Wednesday Bento: Super Mario Bro

So...! Here the Wednesday bento started again after the long winter holiday! Today was iki's request, super Mario bro's obento



Inside:
Rice with umeboshi furikake
Mario's face: sliced cheese, kanikama, nori
Tempe goreng
Mandarin orange
Mini tomatoes
Steamed spinach
Stars: sliced cheese and black sesame seed

He looked very happy this morning!


He will graduate from Yochien in march, ... Somewhat I will miss this Wednesday bento!

Wednesday Bento: Shinkenja

I got flu, but I promised Iki last week that I would make this shinkenja obento. So here it is...

He was happy!! =))

Inside:

Green shinkenja: seaweed furikake onigiri, sliced cheese and nori

Red shinkenja: onigiri covered with crab skin, sliced cheese and nori

Yellow shinkenja: yellow egg onigiri, sliced cheese and nori

Rolled okra and bacon

Broccoli and crab salad

Watermelon

Wednesday Bento: Pokemon

Iki-chan is now crazy about Pokemon characters so these two weeks he requested Pokemon obento for his Wednesday lunch at school.

This was last week one: Naetoru (Turtwig) Obento

Inside:

Monster ball: quail egg with tomato skin and nori

Grilled tomato and asparagus salad

American cherries

Naetoru: wakame (seaweed) rice balls with cheese, ham, and nori as decorations

Rolled ham and spinach

And this one is today's bento: Nyoromo (Poliwag) Bento

Inside:

Nyoromo: Rice balls filled with pork ginger. With nori and sliced cheese as decoration

Soramame

Mini tomatoes

Grapes

Rolled bacon and carrot

He was happy!!! :p

Wednesday Bento: Kamen Rider Oz

SO! It's wednesday bento again, after lo o o ong golden week holiday. I planned to make something really simple today because I was very very busy with houseworks and teaching after we got back from camping, but last night Iki begged me to make him his favorite Kamen Rider Bento.

Kamen Rider!! (>.<)

So this is it.....the first thing he said this morning when he woke up and saw it was: " hmm? what's this? ....kamen rider Oz...? why is it orange?!...why..." - and he stopped asking once he saw my very sharp look :D

Well, I should have used red paprika, but I didn't have it and didn't want to go out to buy it last night. Better than nothing, you have your orange face Kamen Rider Oz, honey!!

Inside:

Umeboshi onigiri, wrapped with Nori.

Kamen rider's face: Boiled carrot, nori and green pepper

Potato croquettes

Boiled quail eggs

Celery sticks with mayonnaise

Orange and Haruka

Wednesday Bento: Ohanami picnic

Iki just started his school again after spring holiday. He is tsukigumi (highest grade in his kindergarten) now and this year will be my last year making bento for him!!

This is last Wednesday's Bento, for his Ohanami (cherry blossoms) picnic (^_^)

Inside:

The kids: small onigiri (rice balls)

Sakura: pink kamaboko

Tree: croquette

Soramame (big beans, spring specialty)

Red and yellow rolled paprika

Wednesday Bento: Elmo and Cookie Monster

Another quick and easy one!!!

Elmo: Rice ball with tomato ketchup, sliced cheese, nori, carrot

Cookie monster: Rice ball with green furikake, sliced cheese, nori

Croquette

Cucumber,

Mini tomatoes

Iyoukan (Japanese big orange)

Wednesday Bento: Nyasu (pokemon character)

Iki had fever yesterday and didn't go to school so I thought today he would take another day off and have a rest at home - means I didn't have to make the Wednesday Bento. But he was fine in the morning and really wanted to go to school! (>.<)

He requested this Pokemon Character obento and I started making it pretty late. But well....at least it looks like a cat LOL (sorry, Iki :p)

Inside:

Nyasu: Plum rice ball, omelette, sliced cheese, ham, nori

Potato croquettes

Boiled Broccoli

Strawberry

Setsubun

February 3 is Setsubun here in Japan. This year Iki knew a lot more about it from school so he was pretty excited.

We tried Kansai area's setsubun tradition to eat ehomaki, an uncut sushi roll, eaten in silence facing the yearly lucky compass direction. It was very hard for talkative Iki to eat without talking, and God it was the quietest dinner ever!! This year's lucky direction is South South East, but stupid me, wrongly read the compass. We ate our lucky roll facing the opposite direction: north north west!!!! I hope luck won't go away from us this year!!

Then we did the Mamemaki tradition, this time Iki was the Oni (devil)

And we threw beans in every room in this house to bring in good luck.

By the end of the day, there were beans all over the floor!!

And this was last wednesday's Bento. To celebrate setsubun!

Oni (devil): rice with tomato ketchup, cheese, carrot, spinach

Japanese croquettes

Quail eggs

Strawberries

Roasted beans

Wednesday Bento: Ski Obento

For my son who is crazy about skiing now :p

Inside:

Rice with umeboshi inside

Decoration: green pepper, cheese, carrot

Boiled spinach

Apple

Ika to sato imo no nimono (boiled squid with taro)

Wednesday Bento: White winter

This is Iki's Bento on his first week back to school after the winter holiday.

Inside:

Steamed rice

Pork ginger

Cabbage salad

Strawberry

Snowman: hanpen, nori, kombu and ham

Wednesday Bento: Merry Christmas!!

So here is the last Bento this year. Winter holiday is coming, and I will be free from bento making hassle until next year ;-)

My kitchen would like to wish you "Merry Christmas" too (^___^)

Inside:

Snowman: two umeboshi rice balls, nori, carrots, and crab

Steamed carrots

Gyoza

Oranges

Almost forgotten Wednesday bentos!

Another Halloween theme Obento. It was the obento for the sweet potatoes picking last month.

Inside:

Boiled broccoli

Ham and cheese butter roll sandwich

Boiled carrots

Bat: sliced cheese and nori

Ensoku (school trip) Obento. It was for Iki's school trip picnic bento by the end of October.

Inside:

Rice with kecap manis

Boiled broccoli and mayonnaise

Tempe goreng

Cut apple

"Ensoku" banner: sliced cheese and nori

Saturn Obento.

Iki loves Saturn and really wants to go there for holiday!

Inside:

Rice with dried small fish on top

Bear shaped croquettes

Roasted mini tomatoes

Ham and cheese rolls

Robot Obento.

I woke up late and only had 15 minutes to prepare bento that day (>.<). It was supposed to be robot, but Iki said it was just a purple doll (@_@)

Inside:

Rice with purple colored furikake and kombu

Niku jaga

Cut kaki (persimmon)

Sausage and cheese on picks

Pon-chan (???) Obento.

Not sure if it is the correct name. One of Pokemon character, Iki just showed me the picture and asked me to make it last week.

Inside:

Boiled broccoli

Rice onigiri with salted kombu filling

Sausage and processed cheese on picks

Cut apples

And this is today's obento. "Yochien's Bestfriend" obento.

Iki said that they were Iki and Isamu. Isamu is his classmate and Iki said that he likes him because they always play tatakai gokko (fighting game) :p. And they were wearing Yochien (kindergarten) hats as they always do! I think it was sweet :)

Inside:

Boiled broccoli

Rice balls with kombu fillings. Nori, sliced cheese and ham

Buri no teriyaki

quail sunny side up eggs

Cut appples

Next Wednesday's bento will be the last this year. Winter holiday is coming soon, Christmas is just around the corner.

So next week's obento....hopefully will be a christmas theme one! (^___^)

Imo Hori (sweet potatoes picking)

I also joined Iki's schooltrip for harvesting sweet potatoes last two weeks. Not only kids enjoying this kind of activity, but me too!! As long as I could remember, I have never paid quite amount of money to harvest veggies or fruit MYSELF back in Indonesia! I did pay the gardener to do the whole thing ;-)

At first he used gloves because he didn't want to touch the soil.

But then what the heck! haha

Dig dig dig! Everyone tried to get as much sweet potatoes as possible

Then we had picnic lunch together

This was Iki's obento. Halloween theme one again.

Everyone was dead tired. But had to walk about 20 minutes to the train station. Bringing the sweet potatoes back!!!! Thanks God I brought this (^_-)

Wednesday Bento: Halloween

This was last week's bento for the upcoming Halloween

Inside:

Cube carrots and yellow paprika on picks

Chicken teriyaki

Rice

Spinach and nori rolls

Spring onion

Marsmallow and cheese rolls

Wednesday Bento: Lightning McQueen

I had a very bad morning that really ruined my day, that I was surprised I could finish making this bento. I am not satisfied with the result, and so was Iki..... :(

But he had to bring it to school anyway.....

The inside part was like this:

I put furikake rice inside, with Tetsuage Fish and Renkon, mini tomatoes and sliced cheese on the picks, cheese kamaboko sausages, and mini oranges as dessert.

And then covered it with the pinky Lightning McQueen - ah....it was supposed to be red!

It's made from white eggs omelet (with supposed to be red food coloring added), sliced cheese, and nori for decoration.

Wednesday Bento: Tomica Cars

After very very long summer holiday, the Wednesday bento was started again last week. I almost forgot how to make bento again! LOL

Let's say it was a warming up one for that Wednesday: Tomica cars Bento

Inside:

Fried chicken

Carrots cubes and processed cheese on the picks

Furikake rice

Sliced ham, cheese and nori for the tomica cars

Wednesday Bento: Teru Teru Bozu

It's rainy season here in Japan. Time to hang Teru Teru Bozu now, praying for good weather (^__^).

This morning was raining too, so here is today's obento: Teru Teru Bozu. It's the last bento since from next week Iki's school will end before lunch time and then Summer Holiday is coming next month. Fiuh....So next obento will be in September!!!

Inside:

Teru Teru bozu: Onigiri, nori, ham and kamaboko

Mini tomatoes

Umbrella: processed cheese and ham

Bear shaped croquettes

Broccoli trees

Ham and kamaboko rolls

Ah......really hope it won't be raining in the afternoon. Iki will have swimming after school and I hate to go to the club by bicycle during raining (>.<)

But look....even the teru teru bozu brings umbrella LOL

Wednesday Bento: Neko no Basu

Still a character from the famous Tonari no Totoro, Neko Basu (the cat bus) ;-)

Neko Basu onigiri: rice mixed with men tsuyu, nori, cheese, carrot and quail eggs

Broccoli

Carrot

Bear corn croquettes

Happy cherries (^_^)

Wednesday Bento: Totoro

Iki's obento today was TOTORO, from famous Japanese animation Tonari no Totoro (My neighbor Totoro)

Inside:

Totoro: Umeboshi onigiri and black sesame onigiri; with cheese and nori for decoration

Rolled bacon

Mini tomatoes

Grapes

Iki was very happy and kept singing Totoro theme song while watching me decorating the bento. After dinner he watched totoro clips from youtube and kept singing the song the whole night LOL

Wednesday Bento: Pikachu

Can't believe I made bento for Iki for two days in a row!!!!! Such a pain in the ass!!

But here we go, today's obento was Pikachu's bento :)

Inside:

Umeboshi onigiri

Kabocha no nimono (boiled pumpkin)

Bear shaped croquettes

mini tomatoes

He loved it!! Before I kissed him goodnight he said it again, "mom, thanks for yummy pikachu bento today"

So smiling mommy is now thinking what to make next week for him ;-)