Lunches Over the Past Week

This was inspired by the left over rice from our chicken stir fry last week. I love doing the onigiri, I don't have the spice packs like I should but she seems to be ok with just using the soy sauce on it, so you have a bear in the top left corner (eyes and mouth made with black food coloring pen) some apple slices and a rabbit onigiri in the top right and then some animal crackers and fruit snacks. Onigiri, or molded rice, is a great thing to do with left over rice especially if you have fun molds like these! See my other post for more details on this fun idea.

This bento was created by dad! I was grading papers all night and was just plain exhausted so daddy volunteered to do lunches, imagine my surprise when this is what he created. Even punched the sandwich with the bento box! Made a face for it and everything! PB&J with sugar eyes a half a grape and a fruit leather mouth. In the other tier grapes, the remaining fruit leather, and fruit snacks.

 

*The other lunches not posted were simple lunches in her lock and lock box that just had some deli meat, cheese, crackers of some sort and some fruit. I really love the lock and lock system for easy little lunches, and you can almost create your own little healthier versions of a lunchable. For my little two year old on the go this is the perfect lunch for her at daycare to nibble on while she plays.

Onigiri

As I make my way through the idea of bento, or I should specify "cute bento", I have bought many a item as well as researched different ideas. One thing I came across was onigiri, this is a traditional Japanese bento item, usually sticky rice formed into a triangle -or other shape- and sometimes filled in the center with meat. This is a GREAT way to use leftover rice and whatever you happened to be having with that rice. These have been made more popular in the states with the popularity of Manga, they are often featured in this Japanese graphic novel genre. Now to form the traditional triangle shaped onigiri you can actually use the corner of a plastic bag, pushing the rice into the corner and then twisting to put pressure on it. It is the pressure on the sticky rice that helps make a nice portable package. Back to the items that I have bought for my new obsession with "cute bento" I bought two different sets of onigiri shapers.These ones are cuter, but do not have a mechanism to push the rice together nicely so they don't really hold their shape, I think these will actually work better as sandwich cutters.

Now these, these are the ticket! Notice how this set has an upper and lower piece, you must fit in the top piece, then pile in the rice, and then use the bottom piece as your plunger if you will and push the rice together. It comes out nice and compacted see last picture of this post to see what I mean). I believe I bought both of these sets at Uwajimya. Amazon has basic shapes, and the traditional box or triangle molds

And I love rice so I imagine I will plan on doing these not just for Molly but for Brian and myself as well because they are FANTASTIC. Molly wasn't sure what to make of them at first but then when mom wanted to eat them instead then she of course became interested. Here is a pic of her lunch (orange sections, half a string cheese, a few wheat thins, craisins in the silicone cup, and one bunny shaped onigiri and a bear shaped onigiri) Oh and you will notice that there is some green peeking through the rice, this was leftover rice from a Mexican meal the other night - I forgot to take pics of it... I find that I cook most nights and only about 50% of the time do I remember to take the stupid pictures, plus my camera is going down the crapper... a new one would be nice *wink *wink... but I digress- the rice had some salt, lime juice and cilantro in it. It was very tasty rice.