Mini Tuna Burgers

Yesterday, when I opened the can of soup to put into my bento, my cat came running into the kitchen and sat down at my feet.

She's not a big fan of soft food, and we've only ever given her the kind with the pop-top. What she was looking for was tuna water. Because I'm silly, I told her she could have tuna water later that night.

So, when it came time to make today's lunch, I settled on a mini tuna burger recipe from the just bento cookbook. Sure enough, as soon as I clamped the can opener onto the tin, the cat turned away from her water (from the brita - it's her usual 'treat' she goes crazy for it), and came to sit at my feet to wait quietly for her new treat.

Anyway, here's my bento:

Short-grain rice mixed with plum furikake

2 mini tuna burgers

I filled the remaining space with 1/4 of an apple, and some veggies. There are cucumbers under the tomatoes (tiny, tiny tomato <3 p="">

Two Lunches!

I wasn't home all day yesterday, so I didn't get to make a post. I have to go make lunch for tomorrow, so this one is short!

Yesterday's lunch was chicken teriyaki with rice, corn and gyoza:

Today's was quickly thrown together - Mediterranean meatball soup and assorted veggies:

Both were super tasty!

2 x Bento

Bento #62



This one was leftover sloppy joes made with ground turkey.
Served with slider flatbread rounds, green onion, and shredded cheese
For veggies we have celery and carrot sticks
And 2 chocolate covered macadamia nuts for a treat.

Sloppy Joe Recipe:
1lb ground turkey
1/4 c green pepper, diced
1/4 c onion, diced
1/2 c. ketchup
1 tbsp yellow mustard
a few dashes Worcestershire sauce
Spices to taste (I used chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper and a dash of salt)

Brown meat, breaking it up as you cook it. Drain. Add onion and green pepper and cook until just soft.
While meat is cooking, combine ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and spices. Add about 1/4 c water.
Coat the meat with the sauce (add more water if necessary), and simmer to reduce the sauce.

Serve on your favourite bread or buns (we used whole grain sunflower & flax bread when we had it for dinner) with toppings of your choice!

A lot of the recipes I found for sloppy joes called for brown sugar, and little to no spice. I didn't have any brown sugar on hand, so I skipped it, and added some of my favourite spices. This recipe had a nice slight sweet edge (ketchup already has sugar in it, and cinnamon is sweet), and just a touch of spice.

If you've never tried cinnamon in a tomato sauce, I highly recommend it. It adds such a rich flavour to the sauce. It works really well with meat sauces, but I often have it with just plain sauce. You only need a dash.

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Bento #63



Sorry, this photo is a bit blurry, I was in a rush that morning.
We have 3 round onigiri (l to r: Salmon Furikake, Plain (lightly salted), Umeboshi Furikake)
1 hotdog cut into 2 octopi and 2 crabs (black sesame seeds for the octopus eyes)
Mustard in the little blue container
Deviled Egg
2 apple bunnies

yum!

I haven't made onigiri in so long, and I forgot just how delicious they are - even just the plain ones!
I picked up some more furikake today: Veggie, Bonito and Egg.

I've never actually had an umeboshi ... I will admit that even though I'm all for trying new things, a pickled plum makes me hesitate. I like the umeboshi furikake though. I'm sure if the opportunity presents itself, I will try one someday.

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 #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.

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 #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 #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 #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 #6

I had oatmeal crisp (triple berry - yum!) for breakfast - 1-1/2 cups with 1/2 cup skim milk (I don't like milk and milk doesn't like me). It was pretty good.

I didn't specifically get to go for my hour walk this morning, but I did get at least an hour of walking done while picking up veggies and cleaning supplies.

I was starved when I got back home, so I had a sandwich (portugese roll, ham, turkey, garlic & herb cream cheese, havarti, lettuce)

Then my bento box this afternoon.
I included an apple bunny, an octodog, carrots, cucumber, snow peas, 3 chicken nuggets (blue label from President's Choice) with homemade jalapeno jelly for dipping (thanks to my grandmother) and I made onigiri stuffed with a bit of tuna salad. Oh, and a toffee for a treat.
The Mister got the same thing, minus the cucumber (he doesn't like it, so I threw in more carrots to compensate) and with an extra nugget. He liked the octodog.

Dinner was a new rice mix I wanted to try - it's also from the blue label line. It's called "Bayou Blend" with 3 kinds of rice, black eyed peas and red beans. I added some cajun spice to add a bit more kick, but it was pretty good. The leftovers are going in the bentos tomorrow.
I served it with maple smoked sausage (1 for me, 1-1/2 for the Mister)

***

When I was at my doctor's today, I was getting a prescription re-filled for migraine medication. She asked how that was going, and I let her know that I pretty much stopped getting them (my prescription had actually expired with several refills left). I used to get them monthly, but hadn't had one for a few months. One hit and it was a doozy, but I've been fine for a few months since.
She asked if I could think of anything that may have changed to cause this, and really, the only thing I can think of is ... my diet and activity level.
Hooray for all around health!