No.40 'Little Hen' bento

Monday has snuck up on me again! On Saturday we had a barbeque in my in-laws' garden and enjoyed many (many) vegeburgers. While moving some bricks to put under the barbeque tray, the children and I found a tiny ecosystem of insects and escargot. It was a beautiful day. The rain returned today, but we had planned a relaxing indoors afternoon anyway. 'Relaxing' I say, even though I spent most of the day cleaning the house! I did sit with the children and play XBox games for a couple of hours though, something I NEVER do. Or rather do only very rarely. I'm not much of a sharer when it comes to playing games (or anything else), so it's a good job that they enjoy watching me playing as much as they enjoy playing themselves! Teehee!

Tomorrow's bento has a little hen, which I was inspired to make after seeing the shape of the Quorn nuggets I had cooked as a lunch box portion. The base is couscous seasoned with vegan worcester sauce, mini-carrot and cucumber sticks and a juicy vine cherry tomato. The hen's features are: cheese circle eyes, tomato skin comb and wattle and a little carrot beak. The wings are also pieces of cheese. In the fruit layer I've put some cranberries and a sliced kiwi.

I'll pack a slice of garlic bread, a blueberry yoghurt and a dried fruit bar as extras for break time and dessert. I particularly like how these cheese eyes always manage to have different expressions!

No.39 'Duckies and hearts' bento

Hello! Today's school plays about China and the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb were brilliant! The children and their teachers had a lot to be proud of. I got a front row seat in the school hall, a cup of tea and a chocolate chip biscuit too. I Couldn't have been more content. 

It seems as if we've had the longest day today. A walk to the dentist after school drew out the outdoors bit of the afternoon. Then a trip to the new clothes shop that has opened nearby made dinner very late indeed. Dinner was delicious though, when we finally got it. I cooked a vegetable and Quorn pie with a very peppery white sauce. I decorated the pastry to look like the pie in Kiki's Delivery Service, but the photos didn't turn out very well. 

With a late start to making tomorrow's bento, I was stuck for time and energy, so resorted to just using one of our small cutters to add a character element to the meal. The colours don't add very much contrast in the photos, but there are two little duckies in these lunches! 

In the top layer I've put a little cheese roll and the last of the vegetable samosas, with cucumber, cherry vine tomatoes and a pot of hummous. The ducks are just cut from slices of mature cheddar.

In the second layer I've put two pieces of fruit loaf, cut into heart shapes and a handful of cranberries. As a snack I'll give the children a packet of mini-cheddar biscuits and a blueberry yoghurt for dessert.

No.38 Ancient Egyptian bento

Rain again! Nice and refreshing. The weather has been behaving itself and only pouring down when we've reached the safety of indoors. Perfect. Many many escargot to rescue from the pavements today. Today's bento boxes came home empty, which I like to see. Even the dreaded lettuce had been eaten. I had an abundance of leftovers to get through, so instead of my own bento, I had a large pot of pasta for lunch. Looks like I'm having homemade vegetable stew for tomorrow...

And now for the bento! My daughter's class have been studying Ancient Egypt this term and the latest part of their work will be to put on a play depicting the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb at school tomorrow. I wanted to make an Egyptian bento, but by the afternoon, the only thing I had thought to put in it was a hand cut cheese sphinx. Then as I was fetching the cheese from the fridge and wondering what I would add with the rice, I found these mini vegetable samosas that I had forgotten I bought today! Pyramids! So in they went as a pyramid backdrop to my slightly dog-like sphinx. I'm pleased with the result. To use up further leftovers I put in the cucumber rounds from yesterday's cucumber flower shapes. There are two cherry vine tomatoes also, and a base  in the Egyptian section made from sushi rice. I can't wait to hear what my children think of it tomorrow!

No.37 'Jiji' Kiki's Delivery Service bento

Almost mid-week already! Wow. Yesterday's bento was reported back to have been very tasty, with the cute eyes on the 'soot balls' particularly loved. I decided to use the same shape for eyes in tomorrow's bento and stick with a Studio Ghibli theme. After reading Slinky Malinki with my son at bedtime (a favourite of ours that stars a mischievous black cat) I was reminded of Jiji, the black cat from Kiki's Delivery Service that has those same cute, wide little eyes. I only made the head, because my mature cheddar cheese slices are very crumbly and difficult to work with. The box below is my son's version, with slightly less salad than his sister's box, since he eats much less. The cheese slice Jiji is on top of two small marmite sandwiches, with finely chopped radish, lettuce, mini carrot sticks and cucumber flowers as salad. In the fruit layer is half a Jaffa orange and a sliced kiwi. I keep the cut-outs from the flower cucumber in a separate pot, no need to throw them away. My son and daughter will snack on them after school tomorrow. 

I rarely mention what I pack along with the bento, but I should get into the habit of doing so. Sometimes the bento on it's own is not enough to cover all the food needed for a full school day. I almost always pack a 'dessert' of some kind and a snack for break time. For instance, yesterday's snack was a box of animal shaped sweet biscuits and the dessert was a pot of tropical fruit in juice (lots of fruit yesterday!). Tomorrow's snack will be two slices of buttered fruit loaf and the dessert will be vanilla yoghurt.

Another rainy day today, so we had plenty of escargot to rescue to and from school! The bird life was mostly taking shelter though, so not many feathered friends made an appearance. At the weekend we were lucky enough to see two Partridges though, which were so pretty. It was only this morning that I looked them up in our bird book to find out what we'd seen.

No.36 'Makkuro Kurosuke (Susuwatari)' bento

Hello! Monday brought rain, so the scorching hot Summer school walk was avoided for one day at least. Lovely damp air was very refreshing. We saw Chaffinches and Magpies along the way. Late afternoon had a climbing wall session for the children, so as usual for a Monday we were late starting to cook. Ravenous Mr.Miloko ate his leftover vegetarian chilli from yesterday, but the children and I managed to hold out long enough for a pot of pasta and broccoli to cook, as well as a tray of delicious vegetarian Swiss meatless meatballs. We threw cheese into the pasta and had toasted pitta bread with butter too. Delicious. 

For tomorrow's bento, made from leftovers of our meal, I managed to make something I have promised to create for my children's lunch for a while now. The little soot creatures that appear in Studio Ghibli films, particularly in our favourite 'My Neighbour Totoro'. They are known as 'Makkuro Kurosuke' (pitch-black blackie) or Susuwatari (Traveling soot). In the main dish the pasta sauce is tomato and basil. For the eyes of the Susuwatari I cut cheese with a straw and dotted in a spot of black food colouring. In the fruit layer are watermelon wedges, dried cranberries and dried apricots.

No.35 'Blue Skies' bento

Back to bento! Half term break is over and school lunches are back. Today my husband made another of his Mexican meals, so the protein for tomorrow's lunch comes from a small portion of vegetarian chilli topped with a little grated cheese. Rather that add the salsa and salad how I did the last time I created a Mexican bento, I decided to go for rice. 

I was a bit hard pressed on how to get creative with this one, but at the last minute added a tiny splash of blue food colouring to the rice while it was cooking, so that I could make it a blue sky background. We've had gorgeous blue skies all through half term break. One of my new cutters is a sweet little aeroplane, so I cute a few little fajita wrap planes and then hand cut little baskets to add to half cherry tomato hot air balloons (This is one of two identical bentos). I'm fairly happy with the result. To add detail to the wrap pieces I used a tooth pick with the tip dipped in black food colouring. Now that I look at the pictures I'm seeing what looks like a pencil drawing. I like that. In the fruit layer I've put some mini wedges of a VERY scrummy watermelon we got this week and some kiwi slices. Mmm. 

                                       

Awww, the children and I, as always, are sad that school break is over. The next break is the eight week long Summer holidays though, and I think we only have five or six weeks of school left before we get to them! 

'Besto' pasta

Half term break from school has meant no bentos required for this week. Wow. I'm seriously missing my bento routine. The children and I had planned to make a picnic bento today, but discovered that it was so scorching hot outside that we'd prefer to eat indoors before we went  out to play. My daughter has been requesting pesto pasta for lunch all week and I've been a meanie and made alternative lunches with food that would otherwise spoil if left in the fridge. I don't like to be wasteful. But today, she got her pesto pasta wish! When I decorated it with our new bento cutter flower shape in cheese and cucumber, she immediately called it 'Besto' pasta. Which is why I wanted to share this meal on Bentovention. A little bit of bento leaked into our non-bento lunch and made it the best.

On our trip to the local botanical garden to play out and make dens, my daughter and I practised our 'Kihon Kata' movements to be ready for the next Karate belt grading that comes up. We're new to Karate, but very enthusiastic. My son wasn't interested in practising his Kata today, because he was having too much fun building pretend camp fires and roasting buttercups and daisies over them. Today was a busy day at the botanical garden, since they are getting ready to properly open up a newly built pond and planted walkway to visitors. The children and I went to inspect the pond and very pretty new borders. While we were looking for dragonflies it occurred to me that we were seeing as much of the pond today as visitors will see after the 'unveiling'. How do they intend to 'open' a pond? It just made me smile.