i am a new, but sure-to-be-faithful, reader of the gorgeous blog 101 cookbooks, which has some really inspiring vegetarian recipes. tomorrow’s lunch includes a few raw veggie rolls from a big batch i adapted from one of the site’s recipes. i’ve also got some wheatberry and cranberry salad based on a dean & deluca recipe; i think this chewy-tangy-nutty blend is a nice compliment. i’m looking forward to this flavorful and nutritionally well-balanced lunch.
a quick lunch tomorrow (in my new bento & co. “origami bento,” bought on karaimame’s brilliant suggestion), made up of leftovers from batch dinner cooking i did earlier this week, plus a pantry item. recipes and 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!
i received an unusual request via flickr-mail yesterday: a friendly user (and apparent fan of my photostream) asked if i might be willing to make a monkey bento, in honor of her favorite animal.
well, i have a couple of monkey sauce cases that have been lying around since my west coast bento shopping spree back in november, and i’m always up for a challenge, so i decided to use the monkey on the sauce case as my inspiration, and figured i could achieve the brown with a soboro bento.
my soboro is made of vegetarian faux ground beef. first i made an onigiri in approximately the same shape as the monkey’s inner face, molding pink rice free-form with saran wrap. then i layered some sliced orange bell pepper and scallions in the box, added the onigiri, and spooned in my “ground beef” (which i had sauteed with some cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper). i added radish eyes, nori eyelashes, a red pepper mouth, and a dyed-pasta bow, and voila! i had my monkey (no banana, though). this was my first time trying soboro for a bento, and i wish it had come out a teensy bit neater, but it was fun and i’ll definitely keep trying to perfect this technique!
even though the monkey looks like she’s made of just two ingredients, don’t forget about the veggies layered under there — once i mix it all up (with the hot sauce i stored in the actual monkey sauce case), it will be a tasty and healthy entree. i figured i would want something sweet too, though, so i made a quick side car of kiwi slices, pear flowers, and kumquats.
here’s a close up of the sauce case (available from napa japan):
see the resemblance? ok, i used artistic license to omit the ears and add the eyelashes. i hope my new flickr pal enjoys this one, and i hope you all have a great friday and weekend!
bento zen 