It was Good Friday yesterday, a day of universal fast and abstinence. The bento was plain whole meal bread and an un-peeled banana each.
There has been continuous heavy downpour over the last one week. The cool weather has been a great relief but the destruction to the garden has been drastic. My herbs has literally drowned to death and some pots blown off their pedestals and broken. *sniff, sniff* My gardener will have a very busy weekend ahead.
Cool evenings call for warming food, ideally Oden. When my eldest daughter saw me cooking Oden for dinner last night, she was trilled! Must have been missing this delicious soupy dish for a long while.
This morning #2 got another over-ripe Kiwi (I've frozen the rest for smoothies because they taste a tad too soft now!). There were some marshmallows in the same top box too.
I packed the Oden without soup for fear of spillage. Clockwise: Hanpen, fish cake, chikuwa, konnyaku and an egg. To complete the box are two pieces of chicken nuggets in a silicon cup.
#1 begins her final semester examinations today. It's five hours back to back today and last night she asked me to pack a bento for her. *Hurray*
I fed her a hearty lunch before she got to college and packed her a tonkatsu sandwich. I placed some rollo rosa salad on a slice of whole meal bread and topped it with a piece of tonkatsu. On it, I squeezed lots of Wasabi mayo and covered it with more rollo rosa salad and another slice of whole meal bread. This method ensures that the bread will not get soggy. I used a food pick to hold each of the sandwich together before putting it into the collapsible sandwich box. You can't see the food picks, they are hidden in the middle.
I try to use this collapsible sandwich box for my eldest girl because she doesn't like to bring with her the 'bulky' bento box. Every time she asks for a bento, I will use this box so that when she finishes her food, she can just fold the top portion and it ends up less than a quarter of it's original size!
In the bottom box, there are some cut up oranges and apples. I packed a giraffe fork into the box so that I don't need to pack any cutlery for her. I had to use an extra LONG bento strap for this and it did look very STRETCHED!
#1 would have to eat her sandwich with her hands so I packed an oshibori for her and tied them up in a furoshiki. I didn't want to give her a 'childish' bento bag, I thought that this looked better for a young adult. I didn't take a picture of the oshibori box, it's like a huge anti-biotic, half red and half white. Not kiddish and suitable for her (I hope).
The handkerchief I bought was far too large and bulky for this collapsible sandwich box. Will probably have to re-size it.