Another Catch Up Post

So again time has gotten away from me. I have not been making as many Bento as I would like but that is going to change once I can get to the store and get more supplies. I want to try making some home made pickles (such as carrots and daikon) sometime soon. I didn't know there were so many amazing Bento Blogs on the net!

I am probably going to start taking our Bento into a less meat / more veggies and vegetarian direction in the near future. I am not making the full switch myself (although I just recently read an article on being a "Flexetarian") but since I am in massage school and it's a place of growth on all levels I was considering making the lunch time switch. There are a lot of other sites I need to go check out like Hapa Bento, Hawaiian Bento, and if I recall correctly a site about Cute Bento. A lot of these bloggers are releasing their own cookbooks this year which I cannot wait to drop money on. The few I have found at the store are not as instructional as I would like, though the author of Lunch in a box has a few good ones.

Bento after the jump


So here are last Friday's Bento:

Logician:

The two Bento feature some left over "Spicy Chicken" that Logician made in his wok. They also are made up of bits and pieces of what I have left in the fridge currently. There are some water sauteed broccoli and snow peas, along with radish, red bell pepper and for him some Kim Chi (which I may not use again in his school Bento as it leaked in his backpack). Also in these were some tiny onigiri I decided to make on a whim. They were very tasty and rather easy to make. I decided to make them with the fresh batch of rice as I was afraid they would not hold up when made from left overs (I have found that steaming the rice gently adds a sort of just made texture to them to make onigiri a few days later). I also had the Penguin box (you can see it in the top of Logician's Bento pic) with a salad in it. I was able to use my squeeze bottle techinique to make a vinaigrette inside one of my little sauce bottles but the picture is extremely fuzzy.

Mine:

The two for today were my attempt at making some cute Bento. I am not as happy with it as I was with the mini onigiri but it was worth a shot. The pictures are not as clear because I decided to try taking them with my digital camera and it apparently hates food. I am going to try making a lightbox sometime in the near future. I am going to break down the Bento since they are different themes. First is Logician's.

 

And a close up of his rice:

So here's the thing, these are SUPPOSED to be Penguins. I feel I failed rather miserably at making them but Logician seems to feel otherwise. I had never tried to make Nori behave before and apparently it hates me as much as I hate it. Point of note while it's dry and thin like paper it does not behave like it. I had intended to cute out the "black" in one connected shape and they looked much better in my mind then they do here. But overall I think they're rather cute. The one on the left has sesame seed eyes and a radish beak while the one on the right has the same beak but nori flower eyes. I broke out new tools for this including a utility knife and tweezers. I put the rest of the rash slices with pink still on them on the sides of his Penguins and filled the box with water sauteed snow peas and soy sauce steak. I have to admit though I am not big in the beef department these thin slices of steak make good Bento meat. The broccoli is half the wrong color due to the lemon juice I put in the water to flavor them. I left them sit too long while finishing our Bento characters.

My Bento is not quite as good because I didn't have any inspiration for my characters. I was going to make Penguins for me too until I remembered my vehement hate of nori. I simply do not like dried seaweed. I can do fresh Wakame Salad but no nori please and thank you.

I decided to make the onigiri on the right have a bonnet and then a sort of "farm" theme came to mind. I didn't have hardly enough to finish it with so it looks a bit silly but it will be tasty all the same. The bonnet is made of the pink of a raddish and the nose of her and the eyes of the chick are made from red pepper. The mouth is another piece of raddish. All in all I am very unhappy with my own characters because I wasn't inspired. I shall have to try harder next time!

These Bento do include something I am super excited about! Baby bok choy! They have been selling like hot cakes at work so I thought we'd give them a shot. I just water sauteed them as well with a little salt and pepper. I am looking forward to seeing how they taste today. It was a crazy Bento night as I also made a salad Bento for school (I've been simply too hungry due to the increased movement of work and school) which contains left over greek salad I had for dinner at work on Friday (or lunch Sat, can't remember). It's then completed with a bit of red pepper and cucumber, this is in one of the "1.5 tier" bento's Logician got me that have Penguins on them.

I also made another Penguin box for work tonight as it's a LOT cheaper then buying the expensive but delicious food offered in the deli at work. It has some of the meat, snow peas, and broccoli with a the smaller tier being completely rice.

I have not used the Kamaboko yet, although it seems to be popping up everywhere! I am slightly afraid of it due to my anti-fishy flavor habits but want to use the bright pink of it to brighten up some Bento. I am considering making a noodle Bento for tomorrow so I will have to see if it makes it in there. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

:)