Another simple bento :)

Rob's bento for today was packed pretty quickly. 

The first tier contains fresh pineapple, carrot salad, kiwi slices cut into flowers and curry pumpkin seeds.

The second tier contains tuna salad (or tuna mayo as I've noticed many in other areas call it :), and salad w/ carrot flowers.

I also put a baggie of multigrain crackers in his bag to go with the tuna salad. 

We often have the tuna salad mixed into a leafy greens salad with cucumber and tomatoes in the summer and he always likes crackers with that, so I wanted to be sure he could eat it either mixed into the salad or just the way it is on the crackers.

Unfortuantely, I didn't have tomatoes or a cucumber to add to it for today (I do now since I sent Ahmetia to the store today :)

Last night I decided to use these star and heart shaped foil baking cups from Reynolds.  I like that they are shorter and fit into the shallower tiers of this bento box and the shallower top tier of most of my other bento boxes.

On the tuna, I simply sprinkled some black sesame seeds on top to quickly add a little visial interest without spending much more time on it. 

I'm still trying to decide what I want to do for the 50-Followers Contest; I know I want to have people submit bento photos this time, but I need to decide if I want to do a theme or what... 

Stay tuned!

I do know the prize will be the following bento box:

Prize is subject to change (just in case I decide to go up to Mitsuwa and find something different before I post the contest - lol)

Everyone should play with their food!

This is from Rob's bento for yesterday - I had a little fun with it - can you tell? :)

I recently bought some new food markers at the grocery store that I discovered with the cake decorations and candles.  These are much more fluid than the ones I purchased previously - which I found to be both a good thing and a bad thing.

I used them directly on the press part of the sandwich cutters rather than on the bread (except for the little bit of extra coloring I did on the one flower - hehe).  I was a little concerned that the color would dry too quickly, but it seemed to work great.

Here is the full bento.  I packed it earlier than usual since we were going to see Flogging Molly Monday night :)  The show was awesome - love them! :)

The tuna sammies are just propped up on a plain organic spring green salad.  He also had his light ranch dressing for the salad once he ate the sammies.

In the other tier he has a homemade carrot salad - I even grated the carrots instead of buying shredded carrot :)  He also has fresh pineapple and strawberries.

This was Monday's bento. 

Amazingly, I did not pack one bento last week :o

He has his usual salad w/ the ham, turkey and swiss pinwheels and a car shaped boiled egg (sliced to make it easier to eat), strawberries, pineapple, hummus and celery and carrot sticks.

This is one of Kat's bento from last week.  One of my favorite meals is simply homemade guacamole and baked tostitos - yummy!

I use plenty of lime juice so that leftovers don't brown before the following day, so she was able to take some in this bento.

In the other tier she has a homemade apple and poppyseed slaw I had made over the previous weekend, edamame and plum.

The slaw was really good, though over the following days, it did get a little watery - but still tasted great (maybe because I use light and fat free products?)

The recipe for the slaw can be found here:

http://www.deliciousorchardsnjonline.com/archive/arc114.html

I used apple cider instead of the apple juice concentrate because that's just what I had.

This is another of Kat's bento from last week.

She has dumplings and sauce in the kiwi container, bean sprout namul that she made, strawberries and stuffed banana leaves we purchased frozen at the Asian market.

Below are some photos of bento we have packed over the last 2 months - I am going to forego the descriptions - at least for now, but wanted to get them on here :)

First, bento I packed for Rob:

And Kat's:

And Ahmetia's couple:

Stay tuned for that 50 Followers Contest!  I plan to post that very soon! :)

OMG! I hit 50 followers in my adsence :o

Hi everyone! And welcome to the new followers! I apologize for being absent for so long :( Between computer issues, sadly, a bit of a loss of inspiration etc etc, I didn't realize how long it had actually been since I posted! :o

So keep an eye out for a contest to celebrate reaching 50 Followers! Woot! :D

I think I will start small tonight before I go back and post a few bento from the last couple months - there were many days I didn't need to pack bento and still others that I was just bored with and didn't bother to photograph, but I do have a few and some that my girls packed to post.

April 16:

Fresh strawberries and blackberries, hummus and Curry Pumpkin Seeds :)

In the bottom Tier is a wrap cut into 3 pieces. It is Arugula Blend Salad, Goat Cheese, a drizzle of Olive Oil, Red Onion, Roasted Red Pepper and Sundried Tomatoes - yum!

He also has Pub Mix, red and green Bell Pepper strips and baby carrots :)

So, lately I have been trying to use less pre-made, processed foods - some of which started before I stopped posting, but watching Jamie Oliver has inspired me to try harder :)  I grew up eating healthy foods - My Mom was into healthy, natural foods - and I grew up in WV! :P  lol  Not Huntington, but the Parkersburg are (Waverly, WV mostly).

Last week a friend of mine and a super Mom to two little ones posted on Facebook that she was making fruit leather - I just had to be a copycat and make some too! lol

I had strawberries and raspberries in the fridge that were still good, but not as fresh and beautiful as I'd like for eating fresh and packing into bento, so I decided it would make great fruit leather.  I've mentioned before that I don't tend to measure, so I can't tell you exactly how much, but I pureed the strawberries and raspberries (probably between 2 and 3 cups), juice of half a clementine and a little lemon juice - maybe 1/2 Tbs and added maybe a tsp honey.

I have a food dehydrator that I have had for many many years, so I pulled it out, lined it w/ plastic wrap and spread in the puree.

The next morning, it was just about done:

and tore it into 3 and rolled them up! :)

It was pretty tasty and something I definitely think I'll do again :)

I also got the new appliance I have been eyeing for a while - but it ended up causing my poor, dear hubby a bit of work - lol :)

Can you see it?  It's a triple frikkin' crock pot baby! lol

I don't know why I didn;t ask Rob to add a shelf to this table sooner - I always thought it needed one and really wasted that space...