Today our eldest goes to school for the first time ever. We are excited but also a little  nervous, since a whole new stage of our life just started today.

To commemorate such an occasion I decided to get back to writing in this blog, even more since I made this cute little character bento (kyaraben) for her first lunch at school. While it required a little assembly, it was a very easy lunch to put together and can be prepared the night before, so the next day is just the assembly.

Components:

• Hard-boiled egg turned into a hatching chick (I followed this tutorial from HGTV).
• Sliced strawberries.
• Cherry tomato.
• Ham flower (bend ham slice in half, make several cuts around folded edge, and roll until it looks like a flower. I thought this was a great explanation on how to do it, but my husband says that after reading it he still does not know how to make it -_-, so here is a great tutorial from Just One Cook Book).
• Soy sauce noodles:
  • Boil preferred noodles (here I use udon).
  • Mix 3 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp sesame oil, and 1 green onion chopped very small.
  • Add noodles to mix while still warm. Make sure noodles get thoroughly coated.
  • Let cool. Can put on bento once they are at room temperature. Can also put in the fridge overnight and put in bento next day.

Super simple and yet so cute, my baby loved it and was very excited for it. Just a side note, for the chick, it did take a few tries before I got the perfect result, so try to make it the night before!