hi bento pals! it feels like years since i’ve had time to do a bento post… lots of changes in my life, but the one that’s most relevant to this blog is my diet… in the 1+ year since i got married, i somehow put on more than 15 pounds, and after my last doctor’s visit (during which the weight the scale showed literally alarmed me), it’s time to focus on healthy and balanced eating again. Read the rest of this entry »
hey everybody, how are things in bento land? the past couple weeks have been crazy for me — i got a sort of promotion (i think?) and have been traveling a lot more for work, which is wreaking havoc with my meal planning schedule. then this past week i started feeling myself getting sick. i tried to head that off at the pass, but i currently have a terrible case of laryngitis… i am mostly resting today, trying to get my voice back in time for an important meeting tomorrow.
i hope you all have been well, and i can’t wait to catch up on bento posts and tweets!
tomorrow is a day where i know i will actually be at my desk for lunch, so i layered some of my favorite spicy tofu from the korean market under brown-and-white rice sprinkled with furikake. the back section has a tomato, steamed broccolini, some tangerine slices, two steamed brussels sprout halves, and a piece of simmered lotus root (also pre-prepared from the korean market). for a sweet treat i have a cup of vanilla yogurt with kiwi.
on top of the rice is an egg sheet version of our dog, ruby. whenever i put her harness on her to take her out for a walk, she does this leisurely stretch, with all four legs splayed out — so cute. akinoichigo’s new book (which is now available on yesasia for free shipping to the US) has a similar pattern for a cat, and as soon as i saw it i knew i wanted to use it for silly ruby.
not sure when i’ll be bentoing again, so in case i’m not back here for a while, hope you all have a great week!
tomorrow’s lunch was fairly quick and easy to pack using leftovers from tonight’s dinner: two round onigiri made from rice mixed with sauteed broccolini stems and garlic (which is how i served it the first time, not mixed especially for the onigiri), plus a few small pieces of pan-seared salmon filet. i topped the onigiri with “strawberries” made from fish sausage, sesame seeds, and snow pea tops, using another great idea from akinoichigo’s blog.
the rest of the bento has one of the brightest red strawberries i’ve ever come across in my market, a little bit of tomato, some snow peas, broccolini tops, a takuwan rosette, and a few slices each of mini-cucumber and tangerine to fill empty spaces. i’m looking forward to this relatively light and healthy lunch.
i hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! i have another busy work week ahead, but can’t wait to catch up on my favorite blogs and twitter feeds when i get some down time…
a recent trend in wedding stationary is to use a mix of vintage postage stamps for a unique and stylized look. i think this idea is really cute, but it can be cost-prohibitive (some vintage stamps cost up to 10 times their face value!).
inspired by the trend as well as cute bentos by akinoichigo and lucky sundae, and evolving the scottie dog “stamps” bento i made a few weeks ago, i made two vintage postage stamp sandwiches for tomorrow’s lunch. each stamp sits atop a sandwich of pumpernickel, vegetarian ham, cheese and mustard. the provolone stamps are topped with fish sausage roses, as well as green pea and nori accents and hand cut 12-cent demarcations.
posted in “what’s for lunch wednesday” — what are you having?
tonight for dinner i made an awesome pan-seared cod dish, served with shitake-miso-arugula-quinoa salad (recipe below) and a fat slice of oven-roasted beefsteak tomato.
for tomorrow’s lunch, which is my last passover lunch for the year (YAY!), i packed some of the cod beneath a layer of the quinoa salad, topped with a cheese-and-nori matryoshka. the side portion has steamed broccoli, a fish sausage heart, steamed asparagus, sweet potato “doilies”, pea pods, and a lettuce border.
quinoa has been a controversial grain for those observing passover — because it was not a part of the diet of the jews who fled slavery in egypt, it was never placed on the list of forbidden passover foods, even though it expands like rice and other forbidden grains. that’s good enough for me, and because quinoa is protein-packed, it’s a nice change from rice.
the basic recipe is simple, and the number of potential add-ins is infinite. here’s the combo i came up with tonight:
shitake-miso-arugula-quinoa salad (if you can come up with a better name, let me know!)
that’s it! it’s good hot or cold, and very nutritious.
tomorrow’s lunch has two hanpen geese with egg sheet beaks and feet, nori eyes, and fish sausage cheeks. they’re sitting on a bed of basmati rice sprinkled with furikake i received in a surprise package from a bento pal — it’s got a combination of sesame seeds, dehydrated green bell pepper, and yuzu, which gives it a very unique, tangy flavor. i love it!
i punched some little clovers out of fish sausage, and the back portion of this box has steamed sweet potato and broccolini, a takuwan rosette with asparagus leaves, tiny red vine tomatoes, and a cheese flower. i think i felt like using my goose-shaped cutter because the resulting geese look like they would lay nice fat easter eggs. did everyone have a nice easter weekend?
don’t forget that the auction for the lovely hand-crafted crane earrings ends in a few hours — all proceeds are to benefit japan relief, so get your bid in while you can!
this speed-packed bento is my nod to easter… the “speedy” in the title refers both to the bunny and to the bento-making time!
it’s a simple meal in my trusty tiffin: some bulldog-glazed veggie meatballs, japanese pickles, rice with scallions and peas, a few carrot flowers, and a sweet potato bunny.
no bento for me on friday, so this is my last reminder that the highly-sought-after bento play food set auction ends in just over a day… and then we’ll be in easter weekend. wishing all my bento pals a wonderful holiday weekend with their families!
tomorrow’s lunch has some curry rice with two hanpen horses, plus steamed broccoli, a tomato, steamed brussels sprout halves, and some juicy pieces of mochiko chicken. i made a batch using a combination of both sheri and debra‘s helpful recipes; mine came out looking a little bit different (the batter consistency was so close to pancake batter that the outside of some of the pieces actually look like pancakes), but it was absolutely delicious.
my horsies have manes made from egg sheet that i had leftover from last night’s rilakkuma creation. i cut a slit in the hanpen and inserted the base of the fringed egg sheet strip so that the mane looks like it’s “growing.” cilantro sprig harnesses are a cool idea i borrowed from lucky sundae, and i put my own spin on akinoichigo’s saddle idea by using soy paper in which i hand cut little hearts.
have you bid on the awesome play bento set or the beautiful crane earrings, both auctions to benefit the japan relief effort?
and — i posted my lunch in “what’s for lunch wednesday,” did you?
tomorrow’s bread-free lunch is my take on soboro, mexican-style: a layer of spanish rice (cooked in my rice cooker with peas and corn), a layer of monterey jack cheese, and a layer of vegetarian ground beef sauteed with cumin. plus a bunch of fresh fruits and veggies — cuke, yellow and red vine tomatoes, steamed broccoli, pea pods, a big fat strawberry, and a few tangerine sections.
the star of this lunch is rilakkuma, cut with an exacto knife from two colors of egg sheet. i recently bought a package of onigiri cases with rilakkuma on them, and the package had two funny/cute rilakkuma designs: in one he is flying with cooking utensils in his hands (this is what i reproduced for my bento, without the utensils), and in another he is totally relaxing (per his name!), with one arm leisurely propping up his head.
just a reminder: the fabulous play bento set — consisting of adorable, hand-crafted fabric food items traditionally found in a bento box — is still up for grabs on ebay. the bento4japan charity auctions are winding down, but this item is like a grand finale!
tomorrow at sundown marks the start of the jewish holiday passover. for the eight days during which the holiday is observed, one refrains from eating leavened bread, as well as a variety of other foods that are seen as “rising” like leavened bread (depending on the regional tradition, this group of forbidden foods may include rice, beans, and other ingredients which expand when cooked).
although i won’t be strictly observing the restrictions this year, i will be saying goodbye to bread for the next week or so, which alas, includes sandwich bentos. so as a fond (and temporary!) farewell, i made two egg salad sammies for tomorrow’s lunch. super simple, with the cute addition of a cut-outs in the shape of keys. the two breads i used, rye and pumpernickel, were nicely contrasting, and so i switched the keys (then both loaves went in the freezer to wait for the end of the holiday!).
this isn’t quite a bento, but i hope you don’t mind me posting.
speaking of “not quite a bento,” have you checked out the amazing wool/viscose play bento set that was recently posted as a bento4japan auction? although you can’t eat this one, it would be the perfect gift for a cute child in your life… or for your own enjoyment. bidding will definitely get heated on this one, so don’t miss it!
[as seen on epicute]
