a bento inspired by two dear friends i wish i saw more of — mira, with whom i had dinner at our fave edo sushi on friday night (providing salmon leftovers for the main dish here), and rupal, currently in shanghai but who left me this pretty bottled lemon drink which i knew i would use as a bento prop.
i spent today batch cooking for the week from some tasty recipes i bookmarked in magazines i read in various airports during the past week’s work-related travels. tomorrow’s lunch, though, is just the basics: leftover lentil rice pilaf from last night’s dinner, plus two chicken-free nuggets (i prefer health is wealth’s version, as they are lower in fat than the comparable boca product) and some fresh veggies.
turns out that a realistic portion of both of these protein-rich foods is waaaay smaller than i thought! but that’s ok, i’m learning to listen to my body telling me it’s full when i eat denser foods, and the balance of healthy foods here is tone it up nutrition plan-friendly. calorie count below.
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!
have you seen anna the red’s cool tutorial on inarizushi totoro-making? she’s full of awesome ideas, and this one might take the cake. i have never done a totoro before, and even though i didn’t have inari on hand, i was inspired to try my hand at our favorite neighbor.
my totoro is simplified — no arms, lower body, or whiskers. but hopefully i’ve captured his essence, including his cheshire-like grin and slightly bugged-out eyes. i mixed rice with ground black sesame to make the grey color of his coat, and added punched nori Vs from my emoticon puncher for his stomach markings. the white part of his body is stuffed with a vegetarian meatball, left over from yesterday’s lunch.
the rest of tomorrow’s bento has steamed broccoli with fish sausage stars, tamagoyaki rolled with nori and topped with carrot stars, steamed brussels sprout halves, a few pieces of golden-fried tofu, and a nice vine tomato. a tangerine for dessert, and i’m all set!
tomorrow’s lunch has two poodles in love. the poodles are cut with a fondant cutter from hanpen, which i was able to find at my japanese grocer. the poodles are set on a bed of rice mixed with the very last of my hana osushi no moto… for some reason i can’t find that product anywhere! if you know of an online source for it, please share in the comments!
the rest of my lunch has some thai-basil mock duck, a steamed carrot slice, a few pieces of steamed broccoli, a few pea pods, a nice yellow tomato, half each of a strawberry and a steamed brussels sprouts, and some pretty purple japanese pickles.
have a happy start to your week, and don’t forget, the auction for the cute shinzi katoh box ends early tomorrow morning, but there are lots of other cute boxes to bid on for charity!
the past couple weeks have NOT been spring-like here in NYC, with the exception of this past weekend. today it rained again, and honestly, i’m getting pretty tired of it — i want to break out cute spring skirts and shoes!
tomorrow’s lunch has umbrellas and rain drops as an homage to the current weather system. my umbrellas are made from carrot (cut with a tiny fondant cutter), and are affixed with somen to two mixed-rice-and-ume onigiri. the box also contains steamed broccoli, fish sausage “rain drops,” purple potato, cute strawberries, pea pods, and a silicon cup with a kabocha gratin. i have a sesame-flavored soy milk drink for a sweet accompaniment.
hope you all had a nice wednesday, and are furiously bidding away on the bento4japan auctions, including the adorable shinzi katoh box which i relisted today!
tomorrow’s lunch was inspired by a snail bento by the talented lucky sundae – how cute, right?! i love her work. my snail is a little bit different, but with the same “shell” — i used white cheese, yellow soy paper, steamed carrot and fish sausage. i gave my snail little fish sausage cheeks, too! and my snail is crawling on a sesame leaf.
the base for the snail scene is omurice — a thin egg crepe wrapped around fried rice (i fried mine with kimchi and tofu). in the back section of the box, i put the last of the leftover broiled salmon, some steamed brussels sprouts, purple cauliflower, romesco, pea pods, takuwan, a plump vine tomato, and a carrot butterfly.
bento4japan european raffle winners have been chosen, but you can still donate, and there are still charity auctions to bid on!
i made dinner with my bestie tonight, and then we drank cocktails together on my couch while commenting on a hot episode of intervention… what can i say, i’m a girl of extremely refined tastes!
needless to say, two vodka-cranberries in, i couldn’t be too ambitious in my bento-making. pre-made kimbap (from yesterday’s grocery run to flushing’s H-mart) to the rescue! i quickly packed the kimbap slices in my skinny pink bento with some fruits and veggies from the fridge — two halved, steamed brussels sprouts; 4 takuwan slices; some pea pods and bamboo leaves, clementine sections and two mini strawberries — plus vegetarian chicken tenders for protein a few pink fish sausage blossoms for a pretty accent. done and done!
in other bento news, thanks to help from sheri and mils i was able to add the “like on facebook” bento4japan badge. are you a fan yet? the bento4japan auctions are still going strong… i’ve got my eye on a certain newspaper-printed furoshiki, but there are lots of lovely items up for grabs, so head on over to ebay and help us continue raising money for relief in japan!
i hope everybody had a nice weekend! we finally got some nice, spring-like weather, with temperatures in the mid-50s and two days of fairly consistent sunshine.
tomorrow’s bento has a nautical theme, with a sailboat (nori and colored soy paper on cheese) and an anchor (cut from steamed carrot). i have a small piece of broiled salmon, with more flaked underneath the rice (which is mixed with seaweed and sesame seed furikake). a few steamed broccoli florets, a mini yellow pepper, and the cutest mini-strawberries round out this meal.
happy start of the week!
a quick post since i’m a little bit tipsy after a few drinks with my best girlfriend…
tomorrow’s bento in a magewappa box has two onigiri filled with flaked salmon. i mixed the salmon with chimichurri sauce (a new favorite in my household for serving with salmon — it’s so flavorful!) and mayo and then stuffed the rice, which was a blend of short-grain white and long-grain brown (texmati). the onigiri are topped with blossoms made from cheese and steamed purple potato — they look familiar to me but i can’t place them. cherry blossom? plum blossom? let me know if you have a guess!
the rest of the box has a steamed broccoli floret, a mini red pepper, a star-cut carrot, a roasted shitake mushroom, some slices of takuwan, a few pea pods, and a pretty sakura pick.
i’m trying to stick to a posting schedule of tuesdays-through-thursdays, with no bento on fridays because of a whole bagel-breakfast-which-turns-into-leftovers-for-lunch extravaganza that we have in my department on a weekly basis. so, have a great weekend and i’ll see some of you on twitter in the meantime!
bento zen 