Bentos for the First Day of School!!! Pandas and Onigiri and Eggs- Oh My!

The first day of school looms upon us.  Last night I made onigiri- in triangle shapes, and put eyes on the ones for my daughter, and stripes on the ones for me and my son.  I forgot to buy nori sheets for sushi, but I had seaweed snacks, so I just cut the eyes and smiles and stripes out of the seaweed snacks (sea salt and teriyaki flavor, from Costco).  The stripes I cut with scissors, and the faces with the punch tool I have put at the bottom of the page.  Also at the bottom of the page is a recipe for really good sushi rice.  I like this recipe better than the one I used before.  Yummy.

I bought a radicchio to use the leaves to hold rice and salads. I like these and other edible "cups".  So I  use the smaller leaves for tofu curry salad, golden beat salad, and I use olives and carrot sticks as dividers and to fill out the bento so it doesn't move around as it's taken to school or work.  Movement is your enemy- so you want every nook and cranny to be filled with some sort of food.  Buy little appetizer pickles,olives, mushrooms and hot mix to do just this.  And when you have carrots and radishes and celery, keep slices and toothpick sized cuts in baggies in the fridge- so you don't have to do your cutting every day.

The eggs I hardboiled and chilled overnight in egg shapers (see below).

I took the leftover sushi rice and colored it with beet juice, because I'll use that red rice in bentos and sushi rolls later in the week :-)  I know you'll want to stick around to see that.
Tomorrow is the first day of school, so I've made bentos for everyone :-)  And here they are!

This shows two Fit N Fresh boxes for my son and daughter.  These boxes have ice in the lid.  On the left hand side (above) you'll see two onigiri with stripes, and two radicchio leaves, one with curry salad and one with sliced carrots, along with some black olives filling space.  In the box on the right side are two onigiri with faces, and an egg shaped like a fish, and some sliced carrots, in radicchio leaves.  Links are at the bottom to a great sushi recipe,sushi cutters, egg shapers and the various bentos.

 Above see a close up of the shaped egg and the onigiri.

 Here's my panda bento.  I'm taking this one.

 Above see my delicious lunch.  In the lower compartment of the bento I've put a salad of golden beets, some olives and some slices of cheese.  In the compartment with the lid I've got a shaped egg (vroom vroom- it's a car)- notice the carrot pieces that make the windows and the wheels- I've "glued" them on with blue cheese dressing.  I've also got sliced purple carrots and curry salad.  My onigiri wouldn't fit in here, so I'm taking it separately.  Good thing I've got a fridge in my class.

 This is how the bento looks once the cover is on- and the blue thing is the egg shaper.  You hard boil the egg and then chill it in the shaper.

Here's a close up of my shaped egg :-)

Here's the sushi recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/perfect-sushi-rice/

Here's the bentos and the Fit N Fresh:
http://www.amazon.com/Fit-Fresh-Lunch-Assorted-Colors/dp/B003EX5N9S/ref=sr_sp-btf_image_1_11?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1376871194&sr=1-11&keywords=fit+n+fresh

Here's the panda:
http://www.amazon.com/Kotobuki-280-129-2-Tiered-Bento-Panda/dp/B00200L840/ref=sr_sp-atf_image_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1376871239&sr=1-1&keywords=panda+bento

Here's the black cat:
http://www.amazon.com/Kotobuki-2-Tiered-Bento-Black-Kitty/dp/B00C61CP9A/ref=sr_sp-btf_image_5_100?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1376871464&sr=1-100

Here's the egg shaper:
http://www.amazon.com/Kotobuki-Plastic-Egg-Mold-Fish/dp/B002TZ04JG/ref=sr_sp-btf_image_1_6?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1376871269&sr=1-6&keywords=egg+shaper

Here's the seaweed cutter:
http://www.amazon.com/CuteZCute-Seaweed-Punch-Series-Decorating/dp/B00CDPN9OY/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1376871334&sr=8-4&keywords=seaweed+cutter