08-26-07

Stuffed mini wheat pitas with ham salad and spinach. Carrot cutouts and goldfish and stars. And celery/peanutbutter sticks to fill the gap.


Stuffed mini pitas with ham salad and spinach. Carrot cutouts, raisins sausages, stax chips, koala march cookies and a few cereal straws....enough to share.

Bento 08-25-07

Bento in a hurry! Stashing food away is the secret to sucessful bento-ing. I relied on my stash of homemade uncrustables and grab quick stuff like goldfish/stars and raisins and some cereal straws. Jack loved it.

More leftovers, which I like to call encores!

Bento 08-24-07

What's a cake doing on a bento blog? Well, it was my son's 16th birthday and knowing he loves green tea, I made a green tea infused vanilla cake with buttercream. It was a big hit as well as the dinner, which was Teriyaki Chicken, Jasmine Rice, steamed Calif. Veggies, and potstickers. Bentos are great because you can use these leftovers and create a fast and delicious meal. Since I make cakes at Publix, I wasn't going to bring cake with me to work! LOL

Bento 08-23-07

This is Jack's bento with Black Forest Ham Sandwiches, tomatoes, gemelli pasta, blueberries and a jelly.
Frankie as potted meat sandwiches with spinach, mini pita pockets with turkey, mayo and spinach, gemelli pasta, tomato slices, goldfish and starfish crackers and blueberries.

Frankie as potted meat sandwiches with spinach, mini pita pockets with turkey, mayo and spinach, gemelli pasta, tomato slices, goldfish and starfish crackers and blueberries.

This is Allie's first bento! It has Black Forest Ham with Spinach, Cheese slices, Tomato slices, stars and goldfish crackers, and gemelli pasta.

Bento 08-22-07

Here's my lunch, Khao Paht (Thai Fried Rice), Imitation Crab and a pinwheel to pick them with, cukes and a twist of lime. I found this mini Maggi sauce bottle at an oriental store in Orlando. I was lucky enough to buy two boxes, only 1.99 each! And each box has 6 bottles!! I love great deals!

Frank's lunch has a Blackforest Ham Sandwich w/ spinach and pepper cheese, goldfish and stars, tomato slices, Koala march cookies and a pepper cheese Hello Kitty. I have a press that makes the design. I bought it from some random lady from South America at some cake decorating classes.

This is Jack's lunch Mr. Sausage is back by popular demand, and he is flanked by two ham slice pigs. Thai Fried Rice, cukes and goldfish and stars and Grapes on pinwheel picks. Today was Pizza day, so Jack didn't even take his lunch to school! He ended up enjoying it for dinner!

Today I went through my cake decorating bins, and found oodles of mini cutters, toothpicks of various sorts... It's nice to be able to have a double use for my tools.

Bento 08-21-07

The first bento is Jack's with Imitation Crab, Cheddar chunkies, grapes on a stick, heart-shaped cukes, hard boiled egg, a jelly, and hello panda cookies. Jack loves imitation crab and asked for "extra" the last time I served it to him.

The next one is Frankie's, our diehard sushi eater. He really wanted more, so I made him molded sushi and tried my hand at making nori stars. Right now the punchers are 40% off at Joann's so I got two. The cukes go down the middle and grapes too. I managed to find some hello kitty soy sauce bottles at a Korean store near Orlando. Boy was I shocked. I audibly gasped when I found them. They were only .99 too! woo hoo! I wondered if my 16 year old young man would mind HK and he said, "No, not at all." I guess she is original anime afterall.
The last one is mine. Grapes, Imitation crab, peas and carrots, cukes, hard-boiled egg and a homemade hello kitty jelly. I got the coolest ice tray and used some Wilton gummy bear mix I had to make my own.

"Uncrustables" Unwrapped

I found this handy-dandy sandwich press at none other than a thrift store! It's a Pampered Chef Press N Seal. You take two bread slices, spread peanut butter on both sides of the bread and a dollop of jam inbetween. I didn't do this in the beginning and the jam would stain the bread. The pnb acts as a sealant. lol You could also make these with potted meat, or chopped up left over meat, or whatever is your fancy. I usually buy the cheapie bread because I can throw the crusts away, or feed them to the birds that flock to my compost pile. And the sandwiches adhere better. I am showing you three pictures because I actually set the pocket sandwiches on a cookie tray and freeze them. Once they are sturdy, I put them back in the bread bag and seal them off. And pop them in the freezer. This will insure quick and efficient bento-making regardless if I have time or not! I bought potted meat and will report later how this fares. I have a great cookbook called "How to Make Your own Groceries" and I'm going to look for more ideas to incorporate into this new passion of mine. My daughter was thrilled, she said,"Now this is a hobby I can get into Mom" ROFL. She's 17!

1. PRESS DOWN FIRMLY AND WIGGLE-WIGGLE-WIGGLE THE CUTTER.

2. VOILA! YOU HAVE A HOMEMADE POCKET SANDWICH

3. SET ON A COOKIE TRAY AND FREEZE. RETURN TO BAG AND PUT IN FREEZER.