Category Archives: Bento

I asked what the new unit theme for this week was going to be when I picked him up on Thursday last week, but Kidlet’s teacher couldn’t remember off the top of her head.  So, not unit themed yet, just a generic piggy bento for the day.

Quail eggs make an appearance.  However, I didn’t want to decorate them or dye them or do anything funky until I am sure he realizes that these are just normal eggs, but smaller. 

Ham and cheddar on a butter roll with cheese and ham accents, 2 quail eggs, lemon pepper, tiny forelle pear (halved and the core scooped out with a small melon baller), rapberries, peas and corn, carrots, daikon sprouts, a little round fruit bread thing (I don’t know what its called, the package is written in Japanese!) and a sickeningly sweet marzipan pig.

Time taken: 20 minutes.  I didn’t make the marzipan pig, it was store bought.

I learned that I have almost no piggy bento items.  A huge pile of animal picks, but no pig!  No piggy soy sauce container, no piggy baran.  What’s up with that!

Posted by Kristen in Bento

Elephants were requested by Kidlet today.  The box is a new lock and lock that I picked up from Uwajimaya yesterday. I want to post about that trip, it was a good one!  Probably tomorrow.  There’s no school, so most likely no bento to post anyway.

PB and honey on whole wheat, a lunchmeat (hand cut) and cheese baby (cookie cutter) elephant, fresh mozzarella, broccoli, daikon sprouts, carrot (underneath), mandarain oranges in the foil cup (which has cute zoo animals on it, shame you can’t see them in the picture!), raspberries and dragonfruit.  The little stars that the elephant is shooting out like water are those dissolvable puffs for an infants first finger foods by Gerber. 

Dragonfruit are a first for us.  Another find at the Asian market yesterday.  I talked about it to the kidlet, so hopefully he will try it and not ignore it because it looks different!

 Time Taken: 25 minutes.  I think I spent at least 5 of that staring at the dragonfruit and trying to figure out how to open it though 😉

Posted by Kristen in Bento

I don’t know if a giraffe is actually a grasslands animal.  They eat leaves, which means they need trees and there aren’t a lot of trees in the grasslands?  I don’t know; the unit information page had little mini animals printed all over it, and it had giraffes and I adore them; Giraffes are my “can’t miss” animals when we head to the zoo, even if they are in the Africa section, which is the longest walk ;)  So, whether they are grasslands animals are not, today features them!

Happy cheese giraffe, a couple of small cheese giraffes actually done with a cutter, English muffin pizza with pepperoni, ham and mozzarella skewers, blackberries and checkered apple, broccoli, carrots cut into giraffe heads, cherry tomato and a few summer squash match sticks.  Oh, and some cucumber cut into little shapes that are supposed to look like acacia leaves, but don’t.

Time taken: 30 minutes (15 minutes, then walked away to do some other things while the pizza and steamed veggies cooled down, and then 15 more minutes assembling).

Posted by Kristen in Bento

The unit this week in Kidlet’s kindergarten class is “grassland animals”.  The Lion is also the school’s mascot, so I decided that was the grassland animal I’d start with this week. 

Lion is turkey and cheddar on a sesame seed roll with meat and cheese features, scallion whiskers and carrot curl mane.  The eyes are puffed cereal. There’s an itty bitty forelle pear (so cute!) which I halved, then used a small melon baller to take out the core.  Blackberries, broccoli, cherry tomato, golden beet cut with mini lion cookie cutter, a tiny cookie with paw print drawn on with food marker and a cinnamon graham cracker shaped like a dragonfly.  Some dressing in the lion bottle.

Time taken:  I spent 5 -10 minutes last night making the carrot curls, sticking them on toothpicks and putting them in ice water to help them hold thier shape.  20 minutes for assembly this morning.

Posted by Kristen in Bento

The art literacy program at my son’s school is provided solely by volunteers on a class by class basis.  There were no takers for kidlet’s class, so although I’m not particularly *artisitic* or passionate about any specific artists, I decided to take it on so he and his Kindergarten class wouldn’t go without the program.

My first presentation was this morning and the topic was “gargoyles”.  I had planned to make a cool gargoyle lunch, but I was too stressed and too rushed to do much of anything fancy with his bento today.  I cut the sandwich into triangles, popped out a few bear faces, and tossed everything together so I could get out of the house a little early with my piles of clay and other presentation materials.

PB and lemon curd on whole wheat, cheese bear faces, broccoli, cherry tomato, bear head carrots and golden beet, blackberries, banana under the carrots and beet.  He wanted lemon pepper for his vegetables instead of ranch dressing today.

Time taken: 10 minutes or a little less

Posted by Kristen in Bento

On my endless quest for quail eggs, I went to Zupan’s market the other day.  I don’t shop there often, although I normally like to frequent locally owned business.  They have lots of local foods, and a gourmet selection of items.  But they are so expensive.   A post on the internet said they might have quail eggs.  They did not.  But I did find these most adorable shortbread cookies with a hard frosted coating.  Seriously, isn’t he the sweetest (no pun intended!) frankenstein you’ve ever seen?

Mac and cheese monster with ham and cheese accents (and see, I found those most adorable picks ever, finally!), hard cooked egg with lemon pepper in the sauce bottle, babybel cheese with moon cut-out, broccoli.  Ridiculously cute frankenstein cookie.  Under cookie/cheese are apple slices, strawberries and carrots.

Time taken: 15 minutes.  Mac and cheese and egg were already cooked.

Posted by Kristen in Bento

Yesterday’s monster was a big hit.  Kidlet even  had kids from other classrooms crowding around to look, and they wouldn’t let him eat until they all got a chance to see –  lol!

PB and Banana on whole grain white, strawberries, grape tomatoes, carrot and asparagus.  Monster is a piece of cheddar on a piece of bologna, and then I carved around to leave the little fins.  Mouth is a sliver of cucumber skin.  Overnight it shriveled a little and now he looks almost sad!  Eyes are a circle of provolone and  little candy disk things used for decorating baked goods.

Time taken: 20 minutes for the monster yesterday evening, 5-10 for assembly this morning.

Posted by Kristen in Bento