Sticky Rice Froggy Bento

When afterschool activities run from 4:00 until 5:30 or 6:00, I'm thinking of dinner making itself. Sticky rice is a great self-cooking meal. Just toss everything into the rice cooker, press the button and go! If you have a fancy Zojirushi, you can even set the timer. Today I made a half brown half white batch with shiitake, lup cheong, baby bok choy, and char siu. In the past I've also added chopped kabocha and roast duck. You can use whatever you like, and pack it into the lower part of the cutest Kotobuki Froggy Two-Tier Bento ever. In the top tier, toss in some elephant heart pluots, grapes, and carrots. So easy; my favorite kind of dinner-to-bento meal. Done!

Char Siu Fried Rice Panda Donburi Bento Bowl

Char Siu Fried Rice Panda Donburi Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Welcome to November! The passing of Halloween signifies the beginning of the hectic holidays which seem to take over the next two months. Are you ready? We are starting the month with a rice bowl. This one contains sliced deli char siu atop homemade fried red rice with egg and shiitake mushrooms, steamed baby bok choy, and sprinkled with scallions. TinySprite loves this kind of donburi, and it's easy to pack in her little cute panda bento bowl. The top tier holds a few strawberries, and assorted pickled veggies, including baby orange bell peppers. I'm hoping I can sail as easily through the rest of the season...

Sticky Rice and Red Fruit Bento

Sticky Rice and Red Fruit Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento is one of my (and my kids') favorites. Sticky rice is fun to make because you don't have to stick to traditional ingredients -- well anyway, I don't. Here is my basic recipe. Today I mixed brown and white glutinous rice along with brown and white regular rice. I cooked it in pure chicken broth, and towards the end of the cooking cycle I tossed in sliced lup cheong (Chinese sausage), sliced shiitake mushrooms, chopped squash and baby bok choy. All the flavors meshed together very well in this batch. I presoaked the rice for a few hours, which is essential if you are using brown glutinous rice. Super tasty, and nice colors too. The other side turned out to be an all-red fruit section, with strawberry, grapes, blood oranges and radish. Oh, and there's a yellow carrot in there for contrast.
My fellow bento enthusiasts have come together to establish a Bento4Japan eBay auction theme. There are books, bento boxes, goodie packages and more listed there, and all the proceeds will go towards the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. So you can satisfy your bento shopping while helping a good cause at the same time. Please take a look: simply use the search term "Bento4Japan" here!

Dry Curry Bento

Dry Curry Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I made dry curry for today's bento, using ground turkey and a bunch of vegetables that I happened to have on hand already: onion, carrot, orange / yellow / red mini sweet peppers, peas, and also some new potatoes. I chopped everything up finely (except the peas) before adding them to the browned meat. When everything was tender I added the curry mixture, which included curry powder, shoyu, mirin, and sake. And a bit of water. Stir in and cook until dry. The nice thing about dry curry is that since it is "dry", it is a good choice for bento -- there is no thick sauce to get all over everything.

In this bento, I scooped the dry curry on top of fresh rice. In the next section I put some roasted baby bok choy, and the final 2 sections include red grapes, a purple carrot skewer, a strawberry and a half plum. Nope, it's not summer here yet; it's a Chilean plum...but I couldn't resist. My own apricot tree is nearing full bloom, and I'm dreaming of fresh tree-ripe fruit in the coming months, hopefully. Our tree is very popular with the neighborhood birds and squirrels, so it'll be a battle to get our share.

We had a great, sunny day today, which I spent hanging out in the garden with TinySprite, but tomorrow calls for more rain :( Come on, Spring!

Burrito Bento

Burrito Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

MisterMan gets a "burrito": tortilla filled with refried beans, soytaco, melted cheddar, chopped onions & tomatoes, and spring greens. We also had avocado, but I forgot to add it to this one. I folded up the tortilla, "glued" it shut with melted cheese, and cut it in half to fit in the box.

He also gets sliced maroon carrots (these are dark red on the outside, but regular orange on the inside), dry roasted baby bok choy, peapod fillers, and a fruit section including sliced strawberry and mini mandarins.

On top I placed a purple potato flower which I microwaved before cutting. You can see that cooking it this way results in a lavender color, as opposed to the dark purple (almost black) color you get when you roast them (like I did in a previous bento). I used a rose fingerling potato for the tiny flower and added sesame seed detail. Have you heard of these potatoes? Here's what they look like. That's a kiwifruit on the side for size comparison :)

I think they are officially called Rose Finn Apple Fingerling potatoes. Somehow I thought they might be rose colored inside. But they're not.

See? Just regular old plain potaters. Maybe I'll dye them next time. :)