Fried pork shiso rolls – Bento meat sushi rolls*
^ Those are not mine. Those are gorgeous, perfectly rolled and sliced pork shiso rolls from Adventures in Bento. I love how the middles ended up looking like miniature whole carrots in some of them.
We determined mine looked more like little mis-colored strawberries. 
I obviously left the toothpicks in for this picture because I felt they needed horns. Or something like that. ><
Aibento has some delicious step-by-step pictures of placing the fresh, colorful veggies and delicately rolling them to perfection. I just have pictures of the most important part….the frying:
See that dark brown, almost black crispness? Oh yeah, that’s where it’s at.
I actually made two batches of these and had plenty leftover for the girls’ bento lunches the next day, too. They couldn’t wait.
This was definitely a day of green and orange, huh? Oh well…they loved it anyway.
* This title is all sorts of wrong, by the way. First of all, I don’t have shiso in my rolls at all. It’s the leafy green edge you can see in aibento’s. And secondly, sushi refers to the rice in rolls we tend to call just sushi….these obviously aren’t actually sushi at all, but but sometimes you’ve gotta call ‘em what the kids think they look like.
** In the boxes, from top of the picture: Leftover salad with light spritzes of Italian dressing so it didn’t spread all over the box, sliced mango, stuffed pork rolls, boiled egg, homemade fruit roll up leather, leftover rice with peas, corn, and soy sauce. Thank goodness these guys love leftovers.
Beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejuice! – Purple cabbage and tofu soup
Make no mistake, this is not my soup. This belongs to the lovely Kath/KERF (and you can find the recipe there, too).
Some of the ingredients, I don’t even like, much less together in a soup. I’m curiously drawn in by the pictures, though, and the name makes my head spin with ideas that would make this even more kid-friendly.
The idea of beetle juice might gross some little ones out, but if you have any boys obsessed with worms and dirt and all things gory….or anyone who loves the movie, oh boy, have fun with this one! And well, if not, don’t call the dish beetlejuice, but definitely introduce them to this gorgeous purple soup. Call it “pretty princess soup” or something more dainty.
Egg drop soup with ramen noodles – When the picture looks better than what’s served
And often times, vice versa. I’m no photographer and often times a dish looks and tastes way better than the pictures. It’s all smoke and mirrors really….
Or is that steam? :P The picture without the haze looks even worse, though:
Ew. The kids love it, though, so who am I to argue really? It takes 10 minutes to make and if I’m going to serve them ramen noodles, I might as well stuff it with veggies, right?
Makeshift “Egg Drop Soup” with Ramen Noodles
- Cheap, crappy ramen noodles, any flavor
- A couple eggs for each bag of ramen
- Veggies such as peppers, onions, peas, and/or carrots (for carrots or other hard, raw veggies, I would suggest frozen or canned so they don’t need additional cooking time)
- Water or stock for boiling
- Boil water.
- Crack eggs into a small bowl and gently scramble.
- Add ramen to the boiling water.
- Return to simmer. (Don’t boil or when you add your eggs, they’ll immediately cook and harden into thicker chunks instead of small strands.)
- If using any frozen veggies, go ahead and add them.
- To add eggs, you have some options. While gently stirring the soup, slowly drizzle in the egg, continuing to stir the water until the eggs start to hold form as thin strands of egg. You can also pour the eggs through a small slotted spoon or strainer to get thinner strands.
- Cook for another few minutes. Specific, huh? About 5 minutes is usually sufficient for the frozen veggies to be heated and the noodles and eggs to be cooked, but if it’s not, just cook a little longer and/or bring your temperature higher.
- Season appropriately, whether that’s with the little packets or with your own preferred spices.
The youngest loves having larger chunks of eggs and not much “juice,” as she calls it, so you can tell the lower right-hand blue bowl (which is also the last picture) is hers. I just pour some of the egg directly into the middle of my simmering water and stir around the outside of the pan so the middle bits don’t get mixed and she’s made happy simply by large egg chunks, ha.
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