and used the rest of the slice under the bun. Delish!

I took this pic in the sun, and I am not sure if I like it so much, but the bento sure was colorful and very tasty. Also in this bento: a delicious pear from Orchard Farms, two shades of cauliflower from Ma and Pa's Garden, a slice of armenian cucumber from Redwood Empire Farms, baby carrots, and champagne grapes from Schletewitz Family. 

I added this to Shannon's What's For Lunch Wednesdays blog. Take a look for more great bento ideas! 

Halloween Colors Bento and Giveaway Winner!

Hi bento friends! Sorry I did not post this sooner, I got distracted by something shiny. LOL. So here is a quick bento filled with lots of great Halloween colors. I was so thrilled to find the two shades of cauliflower at the Farmers Market this weekend. They rock! And they taste good.

In this bento: purple and green steamed cauliflower from Ma and Pa's Garden, tamagoyaki omelette slices, leftover emerald chicken curry from California Thai, a yakionigiri rice ball from Trader Joe's, a cherry tomato, steamed edamame, and champagne grapes from Schletewitz Family.

And now for the winner of the simple recipe contest... there were 18 different entries. And the randomly selected winner is...

mommypants! mommypants sent in a great recipe for a simple pasta salad. This would be a great addition to any bento and the fun thing is that you can make endless variations depending on your tastes and what you have in your cupboard/refrigerator. Thanks mommypants! Be sure to check out her blog for more fun parenting ideas. 

Mommypants Simple Pasta Salad

2 cups pasta cooked al dente (I like bow-ties or ziti)

2 cups fresh diced tomatoes

1/2 cup fresh chopped basil

6-8 oz fresh mozzarella (can be diced, or those tiny balls from store)

1/8-1/4 cup low fat balsamic dressing 

Just mix them all together in a bowl, and let it marinate. I like to bring some extra balsamic with me to add a bit of freshness to the salad.

Goes great with a piece of bread and last night's Chicken Parmesan (I always make lots of extra breaded chicken to go along with lunches).

Thanks to everyone who entered and for sending in great recipes for bento lunches. I will have the rest of the simple recipes up on its own page on Sonoma Bento soon. Thanks! Have a great week!

Tamagoyaki Bento

Tamagoyaki is a japanese style omelette that is often found in bento boxes. I love having this convenient bit of tasty protein in my lunches. Sometimes I add herbs or wilted greens to it, but often I keep it simple like this one. I do season it with salt and mirin, and sometimes a bit of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar. I use a special pan for making tamagoyaki, but really you can make it in any pan you'd like. It is simply a rolled omelette.

Also in this bento: yakionigiri rice ball from Trader Joe's, steamed edamame, slices of armenian cucumber from Redwood Empire Farms, a mini apple rabbit made with a Pink Pearl apple from Triple T, grapes, orange cherry tomatoes from the Oakmont Farmers Market, and a few baby carrots.

Voting has begun for Hapa Bento's Back to School contest. You can visit her facebook fan page to vote and also get more great ideas for packing your own bento. Have a great Monday!

Hapa Bento Back to School Bento

Debra of Hapa Bento is having a Back to School contest with an adorable Elph bento box up for grabs. And the cool thing is that you can enter with any bento you'd like! It doesn't have to be a cute bento, or themed for school. Any yummy bento can be entered into the contest. Click here to go to her page and find out the details.

Here is my entry: a drumstick that I baked and then coated in a spicy (perhaps a wee bit too spicy) sauce, orange cherry tomatoes from the Oakmont Tuesday Night Farmers Market, fresh mozzarella balls, a sprig of basil from the garden where I am house sitting, slices of armenian cucumber from Redwood Empire Farms, and red grapes. The bento box I am using is from the house where I am bunny sitting/house sitting this week. It's not really even a bento box, just a glass container with a locking lid! Think outside the bento box. :)

Sorry I have been MIA, bunny sitting does not make for easy bentoing. I also included this bento in Shannon's What's For Lunch Wednesday. Check it out for great lunch ideas.

And.... I have a new blog! It's called Sonoma Nail Art. I figured that since I have got a bit of practice under my belt and better nail art tools, I would start a blog just for my nail art. Take a look, and let me know if you have any suggestions for designs. Have a great week bento pals!

Food Themed Nail Art and Bento

I entered a fun nail art contest on Leslie's blog called "Nail Polish Art Addiction" - an addiction I share, by the way. Her contest required entrants to make food themed nail designs, so it totally combines two of my favorite things: food and nail art! Here is my entry:

Trout Nails! These are actually fairly easy to do, so if you are a nail art novice, you could make these yourself without too much trouble. It's just a series of stripes for the base of the fishies, then some dots for the pattern and the eyes of the trout. If you have a second, I would love a vote in my favor this week. Here is the link to see all of the entries. There are some really creative ones, even some sushi nails!

And here is a bento I made recently with some farmers market supplies: cucumber slices, orange baby carrots, yellow carrot 'stars' from The French Garden in Sebastopol, a yakionigiri rice ball, tamagoyaki omelette slices, edamame, grapes, and a plum from Hamlow Ranch.

Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic Bento

Whew! I am wiped out, but really happy. This morning I was one of the announcers at the 21st Annual Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic. I love this event so much. It was on hiatus last year because of improvements being made to Keiser Park, but I was thrilled to see it back this year. As one of the perks of being a part of the media, I was able to go up in a balloon on Friday. I will post a video of that soon. Today I met another bento buddy in real life: Bentobird!

Ok, so Jenn is a little camera shy, but I really did get my picture with her! She and her sweetie Jamison are in Northern California for a visit and they showed up at the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic this morning. I am so glad that I made this quick bento (at 4:00am this morning, YIKES) so that I could have a bento when I met another bento pal.

This bento, by necessity, had to be assembled really quickly. I had to be at Keiser Park at 4:30am this morning, yowza! It includes: leftover chow mein from The China Room in Santa Rosa, carrots, broccoli, edamame, and a few grapes. I used cheddar and colby jack cheeses to cut out quick balloon shapes and placed them on the chow mein.

Here is my bento with a giant balloon in the background. I think it would take approximately 1.7 million bento boxes to fill an inflated hot air balloon. That number is not exact. ;-) The balloon in this pic is called Planet Earth and it is based in Albuquerque, NM.

I hope I can see Bentobird again before her visit is over, and if I do, I'll share whatever bento adventures we might have. Sorry if you missed out on the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic this year, but mark your calendar for Father's Day Weekend 2012 because it will definitely be back, and I will most assuredly be there, too! Ok, now it is time for a NAP!

Steak and Potato Bento

This is a bento made with leftovers from dinner. Flank steak and baked potato fit well in this round bento box!

In this bento: baby carrots, half of a baked potato with black sesame details and a tiny cilantro leaf, slices of cucumber, green grapes, orange cauliflower, flank steak, and a container of sour cream with green onions. The flank steak was marinated in a combination of soy sauce, rosemary, worchestershire, green garlic from Middleton Farms, red pepper flakes, mirin, and rice vinegar. I broiled it and it made lots of steak for dinner and subsequent bento lunches.

Don't foret to enter my One Year Blogiversary Giveaway! You have until May 13th to enter. Good luck!

Also, this weekend I went on a scooter ride through Sonoma County. Farm Trails organized a great event called Blossoms, Bees and Barnyard Babies, and I went to two different stops along the route. Here's a quick video of my adventures yesterday:

Sonoma Bento One Year Anniversary!

Today marks one year since I started this blog. I am so thankful for all of the support and interest from my bento friends. Some of you make bento, some of you do not, but all of you have been so kind and encouraged me to keep learning and keep improving my bento skills. This has been a great year, and I can't wait to see how my bento lunches will evolve in the next year. So, I thought I would do a before and after kind of a post today. Here is the very first bento I made, back on April 21st, 2010.

The upper tier has a heart shaped onigiri rice ball, steamed broccoli, slices of baked sweet potato, grapes, and a sliced strawberry.

The lower tier is filled with salad greens from Offerings of the Land, carrots, mushrooms, watermelon radish, and half of a hard boiled egg. And now, for my remake of my first ever bento, drumroll please......

The first bento I made was in a GINORMOUS bento box. The only thing you really can fit into that box and not have way too much food, would be a salad. Instead, I used this new black bento box (it's still kind of big at 600ml) and packed everything much tighter. Packing your bento box tightly will not only make sure that things don't roll around and shift, but it will also put enough food into your bento box to fill your tummy at lunch time. In this bento box: I have an onigiri wrapped with a strip of nori that I punched with a flower shaped craft punch. There are a few green grapes, a strawberry from Williamson Farms, a flower shaped slice of purple sweet potato, steamed broccoli rapini from Triple T, a mix of wild arugula from Triple T along with torn romaine lettuce, slices of carrot, a french breakfast radish from Ortiz Farms, a small container of salad dressing, and a tamagoyaki omelette made with slivers of green garlic from Middleton Farms. The only thing I forgot was mushrooms, and I actually did have enoki mushrooms from Bohemian Mushroom Farm, but I spaced and forgot to put them in. You can also see that the lighting is MUCH better in the remake than in the original bento. I take pictures of my bento next to a bright window. I also use scrapbook paper or fabric for a background. The original bento was shot in my office kitchen. Not really conducive to glamorous photo shoots. :)

This is the first bento I posted on Sonoma Bento on April 29th, 2010. As you can see, I was already making some big steps and improvements from my first bento attempt. I actually really like this bento, and I was wondering how I would remake it. In this bento: a pita sandwich with wasabi tunafish salad, baby carrots, radish slices, broccoli, two onigiri with slices of cucumber in them, and half of a boiled egg with black sesame seed details.

In my re-do: a magic round bento to the rescue! I have basically the same wasabi tunafish sandwich in a pita, but I put black sesame seeds on the outsides. Also in this bento: steamed broccoli rapini from Triple T, green grapes, a bear onigiri with nori eyes and a pickled ginger red mouth, radishes from Bernier Farms, cucumber slices, baby carrots, and a little hard boiled quail egg from Triple T with nori eyes and a carrot beak. The original bento was pretty cute as it was, so this is just a different spin on the ingredients in a different shaped bento box. I was a little puzzled about why I put both bread and rice in the same bento, which I don't do now. Ah well, this did come out pretty tasty.

Beverage Pairing Suggestion: J Vineyards & Winery Cuvee 20 Brut. A great and affordable sparkling wine to toast one year as a bento blogger! YAY!

Something you may have noticed in my newer bento photos: a watermark. As my photos have improved, I decided I should brand them so that they are credited to me. I place the words "Sonoma Bento" in my photos, using background or foreground colors and placing them in fun spots. Many bento bloggers do this, and it is probably a good practice to use if you are uploading your own bento photos. Credit should always be given where it is due, and you don't want someone to steal your photos and claim it as his/her own.

A few words about how my style and approach to bento has changed: I used to think that I needed tons of picks and cupcake liners to make my bento kawaii (or cute). I find that I rarely use food picks. A sharp knife is the tool I use the most in making my bento. I do like to use small food cutters for a quick cute element. Tweezers are important for placing details. Probably the most important part of my bento making style, however, is the farmers market! Seasonal, fresh food is what I like to build my bento around. Not everything comes from the farmers market, but I try to feature at least one local item in every lunch.

Now for the celebration! In honor of my one year blogiversary, I am giving away a fun set of bento items. It's a starter kit of sorts! Here's what I am giving away:

A set of colorful chopsticks.

An onigiri mold, so you can make hearts, stars, and bears.

A nori punch shaped like an apple.

A set of 12 food picks.

And finally, this cute three tiered pink bento box, and my handmade onigiri bento box strap. The band is pink felt with an elastic section, and a felt onigiri face on top. The bento box itself is brand new, and has a shallow upper tier to hold chopsticks or utensils (maybe a slim sauce pack), and then two tiers for food.

There are 4 ways you can win this awesome bento prize pack. Please leave each entry as a separate comment:

1. MANDATORY: You must be a follower of this blog, Sonoma Bento.

2. Tweet about the contest. Please let me know if you tweeted about the contest, and if possible include the link to your tweet.

3. Mention this contest on your blog. Please let me know about your blog post and include the link to your blog post.

4. Tell me what your favorite bento tool is and why, or if you don't make bento box lunches yet, which bento tool you would really like to have.

I will randomly select one entry as the winner on lucky Friday the 13th of May. :-)

GOOD LUCK! And thank you, thank you, thank you for being a part of my bento adventures. :)

Easter Egg Bento

Hello Bento Peeps! (Ha ha, I said peeps!) I thought I would sneak in one last Easter themed bento. I tried my hand at dying these quail eggs, and the ratio of food color was a bit strong, so the egg turned out more mauve than the pinkish purple I was going for. Oops!

In this bento: udon noodles tossed with a soy vinaigrette, two little quail eggs from Triple T, orange cauliflower, slices of cucumber, baby carrots, two teriyaki chicken meatballs from Aidell's, snow peas from Triple T, two french radishes from Ortiz Farms, and a few green grapes.

I don't normally use picks, but these little chick picks were perfect for an Easter themed bento. They are soooo cute! The soy vinaigrette has: soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, freshly grated ginger, lime juice, toasted sesame oil, sugar, pepper, and Persian Lime Olive Oil from Stonehouse Olive Oil. Really yummy! 

Happy Easter weekend, friends!

Quesadilla Bento

Leftover pulled pork made its way into this bento (I made it last week, but am just now posting it), full of fun colors and flavors.

In this bento: a pulled pork quesadilla made with pepper jack cheese, pulled pork, and a handmade style tortilla from Sonoma County's La Tortilla Factory, a purple sweet potato flower, a few black grapes, half of a radish, a clementine from Schletewitz Family Fruit Stand, cilantro, sour cream, and salsa.

I am coming up on my 1 year blog anniversary (blogiversary?) and I am really excited. I will be recreating one of my first bentos, and I will also have a fun prize for you to win. Keep an eye out towards the end of the month. Have a great day, bento pals!

Pulled Pork Bear Bento

My hubby made some really delicious pulled pork yesterday. He made it in the crock pot, so our whole place smelled divine all day long. Really gets your mouth watering! Today I am having leftover pulled pork sandwiches (designed as a little bear) with some of the leftover coleslaw I made.

I designed this little sandwich bear using a trick I have seen Sheri of Happy Little Bento use often. With a paring knife, I cut two little half circles from the bun, and then pushed them up to make his ears. The face details are cut freehand out of nori. Also in this lunch: a clementine from Schletewitz Family Fruit Stand, broccoli, a few black grapes, and two baby carrots.

Coleslaw Recipe

1/2 head of cabbage, sliced thinly

1 carrot, shredded

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 tblsp sour cream

2 tsp rice vinegar

2 tsp mustard

1 tblsp sugar

1 tsp dried dill weed

salt and pepper to taste

Combine cabbage and carrot in a bowl. Combine the rest of the ingredients in another bowl, then toss this dressing with the cabbage and carrot mixture. Makes enough for about 8 to 10 bento servings. Goes great with pulled pork!

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.

Quivira Bento

Living in Sonoma County sure has its benefits, like amazing producers committed to the land. I had the opportunity to interview the farm manager from Quivira Vineyards and Winery last night, Andrew Beedy. He was telling me about an event coming up at the winery on Sunday, November 7th celebrating the harvest and locally raised turkeys. I also interviewed a 4H youth grower, the leader of the 4H Sonoma County Heritage Turkey Project, and the leader of Slow Food Russian River. It was a packed studio! Andrew brought along some goodies from Quivira to showcase the amazing biodynamic farm there and the wonderful things they produce. I immediately started thinking about how to use them in a bento!

I decided to do something simple while I listened to the Giants game (!!) and cooked last night: frittata. So many possibilities! I used eggs, beet greens, and rainbow chard from Quivira to make this simple frittata. I also added a bit of Black Pig Meat Co bacon, because it's delicious, and topped it with cheese. I ate part of the frittata for dinner and saved the rest for today's bento. On top of the slices of frittata are a few nori flowers. There are slices of carrot and a sprig of parsley from Quivira as well. That parsley tastes AMAZING! I think I'll have to make some tabbouleh or salsa verde to really highlight its amazing flavor. There's a rice ball, a radish from Ridgeview Farms, grapes from De'Santis, pepper slices from The Patch, and an oak leaf shaped slice of pepperjack cheese.

It was nice to have this protein packed little bento so I can be fueled up for election night coverage. If there's still time where you live, GO VOTE!

Fear The Sushi Beard!

Ha ha! Today is National Sushi Day in Japan and a few bento buddies are celebrating with a twitterfoodparty showcasing sushi. I have never made sushi rolls before, so this was a perfect opportunity to try it out. I have to say, for my first time, I think I did pretty well. And of course, today the San Francisco Giants could clinch the World Series in Game 5, so I had to make a Fear The Beard Bento! Two birds, one bento.

Fear The Beard refers to closing pitcher Brian Wilson and his playoff/World Series beard. It's quite the sight to behold and I am pretty sure he is dying it black with Just For Men dye.

The sushi portion of the bento has mango, coconut shrimp, and cilantro rolls, baby carrots, bbq pork from G&G Supermarket in Santa Rosa, a fish container with soy sauce, and a piece of broccoli.

The Giants portion of the bento has a Brian Wilson onigiri decorated with nori beard and ballcap, cheddar cheese bill, nori eyes, and bell pepper mouth. Also in this section: grapes from De'Santis Farms, purple bell pepper from The Patch in Sonoma, french breakfast radishes from Ridgeview Farms, baby carrots, and steamed edamame. I put a panda pick in the edamame to represent Pablo Sandoval, nicknamed Kung Fu Panda for his wicked hitting skills.

GO GIANTS!

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!

10,000 Hits Bento

It looks like sometime last week the Sonoma Bento blog reached a milestone. 10,000 hits since I started the blog in April. Woohoo! Thanks to everyone for following my blog, or even just stopping by occasionally to see what fun things I am putting into my bento boxes. I really appreciate your comments and your interest in bento.

To celebrate, I am doing a fun GIVEAWAY! Are you interested in bento, but don't know where to start? Are you a bento blogger who needs more bento supplies? Do you just like to win stuff? Anyone and everyone (even outside of the U.S.) who would like to enter this giveaway is welcome to enter. Here's what one of you will win:

A blue double tiered bento box. It has a lower tier, and an upper tier with a fitted lid, and finally a top that goes over the two tiers. It will hold about 500ml. The word "pastel" is on the wrapper, not actually printed on the box.

A pumpkin ice cube tray! This is fun for making polenta pumpkins (see below) or ice cubes, or jello molds, or whatever you want to turn into a pumpkin shape!

Cute apple containers for sauce and a furikake seasoning container, plus a starburst shaped craft punch, perfect for cutting nori (toasted seaweed) into fun shapes.

And finally, this cute handmade bento box strap. I call him Jack O'Bento! This felt bento box strap will fit most two tiered bento boxes. Look for more fun felt bento box straps (made by yours truly) in my Sonoma Bento Etsy Store. I just added a kawaii Skull felt bento box strap!

To enter the contest, follow these steps:

1. You MUST be a follower of my blog. To follow my blog, click on the Follow with Google Friend Connect button on the right side of the page. Let me know in a comment that you are a follower and what your Google ID is.

Additional Ways to Enter:

2. Leave a comment telling me about your best Halloween costume. I LOVE Halloween! Update: I realized that not everyone celebrates Halloween, so you can also post about any Carnival or other costumes you wear for your own holidays.

3. Blog or tweet about this giveaway and post the link here in the comments section.

That's it, please leave a seperate comment for each entry. Good luck! The winner will be selected randomly from all entries on Friday, October 8th, 2010 at noon, Pacific Time.

Here's the bento I made today, the first of many Halloween themed bentos I am sure. I used my own pumpkin ice cube tray (not the one you might win) to make polenta pumpkins!

The polenta pumpkins are resting in a pool of tomato sauce. I made this quick sauce this morning with two early girl tomatoes from The Patch. I used nori to make a Jack O Lantern face on one pumpkin and added a few basil leaves from Middleton Farms. In the upper compartment: baby carrots, red bell pepper slices, cucumber slices, tiny cherry tomatoes from Middleton Farms, raspberries, and green grapes.

Beverage Pairing Suggestion: I added a tiny splash of Syrah to the tomato sauce as I was cooking it this morning. The Syrah I used would be a great fit with this bento box. Acorn 2007 Axiom Syrah picked up a Gold Medal at the 2010 Harvest Fair this year. It's spicy and fruity, and big enough to work well with the garlic tomato sauce and creamy polenta.

Oh My Stars!

My mom is originally from the midwest and one of her favorite sayings is "Oh My Stars!" It cracks me up. And since I get to see her this weekend in Seattle, I thought I would make a starry bento.

This bento has cherry tomatoes from Ridgeview Farms and Triple T Ranch, corn from Duffy at the Santa Rosa Farmers Market, star shaped onigiri rice balls with black sesame seed accents, and a few grapes from Schletewitz Family. In the lower compartment: another star onigiri, baby carrots, steamed edamame, and chicken prepared kind of like karaage (Japanese style fried chicken) but with a glaze.

I have to head to the airport soon, so I'll try to come back and post the recipe while I am waiting for my flight. Have a great weekend Bento Buddies, and maybe I will run into you in Seattle. :)