Star Wars Bento - May the 4th Be With You!

 Today is May the 4th - Star Wars Day! And the Bento Bloggers and Friends are having a blog hop!

 This is my second time doing a Star Wars bento - last year I made Admiral Ackbar, and that post is still in my top ten of most viewed posts on my blog! I'd like to think my skills have improved a little in the past year, so this year I'd like to unveil ... Chewbacca, the kalua pork Wookie:

  This lunch may look a little rice - heavy, but there's more to it than meets the eye. In the Star Wars logo section I have some delicious kalua pork underneath that black rice. The rice is naturally black - it's called "forbidden rice" by name. I made the Star Wars logo from cheese and nori. It wasn't as hard as it looks - I found a great tutorial on YouTube where I finally learned the secrets of how people make intricate designs out of cheese and nori. I tried it, and it worked great!

  The stars are made from Soy wrappers - they are like nori sheets, but come in colors. I used a star hole punch to cut them out.



  Up in the corner is some steamed broccoli, and on top of that are some cheese and cracker Tie Fighters. I made them from Trader Joe's Edamame crackers ( because they are hexagon shaped), cheese cut with a mini circle cookie cutter, and a dab of mayo to hold them together.

  Chewbacca is in the corner on a bed of rice. He is made from kalua pork that I had in the freezer, thanks to my Weekly Food Prep - so it didn't take too long to make this bento... well, okay I won't lie to you. It took me way longer than my normal weekday bentos! But for something extra special, like this blog hop, I like putting in the effort (I was giggling as it started to take shape). I snipped off the tips of black beans for his eyes and nose, and his mouth is made from mushrooms and cheese that I cut with a mini carving tool. I packed it all in an Easy Lunch Box:




 Now, do you want to see some other amazing Star Wars bento?  Click on the button below to hop over to Bento, Monsters to see what Ming has made:   ( the hop will go live at 10 AM mountain time)


Then follow along to the next blog, and the next, until you eventually end up back here. 

Once you've completed the hop... click this button:

Sunny Leftovers Bento

 We helped our son and daughter-in-law move yesterday - closer to where we live, which will be so nice when the baby's born! I fixed a spagetti dinner for all the hungry and tired movers, and we had plenty of leftovers. So today's pictured lunch is for my husband. My son got basically the same lunch, but the spagetti is packed into a thermos so it wouldn't have made a nice picture :)

  Spagetti, meat sauce, watermelon, pineapple, salad with feta cheese, carrots, and yellow peppers cut into little suns. It's a bright, sunny day today, so I added a sun out of cheese with a nori face. The letters are also cut from cheese. The whole thing is packed into an Easy Lunch Box - quick and easy!

  Here are some tools I used to make this lunch - click on the pictures to go to the website to learn more/buy them:

 This set has the nori face punch, and the sun cutter


 This set has the sun cutter that I used on the yellow bell pepper


 This set has the heart cutter that I used for the carrots

Chili Bento

 Yesterday was a very windy day, which made me feel like making a batch of chili. As the wind rattled our windows, it felt comforting to sit down to a big bowl of hot chili - mmmm! I love chili, since you can eat a lot of it for not many calories :) So I packed up the leftovers for lunch today.

  This bento is really self-explanatory: chili on the bottom, raw veggies, crackers, cheese on top. The dip is made from greek yogurt mixed with dry ranch dressing mix.

  Since it's Wednesday, I'll tell show you what I'm eating for the day, and you can see what a bunch of other health-minded people are eating here: What I Ate Wednesday and see some other lunch ideas here: What's For Lunch Wednesday

Here's breakfast - something yummy that I made up:

 

  I call it Raspberry Coconut Oatmeal, and it's becoming one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast! I microwave 1/2 cup oats with 1/2 scoop of vanilla protein powder, 2 teaspoons coconut oil, and 1 cup water for a minute and a half. Then I stir in 2 tablespoons of Trader Joe's Reduced Sugar Raspberry Jam. I am just finishing the last of it as I sit here at the computer - it is fantastic!

  I packed myself 2 snacks today:

  It's a boiled egg shaped like a fish, with broccoli, sugar snap peas, carrots, and radishes cut to look like little fishies and waves  :)

  Here's what I used to make the egg, and radish cut-outs:

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 For my other snack, I packed some plain greek yogurt mixed with Trader Joe's Dark Sweet Cherries and some of the juice - it's really good!  ( If you look really close, you can see me taking this shot in the spoon - I'm still in my pjs, ha ha)

 I packed it in one of my favorite containers from Fit n Fresh. I love these, because they have mini ice packs that fit in the lid, so I can stash this in my Cooler Purse and take it with me if I have to leave the house. That way I stick tight to my clean eating plans all day. Here's where to get some of these little gems:

Panda Sandwich Bento

 Here's a simple lunch I made for my husband dressed up with some creative cutting and arranging. It was easy!

   I alternated peeled and unpeeled cucumber slices, added baby carrots with a criss cross cut on the top, and a radish mushroom.  In the fruits section there are apple slices and heart shaped strawberries.

  The sandwich looked a little plain, so I added a little panda made from nori and cheese.  It was easy with these tools:

  I used the circle cutter for the panda face ( and a smaller circle cut in half for his ears)

 I used the panda nori punch to make his face - easy!

  I got most of these ideas from looking at my Pinterest board, Lovely Lunches. On that board you will find a great tutorial for making radish mushrooms and the strawberry hearts.  It really helps me out to look at that board when I'm feeling very un-inspired and don't know what to pack for lunch. But it's also fun to just ooh and aah over all the creative things people can make from food! Feel free to follow it - I add new things to it all the time!

  Also in the Panda Sandwich photo is one of my new bento bags, which you can buy in my etsy shop, also called Beneficial Bento. I love my bento bags - they've really helped me out when I have to eat in the car or outside - you can read about how one saved the day in this post  :)

Pink Bunny Bento

 I felt like making something very girly today  :)

  This lunch contains gluten free orange chicken ( under the rice);  a bunny made from cheese, ham, and nori; a tree made from ham, asparagus, and pink rice ( I used beet juice to tint it pink); and some veggies and watermelon on the side.

  Who gets to eat this cute lunch? My husband!  He's such a good sport  :)    (I also made an identical lunch for myself)

Here are some things I used to make this lunch today ( click on the pics for more info)   :

  

Tomodachi Bento Bags Now For Sale in my Etsy Shop!

  Today's lunch is barbecued pork, onigiri filled with cheese, bell pepper flowers, and fruit and veggies on the side. I made this over the weekend to use as a prop for photos of my new bento bags, but my daughter had it for her lunch.

  If you love bento, you will LOVE these new bento bags!  The fabric is absolutely adorable, and some of it even has little bento boxes and onigiri in the design!

 So far I have orange print with little ninjas, samurai, hawaiian girls, etc.

blue print with sakura blossoms, sumo wrestlers, raccoons, frogs, bunnies, etc.

green print -( this one has bento boxes on it)

and a tan/cream print ( in the same design as the green)












 I bought this fabric from fabric.com . I'm not sure if I'll be able to get more, but I bought what I could and am tickled pink to have these items in my shop!

  What are these bento bags used for?

  As you know, I like to pack my lunch and 2 snacks for the day in order to stick to my clean eating plans. I take my packed food with me when I leave the house so I won't have any excuse to eat anything I shouldn't. I usually pack my food ( and a water bottle) in my purse to make all this easier. I couldn't find a purse that fit my needs, so I designed my own. I sell these Cooler Purses in my etsy shop as well :)

  I found that I needed something to put on my lap and wipe my fingers with when I was eating out of the house, but it had to be easy to stash in my purse. That's when I created these bento bags. My lunch can fit inside, and when I'm ready to eat, the bag lays flat to act as a placemat. Then when I'm done eating I can use the bag as a napkin to wipe my fingers, and the empty lunch containers go back inside the bag. My purse stays clean, the bag gets tossed in the washer and dryer, and comes out ready to use again. I really love them!

  One of my bento bags was really put to the test a few weeks ago when my husband, son, and I went on a shopping trip to Salt Lake City ( about an hour away from home). I packed us all lunches and we ate in the car. My son had a container of ranch dressing that kind of exploded when he opened it - yuck! The bento bag kept the mess off his clothes, and he used it to wipe up the spill. I turned the bag inside out ( so the gooey mess didn't ruin anything) and folded up the bag and tucked it in my purse. when we got home I rinsed it out and tossed it in the wash. Can you imagine what would have happened to our shopping trip if his clothes got plastered with ranch dressing? I was so glad I had a bento bag handy!

  If this sounds like something you could use, come check out my etsy shop. I'll be adding new bento bags, cooler purses, and other items throughout the week, so I hope you'll find something  you like  :)

Spring Bouquet Bento

 Lately I've been excited for the warmer weather, green grass, and especially the beautiful spring flowers!  Unfortunately, spring in the Utah mountains is very unpredictable - we woke up to snow today. Well, I'll have my spring flowers one way or another, even if I have to eat them for lunch!

  Today's lunch contains rice, chicken breast ( under the rice), strawberries, carrots, broccoli -  and pansies made from red garnet potato and cheese, daisies made from cheese, and tulips made from grape tomatoes filled with cream cheese. The stems are stalks of asparagus. Here's a closer shot of the flowers:

  Here are some things I used to make these flowers - click on the pictures for more info:

Happy 1 year blogiversary to my friend, Rebecca of Bentos on the Bayou ! - I added this lunch to her linky party :)