Bento Thursday - Dr. Yellow

K technically started school about a month ago, but just this week he has started on his regular schedule of going twice a week. One day a week he has school lunch and the other day I make him a bento. To be honest, I have dreamed about making my children's bentos from the first day I found out how cute lunches could be. In fact, prior to K's birth I would VERY occasionally make Y bentos. Most men's bentos are just standard food - leftovers from the night before even - in a lunchbox. Not the ones I made though. I pretty much only made cute ones. Looking back on it, poor Y, he used to take his lunch in to work and open it up and there would be a little man playing maracas or little bears popping out to say "hi". How embarassing.

Now, however, I get to make any type of cute bento I can come up with since I have K! Today's featured his beloved Dr. Yellow Shinkansen. I formed the Shinkansen out of rice, then made a super thin omelet-type egg and cut it to the same shape. I used nori for the stripes and windows. The bento also had sugar snap peas, carrots, fried chicken and cucumber - all foods K adores.

Two weeks ago, I also made his school bento. I didn't write about it on the day since it was so super similar to the bento I had made for him for our Children's Day picnic. But, here it is. A little samurai onigiri - nori face and hair, with a ham and cheese hat - and sausage Koi Nobori with ham and cheese eyes. I think I also included some asparagus, broccoli and carrots, but can't be sure on that bit.

 

 

Since I have to go through the trouble of making K's bento, I figured I might as well make one for Y at the same time. I didn't think to take a photo of Y's on the day I made the Samurai Bento, but here is today's. The top is omurice - an omelet-type egg covering rice that has been stir-fried with onion, green pepper, sausage and ketchup - and fried chicken. The bottom is sugar snap peas with katsuo-boshi and a bit of soy sauce, and sweet potato fries.

 

Kan came home from school and told me how he ate almost all of his bento. He was so proud of himself. He did a good job with it, leaving just one tiny carrot and one sugar snap pea. Now it's time to start thinking about next week!