Shamrock Bento

A couple of weeks ago I saw a bag of quinoa at Costco and decided to give it a try. I then left it on my kitchen floor to mope dejectedly while I tried to figure out what to do with it. This morning I was too lazy to cook rice, so I decided to give the poor thing some attention and try something new.

Not that you can see it… haha! I ended up hiding it under a cut cabbage leaf to add more green to my St. Patrick’s Day bento. I boiled it according to the package directions and then added it to the thermal jar of my Zojirushi Mini Bento. To cut the leaf, I placed the cover on top of the cabbage leaf and simply cut around the edges with a knife.

To make the shamrocks, I painted cheese hearts and stems. I had tiny hearts and a medium one as well, so I used the medium one for the big clover and the mini for the wee little ones on the side.

I used one drop of green food coloring mixed together with one drop of neon food coloring. I sprinkled some green hana ebi for more color. In the side dishes I have some leftover butter yaki vegetables including eggplant, zucchini, won bok, and bean sprouts. In the smallest dish I have some edamame and a strawberry cut in half.

To add some color, I added a clementine on the side. You can see my lil’ St. Patty’s Day bears guarding it here. Hope you all have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Those of you going drinking, please stay safe!