Japanese Apple Bunnies - Usagi Ringo

This blog is no stranger to bento lunches. The only tag with more posts attributed to it is recipes (you can see all my bento lunches from the past 2 years by clicking on the word 'bento' under the heading 'tags' in the sidebar). But mostly my bento's have been 'american' style. 'Western' food cut into pretty shapes. Or just Western food with a few food picks to make it look pretty as possible as has been of late. But I decided that it's time I got slightly more authentic.

Not much I grant you - but this is more like a half way point.

So I thought I'd master the art of apple rabbits - or usagi ringo. Apparently they are used as a space filler in Japanese bentos. But they do also appear a lot in American style bentos. They're not particularly difficult - and as fruit carving goes it's really not very fiddly. And yes - for some people these won't look very much like rabbits. But they're a good place to start.

As you may notice I am by no means an expert in making these yet. Often I'll cut the skin to thin, or the apple slice will break, or I'll accidentally take the ear of the rabbit off. As you can see by the photos - the bunny rabbits decrease in numbers as time goes by.

1. Wash and dry the apple. I think that red or maybe pink apples look the best for these- there's less contrast with green apples between the skin and the flesh - but if you want to green bunnies go ahead. (I know actually have a strong desire to get a golden apple and have pink and yellow bunnies...) Also fresher - more 'crisper' apples are better for this if possible - because they're gonna soak in water for a bit and the crisper the apple to start with the crisper they will be after soaking.

2. Cut the apple into slices and remove the core. For most apples I'd say that splitting it into 8 is a good call. You don't want them too thin - it's really hard to fit the 'bunny' in then - but if they're too thick it's harder to do. I also like to 'square off' the top end a bit - but that's just me.

3. Starting at the top - cut (it won't work with a peeler) the peel away from the apple until about 1/2 - 2/3 of the way down. I TRY and do it so there's a thicker 'peel' at the top and have it thinning as I get nearer the end of the cut. Emphasis on TRY. But you don't want it TOO thin at any point because then it just breaks away.

4. This is possibly the most fiddly bit. You need to cut an longish isosceles triangle out of PEEL of the apple (don't cut into the rest of the apple if that is at all possible), with the base at the top edge of apple, where the peel is fully away from the rest. You now need to very carefully remove this triangle - but be aware- if you pull to hard you may remove the ears as well. And no one wants a ear-less bunny rabbit.

5. Mix a little lemon/lime/orange juice into a bowl of water/lidded container. It doesn't need to be a massive bowl - but the water needs to be above the apples when you place them in. Place the apples in the water. This stops them going brown quite as much when taken out and placed in a bento box. They should be here for at least 5-10 minutes, but if you only want a few bunnies for each bento they are okay in here for a few days.

6. Use them to cuten up pretty much anything!

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Wedding Bento # 1

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So..... today is September 10th. When the prompt for today is

"Something Blue" 

So.... something blue. Blueberries? Right? I could recreate the blueberry yogurt I used to love as a child. Or make blueberry muffins. Or make blueberry pie, or blueberry smoothie..... or.........

But blueberries aren't really blue are they? Especially in anything other than their raw state. So.....

Not blueberries.

So what else is blue? I mean; blue food colouring was blue. But it was already packed..... and I couldn't find it. (it's now on the floor of my room as I work out where I'm going to put it)

So.... what else is blue. Um.... pretty much nothing is actually blue. Or not naturally anyway.

All I can think about right now is Dick King Smith's book How Green Was My Mouse.

Food should not be blue as much as mice should not be green.

Now all I can think about is Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief where he and his Mom used to eat bags of blue sweets.

And so basically I have just gone on a long tandem and I still haven't come up with a blue food.

Maybe I could of done about a sad food. And interpreted the prompt that way. But I kind of think that doing that would have been against the point of MoFo (to tell everyone about how amazing vegan food can be!) Who wants to read about sad food?

So.... the tandem continues....... and we get to......

"Something old; something new; something borrowed; something blue."

You know - the rhyme about what every bride should have at her wedding.

And so I got thinking. What would I want at my wedding (apart from a pretty dress, nice flowers and a husband)? I would want to serve Bento Boxes to everyone. (are you surprised?)

So here is my first idea about what I might impose upon my wedding guests.

There is a pizza and garlic bread made cut out of ciabatta bread. The pizza topped with sun-dried tomato paste and nutritional yeast, and the garlic bread was made using olive oil, garlic powder and parsley. There's some broccoli roasted in vegan pesto (because BROCCOLI) and praline soya dessert topped with vegan chocolate chips. (praline soya dessert tastes almost as good as broccoli.)

And even though it's MoFo - normal rules still apply (of course!) (can you believe I've been bento-ing for over a year now?)

so..........

1. TIME because if I'm about to get married- I wouldn't want to be spending lots of time in the kitchen - right? :P This one was actually really quick. Apart from having to wait for the grill to heat up - it was pretty much just a case of assembling various components. The broccoli was already cooked - but that was just a case of mixing the ingredients together before putting it in the oven. Gain a star. (Oh no- I forgot to bring my stars to uni!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO)

2. LEFTOVERS I loose a star here. Mainly because this was right before I moved out- and so I didn't have time to do anything constructive with the outsides of the bread.

3. RECORDING So I loose another star here. Because I had this a while ago. But if you haven't already noticed- I'm not exactly on top of things here.

4. BALANCE It's a metaphorical party. It doesn't have to be nutritionally balanced - right? So- normally I would deduct a star- but I'm not going to this time.

5. BOXABILITY So it all fit's in the box. Which is always a start. So I'm gonna give myself a star.

6. PACKAGING A complete lack of any individual packaging here- and I made the bread myself -and the packaging from all the ingredients is recyclable- so definitely getting a star here!!!! (happy dance time)

7. CUTENESS This isn't exactly cute- but I have made a lot less cute bento's in my time, so.... neutral

8. PLANNING Totally getting a star for this one. I somehow managed NOT to eat all the broccoli the night before so that I still had some left over (which was hard because BROCCOLI). I used up the ciabatta bread from what will become another MoFo post. I saw the dessert in the store and got it thinking 'this will be perfect for that post' and that's a sort of planning, right?

9. EATING I ate it ALL up.

Which means I end on 4 stars. Which is actually quite good. Maybe I was being to generous?

And so I have gone the whole post about 'something blue' - and haven't yet managed to post anything about something that is ACTUALLY BLUE.

Also - Mom said that I should point out to anybody who actually reads my blog that there's a bar on the side where you can sign up to the blog's e-mail list. In case you never want to miss a post (you know, in case you want an insomnia cure or want to regularly laugh at how ridiculous I can be) which I find slightly weird- considering that she doesn't read it.... but anyway. Also- I feel weird because.... asking people to sign up like this is weird. And now I'm babbling. So....  It's their. If you're bored.

Hope MoFo is going great for everyone else!

Barny Bento

This is the last in my bear-y bento mini series. 

And next week- I can assure you- isn't a bento post. 

I know because I just wrote it. 

Okay, now, you know when you really really REALLY want something- even though you know that there is a high probability that you won't like it? 

Good.... and glad that it wasn't just me. If you've never experienced this- just pretend. It makes me feel less stupid- okay? 

So... we were down in Birmingham on an intensive week of physio (and that was less fun than it sounds, I assure you). And we frequented the local Tesco shop a lot. Because to be honest- there was nothing else to do. Except watch Food Network. Although that was actually a lot of fun and we have done it several times at home since. 

But they had a 'reduced' section. And in it were apple flavored Barny cakes. And despite the fact that I don't like cake at the moment and had never wanted one before- an apple flavoured Barney cake was suddenly very desirable. Unfortunately they only come in packs of 5. 

You know what? I don't like Barny cakes. But we are not telling Mom that and so I have to eat all of them. 

I should point out this probably doesn't mean that the cakes were bad- I just don't like cake.

Luckily this time someone gave me a couple of biscuits to take the taste away. 

So that is a Barny cake (apple flavoured), some grapes and celery sticks, some Quorn cocktail sausages, and some chickpea omelet. 

1. TIME This took me all of about 10 seconds to put together. I'd pre-cut the celery, pre washed the grapes, and cooked an extra (much smaller) omelet when I was making one for tea. So the time to pack this bento? Very little. One star for me. (Red today I think)

3. RECORDING I loose that star. We're talking months afterwards guys. 

4. BALANCE This is the first time that I used an 'omelette' as my calcium sauce. (okay, I don't think that it's the first time that you've seen me do it, but it is the first time that I actually did it). The omelette's are made with fortified milk, the chickpea flour is a source of calcium (who knew- right?) and this particular omelet mix contained sesame seeds. So we're good on calcium. So one red star (I'm currently talking to my friend about rubies, hence the red star). 

9. EATING I could possibly have eaten more. Well, I ate my friends biscuits so I did eat more. But this is not necessarily the fault of I didn't pack a big enough lunch- because as my friend pointed out- I had eaten breakfast very early- so by lunch I was very hungry!!! So the fault was actually more that I hadn't packed a snack! So we'll stay neutral on this one. Once. If I do it again I'll deduct a star. 

Which means that I end on one star. (and it sparkles. for the record)

Bear-y Pancake Sandwich Bento

Because no- it is 7 am and I was up all night talking to my friend - I can not think of a better title than that. Creative title naming juices are not flowing people. 

Sorry. 

Here is another lovely bear themed bento for you today. You can't really see properly (it was the middle of winter and bad lighting is definitely a killer) but in there is two BEAR YoYo's , some amazing crisps by Ten Acre (review coming at some point), a pot of banana and custard topped with some dairy free chocolate buttons- which were brilliant but they seemed to have stopped doing them. Which is not so brilliant. Do you know how hard it is to find dairy free chocolate chips? (the answer is immensely). There is also a 'pancake sandwich' in there. 

I made a load of apple pancakes and added a load of BEAR Paws and then cooked it in my bear shaped pancake mold to make extra bear-y pancakes!!! Topping pancakes that you are going to pack in your lunchbox can be slightly problematic- because you are, um, packing it. You can't just pour syrup over the whole thing- because you will end up with syrup EVERYWHERE- and that would not be good! So instead I made a pancake sandwich by putting the topping in-between the two pancakes so that it was contained, didn't go everywhere, and wasn't a sticky mess for me to eat. This works better with, thicker 'spreadable' pancake toppings, and did make quite a thick sandwich, so if you are going to do this you might want to make your pancakes a bit thinner than normal. 

When deciding what to fill my sandwich with- I went down the path of "what do bears eat?" I mean, real bears eat fish, but that one was a definite no obviously. Paddington eats marmalade, but I really hate marmalade- and so that one was a no to. How about honey? And peanut butter? So I went with that- a honey and peanut butter bear shaped bear-y pancake sandwich. Yes, that is a mouthful! So how did I do?

1. TIME This bento didn't take me that long- I did it in an advert break. (I don't sit around and watch television all the time guys- it's just that advert breaks seem to be the best time to make a bento time efficiency wise and so if I am going to watch television it's when I will usually make my bento) I didn't make the actual pancakes in that 5 minute slot of course, but they were already made that morning, so when it came to bento making, all I needed to do was make the banana and custard pot (and that really isn't an arduous task) and put it all in, trying to make it look as cute as possible. That means that it fits in the time limits of not taking any longer than it took my Dad to make my brothers lunch, and so one star for me! (Blue please)

3. RECORDING I probably did this bento at about 7pm and it was dark outside. Can we just realise that I did this bento a long time ago and move on, with no stars? Please? The least said about this matter the better. 

6. BOXABILITY I'm not all that happy about how this bento fitted together. There is a lot of empty space in that box- and to be honest- it just doesn't look that bento-y. It's a poor representation of a bento box because it doesn't fit well. So I'll loose a star here. 

8. PLANNING I think I get a star here. I made the pancakes in the morning- with a mind to putting them in my bento so I saved two from the freezer. AND I made sure that we had a banana in that I could use. This is no easy feat in a household where we are not aloud more than one bunch of bananas at a time but where we get through bananas so quickly!!! also- I think we should have two because then we could have one bunch ripening whilst we eat the other- which would solve the problem of the supermarkets only ever having green bananas (I like mine spotty, and my brother only likes them in Dad's banana cake- so really green banana's are not good). But I have now gone way off topic of how I think I should be aloud one star for good planning. 

Which leaves me on no stars :( 

I really need to get onto blogging my bento's when I actually do them... 

Until then, see ya, have a good week!

Bear Pressed Sandwich Bento

I have got an amazing new kitchen gadget!!! (seriously, this type of thing gets me way too excited). It's a bear shaped sandwich sealer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It de-crusts the sandwich (a function which is always good), cuts it out into the shape of a bear, imprints the face of a bear on my sandwich and seals the crusts together a bit like a pocket sandwich- which means that no filling falls out!!!! 

What can't my little plastic gadget do? 

You can just about see the bear face. 

This is my bear. I've decided to call him Hawking. You might meet him a lot around here. 

I thought I would get some milk loaf, because I love it for a treat and also- it's smaller than standard sliced bread and so I thought there would be less waste. It was actually a bit to small, so my sealed sandwiches didn't work all that well. 

Look at this banana!!! I got them in Booths. Aren't they cute!!!! I had been having an argument with my parents for months about the mini banana's that appear in (and on) Vegan Lunch Box are the same as the children's (Eric the Elephant) banana's that we get from Sainsbury's. They said that those were the mini bananas featured. I disagreed- those were small banana's- as opposed to mini bananas. This proves that I was right all the time. Look- they fit in my (very pink looking here) hand!!! And my hands are amazingly small- this is a very mini banana!!! 

They are so cute. Just look at it. How can anybody not want to adopt that?

So - how did this bento do? 

It contains a (homemade and only slightly lumpy) vanilla pudding, a mini banana, a (homemade) date bar (can't remember what flavor), and two peanut butter bear shaped sealed sandwiches. 

2. LEFTOVERS Yes- even thought the bread was slightly too small- I still ended up with a lot of left over bread. However- I used them to make bread pudding!!! (It was soooooo good). I used a recipe from a cookbook that I had- but that makes too big a batch. One thing that is on my summer bucket list is to create a bread crust bread pudding recipe. So stay tuned. (unless you actually eat your crusts...) One star to me please!!!

3. RECORDING Loose a star and move on

5. BOXABILITY It just doesn't work. I'm seriously lagging on this one at the moment. Loose a star and move on! 

6. PACKAGING People, would you join me in my happy dance around my bedroom because THERE WAS NO EXCESS PACKAGING in this bento. This makes me happy on sooooo many levels. Dancing around. I think that of all the 'marking points' getting a star here makes me feel the best. Even above cuteness. 

7. CUTENESS My sandwiches had a bear imprinted on them. AND LOOK AT MY BANANA. Actually- overall this bento doesn't look all that cute- but the components are all cute. 

Which leaves me on one star. (I think I'm going to go for a blue star here.)

Look, I even added a (polar) bear ice pack!

Teddy Bear Picnic Bento

Okay- so you know how I'm doing this backwards? So I started the week of my last exam and have been writing and scheduling my posts backwards so that I will have posts published when I am too busy revising to post? 

Yeah- well this starts (or ends if you are me) a four post long mini series on bear themed bentos. (Wow- I've done all these in a day and I've just realised that you will have nothing but bear themed bento's for a whole month- sorry). 

It's okay- I'll make sure that next time (or for you last time) will be a not bento recipe!!! Cause I am nice like that!!! 

I'm not quite sure what you will get yet but I can promise that it isn't a bento. I like how you will already know what I posted last week. 

So this is my teddy bear picnic bento. It includes cucumber tulips, mini mozzarella cheeses, a Bakewell Tart Nakd bar, a Quorn sausage roll and some pom bears. (Do you know it is practically impossible to get the salt and vinegar ones know- and they're my favorite). 

I really liked the Bakewell Tart flavor- I had to wait for ages to get one because they came out ages ago at the same time as the 'xmas pud' flavor (and auto correct wants that to be 'xmas phd'. A doctorate in Christmas- wouldn't that be nice?). Sainsburys got the xmas pud flavor in straight away- but didn't get the Bakewell Tart flavor in until after the xmas pud flavor went out (funnily enough after Christmas). I guess they only had room for one of them on the shelf. The Bakewell Tart flavor was definitely worth waiting for (although the Xmas Pud flavor was AMAZING). I have started making my own date bars now and this is on the list to recreate!

So- how did I do?

1. TIME This didn't take me too long. Maybe about five minutes. So I get a star here (red I feel). There's not much more to say about time- other than, it didn't take me that long

2. LEFTOVERS There were some leftovers here. Partly because I didn't use the whole packet of pom bears for this bento - but mainly because I got a bit carried away with how much cucumber that I would need. I made way too much. The pom bears I ate as a snack at some point- and I kept the cucumber and added it to my noodles a few days later. So- I used up my 'leftovers' properly. So one star to me. 

3. RECORDING Loose a star and move on. 

5. BOXABILITY I'm quite happy with the boxability of this box. I've made quite a few that haven't been so brilliant (I guess they're coming up) but I am quite happy with this one. It all fits in nicely. So one more star for me. 

6. PACKAGING The pom bears came individually packaged (not quite individually packaged, but you know what I mean. That would be some very tiny packages) and as you can see- so did the Nakd bar. So that's not that brilliant. But the sausage roll didn't- and up until that point Sainsbury's had only been stocking the individually packaged one- so I will count that small victory as negating the other excess packaging- and so will neither gain or loose a star here. 

7. CUTENESS There isn't actually that much 'cuteness' aspects here- but all together I feel it does look kind of cute. It just seems to have a cute aura around it. Maybe it's the crisps. Or the cucumber. Whatever it is, it feels cute and so I'm going to give myself a star here. Happy face. 

That's three stars to kick of my bear themed bento mini series. I have a feeling that I will need it! (maybe cause I've already written the rest of the series). 

Hej hej

We're Having a Crisis

When I say we- I really just mean I. 

Apparently I am the only person in the house who is deeply troubled by the lack of peanut butter. 

The rest of the household- just not bothered. 

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!!! WE ARE OUT OF PEANUT BUTTER AND THEY ARE NOT IN THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED!!!!! 

This is a lack of peanut butter people, this isn't even a lack of something weird like a lack of chocolate, or tea, or pizza- THIS IS A LACK OF PEANUT BUTTER!!! 

And not just there wasn't enough in the jar- there wasn't a jar. Someone had used up the last of the peanut butter and hadn't gotten a new one. 

I MEAN ..... >stops because she doesn't want to swear on her blog<. 

>Has a moment, because, hello, we've ran out of peanut butter. There should always be peanut butter<

So I thought that this would be an excellent time to post a 'bento' (I'm using the term very loosely) from ages ago - that I really wasn't going to post because it is an appalling excuse for a bento- but I just thought I would add it in here so you can see what a bento looks like when we are having a "nobodies been shopping" crisis. To show you that I (and you) can produce a bento when you REALLY have nothing in to make a bento from and you haven't planned anything. (which would be the main reason you have nothing in). 

Also- no spoilers, but I don't do well on the 'planning' aspect.

So - in here- I have an American Biscuit that I rescued from the freezer - spread with peanut butter. (Because every house needs to have peanut butter in case of emergency), some dried dates (the only dried fruit we had), a banana and a cookie. And that was the best- most imaginative lunch I could come up with. The most balanced lunch that could come out of my kitchen at that moment in time. It was a bad day... and in fairness, I wasn't the only one who hadn't planned sufficiently because we had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN. 

I even think that that was the last banana. 

So... 

1. TIME This one took a long time. Not because I did anything fancy- or because I made it pretty- or at all bento-ish. But because it took ages to find anything. Like, a really REALLY long time. I'm just glad that the biscuit had had time to defrost before lunch! So loose a star here...

3. RECORDING Loose a star here as well....

[FYI, it doesn't really get any better]

4. BALANCE No calcium rich foods. Loose another star... 

5. BOXABILITY It's not particularly good 'boxability' wise, but I am THAT desperate- and have you ever tried to fit a banana in a lunch box? Its very near IMPOSSIBLE. I mean seriously, hard. Like, immense. That's why these were created. So I'm giving myself a star here. It won't matter what color it is.... I'm going to be in the negatives anyway...

6. PACKAGING Actually, now that I think about it- there was no excess packaging. Without even trying- just through lack of anything to put in my lunch. Wohoo. One more star to me. 

7. CUTENESS. There is nothing cute about it. Those food picks do not redeem anything. So loose another star.

8. PLANNING Yeah... Lesson learnt

9. EATING The whole point of me even posting this bento- is not because it's amazing. I am under no illusions. It is horrendous. The whole point is to show you that even when you are 2 microseconds from resorting to a TESCO sandwich (actually- I was 2 microseconds from just taking the banana for my lunch. Satisfying... not.) it is perfectly possible to put together a lunch from home. It may not be spectacular- but saying that- last time I got sent with a few pound coins in my pocket to get a lunch, I came out the store with a packet of chocolate raisins and a plain bread roll. So... this is definitely preferable! But I made a perfectly eatable lunch from absolutely nothing- so one star here. 

Which leaves me on minus two. Which is okay. I wasn't expecting fireworks. I was under no delusions that this was an award winning lunchbox. I just wanted to say- don't give up just yet. 

And don't run out of peanut butter. 

For the record- I used some powdered peanut butter that I had gotten for baking. 

We need peanut butter.

Happy World Thinking Day

World Thinking Day is the day (22nd Feb) when boy/girl scouts and guides all over the world celebrate their brothers and sisters in the scouting/guiding family all over the world. 

It's a big deal. 

You can read about it here if you want to. I'm sure they can explain it a lot better than I have the energy to do at the moment. I'm tired. 

We (my Rainbows unit) celebrated by going to an event for girls (and one boy) from all over the county. It was a big (and actually very long) event. And I needed a packed lunch for it. And so enter this (very quickly thrown together) bento. (I mean very quickly. Like- at half 6 in the morning wondering around the kitchen thinking- I need something for lunch). 

Cause you know- I am the queen of forward planning and all.

So... here is a picture of what my brain can cope with at 6:30am while thinking.... I have approximately 5 minutes to put together a World Thinking Day worthy bento. It is not a World Thinking Day worthy bento. I am very sorry Lord & Lady Baden Powell.

(And on that note.... someone seriously needs to start a day to honour Agnes Baden Powell. But not on her birthday because it is too near Christmas)

It doesn't look very good. I looked a little better in real life. Not much- but this wasn't one of my most photographic bentos! 

My special World Thinking Day bento consists of Quorn sausage rolls, salsa, a chinese omelette (in the shape of Winnie the Pooh), a banana topped millet muffin, a dried fig, a dried apricot and a dried peach (shall we call it some sort of dried fruit salad?)

Oh, and I piped 'World Thinking Day' on a piece of apple (that I cut of the apple that I ate for breakfast). Not that you can really see it in the photo. 

So... it's late but I want to get this done today- so shall we get on with marking it?

2. LEFTOVERS I used the outside of the cut out omelette (because it didn't magically form in the shape of Winnie the Pooh) later that night in my tea (stir fry). So that's one star. (Gained)

4. BALANCE Okay. I didn't really get the balance here. I have two complex carbohydrate sources and only one fruit/vegetable source. I think that this is the first time that I have ever lost a star here. But lose one I do (sad face)

5. BOXABILITY I think it all fits very nicely into this box. I mean- I filled up all the gaps. And it's not all squashed in like sardines. So I think that I'll give myself another star for this one :) 

6. PACKING Nothing was individually wrapped!!! I mean, okay- so the muffin was in a wrapper- but that's only because I am having issues with my silicone muffin/cupcake cups. But it didn't come in a muffin paper in a tray in a plastic wrapper, so... No packaging? One more star for me (how about blue stars today- hey?)

7. CUTENESS I (very expertly) wrote on my apple. Hello- cuteness. One more star for me. 

8. PLANNING I know that I said above I was wondering around the kitchen thinking "what to have for lunch", but I had been away for a week (don't ask) and so I couldn't really plan anything because I didn't know what we would have in. So I'm gonna allow myself to stay neutral- ha? 

Plus 4!!! (Really? For that bento? It wasn't that good. But who am I to argue?) 

So... as I am mega tired.... good night. 

The One Where I Sat With Friends (Plural)

Which could also be called- at last! The end is in sight! 

Or, wow- it is really easy to get distracted on Casabento. 

Or any number of other titles. But it's not. It's called "The One Where I Sat with Friends", cause hey, guess what? I sat with friends. And note friendS. The 's' on there is very important. Because there was more than one of them. I know, I mean, MORE THAN ONE. I mean, it's not like I am a complete and utter social recluse or anything- it's just that I started in a different year, and you no... It felt like I was starting college again in a completely new school. Except I already knew my way around. And that I knew there would be a queue of teachers waiting for the photocopier in the Math study area. You know those American high school dramas? My life has been like that - but without the supernatural aspects. (Well...)

So, back to the main subject, which is that I SAT WITH FRIENDS TO EAT THIS LUNCH. Or was it that it is a Christmas bento and that I'm tired and that I need to post this before I go to bed?

Can't remember.

This is a satsuma orange (or was it an easy peeler) (or a mandarin) (or a clementine) (or are you really bothered?), some dates (cause we didn't have any suitable veggies), a stuffin' muffin (although it took a while get Dad to make it in the muffin cups), some Quorn slices curled up (in a desperate attempt to make it a tiny little bit cute) and a FROZEN YOGURT TUBE. You can't see it properly, but it's there. And it has Elsa on it. And yes, I only bought them cause they have Frozen characters on it. Cause I am just that awesome. (How about we play lets pretend for a bit right now?). And look, there's a little snowman flag and a snowman cupcake wrapper turned inside out so it looks more colourful!

3. RECORDING Your getting the idea, loose a star and move on.

6. PACKAGING We'll stay neutral- it only has one individually packaged item. And if I'd just put a spoon of  yogurt in there it would have made a mess. And it wouldn't of had Elsa on the front.

7. CUTENESS It's kinda cute. I used a lot of colourful, Christmas themed accessories. And an Elsa yogurt. I'll add a star.

8. PLANNING I made sure that we had the Quorn in. And I convinced Dad to make the stuffing in the muffin pan so it looked slightly better than this attempt. And I ate this bento two days on the row because we had all the stuff in so, ya know. 

9. EATING I ate it with friends people. Another star for me. 

That makes 2 stars. Any suggestions on colours people? 

And friends who I ate lunch with- you're fab :) 

Do You Want To Eat a Snowman?

I really need to get some food safe markers- cause I don't like the taste of writing icing. 

This bento contains 2 half size Quorn pepperoni and cucumber snowman sandwiches (I am so loving the pepperoni and cucumber combination), a bit of extra cucumber, a cut up cheese string, a cut up apple pie Nakd  bar and some mint humbugs to fill the gaps. 

So...

2. LEFTOVERS As usual- I lose a point here. I might have done something constructive with the leftovers- but to be honest- I just don't remember what I did with them. Which probably meant that I ate them with my breakfast. 

3. RECORDING Loose another star and move on

4. BALANCE Because I have a feeling I'm going to need every star I can get on this one- so I'm going to reward myself a star for balance. It has everything there- so it's justified. You might not be able to see it all- but it's there. 

5. BOXABILITY It all fits in- and I made sure that I filled all the gaps. With humbugs if necessary (bah humbug.... it's seasonal!) So- another star (wohoo- I am officially on no stars!) 

6. PACKAGING Way too much packaging. The Nakd bar, the cheese string, and the humbugs all came individually wrapped. :( Loose another star. 

7. CUTENESS It contains snowmen. Hell-o. Gain another star. (kinda- therefore I am on a grand total of no stars.)

So- I hate finishing no where. I HAVE TO GET BETTER

Only one more Christmas bento left to go!

Winter Wonderland

You know, to be honest, the name has not much to do with bento itself- but more to do with the event I ate this Bento at. The Rainbow's Frozen Winter Wonderland event. Oh boy, that was fun. However, many leader's have since complained that they can't get the song Let It Go out their heads. Really- I don't know what they're complaining about!

Okay- I knew 7 posts in one day was way too ambitious. So- I'm going to try and get all the bento posts finished off today. And the Christmas Chow Mein thrown in there if I can.

So- fingers crossed- yeah?

And I couldn't start early. I was meeting a friend. And it is official- I have received my first Christmas present!!!!!

Thanks dear friend!

So- to business.

Isn't it pretty? I'm proud of this one. I'm good. I'm amazing. I'm awesome! :P 

Felafel's, a Nakd Christmas Pudding bar (cause they're sooo good), some snow peas made into Christmas trees, a mini Babybel (do they actually even do non mini versions?), some mini tomatoes, and a cereal bar decorated to look like a snowman. Sorta. Kinda. Maybe. Use your imagination, 'kay?

I am soooo proud of this one. Hopefully- it will get a few stars. Cause the last one got none. :( 

so...

1. TIME If it wasn't for the fact that I spent about 10 minutes trying to work out if it was possible to make the snowman, and more, well.... snowman-y. So- without the dithering, it would have taken about 5 minutes. With the dithering- about quarter of an hour. While I ate my breakfast. So I could have done it in five minutes. But I didn't. So I propose I stay were I am. 

2. LEFTOVERS I ate them. With my porridge. 

3. RECORDING Loose a star and MOVE ON

5. BOXABILITY I (finally) gain a star here. Its all in one box- about the right size for bento. There isn't any left over space so things couldn't rattle around. So- happy face. 

6. PACKAGING Lose that star. The Babybel, the Nakd Bar and the cereal bar all came individually wrapped. This one can be hard at times. :( 

7. CUTENESS Can I get two stars for cuteness? No? Oh well. I will just award myself one then. But look at it- it so deserves more! There are several 'cute' aspects in this lunch. Okay- I've seen cuter bento's - but this one is one of my best so far!

8. PLANNING I used the snow peas that I also used for the chow mien. I also used some of the tomatoes that I got for... bentos in general. I used the rest of the felafel's that I used in another bento. I bought the Babybel so that I could use them for bentos. So, all in all, mostly things that I had bought for bentos. Or things that I had used up from other dishes. So- planning right? And I planned to make the snowman a few days before. And I planned to make the Santa Babybel after I saw it here at cute food for kids. So- one more star. 

So that ends on one star. It was a pretty good bento. Except that someone thought my Santa Claus belly was actually a pirate belly. Maybe I'll do a pirate bento one day then. 

The One with the Pepper Hats

For those keeping a tally- this is no. 4. 

However, I strongly suspect the only one keeping a tally is me. 

Is there a record for the most posts in one day? 

Now, do you ever ask your Dad for a bag of the mixed color mini peppers that you saw in the fruit and veggie shop only to look at the bag and think: wow that is very monochrome. 

Then look at your bento the next day, and think: wow that is very monochrome.

I need to remember the food/color laws. 

And you know, the monochrome pepper bag wouldn't be half bad- except that I wanted the red ones for Christmas. If they had a bag of just red ones- I'd of got that! But no- I'm stuck with a load of yellowy-orangy ones. And no, I didn't just hide all the red ones. That is an accurate representation. 

>blasting the Christmas songs up<

It's some felafel's (great veggie lunchbox filler- must get round to making my own one day) some M & S Christmas pudding bread cut into Christmas trees (and boy, is that stuff hard to cut into shapes), some (rare) red pepper and mini Babybel cheese Santa Claus hats, and some cherry tomatoes to fill in the gaps. And add a bit of color. 

So how did it do?

Well...

1. TIME It would have taken about a quarter of the time if the bread hadn't been so hard to cut up. 

2. LEFTOVERS After spending so much time trying to cut that bread into shapes (and the one underneath doesn't look nearly as good) - I was in no mood to do something creative with the leftovers. So, I'll loose a star here. 

3. RECORDING Sensing a theme here? Loose a star and move on. 

5. BOXABILITY I thing everything fitted in quite nicely. And it stood up to the ultimate test- it still looked like that at lunchtime. So we'll go all the way up to minus one. (Yes, that was sarcastic) 

8. PLANNING I made sure that I had everything I needed. That counts as planning. So we'll finish this bento on no stars. (Aw, sad face :( ) 

See you in a bit. Is it just me who is really tired right now? 

Veggie Hotdog's Don't Curl

Veggie hot dogs don't curl. Apparently. However- it may be that the lack of curling incurred was actually due to the fact that I cooked then cut- whereas now I realise that it is supposed to be cut then cook. I learnt this while I got very distracted on the site Casabento. I mean, come on! Bento supplies galore! And I get very easily distracted by Bento stuff. I mean ITS SO CUTE!!!!!!! However, I got distracted from bento-ing by bento-ing. Not so good. 

Also, when will blogger/my laptop ever recognise that bento is a word? Hi spell check, I appreciate that you're right, like, 100% of the rest of the time, but sometimes I'm right too! Like now...

SO, this isn't actually a bento. I mean, it ain't in a box. Big barrier in the way of counting as a bento- so... 

This is what I based my reindeer on this one from Cute Food for Kids. 

And here is what mine looked like:

Not quite as spectacular as the real deal, however, not bad. I confess myself that I thought it would end up a lot worse. Although Dad said he thought the antlers looked more like donkey ears, than, well, antlers. 

Although I used the idea, I executed it differently. To make it into more of a complete meal, I put a layer of very basic guacamole into the bottom of the bowl. Then, instead of using fried rice, I used cous cous (which spell check keeps trying to change to cows cows)- which for me is easier and quicker. And cheap. I just added a bit of stock powder for flavor- but we're talking a tiny bit here! I used a Quorn hot dog instead of a turkey one (obviously), two black olives for eyes and a big spoon of  salsa for the nose- I thought I'd continue with the Mexican-y theme. So actually, not one single aspect is exactly the same. But I did use the idea. 

And here's what it looked like while I was eating it! A but of a mess, but yummy. 

And to be honest, there's no reason why, if you had a circular box, you couldn't have it cold for lunch! 

So, shall we mark it? (No, no, let's not!) (You know, I can't wait till I've finished my challenge and don't have to mark it) (I'm trying to remember when I stopped adding that link to every bento post. I thought I'd add it for a bit of fun!) 

1. TIME It takes as long as it does to cook your hot dog and then a minute. So for a Quorn dog 10 minutes. Not bad for a warm lunch. And it was easy too. Lots of components but every component is relatively easy. One star (red for Christmas I think)

3. RECORDING Loose that star and move on. I've been revising!

4. BALANCE. To be honest, not enough fruit/veggies. And no calcium. But you can (and I did) add a  yogurt/some milk and a piece of fruit/some veggies. So we'll stay on no stars for the time being. 

5. BOXABILITY It isn't in a box. That kinda actually means that it isn't kinda actually a bento. But, if I didn't want something warm and I had a suitable container, I could of had it as a cold bento. We'll lose a star, but only one for it not being in a box. 

6. PACKAGING Nothing here, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING was individually packaged. I am doing a little happy dance at the thought. You should join in. Gain a star. (If you're counting, that means I have none.)

7. CUTENESS. Hello (Kitty) Its cute. What more can I say? So I'm on one star now!

8. PLANNING I'll stay neutral again here. It wasn't actually my idea- I didn't plan such cuteness- but I did make sure we had hot dogs in ahead of time, and I used up the avocado. So- neutral. 

9. EATING I ate it all up like a big girl. 

So we'll end on two stars. 

Happy Holidays. 

Alliteration. Better than Merry Christmas. 

The One Where I Used a Shop Bought Sandwich

Okay, so way longer that half an hour, cause I learnt more danish than I planned, had lunch and then watched some anime. As ya do. 

So ya know. 

So ya know. 

On the subject of so ya know, ya know when you see a new sandwich in M & S and you really want to try it but it's Wednesday and it is best before Thursday and it's not like ya go to M & S everyday and ya know...

Ya know?

So, here is a sandwich which I have tried very unsuccessfully to turn into a bento. 

Lets just take away like, 2 stars and move on. How bout that? And you can wonder why I ever bothered to post this and I can get on with the next five. Cause it really doesn't deserve to be labelled a bento. It isn't. 

P.S. And for those of you who are wondering- The sandwich is quite good. A little to mayonnaise-y for me tho. 

Practice Christmas

The Christmas holidays have started. I have enough homework so that if I stacked it up- it would probably be about a foot. Which is fine. Except that I am not exaggerating. Trouble is- I also have a whole load of blog posts to do. 

I will count, one moment.

Okay, so I have:

• 7 Christmas Bento's
• 2 Christmas Oatmeal's
• A Christmas Chow Mein
• A 'In Other, Less Interesting News' 

to do. 

Before we get onto new years, and ignoring the fall bento and the tea shop review and a few more bentos and a polenta recipe and ...

Yeah- like I said. I need to get going. And as I stood there in my pyjamas faced with like, 20 blog posts to get done- my Mom said better to have them all done BEFORE Christmas even if they're not brilliant than to have them all done perfectly in February. 

Today's challenge: get all the bento's done. That means that by midnight today- I should have 7 more posts than I did by midnight yesterday. In all seriousness, I may not survive. So they are not going to be perfect. It may just be picture, description, marking. But hey, nobodies perfect. And I have Christmas songs to keep me company. Every things okay. 

So, without further ado, cause we really don't have time for any, here's my practise Christmas bento:

A Christmas Pud Nakd bar (they are SO GOOD- one of my favorite flavours), a mini Babybel, some mini corn, some stuffing and some Quorn roast chicken style pieces. 

You wanna know why the mini corn is in there? Cause I had this bento around Halloween. But I had stuffing, I had the chicken, I had the Nakd bar cause they'd just come out and Dad suggested that I try  one before Christmas so I wasn't disappointed at Christmas if I didn't like them. He used the same logic to get a packet of mince pies. Because never, in his fifty something years, had he had a mince pie. (I'm holding up a sarcastic sine, for those of you who hadn't already guessed). 

And I mean, I had all that. I might as well just go with the flow, chuck it all together, and add a Rudolph nose Babybel. And some mini corn. AND SOME PANDA BEAR BENTO PICKS CAUSE I HAD JUST GOT SOME AND OH MY HOW CUTE!!!! *so kawaii*. 

My friends grandchild had a brilliant idea a few years back. He decided that they needed to have a practise Christmas. Cause last year was a long time ago. They might have forgotten how to do it. Practise presents, practise Christmas dinner, practise crackers with stupid hats, practise the works. He is going to grow up to be a Boy Scout I'm sure. (cause he was definitely prepared once Christmas came around!). 

I don't need to have a fully blown practise Christmas, I know what I'm doing, but if he can have a practise Christmas, I can have a Christmas Bento. Cause that's just how it goes. We're going with the flow guys. 

And hey, when I had this Bento, I WAS ACTUALLY SITTING EATING MY LUNCH WITH SOMEONE. FOR THE FIRST TIME THAT YEAR (don't say it, I know it's sad.) It was also the first time I didn't eat my lunch in the math's study area. Little victories, people, little victories. 

So... Now to assess (cause I've got like, 6 more to go after this.)

1. TIME This one didn't take long. Like, 2 minutes maybe. While I was making breakfast. But it really isn't much as far as bento cuteness go's, so we'll keep it at neutral. (A bit like the gear- have I told you that I'm learning to drive yet?) (But I'm in an automatic, you know, without the gears)

2. LEFTOVERS There were no leftovers produced from this bento. But you know what? Because I used up leftovers, (the stuffing and the mini corn) I will give myself a star here. Cause either way, I still reduced food waste. 

3. RECORDING Well loose a star and move on

5. BOXABILITY Everything fits in nicely. I'm proud of it. I mean, everything I wanted in there fits in, and there isn't any spare space for stuff to rattle around in and get all messed up. That would be :( But as it is, it's :) . So I'll give myself a star. 

7. CUTENESS Okay, so the lunch itself isn't that cute, but the picks? Instant cuteness!!!! But the lunch... we'll stay neutral. 

8. PLANNING I did not plan this one at all. It was more of a case of 'lets go with the flow'. So let's loose one star. 

9. EATING I ate most of it, but more importantly, I ate it with somebody, a friend. So hey, lets totally get a star for that. Well done Ana. 

So that is. Lets see. That's one star. Now, I'm gonna learn a bit of Danish (cause why not) then I'm going to move onto the next one (cause why not). 

See ya in, like, half an hour. 

How my Dad Makes a Bento

This, people, is how my Dad makes a bento. Let's ignore the fact that I don't like mint clubs. 

It's not bad all things considered (we'll also ignore the fact that the apple crisps are not in the box.) I mean, I have a strong feeling that he was poking fun at me and my bento-ing, but ho hey. He cut my sandwiches into shapes. He was a bit annoyed when I text him to double check what he'd put on my sandwich, but he actually cut my sandwich into shapes!

And I can't complain. On the day I asked him to please make me a packed lunch, he did. With only a lot of complaining :P

Now shall we get onto some Halloween bentos that I made?

Yes, lets.

Actually, to be honest, this bento isn't much better than the one Dad gave me! I cut a tortilla into pumpkin shapes and then stacked them on top of each other, then there's Quorn cocktail sausages, dried apricots (with a jack o lantern face), an Alpro chocolate soy pudding (renamed 'Dirt Pudding') and some baby corn (who needs candy corn when you have the veggie equivalent?) It was meant to look a lot better than it actually ended up looking!

So, how did it stack up (you know, I feel like I haven't done this in ages!)

1. TIME I made this while eating my breakfast. An effective use of time that would otherwise just be used to, well... Eat breakfast! One star. 

2. LEFTOVERS From the tortilla pumpkins. Well, "The best laid plan of mice and men" and all that. Basically what I am trying to say is that I just lost that star. 

7. CUTENESS  The dried apricot has a face on it, and the tortillas are cut into shapes. I will give myself that star back, thank you very much!

8. PLANNING I made sure that we had (not candy) corn in, and I did a lot of work trying to find that cutter. (Preston seem to be having a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter shortage- I got it in Hobbycraft eventually but it isn't listed on their website!) So.... that totally counts as a star, cause I knew I wanted a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter, and I found one. 

So that ends on 2 stars for me. (Happy dance) 

And yeah... 3 bentos in one post- aren't you lucky!

So, this one is still using cocktail sausages, but that's it as far as cross over between the two boxes go! There is a mini open top sandwich (okay, it's just a piece of bread spread with cream cheese and cut into a pumpkin shape), "beetles" on a log (i.e. olives on cream cheese) and an orange that has been attacked by aSharpie, cause you know, it's Halloween and all! And then got cut in half cause it was too big to fit into my box otherwise. 

1. TIME Again, I did this box whilst I was eating breakfast. I mean, I really should be making these bentos before I go to sleep at night, but as for using my time wisely, this is currently working for me. Sometimes. But this box took about five minutes, which on the scale of things, really isn't that bad. So a green star to me! (Green seems a Halloween-y colour!)

2. LEFTOVERS Lets move on

5. BOXABILITY My Dad took one look at my lunch in the morning and declared that it would just end up a royal mess by lunchtime. He was wrong, of course! Because everything fitted so awesomely into my box, nothing moved around and so everything was precisely where I wanted it! Told you so Dad. 

7. CUTENESS I have beetles on a log (mark one) jack o lantern faces on an orange (mark two) and a jack o lantern face made out of veggie cocktail sausages on a cut out of a pumpkin. Well call it our ghostly pumpkin. And decide that oh yeah, we are so getting a star!

8. PLANNING Like the last one, I made very sure that I had everything that I wanted in so that I could make my bento in the morning (in five minutes). Good planning = a good number of stars. 

And that gives me a result of 4 stars! 

I definitely come out treat this Halloween, hope you do too!