A note

I haven't blogged in a bit due to the holidays and their crazy schedule. I have a couple of Bento to post here and I will try to do that this weekend. Hope everyone is having a good holiday!

Bento oh Bento

We ended up going out to dinner last night and getting some delicious chicken dishes, however it seems Logician's may not have been cooked all the way as he got pretty sick when we got home. Not wanting to chance the fact that I was feeling slightly sick and we had left overs I tossed them. So it took some quick thinking and replanning to get today's Bento some protein content!

Luckily I had the foresight to pick up two nice thin steaks and some thin pork chops while we were shopping yesterday. I broke both of these down into Bento size portions - the steak by cutting it and placing it between layers of wax paper, and the pork by putting two of the small thin chops in a ziploc bag. This gives me something like 5 servings of steak and four of pork (although the amount of pork may be too much for one day's Bento). So last night I cooked a bit of the steak with a lot of soy sauce to sort of "cure" it.

I also tried out my smaller onigiri maker and it worked amazingly! Seen here: From Japan With Love. I made up a batch of rice and then a small bowl of salt water. I wanted to be extra sure that the mold did not stick. I filled it to the top of the container (I personally packed it a bit full) and then simply inserted the press and voila, cute and adorable triangle onigiri.

Here is Logician's, find mine after the break.

Bento Swag (A pre-Bento post)

I will be preparing our lunch Bento later but I wanted to share with you the amazingly awesome swag I got for Christmasversary. We went ahead and traded gifts tonight as we will be out of town on Christmas and I was determined that Logician should get his gifts ahead of time. I bought him an awesome wok from ImportFood.com, which you can see in the picture below (beware our kitchen is a bit cluttered at the moment).

Wok:

I went ahead and got him a nice wide wooden spatula and a stainless steel strainer as well. It is shown here on our stove on a wok ring. I also purchased a portable camp stove for him so he can use it over gas when he would like to. He was very excited about it and I can't wait to use it with him to make some tasty curries, fried rice, stir fry, and whatever else we can dream up!





He got me an awesome amount of Bento swag that I am going to start using IMMEDIATELY! Here's the pictures of what I got - phone pictures aren't the best but my digital camera is still hidding somewhere.

Here are my two adorable two tier boxes that he got me. The picture of them broken down did not come out right, but you will see them again soon as they are going to be used for tomorrow's lunch. They are pictured here put together with their straps and sitting on top of two adorable bags that hold them. Both boxes are identical with room in the top for mini chopsticks, two removable lids, and the two tiers. I plan to make one a "cold" layer containing things that do not need heating and one a "hot" layer for the rice and protein. We'll see how it goes!

Here is one of three identical adorable boxes he gave me. They say in French - The Children's Friend, Penguin - on them which is extra cute! Penguins are very highly prized in this house so these boxes are amazing! Each came with a gray band and a set of mini chopsticks in it's own holder. These are childrens boxes so they are structured differently than the ones above. I am not sure if the inside box is meant to be left out or not but it seems to make the most sense. The following picture will show the box taken apart.

The top of the picture is the larger tier and the bottom is the internal box. it has a wide base (that looks like a lid but is not) and a removable lid from the top. However the removable lid was on the bottom of the tier when I opened the package. Very confusing but extremely amazing and adorable boxes! I will more than likely use one of these each day as my snack Bento to contain my fruits for break times.

Lastly are these adorable hard boiled egg molds, I had to look up how to use them online because I do not read Japanese but was able to find the answers in no time. You simply take a warm hard boiled and peeled egg, put it in the mold, close the mold and place in cold water for 10 minutes and you are done. I don't think I'll try these this week (due to consuming massive amounts of deviled eggs yesterday) but I am looking forward to trying them out. There are some pictures on JustBento of using these to make onigiri as well. We'll see where I go with them!









I have not yet done our lunches today but plan to here in a bit (yes I know it's a bit late). I need to make some rice first but I am looking forward to making onigiri with my new triangle molds and using my new boxes! These are some of the best gifts I have ever gotten!!!

PS Two years with Logician on Sunday - it's one of the most amazing things I have been able to experience in my life and I am looking forward to the next year with him!

Fried Rice - Not so pretty

So we ended up getting fast food for dinner last night (which was yummy at the time but my tummy hates it) so I ended up trying to make a small batch of fried rice for Bento today.

What I ended up with was a medium sized batch that was too much for Bento and rice that is probably less than fried. I added too much rice to begin with, and then there was too much soy from the Tempeh marinade. I have not tasted it yet but forced Logician to. He says it's good and spicy.

The boxes look relatively the same again but I did get two adorable onigiri molds from Logician! He got me two sizes (Triangles and I don't seem to work well, other shapes are fine). I can't wait to test them out and I will probably make him a few of the bigger ones and me some of the smaller ones for Monday!

The one above is Logician's and the one below is mine.

The rice looks rather ugly so in mine I tried to make it cute by adding some sliced radish. Otherwise these particular Bento are the same as always. However you may be thinking to yourself: There is no meat? Which is true. Tempeh if you've never had/heard of it is made up of I believe the soy bean husks and has a meat like consistency. I was some how able to keep this piece in some what decent sized chunks, while our burgers the other night ended up crumbly sloppy joe-esque deliciousness.

This weekend is my family (father's side) Christmas gathering at my Grandmother's house that's about an hour and a half drive from me. I am really looking forward to seeing the family, eatting way too much food, and enjoying their company. I am looking as enjoyably forward to the work still required! I am making deviled eggs (read about 1.5 dozen), we're making sugar cookies, and Logician is making Peppermint Bark. All of which has to be done tonight along with buying of gift exchange presents and wrapping them. Should be an eventful evening!

Enjoy the weekend!

No Bento Today

I ended up not making a Bento for today despite my intentions otherwise. Logician was very sick yesterday and as such did not eat his Bento, leaving him prepared for today. I had intended to throw together a simple Bento this morning but ended up choosing to sleep.

I have deleted my second blog as I hardly ever update it and will instead add some random non-Bento related things to this one.

I gave Logician part of his Christmaversary present last night and he was very happy with it. It's a beautiful wooden spoon/spatula that is going to be very helpful tonight when I make Tempeh Fried Rice (which I will Bento for tomorrow).

Hope everyone has a good Thursday!

12/14 and 12/15

I'm sure I should count the number of Bento that I make but I keep forgetting. I suppose it's not such a big deal yet. I spent a lot of time yesterday reading all of AIBento.com archives to get caught up and to see all the amazing things Pikko has done. It also occurred to me today that I had not yet posted yesterdays Bento. So here goes.

For 12/14 we had:

Logician:

And Mine:

Both consisted of Turkey Burgers with Siracha sauce (an amazing combination), snow peas, and cucumbers. He has his carrots, some radish, some celery, and blueberries. I have a tomato and some broccoli. I made him some onigiri with furikake mixed in and white rice with black sesame seeds for me. We both had Miso Soup as well but the Miso balls were in the fridge at picture time. I'm starting to hate my Bento for their sameness but I know it's because I have only the few boxes right now.

For tomorrow's lunch we have:

Logician:

And Mine:

They're pretty much the same as yesterday with a few exceptions. Today's meat is shrimp which Logician grilled up for dinner and saved me some for Bento. I also have fresh broccoli instead of frozen and he has no fruit in his box. I also tried my hand at making an artistic egg white roll which I suppose came out alright but is still quite oily from the olive oil I cooked it in. I tried a different orientation for the rice in order to try and change the look of these. Also I made sure we have our soy sauce for tomorrow as I missed it today.

Before closing up the boxes I decided my shrimp needed some Siracha and added a small bit to my egg and onion roll in the back corner. I also made myself two snack / late breakfast sides of kiwi and pineapple. I took a picture but really it's not needed.

I am trying to be more creative with the Bento but I just don't have a knack for it yet. I am hoping as time progresses they will get better. My main goal right now is to expand my recipes and to finally sit down this weekend and make up a furikake that does NOT have Nori in it. Here's hoping!

Hump day at last!

Another brief hiatus ended

So here's the scoop - I had all these cute adorable Bento planned for the week and Monday I got horribly ill and had to come home early from work. I ended up sleeping the day away and eating the last posted Bento on Tuesday. Tuesday night I played softball for something like 3.5 hours and came home too late and exhausted to Bento. I played catcher for the first time ever (which was awesome) but I am so sore that I ended up just skipping Bento last night.

This morning I threw together a sort of Bento that was really just a salad, but I added a new addition! Miso soup! I bought two adorable black rice/soup bowls with lids, and two traditional soup spoons for Logician and I to use. So I took 1.5 tsps of miso paste (with Dashi stock included) and added some spices and sesame seeds. It was a bit too much paste but it was delicious! Today you will see a miso ball included in both Bento.

So away with the food:

Logician's:

I am amazed that I was able to make onigiri, apparently all I needed to do was add water to my left over rice and steam it in the plastic container (horrible for my health, I know). So he has two oval onigiri with a snow pea pile to the top right. On top of that is his miso ball which has black pepper, soy sauce, furikake, and some red pepper added in. Clockwise from that are some radishes. They're very pretty but not as flavorful as the store bought ones. Next is today's protein content delivered by left over pot roast from the restaurant we went to tonight. As we continue around it finishes off with some sliced bell pepper and some blue berries in a malformed white paper mini cupcake wrapper. The rice is topped with a bit of mint to add some variety, and some sesame seeds. He has carrots in his bin on the bottom left and his bottle of soy sauce is in there as well. Lastly in the top bin he has a mixed green salad topped with some sunflower sprouts and a bottle of dill dressing.

The miso is an awesome idea because you boil a mug full of water and dump it into the bowl, add the cover and let see for a few minutes. Then stir and enjoy. I got the idea (as mentioned before) from JustBento.com

Mine:

I have the same salad in my bin on the top left, but I added my radishes there and have two bottles of dressing. I am something of a sauce-a-holic. In my bottom bin I have some kiwi with mint and my miso ball. My miso ball contains black and red pepper, soy, and sliced green onion. My main compartment has rice on the side topped with mint and sesame seeds, a bit of egg, and my two soy sauce bottles. From top to bottom I have the rest of my hard boiled egg, which I tried to make a face on, some snow peas, the rest of the radish, some celery, and my portion of the potroast. I am very muchly looking forward to tomorrow's lunch.

I am unhappy with the way my eggs cooperate in my Bento and am interested in trying some hard boiled quali eggs as I believe they will be more useful in the charuben (if I don't misread Aibento.net it means "cute Bento"). I am still desperately waiting for Chrismaversery when I get my boxes.

Speaking of AiBento.net, Pikko (the author) actually responded to a comment I left her today regarding the dango recipe in The Manga Cookbook. I am excited to see if she finds a good recipe as they could be tasty. I still have the recipe from JustBento.com to check out. I will probably try it this weekend.

Yay for Friday.

Books, Cute, and More

What a weekend! It's been wonderful restful despite the fact my body is still trying to get sick. My favorite Bento Blogger (Pikko - Aibento.net) wrote a review last week for The Mange Cookbook. I was glad to read the review as I had been waffling back and forth about getting it. After reading her review we went on an epic quest to find it Friday night and got the last copy from one of the local book chains. I read it, compiled a list of ingredients to purchase the next day and got to work.

My first recipe to try was Dango (sweet dumplings) and I have to say that I either don't have authentic enough ingredients or the measurements are all wrong! The first batch was a bit like watery paste so I scrapped it and made a second one. They came out in dumpling form but are not very tasty. I gave up and resigned myself to trying to come up with a mochi recipe online. I found one on justbento.com (another of my favorite sites) and had relatively wonderful success first time around. There are a few changes I will make next time but you can see my bright pink mochi featured in today's Bento.

I also went through my scrapbooking items and found two punches (stars and flowers) that are now reassigned to Bento duty. I cut out some nori shapes for Logician's boxes and used some of them in today's Bento as well. I bought some cupcake holders but they don't seem sturdy enough. I shall have to shell out for the silicone ones sometime I believe. So here are the Bento:

Logicians:

He has some nice carrots from the farmers market in the small bin on the bottom left. Above that is a mix of celery and diced bellpepper, topped with a grape Korean candy. For the main dish he has three triangle onigiri complete with mixed in Furikake, nori strips on the bottom and nori stars for decoration. I used the strips I punched the stars out of to make the bottoms. He then has some snow peas, celery, and radish to garnish the box. The meat is one of two thin steaks that I marinated in terriyaki and soy sauce for about ten minutes before cooking quickly. In his little cup he has some nice fresh blue berries and my bright pink mochi.

Here's a close up of his onigiri, because I am so proud of them!

I used the method in The Mange Cookbook to finally get them more triangular. They're not perfect but he's really excited. I also tucked in two of the sauce bottles.

Mine:

The quality of the picture is a bit bad but here it is! I have some tomatoes in my small bin on the bottom left, the same bellpepper and celery mix and an apple candy in the top bin. I have two small onigiri, an adorable hard boiled egg (made with tips from The Manga Cookbooks), some snow peas, celery sticks, and the steak. I paired my mochi with some kiwi since that is how I like it on my frozen yogurt. I don't have my rice but I got us some traditional (but plastic) rice bowls with lids, so I may take extra with me.

Here's the little egg because he's so cute!

He has two sesame seed eyes and a carrot beak. I left him whole but when I eat it tomorrow I will take the yolk out.

We also bought some miso soup paste, pickled ginger, and some Bonito flakes for Logician. I have a slight disadvantage in Bento as I do not like Nori, Bonito, or most fishy flavored items. But finding ways around it is sort of fun. The miso paste comes with the dashi stock mixed in so we'll see how that goes. I am looking forward to trying one of the instant miso ball soups (made using an idea from justbento.com).

As you can see there is a wealth of information online to help get into this habit! Once I have tried some more of the recipes in my new cookbook I'll let you know what I decide about it overall!

Another week down.

A day late

I have no Bento for myself today and Logician did not eat his from yesterday. But I decided to take a break from Bento for the rest of this week in order to give my mind some time to come up with some better ideas! Although Logician's Bento for yesterday is probably the best one I have ever made. I am trying to make sure I incorporate more colors to provide us a better balance and when he couldn't decide which meat to use I left it out!

Here's his:

He only had one onigiri left so I placed it in the side car compartment with some bell pepper dices. He has his Kimchi which he loves so much, and then some radishes in a small sauce container we had lying about in a cabinet. I also gave him a bit more rice by placing a thin strip along the side and covered it with Furikake (also on the onigiri) and basil. His radishes are in a bed of carrots and a field of sliced snow peas finishes his box.

I love how pretty this one came out. I really don't plan my Bento they just sort of happen. It's enjoyable. Mine was nice but not as pretty as his.

Mine:

I am enjoying having the rice all on one side in these boxes. It allows me to make the main compartment look very nice, but I find myself at a loss for what to fill the side cars with. In this one I had some salad olives, a halved hard boiled egg (sans yolk) and my soy bottles. My rice had toasted sesame and basil on top. I used the last few pieces of ham which I diced and placed in the box last. I first put in the snow pea slices, followed by the left over dices of Logician's carrot forest and bell pepper bed.

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I have been trying to make these so they do not have to be refridgerated, but I am definitely sure that they should be reheated. Logician has purchased some traditional Bento boxes for me and I am looking forward to the freedom it will create. Especially in situations where one compartment should be heated and the others don't need to be. I also purchased us a joint gift of some rice/soup bowls with covers. I may start trying to make my own miso soup balls (as found on www.justbento.com) and take one of these with me in my lunch box. We will see. I am going to also try to update the blog a bit and add some of the websites I visit.

Until Sunday night then - Happy eats!