Chicken Tikka Pasties

I took out some ground chicken to thaw for dinner, but then I realized I didn't have all the stuff I needed for the things I usually make with ground chicken. Oops.

I started looking up recipes for ground chicken or beef, and I came across a recipe for these biscuit cup things, which suddenly reminded me of Cornish pasties.

Then I wanted to see what people did with chicken in a pasty.
After a bit of google searching, I found a few recipes for chicken tikka pasties. I had a jar of pre-made tikka masala sauce, so I glanced at the recipe, then decided to come up with my own version with what I had on hand.

I made large ones for dinner using a hand pie press that I picked up a while ago.
Then I made some mini ones - I used a crumpet ring to cut the pastry (about the same size as an egg ring), and then crimped them closed with a fork

Here's my lunch with two mini pasties, some salad, apple, and a deviled egg:



Recipe!

1lb ground chicken
1 large russet potato
1/4 white onion
Jar of tikka masala sauce (I used this one)
1c frozen peas

Peel and dice potato (about 1cm pieces), boil until just done (stick a fork in, or cut it with a butter knife, if it's easy, it's done)
Cook ground chicken almost completely through, drain,
Dice onion, and add to the pan, cooking for a bit longer until chicken is cooked through and onion is soft.
Add enough sauce to coat the meat, fold in potato and peas. Add more sauce if necessary.

This will make about 9 large pasties... and a whole lot of mini ones (I have no idea how many - hah!)

I used this recipe for shortcrust pastry - it makes 3-4 pasties, depending on how thin you roll it. and about 6-8 mini ones.
If you want the pastry to be more golden, you will need to use an egg wash, but because I was doing such a small batch last night, I skipped it.

You can fill the large ones with about 1/3c of the filling, and the small ones take about 1tbsp.

I only made 2 large and 4 small pasties, so I have enough filling left for at least 2 more dinner/lunch combos, maybe more.

If anyone wants to do it completely from scratch, here is the recipe that inspired me.

Pasta Salad and Cocktail Sauages

I've been on a Greek salad kick - cucumber, tomato, pepper, onion, olive. So simple, so delicious.
Yesterday's lunch was packed in 15 minutes in the morning, and it was a full-sized version of the salad I had on Thursday, with the tomatoes cut in, and some olives added.

Today's bento incorporates the same flavours into a pasta salad, dressed with a feta salad dressing.



The pasta is one of those 'smart' ones, fortified and all that jazz.
The main protein today comes in the form of cocktail sausages (weiners!). I did 3 cut in half, and a 4th cut into an octopus, because it's hard to resist doing. There is a grainy mustard and mayo dip in the container.
I also have a tamagoyaki in there as a secondary protein. I didn't season it with the usual soy sauce and sugar - I used seasoned pepper instead, which is amazing on eggs.
Filled the space with 1/4 of an apple (not bunnified today, the other slice is hidden), broccoli and matchstick carrots.

Salad Bentos and a Cat

I forgot to take a photo of yesterday's bento, but it was just leftover taco fixings arranged into a salad, with some tortilla chips on the side. Yum!

I wanted to take a photo of both mine and my husband's bento boxes for today - they're essentially the same, but you can see where I've changed things up to accommodate our slightly different tastes.




Mine is on the left, his is on the right.

The main component in each is a salad - the base is spinach and romaine, then I've topped it with various other veggies. I get cucumber and red pepper, he gets snow peas and matchstick carrots.
I have salad dressing, but he likes his plain.
We each get a deviled egg, 3 chicken nuggets, and 1/4 of an apple - sliced into bunnies, because I can.
For the space filler, his is entirely broccoli, and mine is tiny grape tomatoes and broccoli.
Aren't the tomatoes so cute?

I take my photos on a bamboo slat placemat set on our kitchen table.
When we're not using the table, the cat likes to sleep on the edge of it up against the windowsill, so when she spotted me over there, she had to come see what I was doing:



Thankfully she doesn't like people food.

Fresh Start

Holy cow, I've been gone a while.

I've been super lazy for my work lunches for aaaaaaaaaaaages, and I want to try and be healthy, and look forward to my lunches again.
For the last several months, I've been throwing assorted veggies into a zip lock bag, a hand full of crackers in another, an apple sliced up with a container of peanut butter, a fruit cup or some pudding, and anything else random that I feel like.

Well, hopefully no more ...

Since it's been so long, I'm sure nobody will notice, but the blog has a new name, and a new theme.

On to the Food!

I work early, so I have to bring breakfast with me too. In the small container we have some greek yogurt with a touch of honey, and some vanilla almond granola mixed in (it was packed separately in a tiny zip lock bag, but I mixed it in before the photo)

Lunch is a leftover chili-cheese sausage from dinner, potato-cucumber salad, grape tomatoes, snow peas and a deviled egg. Also, a can of flavoured sparkling water (I find it helps me not drink pop - I get the fizz without all the sugar or chemicals)

Simple and tasty!

Oh! Also new is the box - it is a 550ml glass container with a 4-way locking lid. Haven't tested it's water-tightness yet, but it has a rubber seal. The yogurt container is a round plastic 100ml version. I got them both at a dollar store. Big container was $2, little container came in a 3-pack for $1.25.

Now I have to go make tomorrow's lunch!

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 Backlog!!

I haven't been as on-top of this as I wanted, but ... I'm still doing it!

First off, The Mister's co-worker was asking him to find out how I make miso soup at home. I thought I'd share ...

Let's start with the supplies:



Hon-Dashi granules
White Miso
Extra firm tofu (optional, not pictured)
Green onion (optional, not pictured)

Make Dashi stock as per instructions - 1tsp to 3cups water, bring just to a boil.
Add as much or as little Miso paste as you want and mix well. Reduce heat and keep warm.
Cut tofu into small pieces and finely chop the green onion - place into a bowl.
Pour dashi/miso mix over the tofu and green onion.
Ta-da!

Anyways ... on to the bentos!

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Bento #58



This is leftovers from one night:

Egg noodles
Veggie stir fry
Tofu in oyster sauce
Mini oatmeal muffin
Chocolate coins

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Bento #59



Egg noodles
Wontons
Wonton soup mix (in the blue strawberry)
Mini Bok Choy with sesame oil
Mini smokies cut into various shapes.

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Bento #60



Omurice (mushroom rice wrapped in egg), topped with HP sauce
Snow peas
Carrots
Hot dog octopus and fish (under the octopus)
Corn

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Bento #61



More leftovers - from dinner tonight!

Egg noodles with sesame oil and soya sauce
Sesame tofu (tofu fried crispy with sesame oil, soya sauce and sesame seeds)
Edamame
Miso Soup ball (just add water!)
Carrot sticks
Apple bunny
Cheese
Taro mochi

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Phew!

Bento #56

Here we go!



Chicken Teriyaki meatballs
Corn Salad
Carrots
Snow Peas
Deviled Egg
Lemon Spinach Couscous
Chocolate Coin

The couscous is from a box mix. I was a bit pressed for time, because I was being much too lazy again, and I have to work early tomorrow. It's still a healthy one though - no unpronounceable ingredients >_<
The Mister just gets plain corn, because he absolutely loves corn and he's not a fan of sauces and spices. He does like the corn salad, but I figured he'd appreciate the plain corn much more.
The deviled egg is a bit too creamy - I used only a tiny bit of mayo, but I went overboard with the dijon.
The chocolate coin is tucked down beside the corn for the purpose of the photo - I had to use flash, and it was too bright. It was packed right on top of the corn.

.

I'm trying to be good -
I've planned out this week's lunches and dinners!
Pardon my messy writing - it's awkward writing with a grease pencil, and I'm left-handed. I need to hunt down some wet-erase markers.



I'm off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but I'm still going to make bento boxes for The Mister on at least Wednesday and Thursday, so I'll make the same food for my own lunches those days. The Mister normally goes out with co-workers on Friday for lunch.

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 #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!

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.

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 #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 #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 #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.