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When our older daughter started kindergarten, I found myself faced with the new responsibilities as lunch maker–a dirty word for many moms.  As the first days of school approached, I thought back to my school days and how much I loved my after school snacks in grade school.  My Italian grandmother lived across the street for all of my childhood and although my mom’s lunches were less than enticing (and often thrown away or traded out) my after school snacks were comprised of delicious home cooked ethnic foods and treats: meatball sandwiches, pasta fagioli, bread and cheese, etc.

Those recollections commingled with memories of living in Japan as an exchange student in high school and the delicious and beautiful obentos my host mom would prepare for me.  The health-conscious side of me was also keen on the Japanese diet for my child, who showed an early attraction to Asian foods and anything with “umami.”

I wanted something more for my daughter than the boring lunches of my youth or the horrifically unhealthy lunches served at most schools.  I wanted my daughter to have that warm feeling my grandmother’s foods gave me; for that comfort and love to be transferred to her even in my absence.  Maybe that’s too much to expect from a lunch but that was the impetus for my journey into obento making as an American mom.

I’m sure most of you have seen bento boxes before, but a bento box (obentou) does not define an obento.  Obentos follow two rules: the 1-2-3 rule and the size of the lunch box (be it some Tupperware or a fancy obentou).  The 1-2-3 rule defines what goes into the obento, it is 1 part protein, 2 parts fruit or vegetables and 3 parts carbohydrates.  The size of the container should be directly proportional to your caloric needs.  Our daughter, at 6 years old, uses a 500mL container.  When a 500mL container is completely filled, with no extra space, using the 1-2-3 rule you get a 500 calorie lunch; mL=calories.

While I am not an artist, I’ve always enjoyed drawing and creating yet I hardly have the time or energy to do either.  I find my creativity escapes despite myself as I doodle entire worlds on my notepad during work meetings.  Obento also gives me another outlet for my creativity through “kyaraben”.

Kayaraben or character obento is food art for kids which can be as simple as putting sesame seed eyes on your vegetables or as complex as recreating entire scenes from anime movies.  While I enjoy making kyaraben, I find our busy lives do not always allow me to indulge my inner artist so I have decided to demo one plain and one kyaraben obento.

“East meets West”

Protein: Pork Cutlet – tonkatsu

• 1 pork loin cutlet
• all-purpose flour for dredging
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 egg
• 1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• oil for frying

If the pork is too thick you may want to beat it down to size before you begin.  Sprinkle the cutlet with salt and pepper then dredge it in the flour, dip in the beaten egg before, and finally dredge in the panko.  Heat your oil gently place the cutlet (dropping away from you so you don’t hurt yourself!) in the oil.  Once it is golden brown flip and repeat on the second side.

Tonkatsu Sauce from lunchinabox.net

• 1/2 t dry powdered mustard
• 1 t water
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 T Worcestershire sauce
• 2.25 t soy sauce

1. Mix mustard with water until smooth.
2. In a small bowl, thoroughly mix the mustard powder/water with the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce.

Vegetable: Asparagus with sesame dressing (from by Joie Staff)

• 4 asparagus spears
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp sesame seeds (optional)

1. Steam asparagus, then cool.
2. Combine remaining ingredients to make dressing.

Fruit: raspberries

Carbohydrate: ½ bagel cut into bites with a dipping container of cream cheese.

Accessories:  silicone cups, sauce bottle for tonkatsu sauce, dipping container for cream cheese, and pick for berries.

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“Domokun loves you”

Protein: Egg molds

Our daughter loves eggs, but a plain old white hard boiled egg in your lunch every day can get boring fast.  One of my favorite tricks to spruce up hard boiled eggs is to use an egg mold and then dip the egg in soy sauce until it is a beautiful golden brown.

The image to the left shows a freshly unmolded egg in the shape of a star.  While you can get molds specifically designed for eggs, we are cheap (ed: I prefer “thrifty”) and thus we are sticklers for multi-purpose tools in the kitchen.  I found ice cream sandwich makers in fun shapes can be used as egg and rice mold as well.

To mold an egg, begin with a freshly hard boiled (i.e. still hot) egg.  Peel the egg while hot and place the egg in the mold slowly to prevent breakage.  Seal the mold (I use rubber bands to hold the top on) and place in a bowl of ice water for 10 minutes.  When you open the mold, you’ll find the egg has assumed a new shape.

Unfortunately for Domokun, I do not have a rectangular mold.  To improvise, I flattened an egg between two plates to give his body a more rectangular shape then flipped it in some soy to bronze him up.  I then rolled a second egg in soy sauce and sliced it up to form his legs, arms and teeth.

Carbohydrate:  Inari-zushi AKA Domokun’s head (recipe from by Naomi Kijima)

• 1 small aburage puff (tofu puff available from most asian food stores)
• 1-2 T cooked rice
• 1 slice of red pepper

Simply soak the puff in boiling water to soften it, then slice it open to form the mouth and stuff the rice inside.  Then place the pepper over the opening to keep the rice inside and to make the red we see in Domo Kun’s mouth.   At this point I used the teeth I cut from the egg and placed them over the pepper.  I used a toothpick to slide a bit of the egg under the aburage to hold it all in place.

Vegetable: Quick Mushrooms (recipe from by Naomi Kijima)

• 1/2 T soy sauce
• 1 t mirin
• 3 T water
• 1 oz mushrooms (I used oyster  mushrooms from Mill Creek)

Combine all the ingredients, except the mushrooms, and bring them to a boil.  Throw in the cleaned and roughly chopped mushrooms and coat them with the sauce.  Let cool and place them into a cup (to contain the sauce) before placing in the container.

Vegetable: Sprouts in silicone cup from Tiny Greens.  I also used the beautiful rosy radish sprouts and one sunflower sprout to make his sweet bouquet.

Vegetable/Carbohydrate: California Rolls

In addition to the books Bento Boxes and Kawaii Bento Boxes, that are credited above, I encourage you to visit lunchinabox.net which is my number one go-to resource for all things obento.

Our daughter reminds me at least once a week how much she looks forward to the lunches I make for her.    Other children, and even some teachers, admire her lunches which make her, and I, feel pretty special.   In the end, crafting these lunches for her can be work, but it’s worth it because a whole lotta love can fit in a 500ml box.

This previous Saturday, they expanded their offerings by adding hot food, prepared by the highly talented chef Alisa DeMarco. They had a few offerings, a frittata, an egg sandwich, and a yogurt parfait. I had one of the frittatas, featuring Blue Moon Farms spring greens, potatoes, Prairie Fruits goat cheese (Moonglo I think?), all set in a frittata made with some of the fresh eggs from Tomahnous Farm. I got some of these eggs the first week, and they were so fresh, with vibrant yolks. It was served with some toast, I’m guessing it was from Stewart Pequinot, the bagel and bread guy in Mahomet (try the egg bagels, they’re great). It was gooey, soft, and deliciously hot on an unseasonably cold Saturday morning. They also had fair trade coffee for sale.

In a splurge, brought on by long months without the farmer’s market, I picked up a little of everything. I got spinach, kale, some potato sourdough bread, some Moonglo cheese and some of the sheep yogurt. They were extremely busy this past weekend, but they still offered tastes of the cheese and yogurt. The yogurt is full-fat, and there is a thick layer of cream at the top. The taste is sour, but it’s mellowed by the sweetness of the milk and the fat content. For the health-conscious out there, keep in mind that despite the higher fat content of sheep’s milk, it also has higher nutritional value. It’s ready to be paired with berries, or flavored any way you like.

I was inspired by the frittata to do something with the spinach and some cheese. I thought a stuffed chicken breast would be a great idea.

Pre-Market Stuffed Chicken

2T olive oil
2-4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 bag Blue Moon spinach (mine was 7 1/2 oz. after picking, washing, and draining)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 c. pine nuts, toasted

4 chicken breasts
a 2-4 ounce chunk of Moonglo cheese
kitchen twine

To prepare the stuffing:

1. Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium high heat.
2. When hot, add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds
3. Add the spinach, season with salt and pepper. Stir and toss to gently wilt the spinach, only a few minutes.
4. Add the lemon juice, stir.
5. Remove from heat, and add pine nuts to taste (eat the rest).
6. Drain any excess liquid, and allow to cool to room tempurature

To prepare the chicken:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Butterfly the chicken breasts. Here’s a tutorial if you’ve never done it before.
3. Divide the spinach stuffing into 4 portions and put some on each piece of chicken.
4. Take a chunk of the cheese and mold it into a log and place on the spinach.
5. Fold/roll the chicken up, enclosing the stuffing.
6. Tie it up with twine to help it stay together, look nice, and cook evenly. I like using the classic method.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Not all my spinach fit in my chicken, so I cut squares of the potato sourdough I got, sliced some of the cheese, and made a couple little treats for my wife and me.

Chicken Velouté sauce
I used some on-sale supermarket chicken for this, so there were some bits I had to trim (fat, bone, tendon, etc). I added the trimmings to a pot with

• 1/2 a carrot, chopped
• 1/4 of an onion, chopped
• a clove of garlic
• some parsley stems
• covered with about 3c of water

I simmered that while I was doing other things (about 30-45 minutes) to make a quick broth.

In a small sauce pan, I heated 1 1/2 T butter, tossed in 1 1/2 carrots, diced fine, 1/2 an onion, diced fine, and sauteed them slowly (no browning) for 5 minutes. Then I added about 1 1/2 T flour, stirred it in and cooked to make a very light roux. I tossed in a bay leaf, some parsley, and the broth I made. I cooked that down and then strained it. This was all about using up some of the bits that would have otherwise been thrown away.

I served mine with some quinoa (flavored with onion, garlic, parsley, and lemon) and sauteed asparagus.

I urge you join the Prairie Fruits mailing list to find out the details, and to come to the on-farm sales. It’s a great opportunity to get some great food and meet some cute animals. Maybe you’ll see me there, and maybe you’ll be inspired to come up with your own creations.