That's a huge amount of food, but he'll be happy. He's a big guy. Must plan for more bentos next week. The veggies only lasted two days last week... This week I'll plan a little better....
Friday, January 28, 2011
Bento: Zippys
DH wanted a big meal and bought everything he wanted for lunch AND dinner. So all I had to do was pack tonight's Bento. Chili and rice with Broasted chicken, a bit of kim chee and some carrot flowers. The chili has a piece of wax paper separating it from the rice. Easy peasy...
That's a huge amount of food, but he'll be happy. He's a big guy. Must plan for more bentos next week. The veggies only lasted two days last week... This week I'll plan a little better....
That's a huge amount of food, but he'll be happy. He's a big guy. Must plan for more bentos next week. The veggies only lasted two days last week... This week I'll plan a little better....
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Experimental Bento: SPAM musubi SUCCESS!
SPAM Musubi
Tamago (egg)
broccoli
bean sprouts
mandarin orange (Cuties)
soy beans
Tofu
carrot flowers
I used the prepared naked SPAM musubi to make today's lunches, so 20 minutes was enough time to put these together. The frozen musubi took almost 4 minutes to heat to make the rice soft again. I wrapped them with fresh musubi nori and cooked some scrambled eggs. Yes, they're a little bit overcooked, but they'll taste fine anyway. I cubed some tofu (which I'll probably use the rest at dinner time tonite), and peeled some Cuties. Stick it all in the box, and it's ready!
Nori won't be crisp, but it won't be mushy either. I think the only complaint will be... "one isn't enough!" Yeah? Well too bad, 'cuz this is a well balanced meal and is no more than you should have for lunch. ;D
Monday, January 24, 2011
Experimental Bento: SUCCESS! (So far so good)
The kids are at school, DH went to work and they were all very happy to have a bento to take with them. This one is mine... DH and the kids have a little bit more chicken, there was just enough for everyone, if one person is a light eater.
The chicken and rice took up about 1/2 the bento, the rest of the space was filled with the veggies/fruits. But OMG! The chicken was delicious! The soy beans were yummy, the rice balls were cute and the meal was balanced. Everything looks fresh and tasty, you'd never know the beansprouts and broccoli were made 2 days ago.
I woke up 30 minutes early to make the lunches. It took about 25minutes to cook the chicken, but I'm sure if I had an appropriate sized pan and enough oil to fill it, it would've been cut down to 15. Unfortunately, I have one that's perfect for one egg, and another that's perfect for a huge, daddy-size, filled with goodies omelet. I need something in between. While the chicken cooked, I put together the rice balls, and filled the bento. Not so bad...
So here's a bento, wrapped in a napkin, packed and ready to go:
Some notes for next time:
SPAM Musubi
Tamago (Egg)
And veggie/fruit fillers
If all works out, I'll have to buy REAL Bento boxes and some of those neat little chopstick cases for us so they don't poke through my napkins... :D
On Today's Menu:
Mochiko chicken
3 small rice shapes or 2 Nori wrapped Rice balls (DH had ume inside his)
bean sprouts
broccoli
grapes
soybeans
decorated with some carrot flowers
DH also had kim chee as requested
The chicken and rice took up about 1/2 the bento, the rest of the space was filled with the veggies/fruits. But OMG! The chicken was delicious! The soy beans were yummy, the rice balls were cute and the meal was balanced. Everything looks fresh and tasty, you'd never know the beansprouts and broccoli were made 2 days ago.
I woke up 30 minutes early to make the lunches. It took about 25minutes to cook the chicken, but I'm sure if I had an appropriate sized pan and enough oil to fill it, it would've been cut down to 15. Unfortunately, I have one that's perfect for one egg, and another that's perfect for a huge, daddy-size, filled with goodies omelet. I need something in between. While the chicken cooked, I put together the rice balls, and filled the bento. Not so bad...
So here's a bento, wrapped in a napkin, packed and ready to go:
Some notes for next time:
- If I want to make those cute little faces, cut the nori the night before.
- Make sure there's enough rice for me
- Buy a bigger Fry pan.
- Cut grapes to serving size and store in a bag too.
SPAM Musubi
Tamago (Egg)
And veggie/fruit fillers
If all works out, I'll have to buy REAL Bento boxes and some of those neat little chopstick cases for us so they don't poke through my napkins... :D
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Experimental Bento: Mochiko Chicken
This morning, I've prepared a large batch of mochiko chicken. There's 6 pounds of chicken thighs, and I've split it into 5 sandwich sized bags. 2 are in the refrigerator, and 3 in the freezer. Bento usually don't have too many pieces of this stuff, maybe 4 bite size pieces and lots of other goodies.
My DH said his friend married a Japanese lady and she makes him bento everyday to take to work. He's lost a lot of weight. Hmmmm.... I hope it'll help...
This recipe is not yet tested, and I modified a small one to make a large batch, so take your chances. I'll check back and repost with pictures after I've had a chance to cook it.
Large Batch Mochiko Chicken:
6 lb. bag of boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces
1 cup mochiko
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cornstarch
8 eggs
3/4 c. shoyu
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Soak chicken at least overnight. Prepare by deep frying, or if you're like me, use about 1/2" of oil in the pan, and fry. Drain on paper towel. Everyone loves mochiko chicken... how can you not? It's fried... :D
It's looks like I'll need to make myself bento. All these recipes are making me want one too....
It's a lot of work on the weekend, but hopefully, we can all enjoy nice lunches during the coming week. The kids are really tired of school lunches, and the price just keeps rising. Dad keeps going out for hamburgers and fries, not a healthy habit. And if lunches are this good, I might not forget to stop and eat when I'm busy sewing....
My DH said his friend married a Japanese lady and she makes him bento everyday to take to work. He's lost a lot of weight. Hmmmm.... I hope it'll help...
This recipe is not yet tested, and I modified a small one to make a large batch, so take your chances. I'll check back and repost with pictures after I've had a chance to cook it.
Large Batch Mochiko Chicken:
6 lb. bag of boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces
1 cup mochiko
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cornstarch
8 eggs
3/4 c. shoyu
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Soak chicken at least overnight. Prepare by deep frying, or if you're like me, use about 1/2" of oil in the pan, and fry. Drain on paper towel. Everyone loves mochiko chicken... how can you not? It's fried... :D
It's looks like I'll need to make myself bento. All these recipes are making me want one too....
It's a lot of work on the weekend, but hopefully, we can all enjoy nice lunches during the coming week. The kids are really tired of school lunches, and the price just keeps rising. Dad keeps going out for hamburgers and fries, not a healthy habit. And if lunches are this good, I might not forget to stop and eat when I'm busy sewing....
Experimental Bento: Fruit and Veggie parts - 1
What kinds of veggies/fruits to add?
The easy ones would be carrots, celery, strawberries, blueberries, and anything that doesn't require special treatment. But we all know that every Bento comes with some neat little bunches of pickled veggies and special looking touches... It just wouldn't be a Bento without it! So I'm going to try making some veggies that I can easily pack without spending extra prep time in the morning.
Broccoli:
Boil it in some lightly salted water till it turns to a bright green. It's done. Here's how I'll store it so I can use it for a few days. Drain well, shaking out the excess water. Wrap in a dry paper towel and place in a plastic bag, sucking out as much air as possible.
Bean Sprouts:
Boil bean sprouts for just a minute or two. They should turn slightly translucent, but not too wilty. Should have a slight crunch to them when you bite them. Drain, and run cold water over them to stop the cooking. Gently squeeze out the excess water and sprinkle with about 1 Tbsp. of rice vinegar and shoyu, a splash of sesame oil, 1 tsp. sugar, and season with some pepper. I like to add sesame seeds too, but I ran out.
Carrots:
I wanted to fancify the carrots a little, so I cut them into little flowers. It's simple and impressive. This is one carrot, cut like this:
1) Peel.
2) Cut into manageable pieces.
3) Cut slivers out of the sides, lengthwise.
4) Now, cut your carrot coins. Kawaii!
Then I wrap them in a slightly damp paper towel and placed them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.
Edamame:
Don Quijote had them on sale last week for cheap so I bought 5 bags and store them in my freezer. Boil in some salted water for about 5 minutes, drain, but don't rinse and wrap them like the broccoli when cool.. Hopefully it'll last for the week. Unless I eat them for snacks...
I also bought a container of blueberries and a bag of those "cuties." They look like tangerines, I have a few cans of mandarin oranges too.
Okay.. that's a good start. We'll see how things go this week before we try other recipes. Hopefully, they'll have at least a couple of good bento lunches this week....
The easy ones would be carrots, celery, strawberries, blueberries, and anything that doesn't require special treatment. But we all know that every Bento comes with some neat little bunches of pickled veggies and special looking touches... It just wouldn't be a Bento without it! So I'm going to try making some veggies that I can easily pack without spending extra prep time in the morning.
Broccoli:
Boil it in some lightly salted water till it turns to a bright green. It's done. Here's how I'll store it so I can use it for a few days. Drain well, shaking out the excess water. Wrap in a dry paper towel and place in a plastic bag, sucking out as much air as possible.
Bean Sprouts:
Boil bean sprouts for just a minute or two. They should turn slightly translucent, but not too wilty. Should have a slight crunch to them when you bite them. Drain, and run cold water over them to stop the cooking. Gently squeeze out the excess water and sprinkle with about 1 Tbsp. of rice vinegar and shoyu, a splash of sesame oil, 1 tsp. sugar, and season with some pepper. I like to add sesame seeds too, but I ran out.
Carrots:
I wanted to fancify the carrots a little, so I cut them into little flowers. It's simple and impressive. This is one carrot, cut like this:
1) Peel.
2) Cut into manageable pieces.
3) Cut slivers out of the sides, lengthwise.
4) Now, cut your carrot coins. Kawaii!
Then I wrap them in a slightly damp paper towel and placed them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.
Edamame:
Don Quijote had them on sale last week for cheap so I bought 5 bags and store them in my freezer. Boil in some salted water for about 5 minutes, drain, but don't rinse and wrap them like the broccoli when cool.. Hopefully it'll last for the week. Unless I eat them for snacks...
I also bought a container of blueberries and a bag of those "cuties." They look like tangerines, I have a few cans of mandarin oranges too.
Okay.. that's a good start. We'll see how things go this week before we try other recipes. Hopefully, they'll have at least a couple of good bento lunches this week....
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Experimental Bento: Spam musubi recipe
My kids and DH have been asking me to make them Bento for lunch and I've been avoiding it. Looks like so much work! But today, I have a plan to make it a little easier. I'm thinking that if I premake some of the more time consuming things, like chicken, teriyaki, and maybe even noodles, I can can cook them up quickly in the morning and pack them while I prepare breakfast.
In case you're wondering, I usually make something the kids can eat in the car since we have a long drive to school. It can take up to an hour if traffic is bad. So I wake up just before 6am, make something like personal size pizzas or bagels and a smoothie and get out the door just after 6:30am. Yeah... I hate waking up early.
So adding a bento lunch to the list seems outrageous to me. And anyone that knows me knows that I'm a very lazy cook. I dislike cooking... hate it... But the things you will do for your loved ones...
Today I'll start with a field-trip favorite made in a more time efficient manner... SPAM musubi. This is an experiment. I've seen ready-made ones at Sam's Club, so I'm guessing you can make them ahead of time and microwave them to soften the rice. But the nori becomes mushy and falls apart. I'm going to try preparing a few naked ones and keep them in the freezer. During the week, I'll zap them in the microwave, then wrap with fresh nori before packing. That might work.
SPAM musubi (makes about 9):
SPAM musubi maker
1 Can of SPAM, sliced about 1/4" thick.
Brown Sugar
fresh cooked rice
Nori for wrapping
While waiting for your rice to cook, fry the sliced SPAM in the pan till it gets a little brown and crusty. Sprinkle with about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar over the SPAM, turn and cook till it's gooey. Do the same to the other side.
Okay... here's the assembly line picture. I make them right on the plastic wrap, then cut and wrap them for storage.
And here they are, finished and ready for eating. The wrapped ones in the background will be frozen.
We ate 3 for lunch... I didn't want to freeze the ones I used for the finished musubi picture, and we were hungry. Yum!
Tomorrow, I think I'll prepare some mochiko chicken that I can heat up and pack during the week. And maybe we'll have some for dinner too...
In case you're wondering, I usually make something the kids can eat in the car since we have a long drive to school. It can take up to an hour if traffic is bad. So I wake up just before 6am, make something like personal size pizzas or bagels and a smoothie and get out the door just after 6:30am. Yeah... I hate waking up early.
So adding a bento lunch to the list seems outrageous to me. And anyone that knows me knows that I'm a very lazy cook. I dislike cooking... hate it... But the things you will do for your loved ones...
Today I'll start with a field-trip favorite made in a more time efficient manner... SPAM musubi. This is an experiment. I've seen ready-made ones at Sam's Club, so I'm guessing you can make them ahead of time and microwave them to soften the rice. But the nori becomes mushy and falls apart. I'm going to try preparing a few naked ones and keep them in the freezer. During the week, I'll zap them in the microwave, then wrap with fresh nori before packing. That might work.
SPAM musubi (makes about 9):
SPAM musubi maker
1 Can of SPAM, sliced about 1/4" thick.
Brown Sugar
fresh cooked rice
Nori for wrapping
While waiting for your rice to cook, fry the sliced SPAM in the pan till it gets a little brown and crusty. Sprinkle with about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar over the SPAM, turn and cook till it's gooey. Do the same to the other side.
Okay... here's the assembly line picture. I make them right on the plastic wrap, then cut and wrap them for storage.
And here they are, finished and ready for eating. The wrapped ones in the background will be frozen.
We ate 3 for lunch... I didn't want to freeze the ones I used for the finished musubi picture, and we were hungry. Yum!
Tomorrow, I think I'll prepare some mochiko chicken that I can heat up and pack during the week. And maybe we'll have some for dinner too...
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