1 Bento #260 - PB&J Sushi

Yummy!  We have organic peanut butter and strawberry jelly on whole wheat today, rolled into sushi and some cheese cubes on leaf skewers.

Bento #260 - Organic PB&J on whole wheat, mozzarella cheese, carrot chips and ranch dip.

4 Sandwich Rollups

Normally I make rollup/sushi sandwiches with tortilla shells (it's that whole flat and flexible thing.)  This time I used two pieces of multi-grain bread with the crusts cut off.  Microwave the bread for 10 seconds to make it really pliable.

Stack one slightly on top of the other, width-wise.

Roll it flat with a rolling pin.

Spread your toppings of choice - peanut butter & jelly

Or prosciutto -

And roll up!

1 Bento #174 - Turkey Sushi & Snap Pea Garden

So in our house we have a nice big 2 lb bag of sugar snap peas.  We love sugar snap peas, and it's both a blessing and a curse that they keep so long and hardy in the veggie drawer.

Here are the five stages of sugar snap peas.

Stage 1:  Hooray!  Sugar snap peas are back, good golly and joy to the world!
Stage 2:  Yum, sugar snap peas, they sure are sweet.  And snappy!
Stage 3:  Goodness, look at all these snap peas.  I'm thankful for the fiber.
Stage 4:  Wow, sugar snap peas...again?
Stage 5:  So, do you think we can plant these suckers outside?

Today's bento is a veggie and fruit garden on the left, with sugar snap peas as the flower stalks, yellow bell peppers as the flowers, a cheddar cheese butterfly and some grape "hyacinths" (...eh, it's a stretch.)  It was inspired by my trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens this weekend with my husband and friends who are photography enthusiasts (...or in my case, amateur.  E went to the zoo with her Nana.)  On the right we have turkey & cheese "sushi" tortilla rollups, also with finely minced yellow bell peppers inside.  E isn't hugely keen on bell peppers yet, but we are getting there.

Spring in the South!

Bento #174 - Sugar snap peas, yellow bell pepper, red grapes, turkey & cheese on a flour tortilla and salad dressing (not shown.)

2 Bento #138 - Ham & Cheese Sushi

So, getting back into the swing of things!  Today we have ham and cheese "sushi" rolls, along with veg and some really yummy dipping sauce I made from this amazing new spice blend I've recently had a chance to try called Primo27, which is getting it's own post in just a bit.

I'm also extremely excited to be invited to take part in an upcoming collaborative event between E's school and our local Harry's Farmers Markets.  Perhaps some bento demos are in my future....  Can't wait to share more once the details are known!

Bento #138 - Ham & cheese on a flour tortilla, celery sticks, Primo27 dip and an Aussie apple.

3 Bento #135 - Chicken & Onigiri

 For dinner last night I made fried rice with sticky sushi rice, and reserved some to make these onigiri with cute little accents of shaped sprinkles.  The rice is seasoned with rice wine vinegar, which gives it a nice sweet tang.  Oh, and those grapes!  Aren't they HUGE??

Bento #135 - Onigiri, Italian chicken meatballs, grapes and baby carrots.

3 Bento #117 - Sushi Franks & Ginger Carrot Dip

Here's an ocean-inspired PlanetBox bento!  We have more "sushi" rolls, which E loves, and the yummy ginger-carrot dip (recipe in yesterday's post) with Goldfish crackers.

Bento #117 - Kosher beef frank "sushi" rolls with cheese, steamed broccoli with cracked kosher sea salt, Goldfish crackers, ginger-carrot dip, berry yogurt star and green grapes.

5 Bento #105 - Grilled "Sushi" Rolls

First of all, I received my new Cuisinart Griddler right before we left for the weekend and only now have broken it out of the box.  It's awesome!  I don't know why I didn't have one of these before.  Oh wait, yes I do - space!  I still don't know where I'm going to store it.

So anyway, I was racking my brain trying to decide what to make for lunch today, looked in my fridge and saw kosher beef franks, cheese and ... flour tortillas?  How about pigs in a blanket...hot dog cigars...I've got it - SUSHI!  By the way, you want to know where my cheese cutout leftovers go?  Into things like this.  It's just a large flour tortilla, cut in half, two beef franks and some cheese, rolled up and grilled panini-style until melty.  Simple.  I'm sure E will love the idea of sushi.  I mean, the girl eats raw sashimi and nori like a pro!

Bento #105 - Hot dog & cheese "sushi" rolls, yogurt star biscuits, frozen raspberries, carrots and snap peas.

65 *CLOSED* Sushi Popper Giveaway!

******This Giveaway is Now CLOSED*****

Sweet!  I was able to try a few sample packs of Sushi Poppers recently, and we were pleasantly surprised at how good they are.  They are rolls of frozen sushi packaged in a tube which you can eat straight from the top when thawed, or portion out on a plate to eat in a more traditional style.  I really think the packaging is ingenious, and thus one is able to take sushi where you might not otherwise find it, and in quantity.  I can easily see us taking some of these in a cooler pack to the Petit Le Mans race in October as a convenient snack.  I'm just waiting for these to be sold in snack machines, I think they'd be a hit!  The word is portability.

Our favorites were the California roll and the Chicken Teriyaki, but E really like the Cucumber roll.  They took a little bit longer to thaw than the package indicated, and they were quite good at the proper temperature, along with the handy tube of soy sauce that doubles as the push mechanism for the tube.

As Sushi Popper says:

"Delicious sushi is too good to be tied to a table and chopsticks. We've created a convenient way to enjoy sushi on the go. Sushi Popper is ready-to-eat sushi in a package that you will soon find in refrigerators in your local stores."

The Giveaway:

Sushi Popper is sponsoring a giveaway of two Sushi Popper rolls per winner (any flavor) for 15 Bentobloggy readers!  They will even ship it to you for free if you live within the United States!  (They will work with you if you live outside the U.S., though shipping would be your responsibility.)

HOW TO ENTER:

Mandatory Entry: You must be a follower of my blog to enter this giveaway. See all those fabulous people in the upper left hand side under the title "followers"? You want to be one of them. So click the little follow button, leave a comment telling me that you follow my blog, and you're automatically entered!  Tell me in your comment which Sushi Popper flavor(s) you'd like to try.

Want to increase your chances of winning? 
Here are some additional ways to get entries:

- Blog about this giveaway. Leave a comment indicating that you've done so and post the link in a comment for me to see.
- Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter:   Click to go to my Facebook page or Twitter.  Leave a comment in this post telling me that you "Like" and/or follow Bentobloggy. If you already follow Bentobloggy on Facebook/Twitter, just leave a comment letting me know. 

- Tweet about this giveaway. Leave another comment telling me you tweeted it with a link back to your Twitter post.

- Add a link to Bentobloggy to your blog roll.  Leave one last comment with the verifiable link, and if you already have Bentobloggy on your blog, just leave a comment saying so!

That's (5) ways to enter, and (5) ways to win. Remember to leave a seperate comment for every thing you do, otherwise, your entries won't be valid. 

You have until Sunday, August 29th, by 11:59 PM EST time to enter.

The winners will be chosen at random and announced the following day, and  the winners have 48 hours to claim their prizes - I reserve the right to choose  new winners after that. 


******This Giveaway is Now CLOSED*****

0 Home Again...

...home again, jiggedy-jig!

I was in Maryland, my hometown for the past week for a surprise baby shower for my sister! It was sooo much fun, the shower was beautiful, we saw the DC cherry blossoms and I acted like a tourist with my daughter and sisters for a couple days. We also did some touristy things in historic Annapolis by the waterfront with my mom and my MIL. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, warm and clear.

I had fun indulging in my favorite Maryland seafood - cream of crab, crab cakes, shrimp salad, shrimp, shrimp and more shrimp!  Yumm.


AND...we have a friend whose family owns three wonderful restaurants, and the whole fam went to Asia Bistro/Zen Bistro in Pentagon City and also specially ordered fried rice from their other restaurant, Saigon Saigon.  SOOO GOOD (thanks, Chrissy!!)  And goodness, they have bento boxes for grownups!  We had lots of small plates like spring rolls, calamari, chicken satay, and sushi rolls, and we ordered short ribs, ginger salmon (which my mom claims is the best salmon she's had in her life) and noodle bowls.    Totally amazing, go there, you won't be disappointed!  And, they use no MSG (trust me, my sister is very allergic to it, and she can eat there any time.) We also had this really yummy sparkling sake.  We sat outside in their covered patio area, since the weather was so gorgeous.

Read about the amazing baby shower cake here!