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!

Fun Shapes ~Bento~

I found some templates that you use with a fancy cutter, they were on Clarence so I thought I could use them for a bento. It is made out of a very thick plastic so I think it will work well. I let Maranda choose the shape. Sure she wanted the spiral-curly-Q! My first attempt so it's a little messy. I first tried to cut the lunch meat with a tiny paring knife I had but it slipped too easy, so then I use a toothpick. The smaller hearts were on the same stencil. The Havarti cheese wasn't the best choice as it has little holes in it and makes it a little sloppy looking!
A very simple bento:
The right side: Bamboo Jade rice, lunch meat shapes - Havarti cheese heart with a tiny nori punched out heart.
The left side: diced tomatoes and cheese in the yellow silicone flower cup, basil tucked in around it. Sliced orange sweet peppers on a fun, blue, square, spiral pick. Sliced kiwi. I also had some olive oil and balsamic vinegar for the tomato-mozzarella-basil, it didn't make it in the photo!

Just a few yard pictures!
My pineapple is in a pot, they will fruit quicker than when planted in the ground.

Pink plumeria

Yellow plumeria

Pink bougainvillea with a butterfly.

Our friend Neji!

Red passion flower! Have a happy Wednesday!

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!!

Bento for The Ringling Museum Grounds!

I haven't been on the computer much the past weekend, and my husband has Mondays off, so we like to spend some time together. So I am so behind on my posts and blog reading, so here a a quick one.
The other day my daughter and I went to the Ringling Museum to enjoy the grounds. This was easy to bring along.

The sandwich is rotisserie chicken, homemade hummus, lettuce. Organic orange carrots, avocado slices (which I put on the sandwich) a plum and some tabouleh in the pink flower silicone cup. All in a bed of romaine lettuce that I used to eat the tabouleh.
I made some tabouleh and hummus and have been using it on sandwiches as well as eating in with the Olga's bread I made and lettuce. My husband likes pretty much everything that I make, but he doesn't like cucumbers and I added cucumbers (a small amount diced really small) to the tabouleh. All he could taste was the cukes and he didn't like it. So it's going on everything of mine now! Ha!

The Ca da Zan in John ans Mable Ringling's house and is on the bay front on the museum grounds. I have a few more photos on my Aqua Sunday blog. I love the architecture of this huge mansion. I have so many picture because I can't resist to taking photos here.
I have entered this photo with Window Views...and Doors too there are so many more windows and doors to capture here!

There are so many statues all over the grounds.

This time of year Mable's Garden is in full bloom!

I've always liked yellow roses. There were so many. I'll show more later.

Some more of the statues...

I always seem to get feet photos.

This is another one I can't resist taking a photo of, I've posted a different photo I've taken before on Aqua Sunday. It is so interesting how this one has been surrounded by a strangler fig (banyon tree).
I guess it wasn't that "quick" of a post!

Hibiscus Bento

I was not quite sure how to fill this lacquer bento box that I got for Christmas. I figured it would look good with my sushi that I make. The last time we had that was after a beach run and they just wanted to eat so I served my family first then had mine later and no time to look nice. I did serve it on sushi plates though. It's about time that I used it and I had a little more time to play with it. So here it is. Although hibiscus are edible, I didn't eat this one. Each hibiscus bloom lasts only one day, so I figured it would be okay to use it for the photo...
... and I wasn't quite sure what to do with the little tray in the center. I guess a dipping sauce, which is fine if you are eating it at home like I did.

The top left corner: chickpea tart with shallots and herbs, tamagoyak with fresh spinach.

Top right: sugar snap peas (they've been so good and sweet lately-perfect snack) steamed rice with furikake.

bottom left: lychees, green grapes and cherries.

bottom right: cucumbers, crab stick with baby cukes nori wrapped.

So I would love your help! If you have any ideas of how to fill this bento and would like to share!

Here is another blossom that has a short life. My San Pedro cactus blooms during the summer. The blossom only appears at night for one night. The blooms are large, about the size of my hand when I spread all my fingers out!

Happy Wednesday!