Madison House Chef

Micro-Burgers

My daughter, who generally prefers chicken or cheese based protein in her bento, requested that she have a little variety for a while.  She’s getting “chicken-ed out.”  After a brief discussion we agreed that the best item for her bento tomorrow would be a left over burger.  She’s had this before and really enjoyed the 2 inch diameter burgers that I prepared.  However, I couldn’t find the cutter that I ordinarily use and thus I used a silver cookie cutter that I generally use for cheese --- it’s a star.  The result was an immediate hit; fancy looking, star shaped, micro-burgers.

Of course it’s a rather fusion bento as she still requested having an onigiri.

This was definitely a photo-worthy trio of stars.

Bento #7 and #8

 

This is Madeleine's adorable cat bento box that we sent for from Japan.  When the box arrived we enjoyed all the bento items, but also the Japanese newspaper it was wrapped in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bento #5 and #6

I'm starting to get a better sense of the bento and able to incorporate the color green (which was sorely lacking in the first few), and finding a good balance of protein, whole grain carb, and fruit/vegetables.  This is one I put together for Ken in his 'new' box directly from Japan.  

Spicy grilled chicken on a bed of lettuce
sunflower seeds
whole grain crackers
sharp cheddar cheese
blueberries
peanuts

Bento in the News

Since the beginning of the school year we've been packing lunches in Japanese bento style. This style is appealing in that it provides portion control (for the adults), provides variety for those in school, taps into creative presentation which in turn prompts eating what's packed, lends itself to sneaking in making available new foods to try, it's a great way to use leftovers encore performance foods, saves on baggies and cling wrap, saves money and is just a lot of fun to eat.

 

Bento #4 (fusion)

This bento included a raditore pasta with ground sausage, garlic marinara and shaved parmesan, fresh blueberries, small green salad with sunflower seeds.

Ken found this lunch to be very satisfying though he chuckled at the fusion of an authentically Italian dish in a bento box from Japan. Even more ironically, he used the chopsticks (kept in the cover of this bento box) to eat the pasta and said that it added to his enjoyment of the meal.  How funny.

Bento #3 (...with green)

This Bento was for Ken.  

greens
ham
breaded chicken breast, sliced 
peanuts
Fritos
red grapes
mini Teddy Grahams 

He enjoyed it...and I managed to get some greenery in it. 

Bento #2 (still nothing green)

This bento, while still leaning toward shades of orange (see previous Bento post), is getting better.  I'm certainly learning.  These are not the fancy decorated Japanese beauties that take hours to prepare, but at least it's a nice variety of foods, protein and whole grains when possible, that I know she will eat.  The bonus is that this style lunch is presented in something other than zipper sandwich bags.

 

 

Bento # 1 (Shades of Orange)

This year for MELG's (my 7 year old daughter) school lunches I wanted to try something different.  While surfing the internet for lunch ideas I came across a marvelous website called Just Bento. Little did I know, but soon I was to discover, that this site is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are dozens of quality websites with Bento ideas, plus hundreds of photos via Flikr.

School ideas and lists of kid friendly options are widely available and are a big help to deciding what to put in the bento for variety, good taste, balanced nutrition and a beautiful presentation.