Eclectic Lamb

Cow Onigiri

Posted on August 15, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I know that this may not look like a cow but my 15 year old niece enjoyed this lunch and I had fun making it. I tried to copy the cow from a book I bought while in Japan this year. I used spinach instead of seaweed, carrot instead of ham, and baby carrot instead of hotdog.

Container: ECO Lunchboxes

Cow: Rice, radish, carrot, spaghetti (to hold on the carrot nose), spinach

Other Contents: Sauteed zucchini in olive oil with dried basil, snow peas, asparagus, mini sweet peppers, cherry tomato, red grapes

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 9 Comments

Lunch with Dill

Posted on August 13, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This is another lunch in my featured ingredient series. The ingredient dill is used in each recipe in this lunch. I have a lot of dill in my herb garden this year. I am enjoying looking at it from my kitchen window. I think that it looks beautiful.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Tortellini Salad with Dill – I did not put it on skewers

Top Right: Strawberry Spinach Salad (I did not use the green onion or the dressing)

Bottom Right: Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, featured ingredient | 2 Comments

12 Butterfly Themed Lunches

Posted on August 12, 2014 by eclecticlamb

The girls in my life enjoy butterfly themed lunches. But I think that any gender can enjoy a butterfly themed meal. For most of these lunches I used butterfly cookie cutters. As long time readers know, I have a large cookie cutter collection and it keeps on growing. Here are 12 butterfly themed lunches that I made. Included at the end of this post are links to 10 more awesome butterfly lunches made by my bento friends.

I made this for my 15 year old niece. She is always happy to have rice for lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Nishiki rice with cooked broccoli (I put the broccoli inside a cookie cuter, packed cooked rice around it, then removed the cookie cutter)

Top Right: Fruit yogurt with frozen butterflies (I used a silicone mold)

Bottom Right: Green grapes

I made this rice butterfly for my 15 year old niece. I packed fruit, vegetables, and nuts around it.

Container: ECO Lunchboxes

Contents: Nishiki rice butterfly with corn, peas, cheddar cheese, and carrot (I pressed hot rice into a cookie cutter with plastic wrap to protect my hands), strawberries, blackberries, asparagus, snow peas, Brazil nuts

My 15 year old niece also ate this berry rice with butterflies lunch. I made the berry rice by mixing a few frozen berries into hot cooked rice.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Pistachios

Bottom Left: Watermelon butterfly (I used this cookie cutter)

Right Side: Berry rice (mix a few frozen berries into hot cooked rice), carrot and cucumber butterflies

I used Grands biscuits to make this easy butterfly pizza.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Butterfly pizza with Grands biscuits (olive and spinach details)

Top Right: Cucumber butterflies

Bottom Right: Romaine lettuce salad with carrot butterflies

I made this salad with butterfly quesadilla for myself. It was a fun and tasty lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Raspberries

Bottom Left: Brazil Nuts

Right Side: Mixed lettuce and spinach salad with sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, and a butterfly cheese quesadilla (food safe marker details)

I made this butterfly rice salad for my niece a few years ago. It was previously published here.

I made this butterfly cheese and crackers lunch for my friends young daughter a few years ago. It was previously published here.

I actually prepared this butterfly girl lunch for myself. I was inspired by seeing a friend’s daughter wearing butterfly wings.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Butterfly girl (snow peas, carrot, grape, tomato), Nature’s Earthly Choice Easy Quinoa Blends – Quinoa & Broccoli

Top Right: Almonds and cashews

Bottom Right: Plain Greek yogurt with peach butterfly garnish (additional peaches are under the yogurt)

My middle niece ate this butterfly macaroni and cheese lunch last year. It was previously published here.

I created this butterfly sandwich lunch for my friend’s 9 year old daughter.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Butterfly cucumber (with flower picks)

Bottom Left: Blueberries

Right Side: Wegmans Fruit Twist, Butterfly peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread with cheese butterfly details and picks (antenna).

I made this mashed potato butterfly meal for my 15 year old niece. It was previously published here.

My friend’s 9 year old daughter enjoyed this butterfly bread meal.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Homemade butterfly shaped bread with Colby-jack cheese butterflies.

Top Right: Raspberries with daisy and ladybug picks

Bottom Right: Raspberry Greek yogurt with raspberry garnish

I hope that you enjoyed seeing these. Here are some more butterfly lunch ideas from my bento friends:

Simple and Cute Butterfly Lunch by BentOnBetterLunches

Butterfly Salad Lunch by Blame it on the bento

Butterfly Applewiches by Becoming a Bentoholic

Butterfly Crackers with Ham and Cheese by Food for Harper

FunBites Butterflies by Biting the Hand that Feeds You

Flatbread Butterfly by Eats Amazing

Butterfly Sandwich with Butterfly Fruit Kabobs by Bentoriffic

Gluten-free, Soy-free, Dairy-free, and Nut-free Butterfly Sandwich Lunch by Chaos and Confections

3D Butterfly Cut Outs by Little Miss Bento

Cat in Garden Bento with Purple Potato Butterfly by Beneficial Bento

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, shaped bread | 1 Comment

Taco Salad and Quesadilla Lunches

Posted on August 8, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made these two lunches for my teen nephews to take to school. They have similar ingredients but are different. They could be made for the same person on 2 different days or as I did for 2 different people on the same day. I used black beans leftover from dinner.

To see 12 taco lunches go here.

This lunch was for my 14 year old nephew. He requested a taco salad. I wanted it to be different than the last taco lunch I made for him.

Top Container: Divided container

Contents: Tostitos Hint of Lime Flavored Tortilla Chips, homemade cinnamon tortilla chips, Nutella in Mini Dippers

Bottom Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Black beans with onions sauteed in olive oil, with tomato sauce, and some hot sauce

Bottom Left: Watermelon

Right Side: Tomatoes, Mexican cheese blend, black olives, lettuce

Smooth taco sauce in Mini Dippers

I made this lunch for my 17 year old nephew. He wanted black bean quesadillas. I packed a lot of food into this lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Black bean quesadillas with black beans with onions sauteed in olive oil, with tomato sauce, and some hot sauce and Mexican cheese blend

Top Right: Salad with carrot and radish

Bottom Right: Watermelon

Nutella and Salsa in Mini Dippers

In plastic bag: Homemade cinnamon tortilla chips

My nephews enjoyed these lunches. I made these lunches easier but using some of the same ingredients (cinnamon tortilla chips, Nutella, lettuce, Mexican cheese blend, black beans, and watermelon). But I think that they are different enough that the same person could enjoy these meals two days in a row.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, packing lunch for teens, taco | 4 Comments

Garage Sale Lunch

Posted on August 6, 2014 by eclecticlamb

My town has a day in the July when there are town wide sidewalk sales, garage sales, and yard sales. My niece and nephews enjoy searching for treasure at these sales and I agreed to drive them around and walk to sales with them. My 10 year old nephew requested a garage sale themed lunch. We ate on my front porch.

This lunch is not pretty but I don’t think that most garage sales are pretty. It has an assortment of items for sale – pink Legos, tennis racquets, and a dresser. You never know what you will find at a sale.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Strawberry yogurt Lego bricks (I froze yogurt in this silicone mold)

Bottom Left: DeCecco Racchette pasta with green peas

Right Side: Cheese quesadilla background with cheese quesadilla dresser (details drawn with food safe markers), snow peas, raspberries

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 3 Comments

Guest Post at Student Bento

Posted on August 4, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I was happy today to guest post over at Student Bento. I wrote an article about ideas to use pasta, flour tortillas, rice, homemade bread, and potatoes in your lunches. It includes some of my favorite lunches. Please go check it out.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 1 Comment

Raspberry Cream Pie Day

Posted on August 1, 2014 by eclecticlamb

Today is National Raspberry Cream Pie Day. I love food days, it gives me delicious ideas for my blog. If I did not read about this day and I did not have a blog, I probably would not have made this pie. My husband, niece and nephews are glad that I made this. They loved it!

This slice did not come out perfect but it was delicious. I originally intended to make this recipe but I could not find chocolate wafer cookies. So I made this crust and the filling that I originally planned to make.

Happy Raspberry Cream Pie Day!

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | 5 Comments

Back to School Basics Blog Hop and Giveaway

Posted on July 31, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I am joining my Bento Bloggers & Friends on this Back to School Basics lunch hop and giveaway which is open worldwide. We have awesome prizes so please hop through to collect the letters and enter the code in a Raffelcopter on the Bento Bloggers & Friends blog. Today I am sharing what I consider basic essentials for making cute bento lunches.

EasyLunchBoxes: These boxes are one of my favorite lunch boxes and I use them often. I use a bag that allows it to be carried upright without turning the lunch on it’s side.

Cookie Cutters: I use cookie cutters to cut and shape a variety of food including: bread, flour tortillas, rice, mashed potatoes, vegetables, fruit, cheese, pizza dough, and cracker dough.

Silicone Cups: These are great for adding color, separating food, holding small amounts of food, and holding food that you don’t want to heat when heating the rest of the lunch in a microwave.

Picks: I admit that I don’t use picks as often as I could but they do add a bit of whimsy and fun to a meal. My niece and nephews seem to enjoy having picks when I use them.

Planned Leftovers for Lunch: This is a simple lunch made with the tools shown above. I like to plan leftovers when I prepare dinner. For this lunch when I made pizza for dinner the night before, I made some mini pizzas in cute shapes using cookie cutters. This is supposed to be a cow but I think it looks like a sheep. Some shapes work better than others but they are all fun. When I use a cookie cutter on pizza dough I have to use more flour on the dough than usual when I roll out the dough and cut it.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Homemade cow shaped cheese pizza, spinach leaves, chocolate, green grapes

Bento USA and Eats Amazing (UK) are some online stores where you can buy bento supplies.

Here is your codeword piece from my blog. Continue on to the other blogs in this hop to collect all of the pieces to spell the codeword.

Please click on the button below to go to the Jackie’s blog – Loving Lunches and to collect your letter and number.

Once you have the collected all the pieces from visiting each of the blogs in this hop. Please enter our giveaway on the Bento Bloggers & Friends blog.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, blog hop | 3 Comments

Raspberry Lunch

Posted on July 28, 2014 by eclecticlamb

My 15 year old niece and I went raspberry picking at Chase Farms. It is a beautiful place for u-pick. I needed fresh raspberries to make this featured ingredient lunch. I also needed raspberries to make a Raspberry Cream Pie for National Raspberry Cream Pie day on Friday. Also my husband loves to eat raspberries.

I made this raspberry featured ingredient bento meal for my husband. I tried everything except for the muffins but my my husband, niece and nephews enjoyed them. My favorite of the recipes is the green beans. I loved the combination with a hint of garlic.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Raspberry Orange Muffins

Bottom Left: Green Beans and Raspberry Hazelnut Toss

Right Side: Raspberry Fruit Dip (in Mini Dippers – I put on the lid after taking the photo), french bread, raspberries

I enjoy building a meal with several recipes that use the same ingredient. Click here to see more of my featured ingredient bento meals.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged featured ingredient | 10 Comments

Seven Simple Lunches

Posted on July 25, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made these lunches on days that I wanted to keep it quick and easy. Many of these were for outings with my niece and nephews and I made the lunches from ingredients I happened to have in my house.

I made this for myself on a day I went raspberry picking with my niece. I made pasta for both of us and prepared them differently. I just came up with this combination as I was prepping the lunches. It was healthy but delicious!

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Elbow pasta with snow peas, red bell pepper, toasted slivered almonds, salt and pepper

Top Right: Red grapes

Bottom Right: Plain Greek yogurt with cinnamon

I made this for myself on a day I went raspberry picking with my nephew. I ended up going raspberry picking twice this year because the first time only black raspberries were ripe. I did not take photos before I left the house so this photo was quickly taken at the raspberry farm. They had picnic tables available where we had lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Mini wheat pita, hummus

Top Right: Brazil nuts

Bottom Right: Strawberries

I made this for my niece on a day that we went raspberry picking. It was fast to use my ice cream cone cutter on bell peppers to decorate this lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Elbow pasta with a little butter, black pepper and Parmesan cheese, red and yellow bell pepper (I cut the ice cream cone shape with cookie cutter)

Top Right: Walnuts

Bottom Right: Red grapes

I made this lunch for myself on a day my nephew and I went hiking. I guess that many of my favorite foods happen to be green.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Green grapes

Bottom Left: Pistachios

Right Side: Snow peas, almond butter sandwich on pumpernickel bread

I was running out of time on a day that my nephew and I went raspberry picking so I made him a sandwich. Since I know that he prefers non-sandwich lunches I gave him a special treat of BBQ potato chips. I try to be the Aunt that gives them fun food.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread, granola bar, Brazil nuts

Top Right: Strawberries

Bottom Right: BBQ potato chips

My nephew ate this lunch at home. It was leftovers from a featured ingredient raspberry lunch that I will publish next week. He is always happy to eat a muffin lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Green beans, raspberry muffins

Top Right: Walnuts

Bottom Right: Raspberries

I made this lunch for myself. I had some watermelon leftover and thought it would be fun to put it in a bento lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Watermelon

Top Right: Cottage cheese with cinnamon

Bottom Right: Romaine lettuce with carrots, red cabbage, tomatoes, walnuts, and cheddar cheese

So although I love to make themed cute food, sometimes I just quickly throw together lunches from ingredients I have in my kitchen. Quick and easy can be attractive and delicious.

Linking to:

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | Comments Off

Noah’s Ark Bento Lunch

Posted on July 23, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I am happy today to participate in the 3 Tools, 3 Bloggers series at Wendolonia. Each of us used the EasyLunchBox, Animal Picks, and Wilton Noah Cookie Cutters in our lunch. Visit Wendolonia to see how each blogger used the same tools.

I made the obvious theme with these tools since it is a theme I have considered for a long time. This was a meal I actually made for myself. It was fun to eat and delicious. I did not add sweetener to my cocoa cream cheese. It complemented the cinnamon sugar animal crisps in this meal.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Naan bread Ark with a mixture of cream cheese and unsweetened cocoa powder (I used a toothpick to draw lines on the ark), blueberries

Top Right: I used the Noah Cookie Cutters to cut the animal shapes from a flour tortilla. I brushed on some olive oil, sprinkled on a mixture of cinnamon sugar and baked them at 375 until crisp (about 5 minutes but watch them closely).

Bottom Right: Carrots and sugar snap peas

Linking to:

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 3 Comments

Lunches for Hike at Nature Preserve

Posted on July 21, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made these lunches for my nephews and myself on a day we hiked at a nature preserve. One of my nephews wanted a Canadian Goose themed lunch. The other nephew wanted a beaver dam lunch. I used the opportunity to make a dragonfly themed lunch for myself.

I used a lot of the same ingredients to make these lunches somewhat easy to make. The goose took the longest of these three lunches. The beaver dam was easy to make but I made it earlier so it could set. I packed it with an ice pack. It was still a little messy to eat but the kid did not complain.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Dragonfly shaped cheese quesadilla (2 on top of each other), snowpeas, blueberries, pistachios

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Beaver shaped wheat sandwich with strawberry jam (food marker details), yellow bell pepper, beaver dam (I used this recipe without the peanuts and tried to shape them to look like a beaver dams. I made 1/2 a batch and everyone ate the extras for dessert).

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Pistachios, snow-peas, pumpernickel and wheat bread sandwich with peanut butter (neck) and strawberry jam (body), white details (cream cheese)

It was a beautiful day for a hike and these lunches made it a little more special.

Linking to:

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 6 Comments

3 Year Blogiversary Giveaway

Posted on July 18, 2014 by eclecticlamb

Edited: The giveaway is now closed. I will notify the winners.

It is that time of year again! I am celebrating my 3 year blogiversary with a giveaway in appreciation for my readers. During my trip this year to Japan, I went shopping for these prizes. There is one prize for a person with an United States of America address and one prize for a person with an international address (outside of the U.S.A.) The international prize is a smaller (lighter) one but I think a good one. I bought the same cookie cutters for myself since I liked them so much.

Items in the USA prize:

Frog bento box
Stars egg molds
Cutter set to make box with bow
Cutter set with various small shapes including rabbit and bear
Small silicone cups (pink, yellow, green)
Medium silicone cups (pink, green, yellow)
Bear, cat, and rabbit small silicone cups
Sweets picks
Cat and dog picks
Cutter and stamp set (bear, rabbit, and elephant)
Mini cutters (dog, car, fish)
Spoon and fork cookie cutters
French house picks

Items in the International prize:

Red, yellow, white, blue and green picks
Vehicle picks
Animal picks
Cookie cutters (hedgehog, deer, squirrel, rabbit)

How to Enter:

Please submit a comment telling me if your address is in the U.S.A or international (outside of the U.S.A).
Make sure that I have your email address with your comment.
For an additional entry please subscribe to my blog by email and tell me in your comment that you subscribed.

Important!! Please read the Terms and Conditions of this giveaway!
Prizes cannot be shipped to P.O. Boxes. Winner will be randomly selected by a random number generator and notified by the email submitted with your comment. Entries that do not fulfill the mandatory requirements will be deleted. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are in no way associated with this giveaway. If you’ve chosen to subscribe by email for an additional entry, you must still be doing so at the time of the drawing or you will be disqualified, and I will draw again. I do not share or sell information and will use any information only for the purpose of contacting the winner. This giveaway ends Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. EDT. (Edited: The giveaway is now closed)

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, giveaway | 147 Comments

Strawberry Rice Bento Lunch

Posted on July 16, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I am honored today to participate in the 3 Tools, 4 Lunches series at Wendolonia. Each of us used the Lunchbots Trio, Lace Cutter, and Wilton Romance Mini Cookie Cutters to make our lunch. Visit Wendolonia to see how each blogger used the same tools.

I was inspired by the tools to create designs. It was a simple lunch to make but delicious to eat!

Container: LunchBots Trio

Top Left: Strawberry rice – I pushed a whole strawberry into the center of the rice. I used the blossom cutter to cut strawberry slices and decorated with black sesame seeds.

Top Right: Raw spinach leaves with toasted sunflower seeds. I used the lace cutter on a slice of mozzarella cheese.

Bottom: Green grapes and toasted hazelnuts

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | 10 Comments

Shark Watermelon

Posted on July 14, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made a shark watermelon for my nephews 6th birthday party. I followed the directions from watermelon.org for this shark. I only made a few changes. I did not cut the watermelon pieces into triangles and I put blueberries at the base instead of watermelon. Also I could only find red Swedish Fish so I did not put any in the shark’s mouth. I used a blueberry for the eye and attached it with a small piece of spaghetti.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food, Party Planning | 9 Comments

Lunches for the Zoo

Posted on July 10, 2014 by eclecticlamb

My husband and I took our nephews to the zoo. Of course I made themed lunches for each of us. They were quick to make with cookie cutters. The only template I had to make was for the flamingo.

My husband loves pizza for lunch so I made an elephant pizza for him.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Broccoli, Elephant shaped cheese pizza, peanuts, strawberries

I prepared this flamingo lunch for myself. I tried putting an eye on it but thought it looked better without.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Broccoli, brazil nuts, spinach, Naan with homemade strawberry cream cheese

My 12 year old nephew requested a penguin lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Penguin pizza, spinach leaves, penguin shaped cucumber, Penguins crackers

My nephew who is now 10 ate this elephant themed lunch. My cookie cutter was too big for the bread so I cut the head out separate. I should have added an ear.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Granola bar, jelly sandwich on wheat bread, candy eye, peanuts, green pepper

Linking to:

Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 9 Comments

Lunch with Cuddle Palz

Posted on July 9, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This week I had my niece, 5 nephews and my sister-in-law over for lunch. Since I had recently received the new CuteZCute Cuddle Palz I thought it would be the perfect time to use the set for our crowd of 8. I made bento lunches for my three youngest nephews and the rest of us had lunch on a plate (pasta, vegetables, fruit, cheese) with cute Cuddle Palz tortilla chips, muffins, and cookies.

These cutters were easy to use and clean afterwards which is always a plus. I loved that the faces had a stamp and a cutter side. I used the stamp for the cookies and the cutter side for the sandwiches and tortilla chips.

My 9 year old nephew requested a Koala lunch. He helped to assemble it.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread, sugar snap peas, hazelnuts, and strawberries.

I made this simple bear lunch for my 6 year old nephew.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Red pepper, red grapes, peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread

I made this simple tiger lunch for my 3 year old nephew.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Contents: Baby carrots, blueberries, cheese sandwich on wheat bread

I was inspired by this to make Cuddle Palz tortilla chips. I used flour tortillas, brushed with olive oil and baked. We served them with salsa. Everyone enjoyed eating these adorable chips.

Originally I planned to use the Cuddle Palz with cheese for the faces on these apple muffins. But since I had the pieces from my tortilla chips, I saved time and used what I already had. My 9 year old nephew put the faces on the muffins.

I made cut-out sugar cookies and sprinkled with sanding sugar before baking. I decorated the tigers with a Wilton’s Black Decorating Gel tube I had leftover from our How to Train Your Dragon Viking Ship.

I had so much fun using the Cuddle Palz set that I know I will use it again soon. It has so many possibilities to create fun food. Please visit the CuteZCute website for information and inspiration.

Disclosure: I received the products shown here for review. I was not financially compensated. All opinions stated here are 100% my own.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, CuteZCute | 3 Comments

Tanabata Bento Lunch

Posted on July 7, 2014 by eclecticlamb

In celebration of the Japanese holiday Tanabata, I made this lunch. Last year I hosted a Tanabata Dinner Party for my niece, nephews and my husbands young cousins.

Tanabata is a Japanese star festival. According to a folktale, Hikoboshi (star Altair) and Orihime (star Vega) were lovers and separated by the Milky Way to only meet once a year. Typically people celebrate on July 7 but some regions of Japan celebrate on a different day.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Angel hair pasta with star shaped carrots and homemade Hikoboshi and Orihime Tanabata picks. I resized these, printed them, cut them out and then taped them to wooden picks.

Top Right: Hazelnuts

Bottom Right: Carrots and cucumber stars

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, holiday, vegan, 七夕 | 2 Comments

Tennis Bread Lunch

Posted on July 2, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I wanted to use my tennis racquet pasta in a different way so I made this lunch. I used homemade French Bread dough to make tennis balls. The pasta racquets with peas makes a cute side dish.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Homemade tennis ball bread made from French Bread dough and food safe marker details (after baking), peanut butter in Mini Dippers.

Top Right: DeCecco Racchette pasta with green peas and Italian dressing

Bottom Right: Sugar Snap Peas

Linking to:

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, shaped bread, sports, vegan | 4 Comments

Rhubarb Lunch

Posted on June 30, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This lunch may not look pretty but some of it was delicious. For this meal I tried something new for me, I made savory food with rhubarb. This is a continuation of my series of featured ingredient lunches. I have many more planned for the upcoming months. Hopefully they will be more attractive than this one.

I grew up with rhubarb in my family garden. It was also in my Grandparents garden. In the spring we often had rhubarb and strawberry desserts. When I married my husband and I moved to a rural area, my mother-in-law was surprised that I had experience with rhubarb. Maybe it is an unusual ingredient for people to use. I never had to buy it from a grocery store but I occasionally see it there. I usually have a stash in my freezer. I wash it, cut into about 1 inch pieces and freeze in freezer bags.

Please tell me in the comments if you have ever tried rhubarb.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Indian Spiced Lentils with Spinach and Rhubarb – I loved this recipe but I did make a few changes. I did not use the mustard seeds, used frozen ginger, and omitted the raisins and cilantro. I will definitely make this again! But I love Indian food.

Top Right: Rhubarb Apple Salad – this was not my favorite recipe in this meal but it was sort of fun to eat rhubarb that was not in a dessert. If you do not like tart, this is not for you but if you enjoy sweet (apple) and tart (rhubarb) try this.

Bottom Right: Sour Cream Rhubarb Coffee Cake – the batter was thicker than I expected but it worked out and my husband and 12 year old nephew loved this cake.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, featured ingredient | 1 Comment

Make Your Own Puzzle Pizza Lunch

Posted on June 25, 2014 by eclecticlamb

My nephews and I used Grands biscuits to make individual pizzas. We made one of them in a puzzle shape using this to create this make your own pizza lunch. It can be a small meal or a hearty snack.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Grands biscuits puzzle pizza, tomato sauce in Mini Dippers, mozzarella cheese in silicone cup

Top Right: Cucumbers cut with puzzle cookie cutter, it came with a jigsaw puzzle.

Bottom Right: Red grapes

Linking to:

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 4 Comments

14 Fourth of July Themed Meals

Posted on June 23, 2014 by eclecticlamb

Since I was a child I loved holidays and celebrations. Making cute, themed food is a fun way to celebrate and mark the event. This year I enlisted my niece, nephews, and husband to eat these Independence Day / Patriotic themed meals early so I could share them with you. Only 3 of these meals were previously published on this blog.

This meal was a last minute idea that came about because I had leftovers from my Garden Tea and some Fourth of July themed meals. I enjoyed this meal for lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Radish, pretzels, United States shaped almond butter sandwich on wheat bread

Top Right: Blueberries and raspberries

Bottom Right: Cherry tomato, fresh mozzeralla, and blueberry skewers

My 17 year old nephew ate this patriotic meal at my house.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Watermelon cut with this cutter

Bottom Left: Pistachio nuts (I drew on them with food safe marker)

Right Side: Cheese quesadilla, drew stars with food safe marker

Not Pictured: Salsa

I made this attractive meal for Flag Day in 2013. It actually won Featured Bento of the Week at the Bento Blog Network for their Patriotic category. It was previously published here.

My husband ate this as part of his lunch. He is a huge fan of raspberries so I try to include them when planning a meal for him.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread (bell crack drawn with food safe marker), blueberries

Top Right: Raspberries

Bottom Right: Pretzels

One of my nephews made this lunch a few years ago. He cut out the sandwich pieces by himself. It was previously published here.

My 9 year old nephew ate this meal at my house. I tried giving him red pepper hummus for the first time. I hoped that he would like it better than regular hummus. He did not like it.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top: USA shaped bread made with homemade French bread dough (the “U” and “A” have cinnamon sprinkled on top, mozzarella cheese stick

Bottom Left: Red grapes

Bottom Right: Cucumber

Red Pepper Hummus: In Mini Dippers

I made this Independence Day themed muffin tin meal in 2013 for my nephew who was 12 at the time. It was previously published here. Muffin tin meals are popular with my niece and nephews. I think it is because they get at least 6 different things to eat.

My 12 year old nephew ate this meal. I put a reject flag under the “1776”. Usually when I make shaped bread, I make at least two versions. One of his brothers ate the accepted flag bread that is featured in this post.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top: 1776 and U.S. Flag shaped bread (made with homemade French bread dough)

Bottom Left: Strawberries dipped in melted candy melts and sprinkled with blue sanding sugar

Bottom Right: Toasted pecans

My 15 year old niece helped me to made this basic meal for my husband on a night that he was not feeling well.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Blueberries

Bottom Left: Raspberries

Right Side: Patriotic Star Pasta with a little butter and Parmesan cheese, parsley star garnish

My 17 year old nephew ate this for dinner at my house. I think that the black beans (hidden under the other ingredients), greek yogurt, and chips made this a filling meal. I was inspired by this taco salad flag.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top: Shredded lettuce, star shaped radish, salsa, shredded Monterey Jack cheese, black beans with sauteed onion, some hot sauce, and some plain tomato sauce (not visible, under other ingredients)

Bottom Left: Greek yogurt with cinnamon star (I used a star cookie cutter as a stencil for the star)

Bottom Right: Blueberries

In a bag: Tostitos Bite Size chips

My husband ate this cheese quesadilla meal. He loved the special pretzels I made for him and said that I could make them anytime.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Star shaped cheese quesadillas with EasyLunchBoxes shaped quesadilla as the background

Top Right: Strawberries with American flag pick

Bottom Right: Plain and white candy melt covered pretzels with red and white sprinkles

My 17 year old nephew ate this Flag bread among other things at my house one evening.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: American Flag bread with sanding sugar

Top Right: Toasted pecans

Bottom Right: Blueberries and watermelon

My 15 year old niece came up with this fantastic idea to make fireworks out of two types of potatoes.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top: Night sky (purple potatoes – mashed), fireworks (white potatoes – mashed)

Bottom Left: Patriotic fruit salad (strawberries, banana, and blueberries)

Bottom Right: Radish

I was inspired by this to make a cream cheese and jelly open faced sandwich for myself. It was delicious!

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top: Cream cheese, strawberry jam, and dried blueberries on Naan bread

Bottom Left: Cherry tomatoes

Bottom Right: Dried cranberries, slivered almonds

I hope that you enjoyed seeing these ideas and now have some inspiration to make your own patriotic themed lunch, dinner, or snack.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, holiday, shaped bread | 5 Comments

Science Museum Lunch

Posted on June 19, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made this lunch for my 12 year old nephew. We spent the day together and visited the Buffalo Museum of Science. My drawing of the atom is not perfect but my nephew did not care. He gobbled it up. This was a quick and easy lunch to make.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Cheese quesadillas (three) with atom drawn with food safe marker. I was inspired by this beautiful lunch by Bento for Kidlet.

Top Right: Carrots

Bottom Right: Pineapple

Not in Photo: Almonds

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 3 Comments

How to Train Your Dragon Dinner and a Movie

Posted on June 16, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I love the idea of a themed homemade dinner and a movie. A few weeks ago I asked my niece and nephews for movie ideas and they said, “How to Train Your Dragon 2”. We worked together to plan this meatless meal. Friday night we prepared the meal together (my niece was an amazing help) and then we went to see the movie. I thought that How to Train Your Dragon 2 was better than the first movie but I enjoyed both movies.

We came up with the idea for the Viking Ship Ice Cream Sundae ourselves. My 17 year old nephew made the templates for me. My 9 year old nephew drew on the details with an decorating gel pen. Directions for the cookie ship and templates are at the end of this post. Assembly of the ship was easier than I expected, especially on a slightly humid summer day. It was the highlight of this memorable meal.

My niece and nephews love fruit so we decided to carve a watermelon in the shape of a viking helmet. I based our helmet on this by the National Watermelon Promotion Board. We kept it much more simple but the kids enjoyed it. We ate watermelon with some blackberries.

We watched some clips from How to Train Your Dragon 2 so we incorporated the sheep with targets in our vegetable tray. Sheep – Nishiki rice shaped using a rice mold, heads are rice mixed with a little soy sauce. My niece painted the targets with gel food coloring. She had to be careful because the color did bleed a little. Also on the tray are carrots, sugar snap peas, cucumber, and mini sweet pepper and zucchini boats filled with ranch dip.

I made angel hair pasta, homemade cheese sauce (2 cup white sauce with shredded sharp cheddar cheese) and baked it until heated and slightly browned around the edges. We added red bell peppers as garnish. My 9 year old nephew knew they were supposed to be dragon fire but another nephew thought dragon claws which would also be appropriate.

We took Naan bread and my niece cut it into dragon shapes. She brushed the Naan with olive oil and added poppy seeds for Toothless. We baked them at 375 for about 10 minutes (until slightly browned). The other shapes we kept plain.

I thought that this filled dinner plate looked beautiful so I took a photo. It shows Toothless flying.

I stopped eating to take this photo of the meal in progress.

Here is the assembled Viking Ship before filling it with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped cream.

Viking Ship Cookie Sundae

I used this sugar cookie recipe. My nephew made Viking Cookie Ship Sundae Templates on card-stock following my vision for the ships. I made the cookies a few days in advance. I placed the cookies between layers of waxed paper in a plastic container with lid and put it in the freezer. I made extra pieces and I did have some breakage before assembling. I defrosted the cookies about an hour before assembling.

I used this royal icing recipe to hold the pieces together. It was a slightly humid day and I don’t have central air-conditioning so I assembled the cookies only an hour before eating because I was concerned about them holding up. They were fine and much easier to assembly than I had guessed. I ended up assembling 4 ships and my husband had a shipwrecked sundae with a piece of the ship and the toppings. It was my backup plan if the ships did not hold together so I wanted to try it out.

This ships are large! I did not expect the kids to finish all of the cookie ship. Some of them did not but I was fine with it.

Details on the ship: My 9 year old nephew used Wilton’s Black Decorating Gel tube to draw on the details. He did it after I had assembled the ships.

Masts: I melted white candy melts, put it in a ziplock bag, snipped off the end with scissors then used the melted candy melts to draw sails onto aluminum foil. I put the wet sails in the freezer. When they were solid, I turned the sails upside down on aluminum foil, and used more melted white candy melts to attach the sail to pretzel rods (I put melted candy melt under, above and on both sides of the pretzel rod). Then I put them back into the freezer. I only did this shortly before eating. I took the masts out of the freezer right before serving dessert.

You can see the back of the mast in this photo. They worked out great!

There were 6 of us for dinner – 9 year old nephew, 12 year old nephew, 15 year old niece, 17 year old nephew, my husband and myself. I hope that it is something they will remember fondly for years to come. Or even if some of them remember it as humoring their crazy Aunt with a passion for cute food – that is alright also.

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Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food, Party Planning | Tagged dinner and a movie | 8 Comments

Airplane Bento

Posted on June 13, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made this airplane themed bento for my 9 year old nephew. I picked this theme because it is the theme of the week at the Bento Blog Network. Also I was happy to use my 3D Airplane cutter again.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Popcorn (clouds)

Bottom Left: Carrot airplane with popcorn behind (I used this cutter)

Right: Airplane cheese quesadilla with cheese quesadilla sky (I brushed on a wash of blue food coloring and water)

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged 3D, bento | 3 Comments

Hummingbird Lunch

Posted on June 6, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This lunch came about because I wanted to use my hummingbird cookie cutter. I have had it for awhile and never used it. I ended up with this simple and delicious lunch of a cheese quesadilla over salad.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Hummingbird shaped mozzeralla cheese quesadilla, baby romaine blend salad with pumpkin seeds and slivered almonds

Top Right: Cottage cheese with fresh dill

Bottom Right: Sliced strawberries

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 2 Comments

15 Flower Themed Bento Lunches

Posted on June 2, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I love flowers and of course making cute food out of healthy ingredients. Recently I was feeling up to the challenge to make flowers out of savory food. In the 15 meals presented here, I showcase 13 different flowers made from fruit, vegetables, herbs, cheese, and chocolate. Enjoy!

Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley is my favorite flower so I made myself this lunch. To make the Lily of the Valley flowers I put softened cream cheese in a zip-lock bag, snipped off the end, then squeezed out small bits for each flower.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Wild rice, chives, snow peas, cream cheese

Top Right: Green grapes

Bottom Right: Asparagus

Lily of the Valley

In this lunch I made Lily of the Valley flowers out of apple. This lunch was previously published here.

Tulips

I made this lunch for my 15 year old niece to take to school for lunch. When I created the red, white, and yellow tulips I had the Japanese Tulip song in mind.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Red, white and yellow tulips (rice with tomato sauce for red, rice with corn and Parmesan cheese for yellow) on a bed of lettuce

Top Right: Hazelnuts

Bottom Right: Watermelon cut with this cutter

Not Shown: Mini Dippers with olive oil and Trader Joes Pomegranate Vinegar

Tulips

I made this tulip vegetable filled edible basket for my neighbors. It was previously published here.

Daffodil

I came up with the idea of using bell pepper for a daffodil and made this lunch for myself.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Elbow pasta, spinach leaves, yellow and orange bell pepper

Top Right: Strawberries with bee pick

Bottom Right: Pistachio nuts

Rudbeckia

Rudbeckia has many common names such as “Brown Eyed Susan”. I made this lunch for my husband from his brown-eyed wife.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich on wheat bread, cheddar cheese, chocolate chip

Top Right: Raspberries

Bottom Right: Pretzels

Cherry Blossoms

I made these simple cherry blossoms with cookie cutters and cheese.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Cheddar cheese cherry blossoms (used two sizes of cherry blossom cutters, Wilton Pink Gel Food Color), rice with chopped fresh parsley and lemon juice

Top Right: Raspberries

Bottom Right: Cucumber

Rose

I baked this Red Pepper and Cheese muffin in a rose shaped pan. It was previously published here.

Morning Glories

I made this morning glory lunch for my Mom. I decided to make pink morning glories instead of the traditional blue. Pink morning glories actually do exist and I was told that these edible strawberry cream cheese ones were delicious.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Strawberries

Bottom Left: Brazil nuts

Right Side: Mashed potatoes with cooked broccoli, butter, and shredded cheddar cheese. Morning Glories are strawberry cream cheese and plain cream cheese with spinach leaves.

Anthurium

I embellished this lunch with an anthurium made out of bell pepper. It was a beautiful and delicious lunch.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Chickpea, Cherry Tomato, and Feta Salad, pumpkin seeds in Mini Dippers

Top Right: Peaches

Bottom Right: Red bell pepper, orange bell pepper

Waterlily

I was very pleased with the likeness of this Cheddar cheese and yellow bell pepper waterlily. This lunch was previously published here.

Pansy

I made this colorful Pansy lunch for my Dad because I wanted it to be potato based and he likes potatoes.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: White potatoes and celery with Italian dressing. The pansy is made out of blue potato and white potato with radish around it.

Top Right: Cashew nuts

Bottom Right: Watermelon

Bleeding Heart

I made this bleeding heart lunch for my Mom. Growing up there were bleeding hearts in my childhood garden. I now have bleeding hearts in my garden.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Spinach rice with celery, beets, and cream cheese

Top Right: Pecans

Bottom Right: Strawberry slices

Plum Blossoms

I made this plum blossom themed lunch as part of my Japan travel and inspired bento series. It was previously published here.

Sunflower

I made a stencil to make this Sunflower lunch for myself. As usual I put too much on the stencil but it was edible.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Watermelon

Bottom Left: Sunflower seeds

Right Side: Nishiki rice with turmeric and hot paprika

This concludes my flower shaped food creations. Three of my bento making friends have made beautiful savory flowers from food. Please click on the links below to see their amazing food art.

Iris – Kristi from beneficial bento made a gorgeous iris out of potatoes, cheese, sugar snap peas, and black sesame seeds.

Poppy – Grace from Eats Amazing made a beautiful red poppy from a red pepper top and carrot.

Roses – Shirley from Little Miss Bento made stunning roses out of tomatoes.

Linking to:

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, flower themed food | 10 Comments

Potato Butterfly Bento

Posted on May 30, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made this bento for my 15 year old niece. I am somewhat new at mashed potato sculpture but I enjoy it. It seems to be very versatile. To make the mashed potatoes I added a little butter, milk, and shredded white cheddar cheese to cooked potatoes and then mashed until it was the consistency I wanted.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top: Butterfly (mashed white potato , red pepper, carrot, blue potato), broccoli

Bottom Left: Watermelon cut with butterfly cutters

Bottom Right: Pistachio nuts

Linking to:

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 3 Comments

Potato Snoopy Bento

Posted on May 28, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made this meal for my 12 year old nephew. He enjoyed it very much. Since this nephew does not eat a lot of vegetables I asked him what to use for the background. I was surprised but pleased when he wanted raw spinach leaves. I think that it made the perfect background.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top: Snoopy mashed potato (I added some butter, shredded cheddar cheese, and a little milk), spinach details and background

Bottom Left: Watermelon

Bottom Right: Pistachio nuts

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 2 Comments

Garden Club Tea Party

Posted on May 26, 2014 by eclecticlamb

Last week I hosted a tea for my garden club. It was my first time hosting this event. In addition to eating a variety of attractive food we also played my Tea Party Trivia Game.

A member of my club volunteered to make the gorgeous arrangements that were on the beverage and food tables.

Tea Beverage Table

I wanted to use tea cups and saucers. I had 12 from my great-grandmother’s set. I borrowed 11 from my mother-in-law. I borrowed the silver tea service from my mom. This was my first time using a tea service. Before the party I Googled how to use it. Basically you need to figure out what will work for you. In my case because of the number of guests, I used a separate carafe for coffee. I used both of the silver tea pots for tea. I think that it is poor because I was the party host but I ended up not pouring the tea. I became busy with something and a guest poured for me. If I host this party again next year, I will need to make sure I take on the task of pouring the tea.

I served Twinings English Afternoon Tea and had a basket with assorted tea and herbal tea. I had lemon slices, sugar dots, half and half, and milk on the table.

I wanted to decorate sugar cubes but when I attempted it I did not have enough time. The first time the icing was too runny and when I adjusted the icing it was too firm. Maybe if I host again next year I will decorate sugar cubes. One of my issues with not doing it too far in advance was that I did not want to use royal icing and was concerned about using a different icing too far in advance.

Caprese Salad Skewers

I added different combinations but mostly made cherry tomato, fresh mozzeralla and basil leaf skewers. I added black olives to some skewers. I kept it plain and did not add olive oil or salt.

Flower Crisps with Red Pepper Hummus

I had planned to use this recipe for the Flower Crisps and to save time fill them with store bought Red Pepper Hummus. I basically followed this plan but I had issues with the Flower Crisps. I could not find the egg roll wrappers in my store and did not have time to go 30 minutes away to a store that had them. I had some gyoza (dumpling) skins in my freezer and used those instead. But because they were smaller, I could not use the correct size cookie cutter and follow the directions exactly. I tried making them slightly smaller and they looked bad. So I ended up making them much smaller and put them inside the muffin tin instead of around the cups on an inverted tin. They did not look as beautiful as in the original recipe and it did bother me a little but I think that my party guests thought they looked cute.

Chocolate Roll Cake with Choco Strawberries

Chocolate Roll Cake with Chocolate Covered Strawberries

My mom made this chocolate roll cake for me. We used a vanilla buttercream because even though I love cream cheese frosting I was concerned that it does not have universal appeal. I made the chocolate covered strawberries as a garnish.

Radish and Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

I used Pepperidge Farm Very Thin white bread to make these open-faced tea sandwiches. I cut the slices with a flower shaped cookie cutter. For the radish sandwiches I spread softened butter on the bread, added some freshly ground pepper and then thinly sliced radish (I used my mandoline slicer). For the cucumber sandwiches I added dill and a splash of lemon juice to softened 1/3 less Fat Cream Cheese. I spread some of the cream cheese mixture on the flower shaped bread, then added some thinly sliced cucumber (cut with my mandoline slicer).

Scones with Cream and Jam

I made scones from the recipes in the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. I love the recipes because they can be made in advance and then frozen. I baked them a few hours before the party. I made Oat and Dried Apricot, Cranberry (used dried cranberries in place of currents), and Blueberry (used dried blueberries in place of currents) scones. I cut the scones smaller than the recipes indicated. Alongside the scones I served homemade strawberry jam, apricot jam, and whipped cream.

Tea Food Table

This photo shows the Fruit Salad. I just mixed together cut watermelon, pineapple, and red grapes. Not shown in this photo (behind the scones) is a bowl of mints.

Individual Nut Cups with Mixed Nuts

I used Wilton paper cups to serve individual portions of mixed nuts.

View of Tea Party Food Table

This view of the food table shows the invitation to this tea party.

Plate with Food

I enjoyed putting on this tea. If I host again next year there are some things I would do different but I think that my guests had a wonderful time.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food, Party Planning | Tagged tea party | 5 Comments

Toast Art Lamb

Posted on May 23, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This is my first time making what I consider toast art. I have used toast stamps before, here and here. I made this breakfast for my Dad because the theme this week at Bento Blog Network is Toast. This bento features the lamb I have drawn since I was a child.

To make my toast art lamb, I cut the shape out of aluminum foil and placed it on the bread before toasting. I used melted chocolate for the details.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: 2 hard-boiled eggs

Bottom Left: Raspberries

Right Side: 2 slices of toast (one buttered, one with chocolate for lamb details), cheddar cheese stick

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, breakfast, lamb, sheep | 5 Comments

Pig Bread Lunch

Posted on May 21, 2014 by eclecticlamb

Continuing in my series of shaped bread lunches… I made this simple but fun meal for my 9 year old nephew.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Green grapes

Bottom Left: Brazil nuts

Right Side: Bread pig (made with homemade french bread dough), eyes (dried blueberries)

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, shaped bread, vegan | 4 Comments

Bread Football Lunch

Posted on May 20, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made this meal for my 12 year old nephew. He loves bread, football, and pistachios so this was a natural choice.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Bread football (made with homemade french bread dough), cheddar cheese sticks, snow peas

Top Right: Pistachios with football lines drawn with food safe marker (I found this idea here)

Bottom Right: Green grapes

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, shaped bread, sports | Comments Off

Japan Travel and Bento Roundup

Posted on May 15, 2014 by eclecticlamb

Here is a roundup of my Japan travel and inspired bento articles. It was such an amazing trip and I enjoyed making bento and sharing my photos with you. See the links below for details about each location and bento.

Arashiyama & Monkey Park

Hiroshima & Miyajimi

Ikebana & Girl’s Day

Kyoto

Mt. Fuji & Shinkansen

Nara

Okayama

Osaka

Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, japan travel | 4 Comments

Kyoto Travel and Bento

Posted on May 14, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This is my last Japan travel and inspired bento article but I will share a compilation post to put all of the links in one place. My Mom and I rented a house in Kyoto from Japan Experience. It was great to be able to do some light cooking and get the feel of living in a neighborhood in Japan.

When making this bento, I was inspired by this photo. Other than my use of the plum shaped cutter, it probably looks like a cherry tree. But I was happy with the look and taste of this meal.

Container: ECO Lunchboxes

Left Side: Nishiki rice with spinach and strawberry cream cheese (I mashed some fresh strawberries and added them to cream cheese. I put the strawberry cream cheese in a ziplock plastic bag, cut off a small corner, then piped the cream cheese on top of the rice).

Right Side: Broccoli, radish with strawberry cream cheese centers

Round Cup: Strawberries

Inspiration Photo

Since the plum trees were blossoming during our visit, we went to Kitano Shrine in Kyoto. It is known for a gorgeous plum garden. As part of the garden admission we received tickets for a supposedly plum tea and a snack. I could not drink the tea because I found the taste to be revolting. My Mom has a great photo of my expression after trying the tea but I won’t share it here.

I was inspired by our experience at the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine when making this lunch. I also liked the idea of trying a different vegetable to make the Tori. In my Miyajima bento I used bell pepper. I made the fox picks from actual photos I took.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Quinoa cooked in vegetable broth with green peas, carrots

Top Right: Hazelnuts

Bottom Right: Clementine with homemade Fox statue picks

Inspiration Photo

We went to this shrine first thing in the morning because I was concerned about crowds. It was a good time to go. It was very impressive. Before going to the shrine I read a review with a woman’s experience and she suggested that it was not necessary to climb all the way to the top. So we went there intending to follow her advice and we did.

Fox Shaped Cakes

Since the Fox is the guardian at this shrine there were Fox statues, toys, and fox head shaped cakes.

Map of Fushimi Inari-taisha

Fox Statue at Fushimi Inari-taisha

Two Fox Statues at Fushimi Inari-taisha

Sponsors Names on Gates

When we walked past these poles, my first thought was that it was poetry. But I found out later that it was company names of sponsors.

Plum Garden at Kitano Shrine

Strawberry Flavored Baked Goods

We ate a lot of bread while in Japan. I could not resist taking a photo of this cute strawberry themed display. I bought and ate the chocolate and strawberry one. Delicious. I put strawberry shaped bread on my list of shaped bread bento that I want to make.

Bamboo Fence

Water at Kyomizu-dera

Our visit to Kiyomizu-dera was in the rain. Before we went that day I Googled to see if it was alright to see in the rain. I think that the rain made it more special.

Women in Kimono at Kyomizu-dera

At Kiyomizu-dera and other shrines in Kyoto, we often noticed young women dressed in kimono. I was told that some do it as a girl’s day out to make it more special. The kimono were beautiful!

Totoro

This cute Totoro display was at the Studio Ghibli store near Kyomizu-dera. The street on the way up the hill to the temple was filled with souvenir shops and restaurants. We ate cream puffs and I bought a shot-glass for my husband’s collection.

Stream in Garden at Heian Shrine

The garden at Heian Shrine was gorgeous. Everywhere we turned there was beauty. We took a lot of photos here even though it was slightly rainy. Since it was off-season and a little rainy, we had the garden to ourselves. Also special was that we were able to walk here from our rental house.

Garden at Heian Shrine

Walking on Stepping Stones at Heian Shrine Garden

My Mom is an adventurer. Me, not so much. I think that this photo is so funny because it shows me watching and not participating while she is on an adventure. I walked around on the path while my Mom walked on the stepping stones across the pond. I was afraid that I would fall.

Heian Shrine Garden

Tori Near Heian Shrine

Manhole Cover in Kyoto

As I mentioned in my Osaka post, manhole covers are often special in Japan.

Shimogamo Shrine

This was taken at Shimogamo Shrine. It was another one that we walked to from our rental house. We went in the morning. This shrine was surrounded by many trees and it did not feel like we were in a city.

Shimogamo Shrine

Sheep Themed Donuts

Of course, I could not resist buying these cute sheep themed donuts.

River in Kyoto

This was the view on our walk from our rental house to the closest grocery store.

Turtle Stepping Stones in River

Kyoto Night Walking Tour

We went on a night walking tour of Gion in Kyoto hosted by Japan Experience. Since it was off-season and a little cold, we were the only ones on the tour with our guide. It was a special tour and I recommend it. We actually happened upon 4 Geisha during our walk.

Kyoto Pagoda at Night

Kyoto View of Snow Covered Mountains

Women on Sidewalk Wearing Kimonos

Our stay in Kyoto and in Japan was so special. Kyoto is a wonderful city to explore and convenient to do many day-trips.

Linking to:

Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, japan travel | 30 Comments

Osaka Travel and Bento

Posted on May 13, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This is the next to last article in my Japan travel and bento series. My Mom and I spent time in Osaka at the beginning and the end of our trip. At the end of our trip my friend who lives in a different part of Japan came and spent time with us.

I know that this bento is a strange one and I almost did not share it here. It is very simple. The picks are from actual jelly fish and sea turtle photos I took at the Osaka Aquarium.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Nishiki rice dyed blue (I ended up using too much and it is VERY blue), stingray drawn on Cheddar cheese with food safe marker

Top Right: Cucumber

Bottom Right: Mukimame

We stayed at the Hilton near Osaka Station and near many amazing shopping opportunities. I did not take any photos during our shopping trips. I can’t believe that I did not take a photo inside an 100 Yen store. I certainly went to a lot of them while in Japan.

Stingray at Osaka Aquarium

One of my Mom’s requests was to visit the Osaka aquarium. They have an impressive tank that spans many levels. During our time at the aquarium a preschool group of young kids was there. It was fun to see their reactions.

Jellyfish

Sea Turtle at Osaka Aquarium

Another item on my Mom’s list was to visit the Umeda Sky Building. I have been to a few observation towers in my life but this is my favorite one yet. Impressive. We did not realize during our first stay at the Osaka Hilton that we could see this building from the Executive lounge.

Escalator to Observation Area at Umeda Sky Building

View of Osaka from the Sky Building

Another View From Sky Building

Umeda Sky Building Clouds

View of Escalators in Sky Building

Umeda Sky Building From Below

Umeda Sky Building

Osaka at Night

This photo was taken from our room at the Osaka Hilton. The Hilton was very comfortable and in a convenient location.

Dog with Dress and Hair Bows

An older man was walking this dog. It was the first time I had even seen a dog with hair bows. I told the man (in Japanese) that his dog was cute. My Mom then told me to tell the man that his dog was cute not knowing that I just told him.

Red Ferris Wheel

Plum Garden Near Osaka Castle

The plum trees near the Osaka castle were in full bloom during our visit. It is probably a lovely stroll during other seasons but it is incredible during plum blossom season.

Sign on Plum Tree

Plum Blossoms

View of Plum Garden

Glimpse of Osaka Castle Through the Plum Blossoms

Gorgeous Plum Tree

Osaka Castle

I did not include any close-up photos of Osaka Castle. We walked near it but did not go inside. While walking on the grounds and viewing the moat I kept thinking about my 9 year old nephew and thought that he would enjoy being there.

Osaka Castle Moat

Cement Tori

Tiger on Osaka Castle

Do not Speed Sign

Lion King Ad

I am fascinated by manhole covers in Japan. They are often themed for the city where they are located. The blog Uncovering Japan has a Manhole Monday feature.

We had a lovely time in Osaka. The next and last article in this series will be Kyoto.

Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, japan travel | 2 Comments

Nara Travel and Bento

Posted on May 8, 2014 by eclecticlamb

The city of Nara is next in my series of travel photos and bento inspired by my trip to Japan. My Mom and I visited Nara as a day trip from Kyoto.

I laughed out loud at the results of my Great Buddah quesadilla. It does seem funny to make a Buddha quesadilla. I served it to my 15 year old niece for lunch at my house.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: 2 deer shaped tortillas browned in a skillet with cooking spray, raw green beans

Bottom Left: Blueberry yogurt with toasted hazelnuts

Right Side: Buddha quesadilla with food marker details, another quesadilla behind with blue food coloring and water painted on then blotted with a paper towel

Inspiration photo for my Buddha Bento

Nara is a common day trip from Kyoto. I reserved a free Goodwill Guide from the YMCA in Nara. It is a wonderful service that matches English speaking volunteer guides with tourists. I arranged via email a guide for the day and time we wanted. Our guide met us at the JR station in Nara. We toured with her in the morning. She was very knowledgeable about the sites and culture.

In this bento I attempted to depict latte art with almond butter and dry milk powder. I made a stencil from a photo of our latte art we enjoyed in Nara. It is an open faced sandwich but the other piece of bread fit nicely under the top one so I ate it by putting both of them together. It probably would have looked better if I did not use an English muffin and used a smoother surface.

Container: Kokeshi box

Top Tier: Dried cherries and apricots

Middle Tier: Toasted English muffin with almond butter, dried milk powder

Bottom Tier: Salad of lettuce and carrots

Inspiration photo for my Latte Art Bento

Our guide picked us up at the Nara station and drove us around in her car. It was my Mom’s first (and only) time in a car in Japan. It is a slightly difference experience because they drive on the opposite side of the road than they do in the United States.

Wall in Nara

Deer Eating Vegetables

Our guide brought vegetable scraps from her home to feed the deer. Traditionally in Nara people can buy rice crackers and make the deer bow their heads. Some deer bowed for the vegetable peelings. I also saw a deer bow her head when I did not have food with me.

Possible Actions Deer May Take

The deer in Nara are known for being slightly aggressive in search of food. This sign warns visitors that the deer can bite, kick, butt, and knock down people. I did see many people carry their dogs past the deer. It is probably best not to bring your dog to Nara.

Young Deer Nara

Todai-ji

Our guide shared with us the spiritual aspects of visiting this temple. She also shared information about how they clean the Buddha and showed us photos from a book. It made the whole experience more meaningful having a person tell us details that we may have otherwise been unaware.

Steps of Todai-ji

World’s Largest Bronze Statue of the Buddha Vairocana

Komokuten, One of the Pair of Guardians

Inside Todai-ji

Reflection in Nara

Deer in Nara

Kid with Deer Nara

We also visited the Isuien Garden. It was on the list of things we wanted to see with our guide. It is such an amazing, beautiful place. Words or photos do not do it justice.

Isuien Garden Nara

Pink Flowers Nara

Komomaki (Pest Control) During Winter

These trees have what is called komomaki (straw covers). They are used in the winter. The Pine Moth goes into the straw and in the spring gardeners remove the straw and burn it, eliminating the Pine Moth. A detailed explanation about komomaki is here.

Isuien Garden View

Pine Needle Pattern

I was impressed by this pattern made with pine needles. I do not know if this is typical to see in Japanese gardens but I don’t think I had seen it before.

Walking Up Steps in Isuien Garden

Cover at Pond

White Plum Blossoms

In the afternoon my Mom and I met my language exchange partner who lived within a day trip from Nara. It was so wonderful to spend time in person with her instead of speaking via Skype! Since she knew I was interested in Japanese latte art, she found a cafe in Nara for us to have coffee. The coffee and dessert were so cute and delicious!

Nara Latte Art

Beautiful Swan Latte Art

Beautifully Plated Cake

Gorgeous Dessert

Strawberries and Cream Crepe Cake

Japanese Garden

Early Spring Blooms

Planter in Nara

We had a wonderful day in Nara. If you have the chance to visit Nara I recommend it.

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Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, vegetarian | 6 Comments

Soccer Bagel Lunch

Posted on May 6, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I made this lunch for my 9 year old nephew. He requested bagels and a soccer theme. I was happy to work within the restraints.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Homemade bagel with poppy seeds (I made a soccer ball stencil and sprinkled poppy seeds on the bagel before baking), I also tried cinnamon sugar on another bagel but thought that the poppy looked better, sugar snap peas

Top Right: Pistachio nuts with soccer ball pick

Bottom Right: Clementine with soccer ball pattern drawn with food safe marker

Not Shown: String cheese

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Star Wars Bento Hop

Posted on May 4, 2014 by eclecticlamb

Yoda Cheese Ball with Star Wars Crackers

May the fourth be with you! I am joining my Bento Bloggers & Friends on this Star Wars themed bento lunch hop. Please use the button at the end of this post to continue on to all of the other participants until you get back here.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Star Wars Vehicles: Crackers in the shapes of the Millennium Falcon, Vader’s TIE Fighter, X-wing Fighter and the Death Star (see below for directions)

Yoda: Cheese ball (see below for directions)

Fruit: Blackberries

Vader Cracker Dough After Making Imprint

How I made the crackers:

I used this cracker recipe but quartered the recipe. I found it very easy to work with. The key with homemade crackers is to roll out the dough very thin. I did not roll it out as thin as I have in the past while making crackers because I wanted to make sure I got a good imprint. I made a quarter of the recipe for the vehicles. I made a quarter of the recipe for Darth Vader. I added ground black sesame seeds to the dough for Vader. I ground the black sesame seeds in a coffee grinder that I only use for seeds/spices. I carefully cut out the shape, then pushed the dough into the cutter with my fingers to get an imprint. Then, I carefully peeled the dough off of the cutter. I followed these directions for baking except that I used parchment paper. Star Wars Vehicle Cookie Cutters, Star Wars Heroes & Villains Cookie Cutters

How I made the Yoda cheese ball:

I mixed softened cream cheese, some garlic powder and shredded cheddar cheese. I used the Yoda cookie cutter from this set as a guide for shape and size. I then added green food coloring to softened cream cheese and carefully frosted Yoda with a butter knife. I used a toothpick to add wrinkles. I cut small pieces of cheddar cheese for the eyes and added the pupils with a food safe black marker.

Thanks for visiting! Please click on the button below to see Venia’s fabulous creation at Organized Bites.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, tutorial | 24 Comments

Dance Around the Maypole Bento

Posted on May 1, 2014 by eclecticlamb

In celebration of May Day I made this cute dancing around the maypole lunch for my 15 year old niece. She loved it!

I mostly followed these directions to dye the pasta. Other than dying the pasta (which was a little messy), this lunch was fast to prepare.

Container: Kokeshi box

Top Tier: Pecans

Middle Tier: Nishiki rice with dyed Mafaldine pasta and spaghetti for the maypole. I wanted to use linguini for the maypole but decided to use what I had in my pantry. Animal picks are the dancers.

Bottom Tier: Flower shaped cucumber with carrots and lettuce

On the Side: Clementine

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Arashiyama Travel and Bento Lunch

Posted on April 30, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This is a continuation of my series of travel photos from my trip to Japan and bentos inspired by my experiences. When planning our Kyoto portion of our trip, I knew that I wanted to visit the Monkey Park in Arashiyama.

This lunch was simple but delicious and the nuts and seeds made it satisfying.

Container: Wooden box purchased in Kyoto at Bento&co.

Contents: Monkey shaped cheese quesadilla, lettuce, spinach, carrots, snow peas, chickpeas, slivered almonds, pumpkin seeds, monkey picks

Arashiyama Beautiful in Any Season

Japanese Pine

Across the River Heading Towards the Monkey Park

We walked from the train station in Arashiyama to the Monkey Park. There was a small tourist information office near the station. The woman there gave us a map. It was somewhat helpful but did not have street names on it. Anyway, it was a pleasant walk in Arashiyama and across the bridge to the little mountain that contains the monkey park.

Monkey Park Sign

Arashiyama Iwatayama Monkey Park Information Sign

Monkey Park Steps

The entrance person said it was about a 20 minute walk. Of course it depends on your physical condition and if you want a leisurely stroll through nature or if it is a race. The path is somewhat steep in some places.

Path up the Mountain to Monkey Park

Monkey Trivia Sign

There were several monkey trivial signs along the path up the mountain. You can lift up the hinged wood to see the answer. There was even at least one in English.

Along the route up the mountain there were many warning signs not to show food to the monkeys, don’t look the monkey in the eye, don’t get too close to the monkeys. The first time we saw monkeys in our path I was afraid to pass them. But eventually we did and they did not care. But we knew in advance not to have food with us.

Monkey in Path

Monkey with Hand Out for Food

At the top of the mountain there was a place for visitors to rest. They had food to buy to feed the monkeys. It was 100 Yen and there were bags of sweet potato, apple, and peanuts. Humans are in a cage with the monkeys outside while we gave them food. We did not buy the peanuts but I could have stayed there much longer buying bags of food and feeding them to the monkeys. They were very cute and it was so much fun!

Monkey Looking at Food We Gave It

I am surprised that we ended up with a few photos of monkeys looking at the food. It seemed like they ate it very fast. We took a LOT of monkey photos.

Monkey Looking at Food

View from Feeding Building

Monkeys Waiting for Food

Monkey with Food in Mouth

Monkey Mouth Open

Another Monkey Photo

Beautiful Monkey

Monkey Face

Monkeys by Pond

Arashiyama Kyoto Japan

After the monkey park we had a leisurely walk through Arashiyama. We ate some ice cream and looked in some shops.

Ice cream in Arashiyama

Buddhist Statues

These statues are called “Jizo” in Japanese. They are made from stone. Many of them are dedicated to the protection of children.

Traditional Japanese Roof

Our visit to Arashiyama and the Monkey Park was a memorable experience. If you like monkeys I highly recommend that you visit.

Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, japan travel | 2 Comments

Ikebana Experience and Bento

Posted on April 29, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This is next in my series of travel photos from my trip with my Mom to Japan. The bento lunch was inspired by an Ikebana class we took. This bento did not come out as beautiful as it did in my head. The pearl couscous background could be part of the problem but it may also be the weight of the foliage I used. My Ikebana teacher would know how to fix it. But it was delicious, satisfying, and healthy which is part of the reason I make bento.

Container: Blue Box from Japan

Large Tier: Pea shoots, green beans, alpha sprouts, tri-color pearl couscous

Small Tier: Orange, blackberries, pecans

When planning our trip to Japan, I knew that I wanted to take an Ikebana class. It is something I wanted to try on other trips to Japan but it never happened. I found a review of an Ikebana class in Kyoto by Uncovering Japan. Since my Mom and I were renting a house in Kyoto for a week, it was the perfect time to take an Ikebana class.

Container for Ikebana Arrangement

Plant Material We Used

Differences between western arranging and ikebana

Difference Between Western Arranging and Ikebana

Our teacher was very knowledgeable and provided a pleasant atmosphere to get hands on experience trying our hands at this craft. I highly recommend this class to anyone who wants to experience this piece of Japanese culture while in Kyoto. Kimiko has a blog and this is her post about our morning with her.

Arrangements in Progress

Teacher Offering Guidance

I was very impressed with how Kimiko could suggest a few changes and the arrangement would transform into an arrangement lacking finesse into something of beauty. I am not a natural arranger of flowers in any country but I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. My Mom also enjoyed very much and is still talking about it.

Ikebana Arrangements

Japanese Sweet and Green Tea

Since the theme of our arrangements was the upcoming Hinamatsuri (Girl’s Day Festival) I decided to include our Hinamatsuri photos in this post. We were in Japan right before (after after) Girl’s Day and took many photos of the Girl’s Day displays while in stores and out and about.

Hinamatsuri (Girl’s Day or Doll Festival) is celebrated in Japan on March 3. A popular decoration for this holiday are platforms with dolls representing the emperor, empress and the court from the Heian period. It is a day to pray for the future happiness of girls.

I am fascinated by this cultural holiday and was very excited to be in Japan during it. It was an extra bonus for it to be our ikebana theme. Last year I hosted a Girl’s Day themed dinner. Below I include many photos of a variety of displays we happened upon while in Japan. If you get to the end you can have some Girls’ Day cake.

Girl’s Day Displays

Girl’s Day Displays

Girl’s Day Themed Pastries

A Unique Girl’s Day Display

Close-up of Girl’s Day Display

Ceramic Dolls

Hinamatsuri Themed Dish

Fabric Rabbit Themed Dolls for Girl’s Day

Girl’s Day Gifts at Department Store

Beautiful Screen Behind Display

Dolls for Sale at Toys R Us in Kyoto

An Elaborate Display at Toys R Us

Pink Hinamatsuri Display

Girl’s Day Themed Package

Wooden Girl’s Day Display

Miniature Display

At Ichihime Shrine

The photo above and the next two below were taken at Ichihime Shrine in Kyoto.

At Ichihime Shrine

At Ichihime Shrine

Slices of Girl’s Day Strawberry Cream Cake

I knew that bakeries sell Hinamatsuri (Girl’s Day) cake. I put it on our list of things to do while in Japan. We ended up buying slices of cake one day and a little cake another day. We did see many cakes on Girl’s Day in the food sections of department stores in Kyoto but we bought our cakes at a neighborhood bakery near our rental house.

Girl’s Day Strawberry and Cream Cake

I hope that you are enjoying this series as much as I am enjoying creating it. The next article will be about our experience at a monkey park.

Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged ひな祭り, bento, japan travel | 8 Comments

Travel to See Mt Fuji and Bento Lunch

Posted on April 25, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This is the third article in my series of travel photos and bentos inspired by my trip to Japan. My Mom wanted to to see Mt. Fuji. We knew it is often covered by clouds. Since we had a Japan Rail Pass we planned a day trip from Kyoto. We decided not to do any of the tourist excursions to get close to it. Our plan was to go to Shin-Fuji station, see Mt. Fuji (hopefully), then spend some time in Shizuoka before returning to Kyoto.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Mt. Fuji made from Nishiki rice, covered with spinach leaves (quickly microwaved until the leaves wilted a little), shredded taco cheese, raw broccoli

Top Right: Watermelon cubes

Bottom Right: Plain Greek Yogurt with some honey underneath (this represents Fuji behind the clouds)

I am not experienced with mashed potato sculpture but I tried it for this Shinkansen – Bullet Train meal. It turned out a little wonky but I like it. My husband ate this meal.

Container: Black Bento Box

Small Tier: Dried apricot, dried cherries, pecans and sliced almonds

Large Tier: Shinkansen – Bullet Train (mashed potatoes with garlic powder and cheddar cheese; spinach details), cooked broccoli

Paper Shinkansen Toy

We took the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) many times in Japan. Some of these photos are from trips other than our day trip to see Mt. Fuji. The photo above and below were taken at Shin-Osaka Station.

Shinkansen Diorama

Advertisement for Shinkansen Treats

I never did see the actual sweets (above) but I took a photo of this cute sign at Shin-Osaka station.

Shinkansen Employee on Platform

Shinkansen employees were very helpful to make sure we were in the correct place. At first we were confused about the different locations on the platform we needed to wait for our reserved car depending on how many cars were on the particular train. After we figured it out it seemed obvious as the signs for the coming trains indicate how many cars. But I do have a policy I started in Japan many years ago. Before I get on a train, I ask someone else waiting (using Japanese) to make sure I am getting on the correct train. I have never been wrong as the station platforms provide plenty of information but it makes me feel more comfortable.

Arriving Shinkansen

Waiting to Board

View from Shinkansen

It was exciting to see the scenery and palm trees from our Shinkansen window. It was especially appealing since we are from New York State and typically don’t see palm trees.

Car Map on Back of Seat

The maps on the seat backs in the trains were helpful. It made it easy to find the location of bathrooms, vending machines, and garbage cans. Also as is my nature, I love information.

Train travel in Japan is very comfortable and convenient. It was such a pleasure to ride the Shinkansen!

View from Shinkansen

Tea near Shizuoka

Many years ago I took this same route past Shizuoka so I knew to look out for the tea as we passed by. Shizuoka is known for green tea.

Another View of Tea from Shinkansen

No Mt. Fuji Covered with Clouds

We took the Shinkansen to Shin-Fuji station because a friend told me it was closer than Shizuoka to see Mt. Fuji. I asked a man (fellow traveler) on the platform where Mt. Fuji was located. He pointed to the area covered with clouds. I had seen Mt. Fuji before but it would have been my Mom’s first time. We were fully aware that it would be possible to not see it. I think that I was more disappointed than my Mom was. But we had a nice but simple lunch at the train station and the information lady was very kind.

Front and Back of Mt. Fuji is Shy Certificate

Since we were unable to see Mt. Fuji due to cloud cover, the information lady gave us these certificates. They are stamped with the day of visit and have a beautiful photo of Mt. Fuji on one side.

Shizuoka near Park with Tokugawa Statue

Sampujo Park Map

After Shin-Fuji Station (I had allowed ourselves only about 30 minutes there) we continued on to Shizuoka where we stayed a few hours. A friend mentioned that Sumpu Park was located not far from the Shizuoka Station. It was a beautiful day for a walk. Castle ruins from Tokugawa Ieyasu and a statue of him are located at the park. At first I could not find the statue. I was determined to find it as I had studied Japanese history in college. I asked a woman sitting on a bench with a young child, she told me it was behind me! So funny. I just had to turn around from where we were to see it.

From the little we experienced of Shizuoka we thought it was a nice city and would like to go back again to spend more time there.

Plum Tree in Shizuoka

Information about Sampu Castle Ruins

Tokugawa Statue

Mt Fuji Souvenirs at Train Station

Fuji Tea Products for Sale at Shizuoka Station

I loved this Mt. Fuji shaped metal box. I did not care what was inside of it. But I asked myself, “Did I really need a Mt. Fuji shaped metal box?” Ultimately the answer was no.

Mt Fuji Pound Cake

Mt Fuji Ekiben (Train Station Bento)

Since I am fascinated by bento and Ekiben (train station bento) of course I took a photo of the Mt. Fuji shaped bento.

I hope that you enjoyed seeing my Shinkansen photos, our day trip to see Mt. Fuji and Shizuoka and my inspired bento lunches. Even though we did not see Mt. Fuji we had a wonderful day trip!

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Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, japan travel | 12 Comments

Ugly Duckling Lunch

Posted on April 22, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I like the idea of representing stories or songs with food but I think that I have only made a few. This Ugly Duckling themed lunch based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson has been on my to-do list for awhile. If you are interested in swam themed meals see this one I made a in 2012.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Ugly Duckling: Duckling drawn on Cheddar cheese with food safe marker

Nest: Chocolate eggs in silicone cup (small eggs – white chocolate, large egg – peanut butter)

Swan: Peanut butter sandwich on white bread, eye (dried blueberry), beak (crust), snow peas, blueberries

This photo with me and Hans was taken many years ago in Central Park, NYC.

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Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento | 22 Comments

Kid Made Eyeball Lunch

Posted on April 16, 2014 by eclecticlamb

My 9 year old nephew made this lunch for himself. He used bagels leftover from breakfast to make sandwiches. I think that he had fun using these eyeball picks to add character to each course.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Sandwiches: Assorted homemade bagels (cinnamon & sugar, sesame, sunflower, and poppy seed) made into raspberry jam sandwiches

Vegetable: Snow peas

Fruit: Miniature apple

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Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged vegetarian | 7 Comments

Eight Easter Lunches

Posted on April 9, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I love working with a theme. Here are 8 Easter themed bento lunches. I included many common symbols of Easter: eggs, lamb, chicks, basket, cross, and bunnies.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Easter Egg Rice (Nishiki rice packed with plastic wrap into an egg shaped cookie cutter), decorated with spinach, carrot, and some round sprinkles, background (lettuce and spinach), letter picks

Top Right: Almonds

Bottom Right: Grapefruit

This lunch was previously published here.

When making calzones for dinner, I made a few in Easter egg shapes to use for lunch the next day.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Easter egg shaped cheese calzone, lettuce

Top Right: Orange

Bottom Right: Cooked green beans

This lunch was previously published here.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Rabbit shaped watermelon

Bottom Left: Bunny shaped hard boiled egg (I used this egg mold)

Right Side: Rabbit shaped bread (I used a basic french bread dough, sprinkled with cinnamon, dried blueberry eyes and nose)

Peanut Butter: In Mini Dippers

This lunch was previously published here.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Top Left: Lettuce salad with bunny and egg shaped carrots

Bottom Left: Pistachios decorated as Easter eggs with food safe markers

Right Side: Bunny sandwiches (peanut butter on wheat bread with dried blueberry details), alfalfa sprouts

I enjoyed creating these Easter lunches using many of the common symbols of Easter. If you try any of these, I would love to see a photo of your meal.

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Leftovers on Friday

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, easter, shaped bread, vegetarian | 27 Comments

Easter Themed Dinner and Ribbon Egg Decorating

Posted on April 8, 2014 by eclecticlamb

My niece (15 years old) and I have a tradition of decorating eggs for Easter. Each time we focus on a different technique while keeping with our initial color scheme of blue and white. This year we decided to decorate our blown-out eggs with ribbon.

Techniques we used in the past:

We enjoyed an Easter themed dinner to go along with our egg decorating. This dinner many look fancy but it was minimal effort for the huge payback in visual appeal.

Menu:

Bunny Salad – lettuce, raw spinach, cucumber with egg and rabbit shaped carrots. I used the egg from this set and this 3D cutter set. Serve with your favorite dressing.
Ribbon Pasta with Asparagus and Parmesan – Wegmans Mafaldine pasta, cooked asparagus, butter and Parmesan cheese, freshly ground pepper (I had planned to add sliced almonds but forgot to use them)
Chocolate Nests – We used this recipe. Instead of semisweet chocolate we used dark chocolate chips, instead of the marcona almonds we used Cadbury Mini Eggs. The recipe is very simple but I was confused about the size of muffin tin. The recipe says to use a 6-cup muffin pan. My 6-cup pan is the larger size. I probably should have used 6 cups from my 12-cup pan (smaller). So even though the recipe is supposed to make 6 nests I ended up making 4 large nests to be able to shape it into a nest using the larger muffin cups. I was concerned about being able to remove the nests from my muffin cups but I had no problem using a knife to pry out one side – it then popped right out!

It was dinner for 3 this night. You don’t need a crowd to make a special dinner.

Three nests fit perfectly on my small cake plate.

We used assorted ribbon in our color scheme and tacky glue. We tried different designs but were happiest with a simple band of ribbon around the center of the egg. My niece came up with the idea of gluing two different colored ribbon to each other and using that as a band around the center. We also tried making ribbon bows and glued them to the eggs.

My niece enjoys painting (I don’t) so she mixed up a custom color and painted some of the eggs blue. We find that painting the eggs works better than dying them.

Our hanger ribbon is 1/8 inch (3 mm ) wide. The widest ribbon we used as decoration was 5/8 inch (15 mm) wide.

For my egg tree I used branches that my Mom sprayed with white paint a few years ago.

This dinner and egg craft project was a hit! I would love to know if you try either of these and how it worked for you.

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Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Crafts, Food | Tagged 3D, easter, vegetarian | 15 Comments

Okayama Travel and Bento Lunch

Posted on April 4, 2014 by eclecticlamb

This is the second article in my series of travel photos and bentos inspired by my trip to Japan. My Mom and I stayed at the Hilton in Osaka and took the Shinkansen (Bullet train) to Okayama for a day trip. It was an easy day trip from Osaka. My Mom wanted to see the Okayama Korakuen garden. It is on the list of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. I was interested in seeing the town that claims to be the setting of the Momotaro (Peach Boy) story.

Container: Book Bento Box

Contents: Cooked broccoli and cashews, Nishiki rice with smoked salt, Momotaro (Cheddar cheese with spinach and food marker details), Oni (Cheddar cheese with food coloring, spinach, cheese, and carrot details). I included a monkey and dog pick but omitted the bird from the story because I do not have a bird pick and decided not to make one.

This was my first time using this cute Book Bento Box. I received it as a Christmas gift. Since Momotaro (Peach Boy) is story, it seemed appropriate to put in in a book shaped box. This bento came from All Things for Sale.

Inspiration photo for my Momotaro Bento

I don’t think that Okayama is a typical town for foreigners to visit because when I told many Japanese friends about our plans they seemed surprised. When I was in the process of deciding to visit Okayama I consulted many blog posts in English. Some people recommended it and some did not. I think that it depends on your interests. We were very impressed with the Okayama Korakuen garden and it was early spring (often not an ideal time to visit a garden).

This is my attempt at a simple Okayama Castle drawing. My Mom and I bought combination tickets to the Okayama Korakuen Garden and Okayama Castle. We enjoyed walking around and through the castle. They have many interesting historical displays and a gift shop.

I used leftovers from dinner in this easy bento lunch.

Container: Black Bento Box

Small Tier: Strawberries and walnuts

Large Tier: Okayama Castle drawn on a flour tortilla with a food safe marker, Penne with asparagus and pine nuts (I used vegetable broth)

Inspiration photo for my Okayama Castle Bento

We toured the castle and garden on our first full day in Japan. We were tired and jet-lagged but we had a wonderful day. Some people may say that early spring is not the best time to visit Okayama Korakuen. But it is such a well-designed and gorgeous place that I think it would be wonderful to visit in any season. We took a lot of photos here as everywhere we looked there was beauty.

Momotaro (Peach Boy) Statue

We easily found the Momotaro statue as it was right near Okayama Station. We never did find the Momotaro themed manhole covers. Their location was not obvious and we ran out of time. We found one information desk but were not able to find the information center. Supposedly they have the Momotaro story in English to giveaway. It was in a lower level somewhere. We made an effort to find it but gave up. Instead we ate ice cream and fruit in crepes at Baskin-Robbins.

The bus that goes to Okayama Korakuen is not far from the Momotaro statue. I asked a family (in Japanese) how to get to the garden. They were going to the same place and were very kind to make sure we knew where to get off and watched out for us a little.

Momotaro (Peach Boy) Statue with Dog, Monkey, and Bird

Okayama Ekiben (Station Bento) in Peach Shaped Box

Ekiben (train station bento) are found in train stations in Japan. I knew about the peach box and was on the lookout for it. I actually thought about buying it for the box (as a vegetarian I don’t eat fish) but decided that it was probably flimsy.

Sign Showing Okayama Ekiben (Train Station Bento)

This photo shows Okayama Ekiben (train station bento). It showcases local specialties. I was fascinated by bentos in Japan and took many photos.

Okayama Castle

The Back of Okayama Castle

Pine Tree at Okayama Korakuen

Okayama Korakuen in Early Spring

Okayama Korakuen

Okayama Korakuen

Okayama Korakuen

The older woman in this photo spoke with us in Japanese. She was friendly and asked us where we were from. I later heard her tell another worker at the garden that we were from New York.

Japanese Allspice

I believe that this was my first time seeing this tree (Wintersweet or Japanese Allspice). It was very fragrant! I asked what it was called and was given the name in Japanese. Part of the name is the same for candle. Here is a detailed explanation and some beautiful photos.

Plum Tree in Bloom

Cranes

Okayama Korakuen has several cranes. Here is some more information on the cranes at Okayama Korakuen.

Okayama Korakuen

I hope that you enjoyed seeing my photos from Okayama and my inspired bento lunches. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them.

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Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, japan travel, vegetarian | 13 Comments

Hiroshima Travel and Bento Lunch

Posted on April 1, 2014 by eclecticlamb

In March my Mom and I returned from a 2 week trip to Japan. My plan is to make bento and share travel photos and memories. I am not yet sure how many articles will be in this series but this is my first.

Hiroshima Peace Bento

This trip was my second time to Hiroshima. The first time I was impacted by the message of peace and the paper cranes school children prepare and leave at Sadako’s statue. So I decided to use this as my inspiration for my Hiroshima bento.

If you have not already, I recommend that you read the children’s book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Dijon Lentil Salad, (this recipe does have flaws as I mentioned here. Remember to add Dijon) Cheddar cheese with Sadako statue drawn using food safe markers

Top Right: Fresh pineapple chunks with PEACE letter picks

Bottom Right: Lettuce and spinach salad with doves (carrot)

Inspiration photo for my Hiroshima Peace Bento

My Mom and I used a Japan Rail Pass when we traveled to Hiroshima by Shinkansen from Osaka. We met my language exchange friend in Hiroshima. Prior to our trip my Mom was concerned about my language skills since she would be depending on me. So I spoke via Skype with some Japanese women seeking a language exchange. We connected through the site http://mylanguageexchange.com/ and chatted a few times via Skype prior to my trip to Japan. My language exchange friend in Hiroshima was such a wonderful host and tour guide and it was so nice to spend time with her in person!

In Hiroshima we stayed at the Hotel Granvia. It is a beautiful hotel and very convenient to the train station. It was also wonderful that we could leave our luggage there in the morning prior to check-in. We then spent a day touring. In the afternoon when we returned to check-in, our luggage was already in our room!

Miyajima Bento

This was an easy but beautiful and cute lunch if I do say so myself!

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Nishiki rice, Tori (orange bell pepper), blueberries

Top Right: Blueberries

Bottom Right: Cooked sweet potato deer (I bought the deer cutter at Natural Kitchen – an 100 Yen store in Japan), walnuts

Warning: I sliced raw sweet potato, cut three slices with the deer cutter and then boiled until tender. I always like to have a backup in-case of problems. It is possible that I cooked them a little too much. Two of the three deer were decapitated when I removed them from the pot. I was relieved that one remained intact.

Inspiration photo for my Miyajima Bento

Below are some of my Mom’s and my favorite photos from our day in Hiroshima and Miyajima. As I mentioned above, it was my second time to Hiroshima but it was only my first time to Miyajima. It is such a special place and I would love to return again someday when I have more time to wander around.

Hiroshima

Hiroshima Peace Park

Atomic Bomb Dome

Display at Children’s Peace Monument

Paper Cranes at Children’s Peace Monument

Map of Miyajima

Roasted Chestnuts and Sweet Potatoes

This little shop was located on Miyajima. We snacked on these roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes. I am not normally a huge fan of chestnuts but these were delicious and the best chestnuts I ever ate!

Large Wooden Rice Scoop

Miyajima is known for their rice scoop. Of course, I had to take a photo of it.

Miyajima Souvenir Rice Scoop

Leaf Shaped Food

On Miyajima

Deer in Miyajima

Plum Blossoms

Deer in Miyajima

The deer in Miyajima are known to be more gentle than the deer in Nara but a deer ate a corner of my map!

Tori (gate) at Low Tide

This gate at Miyajima is a site to behold at any time of day. We were there at low tide and walked below it. At first I did not want to get muddy and wet but my Mom and friend were going to walk below it so I went along. I am glad that I did not let the concern of wet feet stop me. My feet stayed dry and it was a memorable walk.

Close-up of Tori (gate)

Bride and Groom at Itsukushima Shrine

On Miyajima we were lucky to see a Bride and Groom. It was not a weekend so maybe a rare occurrence on a Tuesday?

Miyajima Ekiben

At the train station I took a photo of this display of train station bento (Ekiben). It is shaped as the rice scoop from Miyajima. As a vegetarian I doubt there are any Ekiben that I can eat but I am fascinated by the shaped of the boxes and beautiful display of regional food. I would love to tour around Japan taking photos of Ekiben.

I hope that you enjoyed seeing my photos from Hiroshima / Miyajima and my inspired bento lunches. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them.

Linking to: Bento Blog Network

Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, hiroshima, travel, vegetarian | 23 Comments

Treat Yourself with Van’s Natural Foods

Posted on March 27, 2014 by eclecticlamb

I was so excited when Van’s sent me some products to try. It was such a treat to try these. Of course you can eat these products by themselves right out of the packages but I came up with a few fun and delicious ways to try these healthy snacks.

I wanted to create a bento style lunch featuring Van’s Nacho, Nacho Man Chips and their PB&J bar. The result was this fun and fulfilling meal.

Container: EasyLunchBoxes

Left Side: Van’s Nacho, Nacho Man Chips, sugar snap peas, mozzarella cheese stick, Van’s PB&J bar

Top Right: Apple slices cut with a crinkle cutter

Bottom Right: Peanut butter in Mini Dippers, walnuts

I decided to try Van’s Mighty Good BBQ! chips crushed over chili. The chips added amazing flavor to my homemade chili! The next time I make chili I need to buy more of these chips to serve with it. It is my new favorite chili topping.

What goes well with chips? Dip of course. But because Van’s Nacho, Nacho Man Chips are healthy I decided to serve them with a trio of healthy dips.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Cottage cheese with hot paprika
Plain Greek yogurt with some garlic powder, dried basil and dried oregano

Instead of serving bread or crackers with my homemade broccoli and cheese soup, I ate it with Van’s Nacho, Nacho Man Chips. It was so much fun to eat the chips with soup. A wonderful treat!

These bars are amazing for a portable snack. I added an apple but the bars are great on their own.

I enjoyed treating myself with these healthy products!

Disclosure: Van’s Natural Foods sent me all of the products shown here for review. I was not financially compensated. All opinions stated here are 100% my own.

Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Food | Tagged bento, vegetarian | 8 Comments

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