Once Again....Angry Birds

I was in the Angry Birds mood after playing Angry Birds Space over the weekend. So I decided on another more elaborate Bento for L's lunch. I used different kinds of cheeses for the two birds and kiwi fruit for the lil piggy.

For the sandwich angry bird I used Yellow American cheese and accented with ham, carrot, Nori seaweed and white American cheese.(The sandwich is just a chicken breast sandwich, if anyone was wondering.) For the red angry bird, I used a Mini Babybel cheese(softened cheese snack in red wax coating from "The Laughing Cow"....have you laughed today???). Again accented with Nori seaweed and white and yellow American cheeses. Added some height and crunch with some baby carrots. And last but not least the mischievous lil green piggy. He's a kiwi slice with some cream cheese and mini chocolate chip. Hope this Bento put a smile on your face! :)

"Chick in a Nest" Bento

Wanted to up the complexity of the bento this morning. With some trial and error this was what todays lunch looked like.Not bad for an amateur???

So tried to make a chick from a boiled egg. The first time didn't go so well. So after boiling the egg for 10 minutes ,I let it cool and placed it in the refrigerator. Then with a paring knife in a zigzag pattern went around the egg to make it look like a cracked egg. Then for the eyes added some sesame seeds and carrot beak. The "nest" is some spaghetti with marinara sauce and grated Parmesan cheese. Added some starred plum slices, carrot peels rolled and placed on a pick and some stacked pita, ham and cheese to complete. No "treat" today because Kindergartners get to buy a snack today! (if she finishes her lunch)
Happy Friday Everyone!!!

Good Morning from Ni Hao Kai Lan

Ni Hao Kai Lan is my middle child's favorite character from Nick Jr. And I'll do anything to make her eat. 

So we're starting the day off with a  healthy Ni Hao Kai Lan boiled egg. I used Nori to make the hair and eyes and mouth.  Hair accessory with strawberry and her little buns I used grape halves. Inspiration from  http://happylittlebento.blogspot.com/2010/08/kai-lan-bento.html

Happy Bento-ing!!!!

Breakfast for Lunch Bento

My daughter loves having breakfast anytime of the day. You can never go wrong with waffles, sausage and egg. So I thought I'd try it for her Bento. I toasted a waffle and cut it in half and added some syrup to the little bear containers. Made a thin omelette, cut into strip and rolled them up with a cute little animal pick. Also heated up some sausage and threaded them on a little pick. Added some strawberry eyes and mouth to complete.

Waffles-1 Toasted

Egg-1

Jimmy Dean's Sausage-2

Syrup

Starwberry-1

Crayola Lunch box

Animal picks (Amazon)

Syrup Container(Amazon)

Bento Lunches

A new craze of mine. I love how these lunches look and 'yes' it does take some time and effort. For those of you not familiar to Bento lunches-
Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.(according to Wikipedia)

My eldest started Kindergarten this year which meant sending her with packed lunches. Thank God that she isn't a picky eater, which makes lunch prep a breeze. I wanted her lunches to be special which made me curious about how I could go about it. With a little bit of Googling I found Bento lunch making and thought I'd give it a try.

Supplies

Lunch box

Vegetable cutter

Bento picks

Nori cutter

Nori/Seaweed

Egg Moulds

Mini Baking Cups(silicone)

The list could go on...You can find a lot of these supplies on Amazon.com.

Today's bento lunch was a turkey sandwich with a Cinderella theme. I followed the template from http://family.go.com/food/recipe-996743-cinderella-bento-box-t/. Then I just added some cut cucumbers, flower carrots and strawberries and a little treat-Hershey Kiss to make it extra sweet.

Fried Plantain in Spring Roll Wraps

A very simple dessert taught to me by my dear friend of 20 years "T". We visited her a couple weeks ago and was surprised to eat this very scrumptious snack. It is very similar to the Kerala snack "Ethakkappam"- ripe plantains dipped in a batter of flour and cardamon and then fried to perfection. This however is from Thailand-fried banana in spring roll wrapper.Your everyday bananas are transformed into a heavenly delight - crispy on the outside, warm and melting on the inside. We substituted the yellow banana for the ripened yellow plantain(ethakka). 

Ingredients

Spring roll wrapper(small)-1 packet of 50

Ripe Plantains-3 (sliced very thin)

Honey

Oil-for frying

Directions

1. Cut the plantains into thin slices. One plantain should give you about 12-15 slices.

2. Take the wrapper and place in the refrigerator for a few hours before working with them. They are extremely thin and tear easily. Place a wet towel over the unused sheets, so they don't dry out in the process of making them.

3. Take one sheet at a time  and at the corner of the sheet place a slice of the plantain. Roll the ends a couple of times before folding in the sides and roll them shut. Put a dab of water on the end of the wrapper to help seal the fold.

4. Now in a shallow pan heat some oil and fry your plantains wraps. Once golden brown on the side flip and brown the other.

5. Once done drizzle with honey and enjoy warm. 

*You can sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds if you want.

This snack is great for those rainy weekends we always seem to get! Happy Snacking :)