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.