Veggie Sushi Bentos

Sorry for the posting void, school has been eating me alive too much to:
a) try too many new/exciting things with lunches
b) remember to take pictures of the boxes before someone consumes them!

(Amazing Little Sister has her own bento box now too! It is an URARA Dragonfly box, very cool looking. I have an URARA Rabbit box to match! She is a much better cook than I am so I MAY see if I can get pictures of her bentos to share.)

THESE bentos are in boxes I found at the Dollar Tree! I found them to be the PERFECT size for sushi rolls. Last week I picked up a sushi mat and some more tiny utensils at Lampson and Goodnow and have been finding sushi is pretty easy to make!

These boxes are for me and my friend Hanna to have at school tomorrow.

This is acutally my SECOND time making the cucumber avacado rolls. The came out just as squished looking last time too. I think it is the way I sliced the cucumber (shavings using a peeler) that leaves it without a round shape. The sweet potato rolls came out in the right shape though! I did have to squish them slightly to make them fit better in the box.

I do not know what KIND of sweet potato I used, but I know it is not the usual kind. It is more yellow than orange, but it tastes good anyway! I finished the boxes off with carrot sticks because they were lacking in warm colors.

I also made one of my "usual" boxes tonight for my mother:

She REALLY likes the apple slices. The cheese is in heart shapes. I used the leftover avacado from the rolls in her salad per her request and also added some crasins. She has been taking a bento to work nearly every day! Apparently they are a hit with people at both of her workplaces and everyone wants to know more about them.

I will try to update at least once a week from now on!
-BCat

American Bento?

You're going to notice as we post our lunches/dinners/whatever meal our bento is for the day that I don't really have a lot of the pretty supplies that Colleen does. Rather, mine aren't traditionally "bento." I do actually have a two-tiered, very typically male bento (with the henohenomoheji face even!), but components were lost in the wash by family members and thus it's far from air-tight. That, and since I'm trying to be a little healthier and slim down a little bit, allowing myself a nearly 900-calorie bento meal isn't very helpful.

But then I stumbled upon the most random end-cap at Waldbaums ever (not that I'm complaining):



Now...what does this look like to you? Because to me it looks like a bento set -- complete with box, snack container, and silverware. In fact, it looks like a perfect facsimile of a single-tier, even down to the size. (The Cars container, which was supposed to come with the round bowl and lid you see on the greenish set in back, is about... 5"x7" I want to say. I'll have to take a proper ruler to it to be sure.)

I passed this end-cap every time I got groceries, and I can't seem to keep myself from going at least once or twice a week. It was part in amusement and part in total fascination -- "What's with these American bentos?" I ended up buying a couple of snack containers for Colleen because they ended up being about thirty cents each. Eventually I got myself a sandwich box...which I've so far used for guacamole.

Finally, because Lightning McQueen there kept watching me go, I checked the price, assuming it'd be at least ten bucks. So when it said it was less than two...well come on, I did need a new lunch box.

It just goes to show you that these things can crop up in the strangest, most unexpected places, so keep your eyes open. Granted our friends on the clearance end-caps might not have been popular enough to make it in the mainstream supermarket, but the better for us!