Mama bento #6

Another mama bento. This one is a vegetarian one. The rice I used is cilantro lime rice. I am sorry I did not get a picture of the sushi's filling. I forgot. It was a long night with the minions.

The sushi is filled with steamed carrot, avocado, and cucumber. On the sides are slices of cucumber, baby carrots, grape tomatoes, and mini portabella mushrooms. The onigiri is filled with avocado. I have fiesta lime seasoning sprinkled on top.

I was surprised with how creamy and delicious the avocado makes the onigiri. It worked perfectly with the cilantro lime rice.

Mama bento #5 Sushi train

How do you like my new bento? I found the police car on Ebay. I have to admit it was smaller than I thought it was going to be. Still, it is pretty cute.

Can you tell it's a train? Look closely. The sushi is filled with tuna, carrot, cucumber, and avocado. I have baby carrots on the bottom and mini portabella mushrooms. In the small top compartment I have cut up carrots, cucumber, and grape tomatoes. I have just a little bit of Italian dressing on it.

Week of Butterflies: At Meijer Gardens!

This is what lunch looked like after spending 45 minutes in a car, stuffed in a back pack being kicked by a 3 year old, riding in a wagon for 2 1/2 hours, and having a child constantly wanting to carry the back pack. Yes, it still made it! I touched nothing.

Today was a big trip to Meijer Gardens for the butterfly exhibit with Clark's preschool class. Clark rode the bus with his class and the other 3 minions and I met them there. They all had a fun time and no one grabbed a butterfly.

For the boys I packed a peanut butter and jelly butterfly sandwich with no decoration, broccoli for the ground and small pieces of cheddar cheese. The bottom tier has strawberries, grapes, carrot coins, and peanut butter. The small blue container is one of the sections out of my Sassy lunch box. It contains applesauce.

I are some of my lunch before I remembered to take a picture. I packed red seedless grapes, grape tomatoes, and tuna fish sushi. The bottom tier has carrot coins, strawberries and the little boxes have the best homemade kimchi. I also packed a pork and mushroom onigiri. Forgive the poor wrap job on my onigiri. I was using my scraps from other projects to cover it.

Back to the kimchi. I have lived in this area for about a year and a half. I missed the Asian markets in Grand Rapids. Sadly, I had not been able to find one in my area. Grand Rapids is only about 45 minutes away, but when you want only $15 worth of fresh noodles and other items and your gas to get there and back is $18, it just isn't worth it.

One day I was talking food with a friend and she mentioned a small little shop here in Muskegon. We ended up going. Valy Vietnamese Oriental Food and Gifts is at 1147 3rd st. The owner is very nice. It's not a large shop, but she sells many different things. You really need to give yourself some time to look around. She has various rice steamers (some I have never seen in the Grand Rapids shops), various rices, sauces, an onigiri mold kit, rice seasonings (6 or 7 different ones!), gifts, some frozen goods, a small selection of dishes, kids snacks, and a cooler with homemade kimchi and pickled plumbs! I have been looking for those! Just to give a heads up, she cannot accept debit or credit cards at this time. None the less, we all need to go out and support our small businesses.

Mama Bento #4

All 4 minions and the Elder are ill. They have recurring fevers and slight coughing. Several of them have gotten ill. I am making sure to keep them hydrated. I really hope I don't get it too. Because of this, no minion bentos till they are eating again. Right now we are just giving them whatever they will eat.


I love this little bento box. I wish I had the others in the series. The only place that has them at the moment wants way to much for them. Since I am the only one eating, I decided I would go back to onigiri and sushi. I love them. You can make very simple ones pretty fast.

The onigiri is filled with canned salmon with some lemon juice. I have a band of nori going around it to help keep my fingers from getting sticky. I then have grape tomatoes and seasoned mini portabella mushrooms.

The bottom tier is sushi filled with avocado,  cucumber, carrot, and canned salmon. Below that is raw carrot coins.

Mama Bento #3 sushi and ramen noodles

2 things I love a little to much, Sushi and spring rolls. I am out of fresh greens and rice paper, so sushi it is!

I made sushi with avocado, canned salmon, and match stick carrots. Also I have some mozzarella cheese,  green olives, and tomatoes on cute little picks. Believe it or not, you do not need one of those sushi rollers. Mine was lost in the move to this house. Since then I have used waxed paper to roll it. I know some people use plastic wrap. Just extend your thumbs out as you roll to help push the center and make sure it rolls tight.
The bottom tier is made of ramen noodles, yellow pepper slightly cooked, and mushrooms. This pack is from one of my coveted mini stock pile. There are no Asian stores where I live. The closest Asian market is about an hour away. So when I do go (with little ones in tow) I try to pick up plenty of things to try out, as well as the sauces, fresh vegetables, and fresh noodles I can only find there.

One thing I noticed with most of the instant noodle packs I get at the Oriental market, there is always a fat or oil pack with it. Sometimes a separate soy sauce or vegetable packet too. This one happens to have soy sauce. I also noticed that they have a slightly different smell, even without the packets added, than the ones we have here like Top Ramen or any of the other brands. Not that it is bad, it's just different.

I do wonder, what is the difference between exporting quality and normal quality? Do I really wish to know?

Today's bento is the only other bento I have had for a long time. This one is about 2 1/2 years old. I also got this from Bento TV. The original sticker on top wore off. This one is not dishwasher safe. So I turned off the heated dry and sent it through the dishwasher anyway. One day I will regret doing it.

I wish I could find another one like this bento. It is simple and for some odd reason Pork Chop wants it half the time. I know better than to give the minions 2 very different bentos at lunch though. That is why you see so many that are either the same or nearly the same size and shape.

Mama Bento #2 Yellow rice sushi

I must have been feeling my oats today! It only took me 5 minutes to get Clark out of the bath, dressed, coat, hat, boots, gloves and backpack on and out the door. I lost track of time and I did not want him to miss the afternoon bus. After putting a very fussy Porkums down for nap/quiet time, I made myself something. I was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the yellow rice. I wanted sushi. Only I was pretty sure the yellow rice was not sticky enough. So I reheated it with a little bit of water and gave it a try.

Today's offering is yellow rice sushi with salmon, carrot, and red pepper (this would have been yummy with avocado too!). The veggies are carrot sticks, red pepper, and tomatoes. The bottom tier has 1/3 cup cottage cheese, plumbs (I think), carrot coins, and raisins. This ended up sitting for a little bit since Colonel Sanders decided she would like to be fed. I was afraid to drop food on her, so I waited till she was done eating and asleep enough for me to move. I was surprised how well the fruit kept the cottage cheese in place. Outside of the pieces touching it, nothing else had cottage cheese on it.

As you can see, the sushi came out pretty well. The only way I could get this to work was to make sure I rolled the sushi very tight and cut it double the normal length. As long as I did that, the rice stayed in the roll pretty well. Still, it was not very sticky. Next time I will be sure to have an avocado on hand.

This bento I have had for a while. Does anyone remember Bento TV ? Well, I got this bento from her. The more I think about it, I have had this one for 2 years (it spent most of that time packed in a box). I don't know if she still has this one, but she does have an Ebay store and you can always watch her movies on her site. She makes some simple things.