Catching Up

It has been a while since I posted. The holidays got the best of me and there was a lot of transition in my life. For the New Year I have a new career goal (Massage Therapy, School starts the 13th) and a new job. My schedule is going to be a nightmare so Bento-ing is going to require a lot of planning ahead and weekend work. Thankfully JustBento.com's Maki and AIBento.net / BentoCentral.com's Pikko have provided me lots of useful make ahead tips. I have to admit I feel extremely lucky being able to google the word Bento and find such amazing knowledge bases out there! I could never have gotten to where I am without the net!

So let me bore you for a moment with my New Year's Resolutions and I shall give you the Bento's I have not yet posted.

I resolve for 2010:
1) To reduce the amount of garbage and food waste I produce by Bentoing more, and buying less packaged food items when possible.
2) To recycle more
3) To use public transportation as often as possible and rely on cars less
4) To try to get below 210 lbs before my birthday in July (with school, work, and Bento this should be easier)
5) To travel out of Florida for some sort of actual vacation
6) To try to save some money!!!
7) To get my Herb garden up and running AND to take care of all the plants
8) To try and take a Japanese language course by the end of the year
9) To explore more cuisines
10) To be thankful every day for what I have instead of upset over what I don't.

And now that you're bored - The Bento

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!