Game Day Bento

I made this bento this past weekend when all of the exciting championship games were on... holy cow, those were some exciting match ups! Except for the Patriots game, snooze fest.

In this bento: edamame, a mandarin orange, olives on Game Day picks, a football-shaped PB&J with cheddar cheese stitching (aka lid decoration, ha ha), cucumber slices, carrots, and blue cheese dressing.

I got this really cool bento box during my last trip to Seattle at The Container Store. It has a built in ice pack in the lid to keep your meal cold. The size of this container is actually REALLY large for a bento, but would work okay as a sandwich container. 

And check out the top of the box! It has a goal post and a foam rubber 'football' so you can poke your eye out, er I mean, have a fun game while you eat your lunch.

See, the goal post swings up and locks. Pretty fun! I know there is a comment in here about the Seahawks/Falcons game and field goals, but I just don't have the heart to make it. WHY?! Why did Coach call a time out!?!? Ug. (Insert sad Charlie Brown music here.)

I have added this bento to Shannon's What's For Lunch Wednesdays feature. Check it out for more great bento ideas!

Steak Bento and Ramen Road Trip

One of my resolutions for 2013 is to blog more and keep up with both my bento interests and my nail polish interests. Balance is the key, right? And in that vein, here is a bento post to kick off my resolution. :)

My sweetie and I headed into San Francisco this past Saturday to check out a ramen restaurant that was recommended by my friend Sheri of Happy Little Bento. Normally I head to Japantown in SF, but this was a part of the city new to me. We went to a shop called Saiwaii Ramen on Irving in the Outer Sunset part of the city. Besides having a tough time finding parking, we had a great time! I will detail the ramen in a moment, but first take a look at the bento I made on Sunday with the new bento box I got at the Ichi Ban Kan store on Irving! So cute!

In this bento: marinated flank steak, cheddar cheese cubes, raw cauliflower, broccoli  and a radish, and two Greek olives. Also a satsuma orange, and some blue cheese dressing for dipping the veggies.

The bento box is so cute, with green and pink colors and a lid that snaps in place. I put it in my backpack to take to my art studio yesterday, and everything stayed safely inside. 

Now for RAMEN! I sure do wish we had a good ramen place in Sonoma County. Somebody get on that. Here is my hubby outside of Saiwaii Ramen. It is a pretty small place and we were seated next to another couple sharing the same table as us. My hubby was not too thrilled to be sitting so close to strangers, but that is his odd quirk to deal with. LOL

OMG OMG OMG. I got the Spicy Garlic Tonkatsu Ramen with added egg and Pork Belly cubes. Let me say that last part again: PORK BELLY CUBES. Holy Decadence, Batman! The portion was very generous and I ordered the broth regular spicy. It was tasty and not too spicy, although the spice did build a bit. The big Sapporo beers we got with the ramen helped cool our palates. And I wasn't sure if I would really finish the whole thing, but it was so delicious that I was even poking around for any spare noodles at the end of the meal. Yum. I will definitely go back here. 

Hubby moved all the way to the corner of the table to try to avoid sitting next to our table mates. Silly man. He also got a donburi with unagi, which was a tasty little bite to add to the meal. 

Happy New Year my friends, and I will see more of you in 2013!

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. 

Enchilada Monster Bento

This is a quick bento that I fashioned out of leftovers. I had made some chicken enchiladas (which my hubby and step daughter scarfed down), and I managed to save enough for a lunch serving the next day. With a few little additions, I turned this chicken enchilada into a monster! The bento that bites you back!

Also in this bento: steamed edamame and sliced radishes. The monster face was made with pepper jack cheese and slices of black olive. 

Recipe Contest Bento

Hi bento pals! Sorry I have not posted in a while. I got sick last week and am still trying to get over the sniffles and cough that are SO annoying. This is my 160th bento post, and that means another donation to Redwood Empire Food Bank! Every 20 posts I make a $20 donation to Redwood Empire Food Bank. They provide meals to literally thousands of hungry people in the North Bay every day. As a food blogger I have the luxury to buy the foods I like and take time to make them look pretty, as well as share my bento lunches with my friends. For some people in my community, lunch may not be an option every day. They might have to pay the rent instead of buy groceries. This is my way of helping my community feed itself. I encourage YOU to make a similar commitment. Find a charity you can get behind and let your blog help those who need help the most!

Ok, now for the fun part. It's GIVEAWAY time!

Here is my bento for today: slices of garlic rubbed steak, a kalamata olive, roasted baby potatoes, broccoli spears, orange cherry tomatoes from The Patch, a small gala apple from Twin Peaks Orchard, and a few baby carrots. I decided that for this bento giveaway, I would encourage you to share a recipe for a simple bento ingredient. Your recipe should have no more than five ingredients, like the roasted potatoes in my bento. I will share my recipe for the potatoes at the end of this post. Here is what you can win:

The bento prize pack has a green two tiered bento box, a handmade bento box strap (the little fishy made by me!), two punches for cute nori designs, a set of vegetable cutters, and a cookbook!

Here is the bento box you will win. It has two tiers and the upper tier has a fitted lid so you can add saucy items and they won't spill on everything else.

There are two fun craft punches: one is a frog shape, and the other is a smiling face shape. These are great for punching little details out of sheets of nori (dried seaweed) and adding interesting details to your bento box lunches.

I love these vegetable cutters for adding quick cuteness to bento box lunches. There are three flower shapes in this set of cutters.

Here is the cookbook you will win. It is filled with great, simple recipes that will work in bento lunches. The recipes focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients. I really like this cookbook and have a copy that I use at home quite often!

Now for the promised roasted potato recipe. I used a spice blend from Savory Spice Shop in Santa Rosa, but feel free to use whatever spice blend you would like to flavor your version.

Roasted Baby New Potatoes

1 to 2 pounds of small new potatoes, washed and scrubbed

olive oil to coat potatoes

1 to 2 teaspoons of Vietnamese Sweet Lemon Curry

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange potatoes in a baking dish in one layer. Drizzle potatoes with olive oil. Sprinkle potatoes with seasonings and then gently mix the potatoes around in the oil and spices to coat all potatoes. Place baking dish in the oven and roast for 40 mintues to 1 hour until potatoes are cooked through and their skins are a bit wrinkled. Cool before adding potatoes to bento. Can store in the refrigerator for 4 days.

NOW it's your turn! :-) I would love to find out your simple recipes for bento ingredients! To enter the contest, simply fill out the form below. Please try to keep your recipes to 5 ingredients or less (salt and pepper do not count as ingredients) so that the recipes will be easy for anyone to try. You can also enter the contest simply by being a follower of this blog. You don't have to send in a recipe, but I would love to see what you like to prepare in your bento lunches. You can get extra entries in the contest by following me on facebook, twitter, and by following my new nail art blog at sonomanailart.blogspot.com. That makes a total of five possible entries per person. And yes, this contest is open INTERNATIONALLY! I will select a random entry from all entries on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 6pm Pacific Time. And I will share all of the recipes sent in on a special page on this blog, so everyone can enjoy your ideas and try them out.

Thanks so much for following my bento adventures and GOOD LUCK!

Airplane Bentos

I just got back from a nice long visit to see my family in Washington State. This was the longest vacation I have had in over 5 years, so it was really nice to not be rushed and have the time to relax. Of course, it was also a great reason to make airplane bento box lunches!

My first bento for the trip from Santa Rosa to Seattle contained falafel from Trader Joes, a few kalamata olives, cherries from the Neufeld Farms, caprese skewers, and spinich bolani made in the Bay Area.

Of course, while I was in Washington State, I had to go bento shopping. I found some fun bento boxes for my sister in law, my brother, and even baby sized bento boxes for my little niece. My bro decided to make bentos for us for a picnic to a local winery. I have to admit I got a little bossy and assembled my own bento, so he was kind of peeved. But I really do like his bento, it's the larger black one with the sandwich wrapped in wax paper. Our bentos had either eggs or egg salad sandwiches, radishes, cucumber, carrots, apples, bell pepper slices, and broccoli. Very healthy!

And here's the bento I made for my plane trip back from Seattle. My sister and I stopped at a great asian market in Kent, Washington called 99 Ranch Market. We got some delicious roasted duck, which I included in this bento. Also edamame, carrots, rainier cherries, and cucumber slices.

Here's a video of the shenanigans I got up to playing with my little niece. I made shirts for the Aunties to celebrate Auntie Palooza 2011. Hee hee!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Can't wait to get back to bento making now that I am all rested up. Have a great week bento pals!

Cauliflower Hugs a Bao Bento

Tee hee!! After I made this bento it totally looked like the cauliflower was giving a hug to the bao in the bento. I should have put eyes on the tangerine. :) Oh well.

In this bento: leftover marinated flank steak, a few kalamata olives, a tangerine from Schletewitz Family, steamed orange cauliflower, and a char sui bao from Trader Joe's.

I also finally did a new nail polish design. This was suggested by a friend of mine a while ago. I love to paint my nails with fun designs, and I love bento, so he thought I should combine the two. Here's what I painted on each nail: thumb: an edamame pod on a blue background; index: a tamagoyaki omelette; middle: a smiling onigiri rice ball; ring: a strawberry; and pinkie: an apple rabbit. Nom, nom, nom! :)

My one year blog-iversary is coming up this Friday! Check in to see a re-do bento, tips on what I consider my bento essentials after one year of bentoing, and a fun prize package. I'm so excited!!!!

Caterpillar Bento

Two posts in one day?! I am actually catching up over the weekend. Yesterday I tried out traditional bento ingredients like inarizushi and a mango rice cake. Today I am using an idea I saw on KidsDreamWork.com in which you mix purple sweet potato into rice to make purple rice! It worked really well.

In this bento: three hand shaped purple onigiri with slices of olive for eyes, a red pickled ginger mouth, and spaghetti antennae, a piece of steamed corn, steamed romano green beans from Crescent Moon Farms, cherry tomatoes with a CUTE leaf pick, and fried padron peppers also from Crescent Moon Farms. If you are wondering where to get purple sweet potatoes, I suggest checking your local asian market. I found the potato used in this bento in San Francisco's Nijiya Market, but today I discovered the same kind of purple sweet potatoes at the Asia Mart on Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa. They may also be called Hawaiian Okinawa Sweet Potatoes. They are white skinned with a deep purple flesh.

To make purple rice, simply mash some cooked purple sweet potato and them mix it into cooked rice. Shape it using a piece of plastic wrap covering your hand, so that it doesn't stick to your fingers.

Picnic Bento

Hapa Bento has a great themed bento challenge each month, and this month the theme is Picnic! I thought a lot about what to make, and I always associate bugs with picnics. Bleh, hate those bugs! But a cute little olive ant is a welcome addition to this Picnic bento.

I made an ant out of olives, nori (toasted seaweed), and a few pieces of dried spaghetti for his antennae. The ant is surveying the picnic spread from his perch on a biscuit filled with ham and spices. The spices are a blend called Duqqah that I picked up from The Handmade Pantry.

In the rest of the bento: blueberries, cherry tomatoes, deviled quail eggs (!), a slice of cucumber, two homemade pickled cornichon, and arugula. I love this arugula from Ridgeview Farms in Healdsburg. It is so spicy and delicious!

I purchased a four pack of small olives at the grocery store the other day, and honestly, I was really sold as soon as I saw them use this scooter image on the packaging. Beep! Beep!

I also included this bento in Shannon's What's For Lunch Wednesdays blog. Check it out to see what other bento bloggers are creating!

Recipe for Deviled Quail Eggs
6 quail eggs
2 or 3 tablespoons vinegar
3 teaspoons mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon prepared wasabi paste
salt
paprika

Rinse quail eggs in warm water to remove any dirt or feathers from the shells. Fill a small pot with water and add vinegar. Add quail eggs and bring water to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then remove pan from heat and take it to the sink. Run cold water into the pan and gradually pour out the hot water. Allow eggs to cool then gently peel. The vinegar should make it easier to remove the shells.

Carefully cut eggs in half and remove yolks. Place yolks in a bowl. Add mayo, wasabi, and salt to taste. Blend well. Transfer yolk mixture to a plastic bag and snip a small piece of the corner of the bag off. Carefully pipe the yolk mixture back into the egg white halves. Top each with a little pinch of paprika. Makes 12 teeeny tiny deviled eggs.

Pooltime Snack Bentos

This past weekend was all about lounging by the pool, well that and a bit of working and some art purchasing, but mostly about lounging by the pool. I made these two snack bentos for my step daughter and myself so we could play in the pool a bit longer without having to head back inside for replenishments. Her bento has a selection of Croque Monsieur sandwiches, a couple of cherry tomatoes, cucumber flowers, a cucumber "baran", a few slices of cheese, and half of a nectarine with a cute little bunny pick.

My snack bento also contains a few Croque Monsieur sandwiches, a cucumber flower, a homemade cornichon pickle, a little hunk of brie cheese, blueberries in a paper cup, a few cherry tomatoes, and two olives.

If you are wondering where to get the cutters to make the cucumber flowers, I suggest getting them from Amazon. I had really quick delivery and they are so useful to add that special touch to your bento boxes. Here are the two sets that I purchased: Stainless Steel Vegetable Cutters #K8444 "100% Made in Japan!!" and Vegetable Cutters, Stainless Steel set of 6 large #450106.

Croque Monsieur Bento

I just couldn't let the Bastille Day holiday pass without one more frenchie bento. Croque Monsieur is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich that is quite popular in France. I made these with slices of baguette, Fra'mani Rosemary ham, and emmentaler cheese. Also in this bento: a selection of multicolored cherry tomatoes, olives, some homemade cornichon pickles, and a hunk of brie cheese.

This bento also works in the Bento Summer School series. This week's lesson is about sandwiches. There are TONS of ways to include small sandwiches in bento boxes. This sandwich is a bit more conventional, but be sure to check out the lesson on sandwiches to get lots of ideas provided by Susan Yuen of Hawaii's Bento Box.

Bastille Day Bento

Vive la France! Yesterday was Bastille Day, celebrating the fall of the Bastille prison in 1789 and the beginning of the French Revolution. As the daughter of a French teacher, I feel a patriotic kinship to mes amis francais! Plus they have so much delicious food, so what's not to celebrate?

I made a bento filled with a composed salad called Salad Nicoise, which lends itself easily to a bento presentation. The traditional elements of this salad come into debate, but the main things are anchovies, nicoise olives, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and lettuce. I am not a huge fan of anchovies, so I went for tuna in oil, and added cherry tomatoes, a quarter of a hard boiled egg, blanched green beans, olives, and boiled potatoes. I made a vinaigrette of dijon mustard to go over the salad, and put it in a little plastic container in the bento box. My hubby also ate this, but refuses to eat it out of a bento box, so I had to put it in a bowl. Sigh...

If you get a chance, check out one of my favorite blogs, The Daily Nail. The blogger there makes a new manicure each day, and she took my suggestion for a Bastille Day theme! I love these nails!

I included this bento lunch in the What's For Lunch Wednesday post. Check out all of the creative bento lunches on Shannon's blog!

Wine Pairing Suggestion: I had a sparkling wine from the Alsace region of France, and it went really well with this salad. You could also opt for the very French aperitif called Pernod, which takes some getting used to. I enjoy it with a bit of water poured over ice. The strong anise flavor is very refreshing.

And It Stoned Me

Weird title for the post, I know. I am referring to the Van Morrison song, not because there are any psychotropic drugs in this bento, but rather because it has stone fruit in it, some of the best stone fruit I have ever had! There is a great fruit vendor at the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market called Hamlow Ranch. They are out of Stanislaus County and have the best stone fruit (cherries, nectarines, peaches) right now. I picked up two varieties of nectarines, and a few of the last cherries of the season.

Packed into this bento: a simple tomato-mozzarella salad, roasted green beans wrapped in prosciutto, cucumber slices, and a few kalamata olives. In the lower compartment: cherries and nectarine slices.

If you get close to your computer screen, I think you can actually smell the ripeness of these nectarines. (I'm kidding, don't do that. You'll look silly.)

Wine Pairing Suggestion: Seghesio Family Vineyards in Healdsburg, CA is one of the oldest Sonoma County wine families. Their 2008 Home Ranch Zinfandel is jammy and rich, and would go well with the prosciutto, tomato-mozzarella salad, kalamata olives, and cherries in this bento box lunch.