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.

Bento #11

Whoops - It's been a month since I last updated!

Today's lunch is:

Pasta stars cooked in chicken stock with parsley
Mini Crustless Broccoli Ham & Cheese Quiche (recipe below)
Deviled Egg
Carrot Sticks
Snow Peas (hidden)
Grape Tomatoes
Rice Crackers


Mini Crustless Broccoli Ham & Cheese Quiche (makes 4)

frozen broccoli, thawed and chopped fine (or fresh broccoli, lightly cooked)
ham slices, chopped small
cheddar cheese, grated
2 eggs
milk (not sure how much I used - just a splash)
2 tbsp sour cream*
chives

Put some cheese in the bottom of foil or silicone cupcake liners, add broccoli and ham, sprinkle some more cheese on top
Mix eggs, milk and sour cream until smooth, pour over broccoli ham and cheese
Sprinkle with chives and bake until set.

* All the recipes I found call for milk and heavy cream, I used skim milk and sour cream because it's what I had on hand.