Hi Blog!

Hee hee... Hi. *sheepish wave*

So NaNoWriMo? Huge fail. Epic in fact, because the story never came to me and when I tried to force on it fell flat on its face.

It didn't help that in mid-November I lost my job, but I was very lucky to find another one fairly quickly! A Massage job too - oh yea.

So I made some Bento since I work tomorrow all day and will need something healthy and yummy to eat.

BENTO!

Yea I'm pretty happy with these. They aren't the cutest I ever made, but after being out of Bento making for quite some time I'm happy with them.

One of my goals for the new job is to make Bento when I work. That way I always have something healthy and cute to eat. It will hopefully help me condition my body for working as a therapist full time, and help me lose some more weight this year.

Here's hoping!

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

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.

Post Turkey day Bento fun

So for tomorrow's lunch I am making use of the left over turkey (well some of it) that we had. We made a small Turkey breast, some potatoes, and the like for Thanksgiving since it was just the two of us. It was very nice. So these Bentos feature a lot of fresh veggies (a lot of veggies over all really) and some turkey.

First up we have Logician's:

He has three square/ovalish onigiri topped with a new variety of Furikake. I did not really enjoy the only one we found without Nori so he went ahead and got one today that does have some in it. It also has bonito, wasabi, and some other seasonings in it. Then he has some snow peas, cucumbers, and a bit of bell pepper. The turkey is topped with a bit of fresh basil and some siracha sauce. In his side compartments he has some Kimchi (we bought some new stuff today), and then some carrot sticks with a bit of pickled radish to cool off after the spicy veggies!

Now for mine:

I have Kimchi as well, but instead of carrots in my side pocket I have cucumbers and pickled radish. Then I have one side of my box stacked with rice. This allowed me to be rather more creative with the veggies. I then have some fresh basil and sesame seeds on top of the rice. My veggies are some carrot sticks, snow peas, bell pepper, and then the last little bit is my turkey. I have my two soy sauce bottles tucked in with my veggies and decided to keep my protein content down. I am finding I enjoy the rice and veggies the most at lunch time.

No eggs for us today, we decided against them. Although we have them made. I try to make a good sized batch of rice along with several hard boiled eggs on Sunday, that way I have them for the week. I usually end up making a second batch of rice around Wednesday night.

We went to the Indian Market in town today for the first time ever and we're quite surprised at the stuff we found. I am looking forward to incorporating some of it. Here's to another week and another step closer to the new year.