Bento #55

So sorry, long time no post!
It has been beyond hectic at work and I am burning out. Thankfully I have a week off starting Sunday.
Lately I've just been throwing lunches together from leftovers, or making salad and running out the door.
This is my first bento in a little while ...



Leftover Tofu Curry (tofu, potato, carrot, onion and Glico Curry Mix)
Leftover Rice
Miso Soup Ball (from Just Bento)
Snow Peas
Cucumber
Strawberry
Apple Bunny
Mini Fruit Jelly

I hope the miso soup ball works out, I've never made miso soup before.

I have made three promises to myself when planning dinners:
I will serve fish at least once per week
I will have a vegetarian dinner once per week
I will serve salad with the majority of dinners (I have been doing this for a while already)

I have already cut out the majority of red meat - we really only eat it if we are eating out, and even then, it's not often.

Picnic Bento & Bento #54

I made too much food!
It worked out though, we had an 8 hour drive, and this was good for a lunch stop and some munching when we got to the hotel. I also packed 2 zip-lock sandwich bags with fruit.

Chicken Karaage made with chicken breast
Teriyaki Salmon & Furikake Onigiri
Deviled Eggs
Carrots
Snow Peas
Teriyaki Meatballs (on Chinese Zodiac skewers - sheep for The Mister and dog for Me)
Gyoza

***



Tomorrow's Bento box ... I wanted soup this evening, so I made a ramen bento for tomorrow. Inside is ...

thin egg-noodles with a few drops of sesame oil and some soy sauce, topped with sesame seeds, chili flakes and pepper
2 mushrooms, sliced
frozen corn
frozen peas
octodog and hot dog crabs
in the container is a small plastic wrap packet of instant dashi granules and some instant chicken and beef stock powders - enough for about 2 cups of liquid - I always end up with too much soup mix because I add the hot water first, then the soup mix to taste. But that's ok, I just use it up later.

I'll probably also bring some fruit - I have a baseball-sized white peach in my fridge that is calling out to me ;)

***

My co-worker (who I picked up all this stuff for) has reported that she LOVES her bento boxes, and she has been using them to bring lunches to work. She says she's not doing anything fancy just yet, but she loves that she isn't using plastic bags and she can bring small portions of a variety of healthy foods.

Yay!

Bento #53

More homemade mac & cheese - I had some leftover swiss and mozza that was given to me after a party, so I threw that in with a handful of cheddar.
Chicken nuggets
Deviled Egg (used Cesar dressing this time)
Carrot
Assorted fruit, including pluot (red), green plum, orange, kiwi and grapes

***

Found a disposable container (from said party - they sent home the leftovers in it). It has been washed and is ready to be turned into a travel bento for two.
I decided to stick with finger foods, because The Mister will be driving, and I want him to be able to grab and munch even if he doesn't want to stop.

So, Onigiri, Chicken Karaage, Deviled Egg, Tamago Nigiri, Veggies, Fruit, Teriyaki Meatballs on picks, Gyoza ... not sure what else!

Bento #52

Quick stovetop mac & cheese (recipe here)
Chicken nuggets
Jalapeno jelly
Carrots
Cucumber
Grape tomatoes

I wanted something a little different today, and I didn't have much time to prep.

***

I've started doing more planning for the picnic bento

So far, I'm going to do onigiri (plain to offset everything else, and maybe furikake mixed?), chicken karaage, baby bok choy with oyster sauce, deviled eggs, apple bunnies, carrots and snow peas
I'm going to use the bento box above and the larger blue version to pack it in, unless I can find a disposable container before then.

I'm debating whether or not to do a breakfast one too, because we'll be leaving super early - maybe cheese tamagoyaki, mini pancakes and turkey bacon and orange slices.

hmmmmmmmm ...

Bento Planning

The Mister and I are taking an 8-10 hour drive to go to a wedding later this month. I was thinking of packing a picnic bento for along the way

I'm thinking salmon onigiri, furikake onigiri, fun shaped hot dogs, meatballs on picks and lots of veggies.

I have to find an appropriate container - I've got a long tupperware one that might work.

any ideas?
what would you put into a picnic bento?

Bento Haul!

So, my co-worker gave me a budget of $40-$45 to buy her and her children some bento supplies for back to school.

Here is what I picked up:



3 3-tier bento boxes
3 2-tier bento boxes
2 sets of utensils (fork, spoon and chopsticks)
pack of 3 silicone bento belts
2 packs of food cutters (garden and animals)
long picks (Chinese zodiac)
short picks (random animals)
4 large silicone cups
6 small silicone cups
silicone baran dividers
mini forks and spoons
sandwich cutters (cats, bear and heart)
hard boiled egg molds (star and heart)

When I showed up with the bag, she was just coming down the hall back to her desk, and got super excited. Apparently she was having a very bad day (she only had an hour left to go), and had a lot of unpleasant customers, so this was a welcome treat :)

Bento #50 & 51

Another double post!
I actually did both of these for today - lunch and dinner, because I was working 12-8 (yuck!)

Anyways, 3-tier green guy was for lunch:



Bottom Tier:
Rice with furikake

Middle Tier:
Deviled egg with olives (I didn't mean for it to look like eyeballs!)
Carrots
Grape Tomatoes
Snow Peas (under the eggs)

Top Tier:
Sauteed bok choy
Chicken meatballs
Peperoncini


Single-Tier pink one is for dinner.



2 onigiri with tuna
1-egg tamagoyaki
Snow Peas
Carrots
Grape Tomatoes
Corn
Chicken Karaage (quick recipe from Kawaii Bento Box Cookbook)

oh, and graham goldfish and chocolate goldfish for a snack ;)

***

On another note, my Bento #32 inspired a co-worker and she wants to make bento lunches for her kids (and herself) when the school year starts.
She hasn't been able to find any reasonably priced bento supplies in her area, so I'm going on a bento shopping trip for her tomorrow.
She's given me a budget and some favourite colours and styles (she likes my 3-tier bento), and she wants things that will help her keep it simple but cute.
I'm excited, and I hope she likes what I pick out for her.
I'll take a picture of the haul before I hand it in ;)

Bento #48 and #49

I'm so behind!



Mini pita sandwiches - 2 mini pitas cut in half, filled with red leaf lettuce, turkey, mozzarella, Caesar dressing (low calorie) and pepperoncini.
Cucumber
Tomato
Carrots
Pepper Kinpira




this one was a mish-mash

noodles with sesame oil and soy sauce
deviled egg
meatballs (on a pick!)
chicken nuggets
potato smiles
frozen corn
carrots
blueberries
and a container of teriyaki sauce for the meatballs.

delish!

***

Next one is Bento #50 ... I'd like to say that I'll do something special, but I probably won't.

Bento #47

woah, it's been a busy few weeks.
lots of family stuff going on, hosted a housewarming / open house thing, busy busy busy!

Bento for today is
Rice
Spicy Chicken (recipe here, but substituted chicken for the tofu)
Sausage Salad (from the Just Bento Cookbook, but I substituted broccoli for the celery and used bottled honey mustard sauce thinned with a bit of olive oil) - The Mister gets corn instead.
Carrots
Deviled Egg
Cherries (red and yellow)
Blueberries

I'm thinking of planning out a picnic bento for the long weekend - The Mister and I both have Monday off and I would like to have a nice day outdoors.
Though, Pride is also on Saturday, so it might be fun to head downtown for that and have a picnic.

Bento #46

Half the box was filled with noodles and wontons, with a package of wonton soup powder.
Divided with a piece of red leaf lettuce, the other half has:
Cheese
Mini yellow pepper
Snow peas
Cucumber
Strawberry
Blueberry skewers
Grape tomato
Kidney beans cooked in a little tomato sauce with some chili powder and garlic

The Mister got a cornbread muffin instead of the beans, carrots instead of the pepper, and no tomato.

After you eat all the veggies and stuff, spread out the noodles and wontons, sprinkle on the soup powder, add hot water and microwave for a minute - yum!

Bento #45

I was quite rushed this morning - I slept in - eep!
I threw this together in about 10 minutes before I ran out the door.

2 cornbread biscuits, left over from dinner (sort of recipe below)
Cheese
Grape tomatoes
Snow peas
Baby carrots
Mini orange pepper
Cucumber slices
2 strawberries
Blueberry skewers
Container of blue cheese dressing for the veggies
Container of jalapeno jelly for the biscuits

It's very bright and summery looking (even though the photo is a bit dark - I took it at work, so I didn't want to use the flash - hah)
It smells delicious too - the fruit is very fragrant ^_^

Cornbread Biscuits
I started with this recipe for cornbread.
I adjusted it for 4 servings
I omitted the sugar, since I wanted a savory bread
Then I didn't actually measure in the milk - I just added it until it seemed like the right consistency - thinner than a drop biscuit, but not a batter - kinda sticky.
I also added some paprika and chives.

Gaming for your health

A while back, I bought My Weight Loss Coach for my DS.
I didn't use it much, because the pedometer is quite large and clunky.
The rest of it was pretty cute, it's sort of a food and fitness tracker that gives you "challenges" and ideas to help you live a healthier lifestyle.
My only complaint is that I can only seem to have a "balanced day" (where your food intake balances with the amount of activity you do throughout the day) when I eat unhealthy foods. If I stick to the healthy things, the game counts them as zero "energy" (1 "energy" = approximately 50 calories) and I need to reach about 40-50 "energy" depending on what I do that day.
For example, today I had a horrible food day - hot dogs, pizza, pop an nachos! (I don't splurge like that often), but because I did about 90 mins of walking and 30 mins of yoga, the game told me I could lose 1lb in about 3 days if I kept it up!
I would not want to keep that diet up at all!

On to the yoga ... I also picked up Let's Yoga, which I talked about in an earlier post. I got busy and stopped doing it, but for the last week, I've been doing about 30 mins per day.
I really enjoy the 5 min focused routines. They are all focused on improving different areas of the body, your mood, etc. I can pick 3 or 4 of those and then do one of the "master classes"
Once I've cycled through "master classes" I plan on trying out the "random yoga" section where you can ask it to generate a 10 to 60 minute set of poses.
I'm really enjoying the yoga, now that I'm doing it more regularly.

I recently picked up Personal Trainer: Walking which comes with two "activity meters" which are fancy pedometers that use motion sensing chips instead of the rocker type motion sensor, so it's silent. It's also a lot smaller than the one from the Weight Loss Coach game. It doesn't show your step count on the device, but it only takes a few seconds to upload the data to the game card.

I've been using the three games together for the last week - the Walking and the Yoga games for activity and the Coach game for the challenges and tracking.

I'm at 207 lbs right now - the highest I've ever been (thanks to the steroids I'm on for my autoimmune disorder, which I now get to start tapering - yay!), so let's see how this all goes.
After today's feast of bad foods, I'm looking forward to a slightly healthier day tomorrow. I feel a bit greasy right now.

Bento #44

Well, I guess this isn't quite a bento ... but just go with it ;)

Salmon Salad Sandwich
Mini Yellow Pepper
Mini Orange Pepper
Baby Carrots
Yellow and Orange Cherry Tomatoes
Mini Corn
Cucumber
Dill Pickles
Olives
pepperoncini
Cheese

Salmon Salad Recipe
-sorry for the lack of measurements, I was doing it all by the teaspoon (not the measuring spoon kind!) and just judged by consistency and taste!
Can Salmon
Cottage Cheese (just enough so the Salmon is still a bit dry)
1tbsp sour cream
Feta, crumbled
Cucumber, Grated and squeezed dry
Dill
Green Onion
Pepper
Seasoning Salt
Minced Garlic

Mix the cottage cheese with the salmon - just enough so it is still slightly dry.
Add everything else and mix well.
Serve as a sandwich or wrap filling, with crackers, add to the top of a salad ... it's very yummy - a little Mediterranean in flavour. Come to think of it, it might be good with a dash of Oregano. I'll try that next time

Bento #43

Egg noodles with sesame oil and soy sauce
Deviled egg with chives
Cottage cheese with shredded cheddar, green onion, salt and pepper.
Garlic Cornick (Filipino style corn nuts)
Bell Pepper Kinpira - recipe from the Just Bento cookbook
Black Grapes

The Mister's bento was almost the same - he got Carrot Kinpira, because he doesn't like peppers that much, and I gave him cheese cubes instead of the cottage cheese.

Carrot Kinpira recipe here (though I added some dashi as well)

The kinpira reduced a lot more than I thought it would - mine is 3 mini bell peppers and it doesn't even fill the container! His was about 8 baby carrots and, same thing!

The cottage cheese recipe comes from my great aunt - I really never liked cottage cheese before. One day she was visiting my granny and whipped out a container of it mixed with the cheddar, green onion and a dash of salt & pepper. She said she never liked it either, but once she tried it this way, she couldn't stop eating it - I agree! It's really quite good (you don't use much salt at all and can omit it entirely if you'd like. I just prefer adding a tiny amount to cut the slight sweet edge that cottage cheese has)

Bento #42

Leftover risotto (a box mix that I really like)
Canned salmon on a bed of butter lettuce with homemade strawberry salsa (I made this recipe for dinner but used salmon instead of trout, and then used the leftover salsa to throw in my bento)
Feta stuffed tomatoes topped with oregano and drizzled with balsamic vinegar
Olives and mini dill pickles (don't you love my tinfoil?)
Snap peas
Carrots
Mini sweet pepper
Black grapes

I only made a bento for me for Monday, The Mister has the day off and will have to fend for himself. I think we have one box of mac & cheese left in the cupboard ... hah!
After Monday, I'm working the late shift for the rest of the week - we'll see how I do with the bentos. I hate trying to make them when I'm working late (I prefer to make them in the evenings, so I can make one for The Mister as well).

Bento #41

Sorry for the lack of posts - I've been busy :(

Today's bento includes:
Cha Soba (green tea & buckwheat noodles) with dipping sauce, wasabi, chives and nori furikake (blue container and a second hidden container)
Baby corn
Leftover schwartzies potatoes
A hot dog, cut into various shapes (hidden)
mini sweet peppers with blue cheese dressing

Kinda thrown together, but delicious :)

Bento #40

I said I was going to ...

My Sailor Jupiter Bento box - it's not exact, but it's fairly close, and I was working with what I had on hand just to see if I could do it. Also, my bento box is smaller in size, so I couldn't fit as much as there is in the one from the cartoon.

Here is what I put in it, with comments.

2 round onigiri with furikake with lettuce baran - Jupiter has 3 onigiri and it looks like they are in a long divider cup.
tuna croquette (recipe from Alton Brown) - I only put in one, again due to space constraints, but it looks like she has 3 and they have some sort of sauce on them. I had to cram mine in, so I skipped the sauce.
pasta salad (whole wheat rotini, carrot, cucumber, honey ham, mayo, a dash of sour cream, onion spice mix) - If I used regular pasta, it would be closer in colour, but I like the whole wheat stuff, so ...
mini octodogs (hot dog cut into 4 pieces, only cut 4 legs on each one) - I didn't put faces on mine.
tamagoyaki slices - if I wanted it to look exactly like the picture, I could have used nori in the middle, but I didn't like the flavour when I tried that once.
juliened carrot and snap pea wrapped in honey ham slice (sealed with a dab of cream cheese) - it looks like this might have been wrapped in beef in Jupiter's
cherry tomato - this is the only thing that is exactly the same - hah!
Strawberry - I didn't have anything to replicate the pink things - I think it might be mochi, but the only mochi I have wouldn't have fit, and I didn't want to take the time to make some, because I was running out of steam.

This was a lot of fun ^_^
I'm sure I'll do it again someday.

I showed The Mister ... he kinda stopped and went "oh" - I think maybe he thinks this one is a bit too silly - haha. Thankfully his is different - it's got a lot of the same stuff, but it's laid out differently and in a square lock & lock container.

Bento #39

Leftover Sidekicks Harvest Chicken rice & vermicelli
Hot dog fish
Deviled egg
Carrots
Sauce container with Honey Mustard (under carrots)
Garlic Corn Nuts (The Mister bought these at a Filipino restaurant)
Snap peas
Strawberry
Taro Mochi

I've been reading the Sailor Moon Manga over the past few days - I totally forgot that my favourite scout, Sailor Jupiter, was a good cook and that there were occasional shots of her bento boxes in both the comic and the tv show here are some more

I think I might try to replicate one eventually ^_^

Bento #38

Another ramen bento - the stock mix I made up the other day worked quite well, and meshed with the soy sauce and sesame oil I had dressed the noodles with. I used very little of the mix compared to how much water I put in - I didn't want the broth to be too salty. It was very nice. Also, I had a ton left over, so I'm bringing it in this bento - hah!

Ingredient-wise, this one is pretty much the same as Thursday's ramen, except I traded the turkey for some enoki mushrooms. I also put a dash of furikake on top.
I also included a little side-dish of some asazuke - quick pickled cucumber, made with the recipe from the Just Bento cookbook.

***

I haven't talked about my weight-loss efforts for some time.
This is mainly because they have come to a complete halt ... well, not the efforts, but the progress. It is something beyond my control, and it is very frustrating.

I mentioned some medical stuff a while back, well to give a bit more detail, I was diagnosed with Pemphigus Vulgaris (there are no pictures at that link, but please note, if you look up photos of the condition, it can look quite awful, so be careful if you are squeamish - mine was caught fairly early and did not get very bad). Essentially what is happening is my immune system is attacking the chemical that holds my skin cells together, so I get very thin watery blisters. They break easily and leave sores. When the skin heals over the sores, it doesn't adhere properly, so it tears easily. Rather uncomfortable!
As I said, mine was caught pretty early - I had symptoms for about 3 months before I was properly diagnosed (it looks a lot like other conditions, so it was a bit of trial and error at first). The only permanent scars I will have are from where they took two blisters off for biopsies.
It is a rare condition and they don't really know what causes it. It is commonly found in older patients, so I've surprised some of the residents at the dermatology office - they walk in expecting a 70 year old lady - hah!

I have had to go on prednisone - a steroid which can cause significant weight gain (and moonface!). I have gained back all the weight I lost since I started trying (before this blog) - plus another 5 lbs, so I'm up to 205 right now. I seem to have stopped there, which makes me happy. The medication also causes an increase in appetite, which I have been trying to strictly control (low calorie snacks and lots of veggies).
I am currently taking a different immunosuppresant medication (commonly used for translpant patients!), and I will thankfully begin to taper the prednisone starting in July.
I'm hoping that I will be able to lose all the weight I gained once I'm off the steroid.

So, terribly sorry for those of you who were interested in hearing about any progress - it was definitely helping before, and I will definitely update once I start to lose weight again!

Store Bought Lunch

I didn't make a lunch last night, because I was lazy.
Also, Friday is The Mister's "Lunch Day" - he goes out with some co-workers to a random restaurant in the area.

I decided to hit up this little Japanese market near where I work called Fujiya.
I picked up their Mini Karaage Bento, some Gyoza and a Calpico Strawberry drink - way too much food - I will be eating it all day! (I couldn't resist the gyoza though, I love them)!
The Mini Karaage Bento came in at $3.95 and includes 3 pieces of Chicken Karaage and 3 Onigiri. The Onigiri are mixed with various furikake - Anchovy (brown), Plum (purple) and Seaweed (green). I've had a bite of each, so delicious! Even my manager walked by my desk and stopped to admire my lunch - when delicious food is also pretty, it makes things so much better.
The Gyoza were pretty standard, and only $2.45 for 6 pieces and the Calpico was also $2.45 for a 500ml bottle. I should have got a photo before I broke into the mini bento - oh well!

I think I'll be going back - they have all sorts of things (takoyaki yay!), and various trays of sushi for very good prices (only $2.75 for 12 large pices of kappa maki ... it's normally that price for 6 small pieces!) Their bento boxes are all around $6.
If you're in and around the Vancouver area and I recommend this place for inexpensive, decent cold Japanese food.

I was going to pick up some miso, but they only had it in 1kg tubs! I don't know how long it lasts, and I don't think I'd use that much ... but it was pretty inexpensive.
I'll do a bit more research into how long it lasts or look around for smaller containers before I pick some up.

Bento #37

Blue box is for The Mister and pink box is for me - they are essentially the same, just different portions.

This one is a ramen inspired bento - but with no broth! I'm sure I could put together a packet of instant broth to throw in, but I thought this would be good on it's own.
((edited to add)) It turned out to be a cold grey day, so I did put together a packet of powdered soup mix - I mixed chicken and beef 2:1 and threw in some dashi granules. I usually do the chicken/beef mix, but I've never tried it with dashi - hopefully it's ok!

In the base of each box is a layer of noodles with soy sauce, sesame oil and a pinch of chili flakes.
We each get half of a Shoyu egg (hard boiled egg marinated in soy sauce), sprinkled with black sesame seeds.
Mini Bok Choy (blanched)
Carrot matchsticks
Frozen Corn
Veggie Dumpling (he gets 2, I get 1)
He gets 2 pieces of imitation crab
I get 3 slices of turkey lunch meat, cut and rolled into flowers.
Each box is topped with a bit of green onion.

We also each get 2 pieces of seasoned nori and a small box with some assorted fruit (mango, donut peach, black plum, black grapes and strawberry)

Bento #36

First bento in my new house - we have no veggies!

Furikake Rice
Green Beans with Soy Sauce and Sesame Oil
Grape Tomatoes
Imitation Crab Salad
Cheese
Black Grapes
Mint
Apricot
Taro Mochi

I'm going to pick up some veggies and fruit tomorrow

I have to get used to my new stove - it's a flat top, and the temperatures are a bit different, so there is going to be some adjustment there. I nearly had a rice disaster.

Not Bento - but yummy!

So, I had to share this, because it was so delicious.
The last package of meat in my freezer was 1/2 a lb of ground turkey.
I had to find something to do with it, so to google I turned.

I finally found a recipe for Moroccan Turkey Burgers (link goes to recipe)

All I had to buy were a couple of buns and some fresh mint, I had everything else in my cupboards or fridge. (I skipped the mint extract, and it was delicious without it)

Even the Mister, who rarely expresses himself over food was saying "mmmmm" while he was eating.

I was a little unsure about the sauce - sour cream, honey and mint - but it paired really well with the seasoning on the meat.

I halved the recipe, made two burgers and served it with some fries I had in the back of the freezer. I think it would have been better with a salad though. Next time I guess.

Bento #35

Curry Rice
Deviled Egg
Hot Dog jumping fish
Carrots
Snap Peas
Snow Peas (hidden under sauce container)
Apricot
Black Grapes

Presentation isn't great on this one - I was a bit rushed and I'm sleepy.

You will notice a logo painted on the egg - I was originally going to try and do egg sheets to put over the rice, but it didn't come out properly, so I did the next best thing. Tomorrow night is Game 7 for the Stanley Cup - so I thought I should give The Mister a break on the cute stuff and give him the (old) Vancouver Canucks logo.
I'm not a sports fan in general, but it's hard not to get into the excitement.



I'm down to the bare bones in my kitchen and I have to finish packing, so I won't have time to make bento lunches for the next few days. Moving on Saturday, so life should be back to normal shortly after that.

Curry fried Rice Recipe:

Brown rice cooked in chicken stock
Imitation Crab
Scrambled egg
Corn
Green Beans
Yellow Curry Paste
olive oil

stir fry away!
I just kind of threw this together with whatever I have on hand - it's not bad.

Bento #33 & #34

Bottom tier:
Egg noodles with sesame oil, soy sauce, black sesame seeds and chili flakes
Meatballs with teriyaki sauce and carrot hearts

Top tier:
Frozen corn (thaws by lunch!)
Snap peas
Strawberry
Apricot slices
Black Grapes

And the centerpiece is slightly different - we each get a hard boiled egg ...

The Mister gets a chick (the egg broke around the middle, otherwise it would have been a deviled egg):



Mine is Totoro! - cut a 'V' out of the top of the egg to make the ears, painted the egg with food colouring, used the leftover egg to make the eyes, black sesame seeds for the pupils and nose:



Here's a closeup of Totoro:

Bento #32

Bottom tier (back)
Tortilla roll with chive cream cheese and turkey
12 grain crackers
cheese
snap peas

Middle tier (right)
Mini salmon burgers (recipe here)
pepper kinpira (recipe from just bento cookbook)
grape tomatoes

Top tier (left)
deviled egg
carrots
strawberry
black grapes
snow peas (hidden under egg)

A bit of a mish-mash - had to put it together quickly this morning - got home too late last night, and I have to do a bunch of running around before work this morning - eep!

Bento #31

Today's bento is

yakisoba with cabbage
Mini salmon burgers (recipe here) with tartar sauce
mini cucumber sticks
baby carrots and a grape tomato arranged in "flowers"
snow peas (hidden under the sauce container)
apple bunnies
blood orange
black grapes
apricot slices (hidden under the other fruit)


Yakisoba recipe (2 servings for smaller tiers of a two-tiered bento box):

1 bundle soba noodles
handfull of shredded cabbage
dash of olive oil

Sauce Ingredients:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
3/4 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp mirin
1 tsp sugar
ginger to taste

mix sauce and set aside
boil soba noodles until tender, drain and rinse in cold water
in a frying pan, heat oil and add noodles - stir fry for a minute or two
add cabbage to pan, continue to stir fry until noodles just start to stick to the pan
add sauce and stir fry to reduce

you can add meat, fish or other veggies too!

Bento #30

Mexican!

Last night I made mini tacos for my husband's company potluck (use scoops tortilla chips and fill with taco toppings - they're super cute! unfortunately, I didn't get a photo). I had some leftover refried beans, shredded cheese and other things, so I decided to make myself a Mexican inspired bento this morning.

Quick Spanish Rice (recipe here - I used brown rice and scaled it down to 1 serving)
Refried Bean Roll (tortilla, refried beans, sour cream, cheese, taco sauce
Tomatoes, Snap Peas
Corn
Apricot, Blood Orange and Black grapes

I'm looking forward to lunch today ...

I really like the 3-tier bento - surprisingly, it's a lot easier to pack!

Bento #29

New bento box! It's a tiny 3-tier one, but it holds just as much as the 2-tier ones I use. I can fill the bottom portion with a much smaller amount of rice than if I was to use the 2-tier one and dedicate the whole bottom to rice.

Furikake Rice
Deviled Eggs
Sugar Snap Peas
Baby Carrots
Mini Salmon Burgers
Mini Bok Choy
Grape Tomatoes

Mini Salmon Burgers
1 Can Salmon (I used the one that's the same size as a can of tuna, also boneless)
dill, salt & pepper to taste
2 tsp dijon
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 c breadcrumbs
1 extra large egg
Mix all, form into patties, fry in a little bit of olive oil over medium heat until golden brown, flip, cook until golden brown.

Mini Bok Choy was stir fried with garlic in a little olive oil until it was just starting to wilt. Add a bit of beef broth (a tablespoon or so) and put the lid on to steam. Drizzle with a bit of sesame oil and toss.

Since we are moving in 2 weeks, we aren't really going grocery shopping and I'm kind of having to scrape together what I can.

Bento #28

Salad Bento - I made it last-minute in the morning, using the water from boiling the egg to also boil the hot dog.

Bagged salad with mushrooms and mini peppers added
grape tomatoes
snow peas
black grapes
hot dog cut into an octopus, a fish and a crab
deviled egg
rice crackers
honey mustard and salad dressing in the containers on the side (they fit into the box over top of the hot dog and grapes)

I used the Mister's large bento box so I could pack a lot of salad.
My manager at work loved the octodog - her roommate has a small child and they are trying to get him to try hot dogs, but he won't. She thought fun shapes might work, so I drew up a quick cutting guide to make one hot dog into the 3 sea animals and gave it to her :)

I haven't really had time to make lunches this week, because we've been so busy getting ready to move. We're almost done packing, so I hope next week will be better.

Bento #27

a bit of a mish-mash - I was running lower on rice than I thought - at least I have a stock of veggies!

corn pasta with taco-flavoured meat sauce, cheese, tomatoes, olives and green onion.
imitation crab and cabbage salad with mayo and black sesame seeds
pepitas (pumpkin seeds) with seasoning salt
black grapes and half an apricot

dinner post

I had to take a photo of dinner, because it was so pretty (dinner doesn't normally look like this, I promise you).
I was planning on serving rice with it and making some imitation crab maki sushi, but the rice did NOT cook properly (it was mush on the bottom and crunchy on the top). I took the imitation crab and mixed it with some cabbage, mayo, sesame seeds and pepper to make a salad.
The sausage slices are a honey garlic smoked sausage cooked with a bit of garlic and some teriyaki sauce.
Frozen veggie dumplings with homemade gyoza sauce.
And finally, the part I am most happy with is the Cha Soba (green tea buckwheat noodles) - served cold, I lightly toasted some nori over a burner and cut it into thin strips, made some soba tsuyu (dipping sauce) and served it with some wasabi and green onions (as per several websites when I was looking up how to serve the cha soba). I mixed the wasabi and green onions into the dipping sauce and dipped the noodles in before eating them. The noodles are so refreshing and the wasabi complimented the flavour so nicely.

I always wondered about all the different sauces they serve at Japanese restaurants, and once I started incorporating some of the cuisine into my cooking, I learned that those sauces are all pretty simple and only require 3-4 main ingredients used in different combinations.
My next goal is to make gyoza from scratch! I'll probably wait until we're moved in to our new house before tackling that.

Bento #26

I made matching bento for the Mister and myself - I've got the day off, but I cooked enough food for two.

Plain white rice
Spicy Tofu
Deviled egg
snap peas, tomatoes, mushrooms and carrots
white nectarine
strawberry flavoured mini pudding gel

The spicy tofu recipe was surprisingly hard to find, so I will share it:
1 lb extra firm tofu, cubed
1/4 c sweet chili sauce
1/4 c soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
6 cloves garlic
red pepper flakes to taste
sesame seeds
3 tbsp cornstarch
4 green onions, chopped

mix chili sauce, soy sauce, sesame seeds and pepper flakes - set aside
toss tofu in cornstarch to coat
heat some oil over med-high heat, add tofu and stir-fry until golden
add 1/2 of the green onion and stir-fry for 1 min
add sauce, simmer to reduce.
stir in remaining green onion and top with more sesame seeeds.


I bought some agar-agar powder yesterday, and I'm going to make coco-lime tea gel.
The tea is a loose-leaf tea bought at Tea Desire - they have a ton of varieties and flavours, and they're really reasonably priced (unlike some other specialty tea vendors)
It's a black tea with coconut flakes and dried lime wedges - so refreshing and delicious - we will see how it translates into a gelatin.

I also bought some Cha Soba - green tea flavoured soba noodles! I'm going to do a whole dinner with Japanese inspired food tonight:
Honey Garlic Teriyaki sausage over white rice
Imitation Crab Salad Maki
Tamagoyaki Nigiri
Cha Soba with traditional fixings (dipping sauce, wasabi, green onion)
Gyoza
I may even have to present it on these pretty square green glass plates I have with a bamboo design etched into them. They were actually the base for our wedding centrepieces (add a pillar candle, some glass aquarium beads, and bam!), but we kept them, because they're a really nice decorative plate. I've never had a chance to use them before, so I thought it might be fun.

Bento #25

This is The Mister's bento for tomorrow - I'm not working, so I'm skipping mine. But I'm hitting the farm market tomorrow, so I'll probably have a lovely salad for lunch instead.
He gets perogies and half a sausage, a deviled egg, snow peas, corn, grapes, and a strawberry, orange, pineapple salad.


Apparently a few people at The Mister's office had to come over to see what I made for him today, and they were trying to figure out what shape I had cut the hot dogs into (crabs, see last post). They all apparently think it's cool that I make him lunch, and someone asked if I was Asian - heh - nope, I just like Asian food.
I'm happy that he likes the lunches I make and puts up with my food experiments (the PaJeon was a hit by the way) and occasional whimsy.

Bento #24

Today's main dish is cold soba noodles with dipping sauce, nori furikake and chives
Top tier has 1/2 an apricot and 1/2 a clementine, frozen corn, snow peas and tomatoes.
Not much protein again, only 1/2 a hotdog cut into 2 crabs.
The white wedges are Pajeon - a Korean pancake with chives - the little pig container has some jeon dipping sauce in it.

PaJeon (makes about 10 pancakes in a small frying pan)
2 cups flour
2 cups water
2 eggs
chives, chopped fine
salt & pepper

mix all, let rest for 10-15 minutes
heat a little bit of oil in a small frying pan
pour in batter, sprinkle with more chives, seafood, whatever you want.
cook over medium for 5-6 minutes until golden brown
flip and cook other side 5-6 minutes until golden brown

Jeon Sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tbsp vinegar (distilled white)
1 stalk scallion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp Korean dried hot chili pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil


I think tomorrow I'm going to go out and buy some tofu when I'm picking up some fresh veggies. I'd like to try a couple of tofu recipes out.

The Mister and I bought a house - we're moving in a little under a month!
I will be so happy to get out of my tiny apartment kitchen (I have 1 small piece of countertop and two cupboards for food!) and into something with space to move and prep multiple items at once!

Bento #23

A very veggie / fruit heavy bento - I wanted to use stuff up before it wilted.

2 mini sandwiches - blackberry jelly with a penguin cutout and underneath that is a ham & cheese with a bunny cutout.

Cucumber cream cheese salad - which I topped with grape tomatoes after taking the photo.

Snow peas crammed in between everything

Enoki mushrooms sauteed in a little butter with some garlic

And finally, a strawberry, apricot and pineapple fruit salad.

Bento #22

Quickie lunch for Saturday.

Fish shaped sandwiches - one egg salad and one PB&J - we got this really great low calorie jam from superstore, it's pomegranate and black currant. I always loved black currant jam as a kid (it came in a blue plastic tub with a white lid), and I love pomegranate now. I don't normally eat sandwiches, let alone PB&J, and this is the third time this week I've had it, that's how good the jam is.

Meatballs with teriyaki sauce and pineapple.

Grapes
Strawberry
Snow Peas
Grape tomatoes

Outside the box is a clementine and a taro pudding jelly cup
Bringing but not shown - a juice box (apple, orange, peach) and chicken noodle cup a soup.

The Mister's box has an egg salad sandwich - no cute shapes, just cut into 3 pieces to fit in the box. He also gets the meatballs, snow peas and grapes.

He came home and reported that he showed his lunch to his co-workers, because he was so excited about his egg chick.
Two of them thought I was awesome and one of them wishes I was his wife.

Bento #21

Chickeens!

The onigiri are filled with teriyaki salmon (I know chicken would have been more appropriate, but I used it all for dinner) - turned them into chickens with corn, corned beef and nori. I made 3 - one got eaten right away, because it fell apart. The one in the bottom of the photo is starting to fall apart ... I guess it's okay for a first try.

The egg is a deviled egg, the yolk was mixed with mayo and finely diced olives - turned it into a chicken using carrots and black sesame seeds.

The cup has leftovers from dinner - I made a chicken mushroom noodle casserole (diced chicken breast, diced brown and white mushrooms, low fat cream of mushroom soup with a bit of skim milk mixed in, 1/2 a small tub of low fat sour cream, and about a cup of shredded cheese, mix it all together, bake @ 350 until bubbly. I topped it with some dried chives)

used 1/2 a clementine, 2 asparagus stalks, 3 grape tomatoes, the last of my baby carrots, 1/2 a mini cucumber and 2 snow peas to fill up the rest of the box.

The Mister got a plain riceball with a strip of the wasabi nori wrapped around it.
I did give him a chicken deviled egg - his is mixed with chive.
He came into the kitchen, saw it and told me he thought it was awesome. I'm so happy that he likes the odd cute food now and then.
He got more of the casserole (filled the bottom tier of his red bento box), the other half of the clementine, some carrots and some snow peas.

Bento #20 (x2)

Tomorrow's bento boxes - The Mister and I get slightly different ones ...
a) because I didn't make enough broccoli and cauliflower tonight, and I made too many green beans last night
b) because he doesn't like certain things.

Red bento is his:
Pan Fried Risotto cakes
tart green grapes
snow peas
broccoli and cauliflower with parmesan herb seasoning
carrots
hot dog fish
honey mustard (in the yellow bear container)

Blue bento is mine:
Pan fried Risotto cakes
Carrots
Cucumber cream cheese salad
Green beans with honey / soy / sesame dressing
grape tomatoes
hot dog fish
honey mustard (in the green cat container)

I'm lame and I only just discovered that my cheese grater has a slicer on it - use it from the back and you get super thin slices, from the front you get wavy slices. I used it to cut the cucumber.

coming in at a calorie count of around 450

Bento #19

Tomorrow's bento:

Rice mixed with Furikake
Deviled egg
Ham, Cheese and Olives on a toothpick skewer
1/2 an apricot
tart green grapes
grape tomatoes
mini cucumber slices - one with a heart cutout for the cute
green beans with a honey / soy / sesame dressing

This is a very orange and green bento!

The Mister's is almost exactly the same, except I omitted the furikake and sprinkled black and white sesame seeds on his rice instead, he gets an extra skewer, but his doesn't have any olives. I included some honey mustard for him too. Finally, instead of the tomato and cucumber (his two most hated veggies), he gets carrots.

I got the recipe for the green beans from the Kawaii Bento Book, changed out the sugar for some honey and added some chili flakes.
The skewers were a last minute space filler.

I really like cooking stuff for the bento along with dinner - we had green beans tonight, and I just cooked some extra.
Tomorrow will be the big test in that respect - I'm planning to turn two side-dishes from dinner into lunch stuff.

Bento #18

For tomorrow's bento, I made it mostly with the just bento cookbook. I changed a couple of things, because I didn't have some of the ingredients or wanted to try something different, but inspired by her recipes. Some of it came out a little small, so I packed in some fruit and snow peas to fill the rest of the space.

Rice with mixed veggies
Dwarf Bok Choy stir fried with garlic and tossed with a dash of sesame oil (yum!)
tamagoyaki
ham roll filled with chive whipped cream cheese and cheddar
strawberry
grapes
snow peas

I printed out the "weekly meal planner with bento lunch box" from the just bento website and slid it into a plastic page protector. I used a grease pencil, which wipes off the plastic very nicely, and wrote out this week's meals, planning the veggies and sides so I can use them for the bento lunches the next day. I stuck it to the side of the fridge with magnets for handy reference. (the wire basket has index cards with recipes in it)



Let's see how well I follow it!
I'm going to try and remember to take photos each day.

Finally, I went to the farm market and picked up a whole bunch of fruit and veggies for a great price. I want to make it my goal to try something new when I spot it at the market. This time around I got some enoki mushrooms, which I will be using in a bento later this week.
I guess the bok choy sort of counts too - I've eaten it before, but I've never made it myself - and these ones were so tiny!

Garlic Bok Choy Recipe:
large handfull of Bok Choy
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp beef broth
1 tsp sesame oil

heat oil and garlic, add bok choy and stir fry until leaves just begin to wilt - ensure garlic gets spread evenly . Add beef broth and quickly cover the pan, steam for a couple of minutes until heated through. Drizzle with sesame oil and toss.

Bento #17

This was yesterday's bento - I've been making them a lot more lately, but I just haven't had the time to take photos and such.

Inside is:

1 cup rice - 3:1 mix of white and black rice (cooked together, makes it purple)
1 tuna croquette (recipe from "Good Eats")
Container with tartar sauce
Chicken, carrot and snow pea teriyaki
Broccoli tossed in wasabi and soy sauce

The little packet off to the side is instant miso soup.

This was kind of an "oh no, I need lunch, what's left in the fridge?" bento.
I had completely forgotten that I cut up a couple of chicken breasts and stashed them in the freezer in small portions, it came in handy!

Bento #16

I got a couple of single-tier bento boxes today. They're just the "Lovely" brand from Daiso - a blue 850ml one for the Mister and a pink 550ml one for me.
According to charts I've seen, they're each 50ml too small for our age (the height is quite far off), but that's okay, because we're both trying to lose weight.
Mine was a little harder to pack, because it is smaller (it's only 30ml smaller than my URARA dragonfly 2-tier box, but I'm not used to the single space).

Inside each box is a vegetable stir fry (not vegetarian, but it could be if you replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock):
1tsp olive oil fragranced with a piece of ginger (heat oil, lightly sautee ginger, remove - The Mister is not a big fan of ginger, so I didn't want to leave pieces in)
1/2 tsp minced garlic (I'm lazy and have the pre-minced stuff in a jar)
handfull each of snow peas, green pepper, yellow pepper cut into bite-sized pieces
handfull of carrot, thinly sliced
Sauce:
1/4 c chicken stock
splash each of mirin, rice vinegar and soya sauce
cornstarch (about 1tsp) to thicken

Tamagoyaki with herbs (we each get half):
2 eggs, a generous pinch each of parsley, basil and oregano, and about a teaspoon of finely chopped green onion.

I also made hot dog "jumping fish" - cute! (he gets 1 whole hot dog cut into 4 fish, I could only fit 3 fish into my box, so I ate one right away!). Put in a small container of honey dijon to dip the hot dogs in.

I get 1 cup of rice, he gets 1-1/2 cups - topped with carrot and snow pea flowers to make it pretty.

These ones look a lot more "traditional" than my other bento boxes - I actually really like it.

I'm really looking forward to getting the JustBento cookbook.
I've started a notebook specifically for bento friendly recipes - though I'm thinking of getting index cards and a plastic box so I can organize them, instead of just writing it all down and then having to flip through it all to find what I want.

***

In addition to the above bento boxes, I also bought a Makiyakinabe pan today. It's a small rectangular pan specifically for making tamagoyaki. It was only $2, and I make tamagoyaki often enough that I wanted to get a pan, so I could make them a nice uniform shape for the bento boxes.
People often say it's a single-purpose item, but as soon as I was done the omelette, threw in the hot dog "fish" to cook - they all fit perfectly in a single layer. I'm sure I can make use of it a lot with making various small portioned fried items for the bento boxes. And because it's a nonstick pan, I don't have to use much, if any oil.
Not something totally necessary or for everyone, but I'm glad I bought it.

Bento #15

I bought the Just Bento Cookbook and the Kawaii Bento Boxes books for my birthday.
Amazon.com has some sample recipes from the Just Bento Cookbook on their site, so I decided to make one last night.

Chicken and Three-Color Pepper Stir-fry (I only had 2 kinds of pepper - haha)
Instant Cabbage and Cucumber Pickles
Basic White Rice
Cherry Tomatoes, Carrots and Snow Peas (the original called for broccoli, but I didn't have any on hand, so I replaced it with the carrots and snow peas)

I sucked it up and bought some fresh ginger for the very first time to make the chicken recipe. It smelled absolutely delicious while it was cooking. I munched on a couple of pieces of the chicken this morning, and it was amazing!
My husband is okay with peppers, and I'm not too sure how he feels about ginger, so I told him if he doesn't like it I won't make it for him again (but I certainly will for me!) I didn't make the pickles for him, because he generally dislikes pickled things.

I like the JustBento website a lot, so I'm really looking forward to this book. (I've wanted the book for a while, it's just impossible to find locally, I've been looking in bookstores for a few months now)
I hope the Kawaii one has some good stuff in it too.

Bento #14

Made identical lunches for the Mister myself.

I've been playing with the black rice more, and I made "Ninja Roll" sushi - black rice filled with salmon teriyaki. I was going to be a dork and put black sesame seed eyes in at least one of them, but I resisted.
Also in there are some vegetable dumplings and some homemade dipping sauce for them.
Meatballs with teriyaki sauce, carrot flowers and green onion
A deviled egg with salt, pepper and fresh chives
and some carrots and snow peas to fill it up.

Bento #13

Tried to make a Sanrio Kyaraben - first attempt ever at something like this.
Hello Kitty worked ok - I formed the ears separately, which was a mistake, because they aren't sticking well. I'll have to form it all at once next time.
Badtz-Maru looks good, but doesn't really work at all. I used black Thai rice, which is sticky, but it's a wet sticky, so it doesn't hold together well when moved. I might add a few grains of the black rice to regular rice while it's cooking, and just do a lighter coloured Badtz-Maru (it dyes the white rice a purple colour) if ever I decide to do this again.
They're both filled with tuna - Badtz has pickles inside too.
The rest of it was just thrown together, because it was getting late.

Bento #12

Today is leftover day.

Hamburger Helper Chili Macaroni (made with lean ground turkey and mushrooms)
Schwartzies Hash Browns (butter omitted, less cheese, all other ingredients were reduced fat)
Assorted veggies
Riceball mixed with furikake and topped with a nori and cheese penguin.

The Mister actually got something completely different today, because he doesn't like leftovers, and I make less food at dinner time now, so there are actually less leftovers to go around ;)
No photo, but I made him an egg sushi roll (tamago maki!), vegetable dumplings, meatballs with teriyaki sauce, grapes, apple chunks, veggies, cubed cheese and a turkey pepperoni stick.

I got some new bento supplies at Daiso, including mini sauce bottles (photo not mine), sushi molds (because I fail at rolling sushi) and vegetable cutters (mine only came with 3 - I didn't get the circular one, but it was only $2, so ...)

I'm having way too much fun with this.