Hola Bentolings!

Tonight's bento is just a nicely arranged one... no faces. I found some odd yellow tiny tomatoes and really nice veg at M&S today. Colorful lunches are always more fun! There is a little brioche roll with veggies and cheese hearts, salad with carrot sliver rolls and the other side is rice cubes wrapped in carrot slivers and nori strips with some tasty looking strawberries and almonds.

I think I need to invest in some different shaped boxes. These bentos are all starting to look the same to me. Maybe a nice square shaped one would do the trick. I think I already filled my J-list quota for the month though.

Looking forward to the bank holiday on Monday. Can't beat a three day weekend! Maybe the weather will be nice and we can have a bento picnic out in the park. I haven't seen any baby ducklings yet this year and that must be changed. I will arm myself with seeded bread!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Ahoy bentolings!

Tonight I'm going to discuss the pitfalls of a bento hobby. All over the internet you will see sites praising the magical bento and all it's many pleasures and surprises. I'm here to talk about the dark side of bento making. This is the side I'm just now starting to see through the cute nori faces and endless bowls of steamed rice.

It started as I drove home from a very long, exhausting day of work. I usually try and plan out what I want to do in my precious evening hours on the way back. My soul spent, all I could really process was how cute all the little lambs are in the fields across the mountain road. I did come to one conclusion though... I wasn't going to bento tonight. Too tired, really can't be bothered.

I get home and start tidying and begin to prepare dinner. An hour later, we eat and watch an episode of Smallville (we're watching the entire series start to finish as I've not seen it. On season 5 now). I still am adamant I won't be making bentos tonight. My brain is sore.

I figured however, I could at least put together some sandwiches for snow and myself to have for lunch tomorrow. I'd rather control what I'm eating and not have the need to go to a store and get something icky if I can help it. So, I lope to the kitchen and get out some bread. Next thing I know, I've got the paper grass out and I'm curling carrot slices and goddammit I ended up with this...

This... THIS IS WHAT ME MAKING A SANDWICH LOOKS LIKE NOW! >_<

I wasn't even going to put hearts on or anything and then the bento devil on my shoulder whispers into my ear... "what if snow worries he doesn't have hearts on his lunch? You can't have that now can you? You better fetch the cheese quick, fast, in a hurry if you know what's good for you!"

I couldn't help myself. I think I'm doomed.

*sigh*

Ahoy Bentolings!

Spring has sprung and so have all the hedgehogs or hedgies as we call them in our house. I had a discussion the other day about Hedgehog Awareness Week, which is an actual thing here. It was the first week of May. According to the Isle of Man Courier (the only local newspaper), if you find a hedgie stuck in a hole, you should not reach in and grab him/her. You're supposed to construct a tiny ladder and lower it down for them to use and climb out. Is it wrong to hope I will find a hedgehog in a hole some day so I can construct a tiny ladder and see what happens? Probably.

Anyway, the theme of today's bento is hedgies! We have a soft spot for them in our house because Yuki's favorite toy in the world is a tiny stuffed hedgehog named (you guessed it) Hedgie. She brings it into bed with us, and carries it all over the house. It's the cutest thing you'll ever see.

I made the hedgies out of hard boiled eggs dyed brown with soy sauce and soy rice, with egg paws and nori faces. There is a bit of rice in the "garden" with veggies. The other side has chicken rolls and steamed broccoli with salad. The chicken rolls were a recipe that Pikko was nice enough to share with me. I modified it a bit, but it's pounded out chicken with baby spinach and fresh basil. You roll it up and bread via flour, egg then Panko. Pan fry in a bit of olive oil and holy crow... talk about delicious! I tried making enough for two rounds of boxes but snow ate every left over piece.

His

Mine

It was fun but slightly challenging to get the hedgies to work. I think they're pretty cute though. It's not exactly what I had in mind, but the rice wasn't cooperating like I would have liked. Also, my new favorite condiment is Furikake. I got some with my last Jlist order and it's so incredible, I'm sprinkling it on everything in site. I can't describe the taste, but it's really divine. On rice, it's absolutely perfect. There are loads of flavors, but this is the one I use. Here's a pic of the bottle:

I'm starting a nasty cold so, I'm not sure how bentotastic this week will be. I'm loading up on vitamins and juice so fingers crossed it just goes away before I'm curled up in bed feeling sorry for myself. I'm off to a date with the Night Nurse™ <3