Attempt at Cute Bentos

Although bentos seems like more work, if you use dinner extras, it's not that bad. And I've been making them the night before, so it's been nice not rushing around in the morning to make their lunch. Yes, it's one more thing to do before bed, so this won't be a daily thing (*...*). There are days I'm too beat (or lazy, should I say) to even wash the dinner dishes, let alone make bentos...

This is their bentos today. Last night's salmon and spinach, rice, takuan, and a cherry tomato, with nori facial features. And I got to use the little bento side dish cups, yeay! I saw those nori cutters on ebay. One of these days...
The salmon was marinated in a sauce made of store bought teriyaki sauce, Japanese BBQ sauce (not sweet like American BBQ sauces), and some sesame oil. Generally I use 1 cup teriyaki sauce and 1 T. sesame oil as my marinade but since I didn't have enough teriyaki sauce, I added the BBQ sauce since they are both soy based. After the salmon was cooked, I broke it apart into big chunks and simmered them in the sauce again to further intensify the flavor since the marinade time wasn't too long, and I had overcooked the salmon and it was a little dry, I wanted it bring back some of the moistness. Serve with a lemon wedge, and it is so good. The spinach was sauteed in sesame oil as well, and seasoned with salt and pepper, and an egg (beaten) thrown in towards the end to scramble it all together. Very simple, but delicious.