Kafta Bento in a Tiffin?

I have been off for the summer until school starts back up in August, I go back to work a week before the kids come back. I can't believe it's already July, and here I thought I'd be posting all my bento lunches. I have taken some pics, but they seem to be nothing new so they never made it up. We are finally getting the rain we needed so desperately. Otherwise we've been so dry our lawn was "crunchy" and this is our rainy season!


The last time I was in Michigan visiting family I picked up the small tiffin box...

... from the same place where I got my Indian spice box...which I absolutely LOVE! (Well I actually did buy my spice box my sister got it there for me for Christmas awhile ago) ... I wonder if you use a tiffin for a bento box is it a bento lunch in a tiffin? I guess if it was warmed and delivered to me it would be a tiffin lunch! :D

The other day I made some Lebanese 7 spice blend and posted it on The Tiny Skillet. The spice smelled so good I had to use it right away so I made kafta, they're like Lebanese lamb meatballs on a stick. They were good hot off the grill, warm and even cold the next day! perfect for a bento!

I have here some fried rice on the bottom, steamed snow peas and carrots, topped with kiwi. The top layer is some nice organic lettuce, cucumber slices, kafta with the yellow spiral skewers, some fresh pita bread, and tzatziki , the cucumber yogurt sauce that tasted so good on the kafta in the red silacone flower cup. All that's missing are the tomatoes. I wish I had some, can't really grow them well here in Florida!

Or maybe it's just me...I can grow a few herbs like the mint in the bento! My rosemary does the best, I also have chives, basil, sage, ginger, and just started to grow turmeric. I'm excited to see how that goes...or "grows"!

Later for dessert we had some Plum-Ginger Granita. It was wonderful...I made sure it had plenty of flavor, yummy! Perfect for summer so refreshing and not too sweet!


Everyone have a wonderful 4th of July!!!

Old Bento #2

Here is another bento I had posted on my other blog The Tiny Skillet . I will bring them over to The Tiny Bento here and there, or now and then!
This is probably as "cutsie" as Maranda would let me get(for now). I got a set of six flower cookie cutters that range smaller to bigger. The watermelon radish is the smallest. I tried to cut the pickled daikon radish in a small circle for the flower center, but just could find anything to do it with.
Under the radish flowers is some steamed rice with furikake sprinkled on it. To the right of that are fried spam and cucumber flowers, broccoli could of been placed a little better. Strawberries and red grapes with the only small pick I have (for now). Baby carrots with circles (flower buds) of daikon radish (the smallest circle I could do for now).



This was one of the first container that I got with just bento in mind.
It is so hard to get much bento anything around here. I got the idea to use this from Target thanks to Debra of hapa bento. I had also bought an all blue one for Maranda . They work quite well for a bento lunch, just leave the spoon out. Sometimes I will use the smaller container and sometimes not. So there you have it. Thanks for looking!

Adai-Lentil Crepe Bento

Again I wish I could come up with such whimsical name for my bento, or say that I was inspired to create an edible piece of , like so many of my bento making friends do. I used what I had left from my adai-lentil crepes or dosa. I posted how I made them here on The Tiny Skillet. They were full of flavor and very filling and healthy. I try to fill every nook and cranny...I scour my fridge, using all the little tidbits before they get lost forever...

I wanted to use my enoki mushrooms before they got soft, so I think it worked well here. Shaved carrots for color, champagne grapes, tiny mushroom patties, grape leaf rolls, feta, olives, carrots, and some Hello Panda biscuits with choco cream (our favorite). Sometimes you need dessert.

From in my front yard, this was early morning. As I was walking to go inside I...

...saw a row of these cactus blossoms almost ready to open. I'll try to get an after picture next time!
They guava looked so pretty when I cut it open I just had to share it with you (is that wierd?).

Yum-Yum Bento Box ~ inspired butterfly bento

Yes, it's been awhile since I've posted and I am trying to keep up with all my bento blog friends out there. I feel especially bad because it took me so long to post about the book that I won from Lia on her blog Bentolicious. She was one of the first ones to post a comment when I first started doing bentos on my The Tiny Skillet blog. She was so kind and encouraging as so many bento bloggers are. I was absolutely thrilled that I won this bento cookbook it was my first one.

Written by Crystal Watanabe and Maki Ogawa. I knew Crystal or Pikko as she in known on her blog, from her blog Adventures in Bentomaking. I was excited to find out she was writing this book. (my first bento book) She is a whizz with the nori, I have never seen anyone that can cut nori like she can. I was flipping though the book for the umpteenth time, and thought...I could do this.

I had some bamboo rice and some cooked ground pork well seasoned with soysauce, oyster sauce, ginger, garlic and all the good flavors of Asian foods, that would work perfect for this. So I used a butterfly cookie cutter and celery for the body and I could use a lot of help for the antennae.

... a little tomato bits for decoration in the wings. Carrots, celery, and grapes! I sent along some dipping sauce for the veggies.

Thanks Lia and all you bento friends out there!

Stromboli Bento - and beach clicks!

For today's bento I used some leftover Stromboli we had the night before. I made the dough in the bread machine on the dough cycle while we were at the beach run. When I came home it was ready and very easy to work with and turned out great. We each made our own version of what we wanted in our stromboli. I usually have chicken, spinach, cheese.

This one was peperoni, spinach, cheese. I put some marinara sauce in a recylcled container. The top layer is some Florida white sweetcorn, sliced plumbs, in the pink flower cup is My Grandma's Granola that my daughter made this time, carrot-edamame on a white heart pick. The pink flowers are purslane and the others are some of my rosemary flowers.

While we were at the beach I did bring my camera this week. I had stopped to get a photo of these beach toys because the were so colorful. Funny they came back to pack up while I was taking the picture. Ha! They were so nice...

and she stepped away to get another click! They were watching the sky, and he said you should be getting a good rain shot before too long!

I was trying to get some colorful clicks...the runners wouldn't stay still, but it was funny how they would run in clumps of colors!

He has a birds eye view!

Here is comes...typical afternoon early evening weather in the summer for Florida's Gulf coast. And still no oil!

This was added to Color Carnival check it out for a colorful adventure!

Curly Carrot Bento

I never know what to call my bentos, the carrot curls were added last for the final touch because I needed more color. Then it sort of took front and center, so curly carrot bento it is. The carrot was the first thing that Maranda went for!

While I was reading Sherimiya's blog I got some ideas. Of course that's what we love about reading other's great bento blogs is stealing...er...getting great ideas. Thanks Sheri, she was talking about different rice and making your own blend here on Happy Little Bento. I already had some black rice, but then kept an eye out for more. I was able to find some red, and purple, and I have some Organic Bamboo Rice on order (I've been looking for that for sometime now) it was priced reasonable and they offered free shipping! So here is what I did...

I used 1 part - red rice, 1 part - black rice, 1 part - brown rice, 1 part - red quinoa.

I heated a touch of butter, then sauteed the mix with some rosemary and a few favorite herbs, then I added some broken vermicelli and sliced almonds. About 2 1/4 cups of broth added and bring to a boil, then simmer with the lid until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. About 25-30 minutes.

On top of the mixed rice "pilaf" is some leftover panini sliced, provolone cheese flowers, stacked and a orange pick in that! In the pink cup is some Caribbean Roast Pork, and the carrot curls. In the yellow cup we have some sliced kiwi, and a few carrot shavings. A little chicky sauce bottle (from a good friend thank you J) tucked in with the steamed edamame!

On Thursday we went to Coquia Beach on Longboat Key to meet my aunt and Uncle. It was steamy in the sun, but in the shade with the sea breeze it was comfortable. Mr Gull here chillin' in the shade.

Bentos always seem to keep you cool!

On Wednesday the sky turned the strangest color yellow. It was late afternoon or early evening.

I had to get a few photos of it here are just a few. They even mentioned it on the local news. We never did get any rain from it...at least at my house.
The yellow sky made my pool look green...it was so strange. This looks like and old photo that has discolored.

I just loaded a bunch of photos off from my camera! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Elephant Bento

This adorable little heart shaped bento was sent to me from a friend of mine, and I love it. The color is so cheerful and it has two removable compartments in it, or out of it... Thanks Jenn! She was kind enough to share a few other bento accessories to help along a budding bento maker :-)
I really like the little elephant theme, she also sent an elephant cutter, and food divider (baran) with elephants, I'll be able to use those in a little larger bento.

Oh and check out the lid, I almost forgot! In the little insert I have seasoned noodles topped with black sesame seeds, grape tomatoes, and a sprig of peppermint. The other side there is chicken sausages, that cute little elephant sauce container filled with extra sauce, kiwi, and carrots (I have to learn more of what to do with carrots).

We decided to play tourists in our own back yard. My daughter and I have the summer off and yesterday was the first all sunny day in awhile. Venice is about 20 minutes south of Sarasota, a drive we make often.

We got an early start to avoid the heat that was expected and the crowds that appear when the sun comes out. First stop the beach!

It was so calm, the Gulf was flat! Just a perfect, beautiful day here! I heard on the news the other day, that the beaches in our area has a 1% chance of getting any oil on shore. The bad news is down in the Keys there is an 80% chance. It's such a shame with all the marine life that is so active there.

The sand is a little darker in Venice from all the fossils that are found here.

After the beach we hit the shell shops and souvenir stores. Then we went the next street over where they have some thrift shops, and antique stores. I found a vintage lime and lemon squeezer, and a bag of cookie cutters and it had some jello molds with it. I also bought a vintage egg cup, I love findinng stuff like this. Reminds me of my childhood. We'll see what I can do with them.

We had fun in this quaint little town with Italian influence. They often have art festivals and the shark's tooth festival. (This is the area you find fossilized sharks teeth). I'll do a longer post on my Aqua Sunday blog soon.

Didn't mean to get off topic but the bento was perfect for this day!

Have a great Friday!