Another day another Bento

So today was a crazy day, and I will spare you all the details but let's just say I'm glad it's almost time for bed. I didn't have a Bento for lunch today as Logician didn't eat his from Tuesday. So I was lazy and instead bought some of the vegetarian food they serve on campus. It was nummy but I found that I deeply missed my Bento.

Logician had a test review this evening so while I was sitting and writing in my journal I got the idea that I should make Bento for tomorrow. Which for him will be a surprise as he has no school tomorrow. I was going to try to be creative and make a "pass your test" Bento complete with a rice "paper" with an A on it. But when I got down to the making of the Bento the creativeness left me. So instead I made a new recipe for the steak.

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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

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.