Children’s Day Bentos!
Today is Boy’s Day! Excuse me… Children’s Day. I’m not sure when Boy’s Day became Children’s Day, but the poor guys got their holiday sniped from them, no idea why. When I was growing up I only knew of Girl’s Day and Boy’s Day. Anyway, as a treat for the kiddies I made them each a bento. I started off making the same one for both of them, which featured peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but as I was pbing the third slice of bread I remembered that Buddy isn’t supposed to eat nuts until he’s 3. (wtf 3?)
Realizing I had to make two completely different lunches, I decided to make them very specific to each of their likes. Baby Girl got peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into circles, then cut in half. One half looked ugly so I ate it. (ha!) Four pieces weren’t going to fit anyway, so that worked out. There was some empty space, so I filled that with Okinawan sweet potatoThe most common Okinawan sweet potato found in Hawaii markets has a white/light brown skin and cooks to a beautiful, bright purple color.. The other side had cubed mango, a cheese wedge, and 4 reduced fat Triscuit. I tried to find her tiny little toy food knife to pack, but I couldn’t find it. I even looked under the couch and in the process I discovered 5 books, miscellaneous toy utensils, a watercolor set, a packet of cooking chopsticks I really could have been using before today, and one icky roach. 🙁
Anyway, she loved it and miraculously ate everything. She especially loved using the pick to eat the mango!
For Buddy’s lunch I sliced up the last piece of leftover teri beef and added julienned carrots. I had bought some onigiri flavor packets and so I made him some little onigiri with the salmon flavored one. The other side had sweet potato and the cutest tiny strawberries, which I found in the boxes of strawberries I bought the other day. They were so adorable, just like the ones you grow in your backyard! He ate everything in his lunch too, so both were very successful with the kids. ^_^
We stopped at Windward Mall and I managed to drag us all to the Marukai store there. I found some $1.49 2-tier bento boxes, veggie shaped soy sauce bottles, and more food picks. I was going to pack a salad for myself so I could have a Core lunch, but then I weighed myself and I’d dropped over half a pound from yesterday. So I ate at Arby’s! *gasp* But I was good, ate a grilled chicken sandwich and when I saw there was mayo on the bun, I stopped eating the top half.
Tags: Bento, Kids, Onigiri, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Teriyaki Beef