Chow Mein Life Without Plastic Bento

We are using the Life Without Plastic lunch container again, this time with the removable dividers in place to test out the separating quality of the separators (last time I used the box with just a round cup in the center of our somen salad - that worked very well). MisterMan doesn't usually care whether the food happens to touch each other or the pickle juice gets into the strawberries, but I still wanted to find out just how much mixing occurs. I did use a silicone cup for the pickles, as I usually do, but I probably didn't really need to.

I placed chow mein in two of the four sections, then fruit (cantaloupe, raspberries and strawberry) in one of the remaining sections and sliced Okinawan sweet potato and pickles in the last. The box held everything together without much movement of the food inside; nothing leaked or spilled. Yay!

I used spinach noodles for the chow mein, and stir-fried fresh green beans, chopped baby bok choy, and beech mushrooms alongside. I seasoned with oyster sauce and shoyu to taste, plus garlic and onion. Top with a drizzle of sesame oil and chopped green onions. Quick, easy, and tasty!

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On a side note, The Whole Foods Market blog wrote a piece focusing on Bento Box Lunch Ideas, and I share some bentomaking tips from Happy Little Bento over there. Please click over and take a look if you're interested! It's called:
Bento Box Lunch Ideas: 6 Easy (and Insta-worthy!) Options 
Thanks!
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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. :)

Panda Rice Bento

Panda Rice Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today I made roasted sweet miso chicken a la hapabento's recipe... although I changed it up a bit... and I added a panda rice musubi because as I've mentioned before, I really like chicken with rice! I think they go together like peaches and cream! Or hugs and kisses! Anyway. I think I'm convincing MisterMan of this, as he is eating the riceballs every day, and I'm not hearing any complaints :)

For the chicken, I only had skinless boneless thighs, so that's what I used. I marinated the pieces whole in equal parts white miso and agave syrup, which is the juice from the agave plant and a sugar/honey substitute. I forgot the mirin, but I added it just before cooking. I roasted at 450F in my trusty toaster oven for quite awhile; I think maybe 40 minutes or so. I even had extra room in there so I also roasted some mini sweet peppers at the same time (though those came out after about 20 minutes).

After the chicken was done, I also roasted some baby bok choy, another hapabento idea. I had previously accidentally roasted some brussels sprouts leaves, and discovered the crunchy leaves are kinda fun to eat. Have you ever tried it? So, I thought I would try the same thing with the choy. It didn't crisp up as well, but it still came out okay, and I think it tastes neat this way. My kids swiped it through the miso sauce, and I guess it was acceptable, because they ate it all.

I added some raw carrots for extra color, and in the fruit section I put some chopped fresh pineapple, cherries, and blood orange wedges.
This bento came home completely empty; all the lettuce and sauce included -- it looked like he had washed it already! I guess he liked it :)

Making Fried Rice

                 

There are lots and lots of recipes for fried rice. The one I use is highly dependent upon whatever happens to be in the fridge at the time :) You don't have to be traditional; you can use whatever you like. Today I decided to make fried rice with the day-old rice I had leftover. First I sauteed chopped onion, mushrooms, and baby bok choy. Perhaps that sounds strange to you, but I like this vegetable -- it's so cute!

After the vegetables get nice and soft, remove from the pan.

Then, I add the cold rice into the pan and fry it up, breaking up the clumps with the spoon. Some people fry the egg separately, but I just add the fork-beaten eggs directly onto the rice and scramble it all together. Then I add the secret ingredient.

I know, it's really untraditional. And we don't really eat a lot of soy "meat" products. But this tastes really good, and gives a nice spicy flavor to the rice. And, it hides the bitterness of the choy, which is a plus for getting the kids to eat it. If you wanted to make it Mexican rice, you might skip the mushrooms and choy and instead use cilantro and green onion, and you could garnish with avocado. We have done that, too. Soyrizo is also great with scrambled eggs or macaroni and cheese. But today it was fried rice.

Yummy! Kids ate it all up. See its use in my boy's bento. ^_^

Making Sticky Rice

I made a batch of sticky rice today, and this time I used a mix of brown sweet rice, white sweet rice, brown short grain and white short grain rice, in a ratio of 2 cups sweet rice to 1 cup short grain rice. I also used more than the usual amount of liquid because I noticed in the past that brown rice needs more water to attain the same level of stickiness. If you have time, you should also soak the rice a few hours before cooking. I've soaked sweet rice overnight with good results. I like to take a picture of the rice before cooking because I think it looks pretty cool.

I soaked some dry shiitake mushrooms, and sliced them before putting them to cook with the rice. I used the mushroom broth to make the rice.

It's not traditional to use fresh bok choy, but I do because I like the addition of dark greens. I think it looks nice, and it's another way for the kids to get a serving of leafy greens. I chopped the leaves and stems and put them in the pot with the rice. I also added lup cheong (Chinese sausage) and green onion. You can also use char siu if you like. Everything cooks together and you have a quick and easy one-pot meal! I should have taken a picture of the finished product, but my camera battery died and I forgot to upload it later. I did make a bento with it, though, and you can see it here. Oh, sticky rice does make a good bento :)

*ETA: Here's the finished sticky rice, all ready to eat...