Mommy n Monstro Bento

Time is not my friend some mornings.  I thought I'd get a jump on packing lunches by prepping all my veggies at night so I could just throw together my kimchee fried rice in the morning.  Nope.  I ended up being 25min late for work -eek!  On the up side the rice was delicious and perfect for a cold day! :D

I cooked brown rice the day before and mixed it with some salt and thin carrots in a lock-n-lock while the rice was still hot.  In my head I think that helped steam the carrots a little before I tossed them into the fry.  I cut the hard outsides off the broccoli stalks then planked it and cut squares.  I stored the broccoli and the tomato quarters (I used up the sad, wilty ones) in a jar until morning.  I got my pan SMOKING hot and spooned in about a teaspoon of oil.  Then I tossed in the broccoli for a few seconds then topped it with the rice.  I like a good crust on my rice so I let it sit for a few minutes between stir.  I pushed all the rice to the side and dropped in the tomatoes so they could get seared and sweet.  I kept mixing it all together and added a bit of salt, pepper and about 1/2c chopped kimchee.  I probably could've cut out 6-10min if I had used the wok instead of a dutch oven but who doesn't want some extra time off work, yeah?

Monstro's lunch (on the top) has kimchee fried rice, a few cubes of k-rab, pomegranate seeds and a butterfly sugar cookie that he made (and was very proud of!).  Mine has a larger portion of kimchee rice, k-rab cubes and lots of pomegranate seeds.

The rice was full of veggies so I didn't feel too bad about not giving a 2nd source of veg.   Unfortunately he "didn't have time" to eat anything but the cookie.  Hmmm...imagine that! ;-)

Rats!

When I was packing today's lunch I didn't intend for it to look so.... well, creepy!  Once I took the picture I thought that the jewel picks really looked like shining rat eyes on that white pointy sandwich face.  Monstro didn't say anything so I guess he didn't notice.

See, isn't it very rodent-like?  After the lentils I guess I felt like I could slack a little.  Plus, the dinner leftovers ended up as a midnight snack - woops!  

This lunch is whole-grain white with spicy brown mustard and olive loaf (quartered and layered on top of each other), red pepper strips to the left of the fish, broccoli to the right of the fish and roasted butternut with cinnamon in the fish.  The top tier is 1/2 of an orange-chocolate chip cookie, a tiny fork for the squash and a little cup of fuyu persimmon slices.

Monstro has gotten into the habit lately of tossing his lunch around like a hot potato.  I warned him that he'd get persimmon juice on his cookie and he got awfully excited at the prospect.  Then, after dinner, he asked for cookie and persimmon for dessert.  He was going to layer them together to eat them.  I guess persimmon juice makes a nice dip for cookies....

An Apple with a Smart Hat

As I said before, I'm trying to get a few more cute elements into lunches.  This time around it was a food pick extravaganza!  I'm particularly pleased with the apple hat.  I've also gotten out of the habit of sending vegetarian meals more often than not.  So when I found this lentil rice cooker recipe I knew we'd have a tasty vegan dish!

Cooking lentils in the rice cooker was a stroke of genius!  I used this recipe as a base but diva'd it up a little bit.  I added red pepper flakes, ground cumin, a bay leaf and an additional 3/4c of water.  It took probably 10 minutes for the garlic to lose that really raw smell instead of the 3 it says on the site.  Once everything was in the pot I just let it go.  My house smelled garlic-y all night.  I woke up about 4 hours into cooking and all of the water was cooked out.  I stirred in an extra 1/4c of water and let it go for another 2 or 3 hours and then when I woke up that time, I turned the warmer function off so they wouldn't burn.  I think they would've been fine if I had slept through the night with them on "keep warm" so if you decide to make them this way don't worry too much about tending to them repeatedly.  In the morning I sprinkled a little salt on top and wanted to snarf them all down before I could get any into Monstro's lunch!  They were the 2nd best lentils I've ever had!  I served them as-is but they would make a really great lentil salad mixed with a light mustard vin and some veggies.

The top tier has the lentils, a carrot "fence" and some broccoli.  On the bottom we have apple bunnies - 1 with a jaunty chapeau, sliced fuyu persimmon, more apple slices and mashed roasted butternut with cinnamon.  I pulled out a few different animals for picks, plus the hat.  I didn't get the very top tier in the photo but it had a small spoon and 1/2 of an orange-chocolate chip cookie.

Katsushi

What can I say?  The kid LOVES his sushi!  And even more than regular sushi, he LOOOOVES "katsushi"!  My husband makes the best torikatsu you can find in this town.  And it's still good left over.  I think Monstro just loves saying "katsushi" but he devours his lunches when he has it so I'm happy with that!  I think this is the 2nd katsushi lunch in as many weeks.  At least it's not bologna eh?

Rolling sushi is one of my favorite things to do.  It's very zen-like for me.  For my (now long ago) 30th birthday party I made about a dozen rolls and it was so much fun.  My friend came over and sat in the kitchen with me and we just talked while I stacked, smeared, rolled and sliced.

The katsushi rolls start with seasoned rice.  I like to go 1:1ish on the sugar to rice vinegar with a little pinch of salt.  I'll use whatever rice I have in the house - even long grain white.  I try to slice the torikatsu long ways so it's not as easy to drop out of the roll.  A layer of carrot ribbons, some chicken, okonomiyaki sauce (or Country Bob's if we haven't been to the Asian market), more carrot to protect the rice and a quick roll is all I do.  For myself, I like to add a line of Kewpie mayo but Monstro doesn't like it.  If I have cucumber, avocado or green onion those make their way into our maki as well.

Anyway, on to the lunch...

He's got about a roll and half of katsushi, a little fishie filled with mashed roasted butternut squash and cinnamon and some strips of red pepper on the top tier.

It makes me really happy that he asks for things like roasted squash for his school lunches!  It does a Mama proud.

Double lunchin...

We ended the week with 2 really easy and really yummy lunches.  We've been having trouble getting Monstro to eat the hummus he always asks for in his lunch.  I was able to find some mushroom hummus on sale and figured we'd give it a try.  It came home but then he told me that he doesn't like it as dip, he only wants to eat it with a spoon.  Ummm, okay?!?!  So, once I gave him a spoon it disappeared in a flash!  The other lunch wasn't even the tiniest struggle to get him to eat.  In fact he ate 1 full sized one and a half for dinner the night before!  Whoa!

I had to stop myself from making this spooky and Halloween-y!  I'm sure they'll still show up because we all (but especially Monstro) LOVE Halloween!  But, since it had recently snowed I decided to go with the snow men.  He's got some corn tortilla chips on the top tier.  The bottom is orange wedges, 1/2 of the cutest tiny pear, some red pepper slices and a cup of mushroom hummus.  The hummus is Tribe brand and it is pretty darn tasty!  There are little bits of mushroom and garlic snugged in the center and you get little chewy bites... yum!  I broke down and used paper cups for the fruit too.  They matched the picks and I've had them for years so I figure I should use them!

For Friday Monstro and I both had grilled burritos.  I used a giant tortilla and filled it with lime-brown rice, black and pinto beans, habanero cheese, sour cream and avocado slices.  I put a smidge of butter on the outside and grilled it in a skillet.  He ate 1/2 the night before (after eating a rather large full sized one and some salad!) so this one got wrapped in foil and then tossed from the fridge to the toaster oven in the morning to warm it up.  Once it cooled back down I added in grape tomatoes, the other 1/2 of that adorable pear, red pepper and some orange wedges.  I had to teach him how to eat the orange wedges.  Isn't it strange to think of the things we just "instinctively"  know how to do but kids have to learn?!

Speedy the Bronto

Sandwich cutters are a rushed-morning must-have for us!  Regular sandwiches don't fit into most bento boxes very well and they're just not as appealing as shapes!  We were still a say away from a grocery trip and we "accidentally" slept in so this was fast and easy!

The dino sammie is whole-grain white bread with Northwest Triple Berry preserves.  We're loving this new line of Smucker's Orchards' Finest.  We've also had the Michigan Tart Cherry and the Pacific Mountain Strawberry and they're all fantastic.  They have minimal ingredients and I was able to buy each jar for only $1 when they first launched the product!  Monstro loves jelly sandwiches (I'll be honest, so do I.) so I was happy to find reasonably priced jelly/jam/preserves that wasn't filled with junk.  We prefer the local Dillman Farm jellies (FROG is my fave) but they're not always in the budget.  Anyway, back to lunch!

Alongside his jelly Bronto we have carrot "fingernails," pickled beets, and a fish-shaped boiled egg with the yolk removed.  I put the fish inside a silicone fish cup that our friend Kelly brought us back from her vacation. The top tier had some pomegranate seeds and a little fork for the beets.

Thanksgiving ...giving....giving...giving...

We're only a little 3 family at our house but every Thanksgiving I cook like I'm with my extended family (2 siblings, 5 aunts/uncles and uncountable cousins).  It really is a genetic trait.  My family sees food as love so the more the better, right?!

Needless to say, that 14# turkey has given us leftovers for ages.  I haven't been to the grocery because I know that having non-leftovers in the house will tempt us into letting those delicious treats rot away into moldy messes.  When I asked Monstro what he wanted for his first lunch back from Thanksgiving break he said "Sushi!"  HAHAHA of course!  I was surprised when he came up with the Thanksgiving Sushi combo...turkey, carrot and cranberries!   What a smart kid! 

Before I get into the lunch details I'll apologize for the poor quality picture.  We're still having some technical difficulties so I have to use my phone to take pictures. 

I made seasoned rice and let it cool while I toasted the nori and cut up the carrots.  For sushi I just use the ribbons made by my veggie peeler.  I layered on the rice, carrots in a little platform to protect from the cranberry juices, and hunks of white meat turkey.  Then I smushed some cranberries (from stove-top cranberry sauce) and added them on top.  I rolled the whole deal and he loved it!  I made a second type without the cranberries but with Okonomiyaki sauce.  I usually eat the butts as a "test" (*wink*) and they were really good!

I also gave him some peas with salt n pepper and some walnuts from the freezer.  He ate everything but 1 sushibutt because the nori was too chewy on that piece.  I was very happy because leading up to Thanksgiving break he hadn't been eating very well.  I should've known sushi was the answer!