Bibimbop!

Mid-term tomorrow, 8:15am daily meetings, and an increasingly long list of responsibilities at work. But, at least I had a little bit of time to make the Little Goose her lunch. Primarily from leftovers, we had bibimbop last night and I put aside a container for the LG. And so we have we have from top and clockwise, over steamed white rice:

lightly steamed garlic carrot shavings,
cucumber,
sliced galbi (korean bbq shortribs),
sliced steamed cabbage,
steamed sugar snap peas,
and topped with toasted sesame seeds and a little cucumber bunny.

Unfortunately, no gochujang since the LG doesn't like anything spicy. :sigh: One would think that a half Vietnamese, 1/4 Korean kid would love spicy...must be the Japanese side.

Spring Rolls for Spring

Holy cow! It's been over two months since I've posted here. Unfortunately, it's mainly because I've been extremely busy and posting lunch has fallen by the wayside. I still make bento on a regular basis for the Little Goose, but they haven't been nearly as "fancy" or "fun" and I've gotten a little lazy about the whole process of taking and uploading pictures (yes, I'm ashamed to admit that).

But here we go! One bento and one cute kid pic!

In the bento we have:
-Dried cranberries
-One apple "bunny"
-Banana chips
-Vietnamese spring rolls stuffed with lettuce, shredded chicken, and carrot flowers (yes the flowers are wrapped inside the spring roll)


Sweet Pea turns 2

The Anti-Climatic Return!

Oh wow, it's been over a month since I've posted here. Although I've been making bento lunches for the Little Goose in the past month, they have not been as fancy or pretty and so I have not been posting any pictures. Also, I've been super busy with school and work so I haven't had much time to devote to just lunch, it is a lower priority than spending time with my kids and getting some sleep after all. Anyhoo...unless I have some time, the lunches will probably be a bit simpler than they have in the past. For example, this one here. We have:

-One mini-orange blossom with a Reese' Pieces center
-Stewed carrots over rice
-Vietnamese braised beef ribs
-More rice (but loosely star shaped...for that extra oooh, obviously =)

PS I did get a brand spanking new to me 19th century antique cypress wood and lacquer bento box that I'm hoping to use sometime soon. It's for an adult's lunch which I've never really done before, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. When I do, I'll definitely post it here.

For today's pic, here's the Sweet Pea enjoying a nice cool shot of soy milk. No, it was not my idea (it was my mom's I swear!). But we've got a large shot glass collection. We might as well use it for something and they make the perfect toddler sized glass...if only they weren't breakable.

Short Snack

Wednesdays are short days for the Little Goose at school due to teacher meetings or something. Thus, on Wednesdays, she only gets a short snack time rather than a full lunch. Hence, the return of the teeny tiny bento. Is it bad when the dessert pack is the same size as the lunch portion?

Dessert:
- Meiji Hello Panda Strawberry cream filled biscuits

Bento:
- Teeny broccoli florets
- Honey BBQ Chicken Wings
- Baby Corn
- Baby Carrots
- Mini Seedless grape skewers

Yeah, it's sort of funny, the Sweet Pea certainly thought so. =)

Mmmm...Tuna

My uncle is a fisherman and brought in some fresh tuna for us recently. It was so fresh, it was probably sushi grade or something, but not being big raw fish eaters, my parents made these awesome Vietnamese braised tuna steaks. I made the rice. =) I'm so proud.

Left:
-Sauteed bok choy with minced garlic topped with carrot flowers
-Plain rice
-Braised tuna steak topped with chives and carrot

Right:
-Seedless grapes
-Mini fuji apple bunnies
-Carrot sticks

Ooh, and here is the Sweet Pea. He said he, "Buhb eee"'d me today (translation: "love you", since we say, "I lovey you!"). First time ever (without prompting)! Hear that bento lovers? My baby loves me! Who'd of thunk?

When All Else Fails...

Make fried rice. I tried to do something fancy today but just gave up. It's amazing, but somehow, now that the quarter is over, and despite not having to worry about school (just work and family) I'm just as tired as when school was still in session. There's just something about the end of the year that just makes me want to sleep, shop, and send my little girl to the cafeteria...but I slacked off yesterday and so I had to come up with something!

Top:
-Steamed broccoli
-Chicken and veggie potsticker cut in half and topped with baby corn slices
-Fried rice with cha lua (that Viet mortadella, love that stuff), peas, carrots, and corn
-And you can't see it, but there's a section of baby corn at the bottom

Bottom:
-Persimmon slices
-Lychee Jelly (Yes, the kind that kids used to choke on and were banned from stores for a while. These are different from those earlier deadlier versions in the fact that they're bigger and you have to actually bite them to eat them. My husband claims that they don't seem as sweet and I think they seem a bit less firm, but it's been a long time since they sold the smaller, chokable kind.)

Ooooh, and a picture of a kid...well, Sweet Pea and his Daddy. Taken yesterday but close enough!

Woeful Wednesday

Why is Wednesday woeful? Because it's the middle of the week hump day. Wednesday's the day that demands that you work your butt off to make up for the fact that you were recovering from the weekend on Monday, slacked on Tuesday because you're mourning that it's Tuesday and have four days to go before the weekend. Thursday's a wash because you're pooped from Wednesday, Tuesday, and Monday. And Friday? C'mon...

So, in honor of woeful Wednesday, here is a woeful lunch for the Little Goose. She wanted grilled cheese. Since it's a short day for her on Wednesday, I'm using this TEENY TINY, ITTY BITTY little bento box.

Left:
-American cheese hearts in the shape of a flower with a dried goji berry center covering...
-Toasted turkey and cheese rolls wrapped in flattened multi grain wheat bread
-A few turkey and cheese rolls
-Half a mini dill pickle
-One bite macaroon

Right:
-Dried goji berries
-Sliced jackfruit
-Sliced lychee

Left

"Exotic" Fruit Medly

Wow, it's been over a week since I've posted here. However, I have an excuse; several excuses even, but primarily, I've been extremely busy due to finals at school. While I'm not quite sure I passed, at this point I'm not quite sure I even care. (Well, I CARE, just not quite as much since it's been and exhausting week.) My poor Little Goose had to eat cafeteria food for a week!

Ever try giving lunch money to a kindergartener? The chances of that lunch money actually making it to the lunch lady aren't half bad actually. The Little Goose only forgot to pay once. Luckily, they feed your kid no matter what and just run a tab. Five years old and already running up tabs...oi.

Top:
-Red bean filled mochi
-A medly of exotic fruits
-Persimmon wedges
-Mini Guava wedges
-Lychees

Bottom:
-Stewed sweet potatoes
-Rice topped with oshinko and chive tulip
-Vietnamese braised beef (thit bo kho)

Leftovers At Last

So we finally have a leftover dinner bento. Okay, so it's not turkey, but Chinese food is just as good. Plus, the Little Goose has another new bento box. This one was only $4.99 at a trinket store in near Ranch 99 in El Cerrito (different store from the one I got the Snoopy box from, I really ought to remember these store names!)

Top box:
-Brown rice topped with carrot flowers with mint leaves. I REALLY need to learn how to garnish with something other than carrot and in shapes other than flower (although this one I cut using a paring knife). Or at least, if I'm going to stick to the flower thing, I should make them more elaborate.
-Leftover almond chicken with a sprig of mint

Bottom box:
-Grape skewers (love those skewers!)
-Rambutan (last can!)

No kid pics because I'm busy busy busy busy busy these days and I don't see them much while they're awake. =(

Snoopy and the Caterpillar

For once I didn't have to go to eBay to get a cute bento box. This one was had from a store in the same center as the Ranch 99 in El Cerrito, CA. The Little Goose and I both love Peanuts, although, the whole thing with the adults speaking nothing but gibberish isn't quite so funny now that I'm an adult and parent.

So! On the left we have:
-BBQ pork stir fried egg noodles from Cam Huong in Oakland, CA; one of my favorite Vietnamese delis, if you happen to be in Oakland, check them out. While the food isn't spectacular, it's fast Viet food that's relatively authentic and cheaper than my uncle on Christmas (which is pretty darn cheap, you can't beat $2.50 banh mi).

On the right we have:
-Persimmon and kiwi slices arranged in the shape of a caterpillar (primarily because I couldn't really figure out how to arrange them); the eyes and antennae are made from kiwi seeds and cilantro stems.

And...ta da, I finally took a picture of one of the kids. Here is the Little Goose with one of her new books, The Magic School Bus at the First Thanksgiving, which didn't arrive until after Thanksgiving unfortunately. She loved it regardless. =)

Pooh Platter

:sigh: The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is over, it's back to the grind for all of us and back to bento for this little blog. We ended up not having any leftovers from Thanksgiving and so I had to actually cook something for today's bento. It's a new classic pooh (at least, I think that's classic pooh) bento box that I ordered on eBay and it came all the way from Hong Kong. Very cute eh? The contents may seem very simple and paltry but they are some of the Little Goose's favorite comfort foods; eggs, rice, and peas. Usually, she has this combo with a bit of soy sauce in fried rice form, but I thought I'd present it a bit differently today.

Top portion:
-Asian pear with a sakura flower carved into it with a persimmon center
-Persimmon slices under the asian pear (my husband's father, paternal grandfather, and maternal grandmother each have their very own twenty something odd year old persimmon trees and it's persimmon season and so we are swimming in this delectable fruit)

Bottom portion:
-Rice topped with oshinko sakura flower with a carrot center
-Mini omlets (tamago) topped with carrot flowers
-Peas

'Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving

...Ah forget it. I was going to write a silly poem, but I'd much rather eat. My aunties and uncles have begun to arrive and already the men have started a poker game in the living room, the children are running around screaming and laughing (bedtime? yeah right), and the kitchen...dear GBH the kitchen! Is filled to the brim with food, glorious food. My sister is making the turkey and bringing it over tomorrow but the aunties have provided us with the above traditional fare. Fresh homemade pork cha gio (eggrolls) and bun bo (beef vermicelli noodle soup). Diet? What diet? Let the gorging begin!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Now get off the computer and go spend time with your families!

(Also posted at thelotuslife.net.)

Meatball Madness

Ok, so just a quick description since I'm SLEEPY. This is the first time I've been sleepy before 2am in DAYS and so I'm definitely going to just lie down and snooze for a bit and hopefully get more than 5 hours of sleep for once.

Top box:
-Steamed broccoli
-Edamame skewers
-Steamed carrot heart
-Teriyaki chicken meatballs (We just buy the pre-made kind from Costco, the Little Goose likes them and they're easy to heat up so it's perfect, next time I use them I'll note the brand as I'm rather forgetful right now.)
-Carrot flower with edamame center, broccoli stem, and edamame "leaves" over rice

Bottom box:
-Half a madeleine
-Grape skewers
-Rambutan

Good night! =)

PS Many thanks to Ngoc over at Cooking Cute for the edamame skewer idea. Her site rocks. Check it out if you haven't already at www.cookingcute.com

Busy Thursday

Ok, so I'm not being lazy today, work and school are just kicking my butt. I'm not even going to begin to think about how the baby is now sick with a cold/flu/some illness or other. It's just one of those weeks. At least we have Thanksgiving to celebrate next week and you know what that means...leftover bento! Wheee!

The Little Goose gets the whole of next week off from school though, I'm not entirely sure what we're going to do with her for all that time since the hubs and I still have to work. We'll see, maybe we could just stick her in the bathroom...I kid! I kid! More than likely, she'll be babysat with the baby with some TV books, crayons, and crafts to keep her busy. I may or may not make her fancy lunches next week. We'll see.

Today we have in the top box:
-Vietnamese braised pork ribs (my mom made them), very yummy
-A Steamed medly of veggies including chayote, sugar snap peas, and carrots

In the bottom box:
-Grapes
-Raspberries
-Asian pear
-Loacker chocolate wafer cookies

Tuesday: Extension of Monday

I hereby declare Tuesday an addendum to lazy Monday. That is all.

Left container:
-Watermelon and apple skewers

Right container:
-Kappa maki and oshinko maki (cucubmer sushi and pickled radish sushi basically)
-Topped with cucumber and oshinko stars

And today's baby pic, :sigh: here is my Sweet Pea. This picture makes it seem like he's a big boy without much baby left. He's only 19 months old, where did my baby go??

Lazy Monday

It is Monday, my lazy day; made lazier by the fact that the Little Goose was off Friday for Veteran's Day and so I didn't have to make a lunch for Friday. Somehow on Friday, I never think that Monday will come so soon and then it does and I'm totally unprepared for it, hence this simple lunch.

For my lazier-than-thou lazy ass friend S (who is a "visual" person and refuses to read my posts, but wants to know the contents of the lunches), I've decided to list the contents in list form, easier for her to peruse.

Left container:
-Sakura flower shaped mini PB&J sandwiches on multigrain wheat toast (yes, toast, that's how we eat it in my family, don't ask, no, we won't be enlightened)
-Baby carrots
-Celery
-Sakura shaped rice crackers
-Pretzel sticks
-Arare/rice crackers

Right Container:
-Orange jelly filled mini cake
-Raspberries
-Kiwi butterflies

No kid pics today, lazy Monday remember?

Ariel and the Big Ol' Butt

Despite my incredible dislike for Disney's Little Mermaid, the Little Goose loves her songs and so I had to buy this Ariel tupperware from the Disney Store. I'll have to admit it's pretty cute, but good lord, how the heck do you stuff a shell shaped container? I think I did ok, not too many open spaces.

In the top compartment we have fuji apple "rabbits", a red bean filled bao topped with a fuji apple flower and cilantro leaf, and one date. In the bottom compartment, we have two turkey and cheese rolls (basically turkey, cheddar slices, lettuce, and some mayo rolled in a tortilla and silced) topped with oshinko, carrot and cilantro flowers; baby carrots, and olives topped with more carrot.

Of course, we also have one of the lids (each container has its own and they're stackable) with the princess most in need of a good time out. I mean seriously; dude! She runs away from home at 16 and sells herself to a witch (might as well be a pimp or madam), for some dude who doesn't know she exists, whom she's only seen twice and must seduce and risks her father's business and thereby the whole ocean and therefore the WORLD. Yeah, Ariel needs some slapping. I'd break my corporal punishment rule for that. Some role model for young girls. At least she can sing.

And today's baby pic? Baby butt y'all. Is there ANYTHING cuter than a baby's butt? (Clean butt.) I'm going to miss the big butt when he's potty trained (no we're not starting yet, but it'll happen soon enough and then it'll be gone gone gone!).

Taste the Rainbow

In light of yesterday's shameful lack of green and colors outside of orange, I ran to the grocery store for some additional color for the Little Goose's lunch. And so without further ado...

On the left we have from top to bottom, a pumpkin shaped egg, to chicken teriyaki meatballs, a massive amount of steamed broccoli, and three teeny tiny onigiri stuffed with braised pork and sweet potato with tiny carrot sun, moon, and star garnish. Carrot and oshinko stars top off everything.

On the right, we have a few blueberry and rasberry skewers, a satsuma orange blossom (we still have a ton of these little oranges so I'm just trying to get rid of them; luckily the Little Goose loves them), and an orange jelly filled mini cake in the shape of a maple leaf. You gotta hand it to those crafty Japanese and their cute snacks.

For today's toddler pic, we have bed head.

A Life without Green

Somehow over the last few days, our normally green veggie loving household became...green veggie-less. Thus, this rather orange and white looking lunch. I do consider us lucky however as what would this look like witthout all those carrots?

On top we have a pear flower with a haw flake center. If someone knows what the heck a haw is, please let me know as I have no idea. I believe it's a fruit but I've yet to find an English name for it, all I know is that these flakes are yummy and I've liked them ever since I was a little girl. It's a nice feeling to pass along things that I enjoyed as a kid to my kids that aren't really all that mainstream; as if we had a secret lifestyle just between us (and a few billion other Asians around the world, but hey, this is my American fantasy that no one else exists). Anyway, we also have...lessee more haw flakes with a carrot flower for added color because if there's anything we have a lot of its carrots and we have some mini milk and honey biscuits.

On the bottom we have a veggie char siu bao, a carrot star border, some shiu mai topped with carrot stars with oshinko centers(Japanese pickled radish), and some steamed enoki mushrooms underneath the shiu mai. On the side, we have a mini bottle of sweet and sour sauce.

For today's kid pic, we have the Little Goose herself. I still can't believe she's a kindergartener already. Sometimes I feel like I totally miss her life these days due to work and school, but sometimes I get sweet moments like this, when she'll wake up for a few minutes and make a silly face for me.

First Onigiri

Ughghgh...I hate Sunday nights. It means Monday morning which means work work work. At least I now have a hobby whereas before the hobby was parenting and work. Now I parent, work, go to school, and make lunch. Progress. =)

On top, we have a tuna (cooked, canned tuna with a tiny bit of soy sauce) mama onigiri, a baby boiled onigiri shaped egg (I used an egg mold, pretty cute and cool, but not always perfectly effective. I don't think I used a big enough egg as it didn't turn out quite as triangular as I'd hoped). Some carrot flowers with celery round out top layer. These are my first attempts at anything related to onigiri. Considering I didn't use sushi rice or anything, I don't think it will be very easy for the Little Goose to pick up and eat and so I'm going to provide her with a fork. I hope she likes it, I'm packing a little bottle of soy sauce on the side just in case it's a bit too bland.

On the bottom, from left to right, we have a red bean filled daifuku (aka mochi), rambutan (aka milder, fuzzier, lycheeish tropical fruit), and a mini orange (satsuma, I think that's how you spell it) blossom with a sour skittle center.

No photo of either kid today. 1) They weren't sitting still long. 2) We didn't think to take a photo today. 3) We suck at taking pictures of our kids. The whole point of this was to remember to take a picture a day of the children. So far? Laziness 1 Documentation 0.