10/7/2009-Soba noodle stirfry- with Japanese bean treat

I was up in Northern Virginia last weekend (otherwise known as the Land of International Grocery Stores). Anyways, I picked up some stuff I'd wanted, but was unable to find umeboshi (to be honest, I didn't really search). But I did get some interesting things, which I will be taking for bento lunches and eating in general.

Contents of bento: plum, mini-pepper stuffed with garlic and herb La Vache Qui Rit, frozen sour cherries. Carrot sticks; soba noodle stirfry; plain, reheated rice topped with broccoli; and a Japanese bean pastry thing. Also:

A "suit case" full of furikake. This kind is pretty simple: sesame, seaweed, salt. But it still tastes a little weird to me. I wish I had included something to show the scale of the "suit case." It's actually a little pill case, about 1" x 2" x 1/4". Sometimes I can fit it inside the bento, even, but I didn't want the furikake to get soggy.

Everything was tasty except for the reheated rice. Bleh. Man, I really need to quit putting old rice in a bento. It's already hard and dry and even though I reconstituted this stuff in the microwave the night before (with a little water) it was still dry and horrible when I ate it. Oh well, live and learn. It might also be the grain. I haven't tried it with the shorter-grained Japanese rice. Needless to say, the furikake did not improve the taste of the terrible, dry rice. Oh well.

The Japanese bean pastry thing was a little strange. I guess I was expecting more like a mochi bean cake, but the outsides of this thing are like styrofoam (actually, EXACTLY like those little ice cream cones? You know, the "cake" ones?). The insides are not red bean, but fruit-flavored bean goo. I'm not doing a great job "selling" them, but they are actually pretty tasty.

10/3/2009- Potatoes and Broccoli pasta

I made this bento to eat on Saturday at work, with the expectation of taking my box with me when we went out of town straight from work. I like to wash out the container at work, so then I can put leftovers directly into it, should the need arise. It's worked out pretty nicely so far.

Contents of bento: plum, frozen sour cherries, a mini pepper stuffed with the solids of black bean soup. On the right side, breakfasty potatoes, steamed broccoli, and a deliciously oily pasta made with broccoli slaw and other stuff. It's garnished with pepper rings and a piece of Parmesan.

The cherries thawed nicely by lunch time and were a tasty addition. They were picked last summer and have been living in our freezer for a loooooong time. I decided I need to start getting on the train of eating them up. Nothing leaked and everything was tasty, yay!

10/1/2009-Soba Noodle Stir-fry and HB bento

This posting is a kind of exciting posting because it features pictures from the first photographed HB-Bento! Woo! The very first bento I made for myself (long, long, ago) was accompanied by the very first HB-Bento (i.e., the first bento for HB). Well this posting contains the illustrious SECOND HB-Bento (the first one to be photographed). Back when I started I thought it was a little weird that people take pictures of their lunches. But then I got into reading bento blogs. Man, are those pictures key.

Contents of my bento: plum, 2 mini-peppers stuffed with garlic and herb La Vache Qui Rit; soba noodles stirfried with edamame, sweet-soy simmered tempeh, and topped with broccoli and turnip.

I simmered the tempeh with some kombu and dried black fungus (mmmmmm fungus) in soysauce, mirin, and a little rice vinegar. I also added in a big spoonful of brown sugar. Deeee-licious.

The whole reason why HB got a bento today too was because I bought him this swank new bento box. It's a tiffin-style container from World Market. And it's dishwasher safe, which I have tested out. Mostly, though, it holds a lot of food and doesn't look plastic or girly, which means there are more places he can take it. It also looks like it would hold up to some beating, which is also crucial.

Tiffin! Metal (stainless steel), Indian bento-style container. This one has two compartments and it snaps together nicely. It's pretty waterproof, though I haven't really tried testing the limits of that. The outer surface of the compartments has this nice dimpled pattern in the metal. It's really quite an attractive item. Purchased from World Market for the low, low price of $10.

And here it is filled with foods.

Contents of HB bento: on left, mini-pepper stuffed with La Vache Qui Rit (garlic and herb), some baby carrots, a plum, 2 toothpics of edamame, packet of miso soup, and a silicon baking cup filled with homemade spicy, salty cashews (I do them on the stove top with curry powder, salt, and cayenne). On the right, soba noodle stir fry (same as I got, just in a huge, HB-sized portion).

A closer view of the bottom container.

I did pack this the night before and stuck it in the fridge, as is my wont.

The verdict was very positive. Hooray! And he said he didn't mind the container, so I think there will be more HB bentos in the future. Excellent. The term that I found in this book I got from the library (The Food of Japan: Authentic Recipes from the Land of the Rising Sun, by Takayuki Kosaki and Walter Wagner) is aisai bento, or loving wife's lunch. Essentially, it's the lunch that a wife packs for her man, which may or may not embarrass him in its decorativeness. The book is, to my estimation, so-so. But it does have some nice narrative in the beginning about different areas they cover in Japanese cuisine.

9/30/2009- Artichoke pasta

A really simple bento today. Basically just three things, which is not usually how I pack them. I was feeling a little uninspired. Though, I suppose, just inspired enough not to take a tupperware.

Contents of bento: on left side, steamed broccoli and red pepper strips. On the right side, artichoke, tapenade, and pesto penne with three strips of Parmesan cheese on top.

Not much else to say about it, really. Though this pasta was dry enough not to have the sauce suctioned over around the lid. Hooray!

9/29/2009- Tapenade roll ups and broccoli bento

This bento is basically my answer to "oh no! what ever will I take for lunch?!" It's a problem, especially when there are not a lot of leftovers in the fridge.

Contents of bento: on left side, large bed of steamed broccoli, a small pepper stuffed with potato quesadilla filling, garnished with pepper rings. On right side, 4 tapenade and goat cheese roll-ups made with spinach tortillas. Also garnished with red pepper. The side car holds salsa for the broccoli. (or whatever else I wanted to eat in it.)

Everything was tasty, though I can see how you want to make sure that rollups have very dry fillings. These had gotten a little moist by lunch time. I took the picture in our break room at work, hence the dim lighting.

9/24/2009- Salsa roll-up bento

I actually made my lunch this morning before work, which I definitely don't normally do. I have no idea how long it took, but it felt like "too long."

Contents of Bento: whole wheat tortilla roll-ups with Mexican cheese blend and some tomato/artichoke tapenade, heated to melt the cheese; corn tires (three), two prunes, carrots and red pepper over steamed broccoli and shredded lettuce. The two little side cars have plain yogurt and salsa. The larger one has some corn chips and the ends of the whole wheat tortilla, chipified in the toaster oven.

The thing that makes me the most irritated about packing my lunch in the morning is waiting for it to cool down before I clip the lid on. Needless to say, I did not wait quite long enough and there was a little leakage. But I'm ok with a little leakage. Everything was tasty and plenty of food for me to eat. That's the magic of a tightly packed bento box: there's so much more there than it looks like. The roll-ups actually stayed rolled and didn't leak everywhere. Hurray, two days in a row with no leaking!

9/23/2009- Left over sushi bento

Tuesday night I decided to get a handle on my reading for school. So, after work, I went straight to a Hyashi (a local Japanese restaurant) and had sushi and lots of green tea. And finished 40 pages of reading. uuggghhhhh.

I didn't finish all of my vegetarian sushi, so I just shoveled the leftovers into my bento box from lunch. I had Oshinko, Cucumber, and one piece of Avocado. It didn't end up taking much room, so I had to fill in the box with other stuff for lunch on Wednesday.
Contents of Bento: Sushi on the left, with red pepper accents, carrots (under the celery), two corn tires, two prunes, a stalk of steamed broccoli, and some salad with bell peppers and pine nuts under the baybel cheese. The cheese has a cut out leaf (more fall!) which I put in the box, on top of the corn tires. On the left of the sushi are two fishes, one of soy sauce, the other of sirracha (since I didn't have any wasabi at home). The little jar has homemade vinaigrette with a 1/2 tsp of peanut butter in it.

The attempt at peanut vinaigrette didn't really work, but I still make tasty dressing, so it doesn't really matter. And since it was packed separately from the salad, no muss no fuss. This box was so tightly packed, nothing moved at all, which was really nice for a change. The sirracha was also a tasty substitute for wasabi.

The sushi was a little unusual. The Oshinko and Avocado was sort of tear-drop shaped like this: I've made sushi that looks like that too, but usually it's because I've messed something up. Anyways, it made a nice presentation on the plate, to have the standard shapes and the tear-drop ones.

9/22/2009- Pesto Pasta and Mini Pizza bento

I usually pride myself on making homemade food, but I've noticed that lots of my bentos have had "convenience" items in them this month. Little hors d'oeuvres just make such nice bento additions. If I take homemade leftovers, often I just put them in a tupperware and don't bother to make up a bento. That's also because I love my Totoro bento box and don't want it to get stained with tomato or tumeric (which feature prominently in the cooking in our house). I know the solution is to use my glasslock box. But, meh, the Totoro one just has such awesome dimensions. The taller sides make it much easier to pack things in it.

So here's another bento that uses some convenience food. Tiny pizzas from Trader Joe's! Man, they're just so CUTE, how could I resist?

Contents of bento: Pesto pasta (storebought pesto, sorry) with kalamata olives, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese. Left side: A little spinach salad on the top, two sweet corn tires, two mini pizzas separated from the corn with a baking cup folded in half. The side car at the top has a molasses cookie cut in the shape of a maple leaf, in honor of the first day of fall :D

So, you think I would have learned my lesson a few short days ago, with the pasta salad debacle. My bento got kind of jostled around a little bit and I guess the pesto oil got siphoned along the rubber grommet...again. It was all along the edge and flowing down the side by the pizza. Bah! Oh well, nothing ruined. Corn tires are fun to eat. And I love my new tiny side car. (I have three, they came with four, but I sent one to a friend.) They are 40ml, polypropylene, and completely watertight. I got them from here: this ebay store with bento stuff . They shipped out pretty fast, and were packaged with all the original Japanese packaging. Totally awesome.

9/17/2009-Gyoza bento

The other night I made delicious Japanese-styled foods for my housemate and I for dinner. We had gyoza, some store sushi and seaweed salad, miso soup, annnd sauces and some broccoli and bell peppers (raw). I think that was all. It was tasty and light. The gyoza were the frozen vegetarian ones from Trader Joe's and I steamed them in my mini bamboo steamer. It's the first time I've used it, but MAN, is it great! I can just put it over a little sauce pan with a cup or two of water and go. I have a large size one, too, but it's kind of a pain to use.

Contents of Bento: Gyoza, celery, and carrot sticks on the right side. Garnished with some red bell pepper. Rice on the left with green grapes on top. Other stuff (clockwise) steamed broccoli, 2 prunes, mini baybel cheese, hummus stuffed pepper.

In the past when I've done stuffed peppers, I've been able to find mini peppers. This is just the end of a skinny pepper from the farmer's market. The little jar has gyoza sauce (rice vinegar and soy). I put it in a glass jar because it was the left over dipping sauce from the night before and had some gyoza oil in it. (Which I wanted to avoid getting stuck in my little fishes). And of course, the Bear of Salt appears to be looking over to the right, possibly to keep watch for marauders. This picture was actually taken at my desk at work, right before I ate everything. The rice had been leftover in the fridge for a while and I didn't reheat it or anything "to restore texture" so it was hard and crunchy. :( Other than that, everything was quite tasty.

9/15/2009-Spaghetti Bento, retroactively posted

This bento was made at my folks' house on Monday night. My best friend from high school was over and she watched me prepare it. I believe her comment was: "You do this every day? That's way too fiddly for me." Kinda funny, since my bentos are really plain compared to how some people do them.

Bento Contents: lightly sauced spaghetti (to keep it from sticking together) on the right, made into little bite-size nests, garnished with olive slices; apple rabbits; carrot sticks (under the apple rabbits); a light La Vache Qui Rit French Onion cheese wedge; some kind of spicy delicious cooked green beans in a metal cupcake cup; half of an oatmeal cookie in the red silicon cup.
A container of apple sauce on the side.

The cheese was actually better than I remembered it being. I really liked it when I was a little kid and then went through a stage where I thought the texture was like creamy plastic. But I guess I've grown out of that. The french onion flavor was really nice. I ate it with the carrots. The spaghetti was actually edible with chopsticks, which is an excellent success. I also put some lettuce around the beans before transport (which didn't look particularly great, hence, no picture) and I'm pleased to say the tomatoey oil in them stayed put.