I've been very remiss in updating this month. December has been ridiculously busy for a variety of reasons. I have a little time this coming week though, so I have some bentos to put up. I also got my little mama a bento box and some bento stuff for Christmas, so I'll be taking pictures of that, too.
Hurray! Now all 4 of you who read my blog will have something new to read...
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
12/1/2009- Kale stirfry bento
More leftovers from Thanksgiving. I seriously think I may be eating cranberry sauce until 2010. Sigh. I should just bake it into a pie or something....
Contents of bento: kale, quick sauteed with seasoned pecans and dried cranberries, carrots, cranberry sauce, small slice of butternut squash lasagna.
I removed the lasagna tray and microwaved it briefly for added tastiness.
The kale was actually chopped into little pieces, instead of how I often do it in ribbons. Ribbons are much harder to eat out of a bento box, I discovered.
Contents of bento: kale, quick sauteed with seasoned pecans and dried cranberries, carrots, cranberry sauce, small slice of butternut squash lasagna.I removed the lasagna tray and microwaved it briefly for added tastiness.
The kale was actually chopped into little pieces, instead of how I often do it in ribbons. Ribbons are much harder to eat out of a bento box, I discovered.
11/30/2009- Leftover Sushi Bento
After thanksgiving gluttony, we needed something a little lighter. HB and I went out to dinner with his folks for delicious Japanese food and here is my bento filled with leftovers.
Contents of Bento: Leftover sushi from Soya- Shiitake maki, kimchee roll, cucumber maki and vegetarian maki (on its side). On the other side, one veg. gyoza, some takuan, Japanese pickled carrots, onions, and fresh shredded daikon (mostly obscured on the upper right.) Also red peppers, two fishes of soy sauce, and one of sirracha (since I don't have any wasabi at home, sirracha makes a nice substitute. Side car with a finger of shortbread from HB's mum. Man, she makes amazing shortbread.
The gyoza was from home (Trader Joe's frozen). I just stuck it in the box frozen and zapped it about 15 seconds in the microwave at work. That seems to work pretty darn well, especially for my lazy self.
NOTE ABOUT THE CONTEST: sadly, I did not win. But it was an honor to be selected as a finalist (one of three finalists out of about 50 entries...) So, hurray for the bentoblogosphere!
Contents of Bento: Leftover sushi from Soya- Shiitake maki, kimchee roll, cucumber maki and vegetarian maki (on its side). On the other side, one veg. gyoza, some takuan, Japanese pickled carrots, onions, and fresh shredded daikon (mostly obscured on the upper right.) Also red peppers, two fishes of soy sauce, and one of sirracha (since I don't have any wasabi at home, sirracha makes a nice substitute. Side car with a finger of shortbread from HB's mum. Man, she makes amazing shortbread.The gyoza was from home (Trader Joe's frozen). I just stuck it in the box frozen and zapped it about 15 seconds in the microwave at work. That seems to work pretty darn well, especially for my lazy self.
NOTE ABOUT THE CONTEST: sadly, I did not win. But it was an honor to be selected as a finalist (one of three finalists out of about 50 entries...) So, hurray for the bentoblogosphere!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Bento Contest
I'm the finalist in a bento box contest!
If you like, feel free to vote (you don't have to vote for mine, of course, but you could...)
Here is my original posting:
(The contest is for a colorful, 4 container, flat, square bento box. To win the contest, you had to say what you'd fill each section with.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would fill it with Thanksgiving leftovers from our vegetarian feast.
Purple- Butternut Squash Lasagna
Green- Carrot and Sweet Potato Tzimmes with apricots and sour dried cherries
Red- Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie with Red Pepper cut out fall leaf
Yellow- Sauteed Brussels sprouts with red wine, onions, pine nuts, paprika (and whatever other things my hubby puts in them...)
I don't really cook with recipes, but I can give you the gist of what is in the Lasagna and Shepherd's Pie. My mom made the Tzimmes, which is basically a Jewish vegetable dish cooked over low heat. It was also sprinkled with chopped walnuts. A nice contrast to the green container. :D
My hubby does the brussels sprouts every year and just makes it up as he goes along. I do know he always starts with onion and garlic in olive oil over high heat and deglazes the pan with red wine. I'm not sure what else was in them this year, but they were savory, pan-roasted, and delicious.
Butternut Squash Lasagna-
Cook Lasagna noodles, roast butternut squash. Combine Squash with garlic powder, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, and a little cream. Layer with noodles and provolone cheese. When you reach the top layer, prepare a cream sauce with a roux base (I always caramelize onion and garlic in the butter). Crumble dried sage into the butter as well. Then add flour, then milk in small amounts. Pour over lasagna. Top with more cheese and bake in 350 oven until bubbly and golden brown. This was a big hit with everyone who ate with us. (18 people this year! a new record in our tiny house....)
Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie-
Prepare mashed potatoes in your favorite way (mine have roasted garlic and yogurt in them). Sautee one onion and 3 cloves of garlic in olive oil and butter until dark brown. Deglaze pan with sherry. Add 2 kinds of finely chopped mushrooms with a pinch of salt (white button and crimini) and cook until all the water has come out of them. Deglaze the pan again with sherry if you need to. Add 2 bags of Morningstar farms crumbles (fake ground beef). Cook down. Add powdered rosemary, worchestershire sauce, pickapepper sauce, and thyme. Add finely chopped carrot and turnip and continue to cook until carrot and turnip are slightly soft. Mix mashed potatoes with shredded cheddar cheese. Put fake meat mixture in casserole and top with the potatoes. Bake in a 350 oven until bubbly and the potatoes get a little golden (this actually takes a long time and I gave up before the potatoes started to color.) It was still delicious. And this kind of thing tastes better as leftovers--perfect for bento!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, yeah. Vote!
If you like, feel free to vote (you don't have to vote for mine, of course, but you could...)
Here is my original posting:
(The contest is for a colorful, 4 container, flat, square bento box. To win the contest, you had to say what you'd fill each section with.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would fill it with Thanksgiving leftovers from our vegetarian feast.
Purple- Butternut Squash Lasagna
Green- Carrot and Sweet Potato Tzimmes with apricots and sour dried cherries
Red- Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie with Red Pepper cut out fall leaf
Yellow- Sauteed Brussels sprouts with red wine, onions, pine nuts, paprika (and whatever other things my hubby puts in them...)
I don't really cook with recipes, but I can give you the gist of what is in the Lasagna and Shepherd's Pie. My mom made the Tzimmes, which is basically a Jewish vegetable dish cooked over low heat. It was also sprinkled with chopped walnuts. A nice contrast to the green container. :D
My hubby does the brussels sprouts every year and just makes it up as he goes along. I do know he always starts with onion and garlic in olive oil over high heat and deglazes the pan with red wine. I'm not sure what else was in them this year, but they were savory, pan-roasted, and delicious.
Butternut Squash Lasagna-
Cook Lasagna noodles, roast butternut squash. Combine Squash with garlic powder, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, and a little cream. Layer with noodles and provolone cheese. When you reach the top layer, prepare a cream sauce with a roux base (I always caramelize onion and garlic in the butter). Crumble dried sage into the butter as well. Then add flour, then milk in small amounts. Pour over lasagna. Top with more cheese and bake in 350 oven until bubbly and golden brown. This was a big hit with everyone who ate with us. (18 people this year! a new record in our tiny house....)
Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie-
Prepare mashed potatoes in your favorite way (mine have roasted garlic and yogurt in them). Sautee one onion and 3 cloves of garlic in olive oil and butter until dark brown. Deglaze pan with sherry. Add 2 kinds of finely chopped mushrooms with a pinch of salt (white button and crimini) and cook until all the water has come out of them. Deglaze the pan again with sherry if you need to. Add 2 bags of Morningstar farms crumbles (fake ground beef). Cook down. Add powdered rosemary, worchestershire sauce, pickapepper sauce, and thyme. Add finely chopped carrot and turnip and continue to cook until carrot and turnip are slightly soft. Mix mashed potatoes with shredded cheddar cheese. Put fake meat mixture in casserole and top with the potatoes. Bake in a 350 oven until bubbly and the potatoes get a little golden (this actually takes a long time and I gave up before the potatoes started to color.) It was still delicious. And this kind of thing tastes better as leftovers--perfect for bento!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, yeah. Vote!
Monday, November 30, 2009
11/28/09- Post Thanksgiving Bento
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.
It's all about my favorite things: family, friends, eating and drinking too much... And every year we get together with most everyone from our families. This year we had 18--a new record in our tiny townhouse. The menu is vegetarian, with the option for people to bring something that is a meat dish if they want. This is the first time in a few years that someone made a turkey breast. We had a lovely time and I was actually not very stressed out this year. Probably because I didn't try to cook 1-million things like in previous years. Needless to say, my lunch of leftovers was all vegetarian, including the two delicious main dishes I made.
Contents of Bento- Top Right: spinach and romaine salad with radishes and feta cheese, Bottom Right: Carrot and Sweet Potato Tzimmes (with onion, apricot, and dried plums)--made by my little mama; and Sauteed Kale (with onion, lemon, and pine nuts)--made by me. Left-hand side: Vegetarian shepherd's pie and butternut squash lasagna. Red pepper strips on the top. In the ziplock on the left is an apple cranberry strudel, made by HB's mum.
I took the two non-salad trays out to nuke in the microwave for a few seconds. Everything was delicious. The two main-dishes are always better a few days after; what is it about casseroles that they age well?
Needless to say, our fridge is STILL filled with food. I feel like we'll be eating out of it for a looooooong time.
It's all about my favorite things: family, friends, eating and drinking too much... And every year we get together with most everyone from our families. This year we had 18--a new record in our tiny townhouse. The menu is vegetarian, with the option for people to bring something that is a meat dish if they want. This is the first time in a few years that someone made a turkey breast. We had a lovely time and I was actually not very stressed out this year. Probably because I didn't try to cook 1-million things like in previous years. Needless to say, my lunch of leftovers was all vegetarian, including the two delicious main dishes I made.
Contents of Bento- Top Right: spinach and romaine salad with radishes and feta cheese, Bottom Right: Carrot and Sweet Potato Tzimmes (with onion, apricot, and dried plums)--made by my little mama; and Sauteed Kale (with onion, lemon, and pine nuts)--made by me. Left-hand side: Vegetarian shepherd's pie and butternut squash lasagna. Red pepper strips on the top. In the ziplock on the left is an apple cranberry strudel, made by HB's mum.I took the two non-salad trays out to nuke in the microwave for a few seconds. Everything was delicious. The two main-dishes are always better a few days after; what is it about casseroles that they age well?
Needless to say, our fridge is STILL filled with food. I feel like we'll be eating out of it for a looooooong time.
The Bear of Salt is Dead- Long Live The Bear of Salt!
The Bear of Salt has served me well, but he is sadly no longer whole.As I hope you can see in this picture, his little neck is broken, which means he leaks salt all over my lunch bag.
Tragedy.A moment of silence for The Bear of Salt, please.
The Bear of Salt is Dead!
*--------------*
Long Live the Bear of Salt!
Just like the British Monarchy, the job has to be filled and life goes on. Please welcome the new Bear of Salt.
Actually, his coloring matches the salt a little better, but I shouldn't speak ill of the dead...
Thursday, November 19, 2009
11/19/2009- Japanese Stuff (sort of) Bento
This is my first foray into speed bento-ing. And as you can see, the results are not very pretty. They were tasty, though, so I don't really care that much.
Contents of Bento: The last of the onigiri made a week ago, three slices of takuan, one pickled onion, slice of tomato buried under crispy, seasoned Korean seaweed stuff. Two gyoza and a small jar of soy sauce/rice vinegar. Because the onigiri on the left were plain, I added two dabs of umeshiso paste.
This was actually a really tasty bento. Considering I made it up in 3 minutes as I was dashing to work, I am especially impressed. I would have been happier if it had more color. Or arrangement. Miraculously, the crispy seaweed stayed crispy. Obviously the Koreans have a magic technique for making this stuff. The seaweed and takuan were both H-mart purchases. I was thrilled to find takuan in not a giant-sized bag (that I would never eat up). The gyoza were from Trader Joe's and I just put them in the box frozen. I think they would have been ok to eat, but I did take them out and nuke them for 30 sec. when I went to eat my lunch.
I think I will have to make something like this again, but perhaps with more prettiness involved. I'm pretty sure that the Korean seaweed will not stay crisp in a box overnight, but that's ok too.
Contents of Bento: The last of the onigiri made a week ago, three slices of takuan, one pickled onion, slice of tomato buried under crispy, seasoned Korean seaweed stuff. Two gyoza and a small jar of soy sauce/rice vinegar. Because the onigiri on the left were plain, I added two dabs of umeshiso paste.This was actually a really tasty bento. Considering I made it up in 3 minutes as I was dashing to work, I am especially impressed. I would have been happier if it had more color. Or arrangement. Miraculously, the crispy seaweed stayed crispy. Obviously the Koreans have a magic technique for making this stuff. The seaweed and takuan were both H-mart purchases. I was thrilled to find takuan in not a giant-sized bag (that I would never eat up). The gyoza were from Trader Joe's and I just put them in the box frozen. I think they would have been ok to eat, but I did take them out and nuke them for 30 sec. when I went to eat my lunch.
I think I will have to make something like this again, but perhaps with more prettiness involved. I'm pretty sure that the Korean seaweed will not stay crisp in a box overnight, but that's ok too.
Retro-posted from 11/12/2009- Spicy Beans Bento
Contents of Bento: Spicy Beans, mixed brown and white short-grain rice topped with umeshiso paste, frozen cherries, cherry tomatoes, one prune, carrot sticks, two pieces of cheddar cheese.This bento was made up the night before, with the rice going in straight from the rice cooker into the box. I have to say that Japanese rice holds up MUCH better in a bento than basmati does. So maybe that's the key to having edible (not hard, dry, flavorless...bleeeehhhhh) rice. I actually had to eat this bento at home. I left work early because of lots of stormy weather, but I was so excited about eating it that I didn't make myself a hot lunch when I got home. It was worth it.
The Spicy Beans are mostly chickpeas and black beans. HB, ever the wit, said, "isn't that basically chili?" But no, it has no chili powder in it, so it is technically not chili. (Even though it does have all of the other ingredients for chili....)
Onigiri Post- new stuff!
Among the things that I got at H-Mart earlier this month was a sweet onigiri mold. I used it to make a whole bunch of the little guys the last time I made rice. This rice is mixed short-grain brown with short-grain Japanese white rice. The ones on the right-hand-side are all filled with umeshiso paste, which is deeeeelicious. Umeshiso paste is very sour and salty tasting.
I needed a place to put all the little guys, so I thought of my totoro bento box. I trust the seal on it much more than I do on regular tupperware.
The onigiri were a SNAP to make. Seriously, so easy. And they held up well and stayed edible (though not at peak awesomeness) for a whole week. I'm totally converted. I also like the fact that the press makes such small ones. I like tiny foods better. :D
I needed a place to put all the little guys, so I thought of my totoro bento box. I trust the seal on it much more than I do on regular tupperware.
The onigiri were a SNAP to make. Seriously, so easy. And they held up well and stayed edible (though not at peak awesomeness) for a whole week. I'm totally converted. I also like the fact that the press makes such small ones. I like tiny foods better. :D
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
11/11/2009- New Bento Box and Pupusa Bento
Last weekend I was in Alexandria and while I was in Northern VA I took the opportunity to go and hunt up some awesome stuff at Super H Mart in Fairfax. This Korean grocery store carries all kinds of awesome international foods AND bento boxes. So, of course, I got a new bento box. Now I have three. Which is how it begins...
Leaflet Tight Box: came with a little green bag. Awwww, how cute! It is 500ml and has three lift out trays. One holds 175ml and the other two hold 80ml each, so with the trays it's a good size for me for lunch.
And here's the inaugural lunch I packed for it:
Contents of Bento: Pupusas with Zucchini and delicious cabbage salad with tomato sauce from South of the Border. In the big compartment: pineapple slice and frozen sour cherries, sungold cherry tomatoes (the LAST of the season), baby carrots, green olives, a prune, and a purple carrot cut up and stacked all pretty under the prune. The little side car has some hummus in it for the carrots.
Everything was delicious. The pupusas are not very good at room temperature, but I was too lazy to pick out all the little pieces and reheat. Eaten with the cabbage it was alright. Even though the box got tilted around a little bit, the pupusas did not get wet. There was some vinegar from the cabbage salad under the two containers when I washed it, but somehow it worked. The two pink cups are new from Super H Mart as well, they are heart shaped. I think they're going to be really awesome since they fit so nicely into corners. I also picked up a tube of Umeshiso paste so I will have umeboshi in my future!
Leaflet Tight Box: came with a little green bag. Awwww, how cute! It is 500ml and has three lift out trays. One holds 175ml and the other two hold 80ml each, so with the trays it's a good size for me for lunch.And here's the inaugural lunch I packed for it:
Contents of Bento: Pupusas with Zucchini and delicious cabbage salad with tomato sauce from South of the Border. In the big compartment: pineapple slice and frozen sour cherries, sungold cherry tomatoes (the LAST of the season), baby carrots, green olives, a prune, and a purple carrot cut up and stacked all pretty under the prune. The little side car has some hummus in it for the carrots.Everything was delicious. The pupusas are not very good at room temperature, but I was too lazy to pick out all the little pieces and reheat. Eaten with the cabbage it was alright. Even though the box got tilted around a little bit, the pupusas did not get wet. There was some vinegar from the cabbage salad under the two containers when I washed it, but somehow it worked. The two pink cups are new from Super H Mart as well, they are heart shaped. I think they're going to be really awesome since they fit so nicely into corners. I also picked up a tube of Umeshiso paste so I will have umeboshi in my future!
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