Dry Curry Rainbow Bento

Dry Curry Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Okay, there isn't really a rainbow in here, but it's pretty cheerfully colorful! I packed MisterMan's dry curry in his metal "apple" shaped bento bowl, which I love. It's good for donburi type rice bowl meals such as this one: I put some mixed black rice (with millet and amaranth) on the bottom, and then scooped some dry curry on top. Dry curry is great for bento because there isn't a lot of soup or gravy to get soggy or leak out. And since this box isn't leakproof, it would have been a concern. I made this dry curry by browning ground meat and sauteeing a mix of diced vegetables such as carrots, bell peppers, celery, garlic and onion - I also added potatoes, zucchini and corn - then sprinkling 1-2T curry to the ingredients to release the aromatics. I added about 1/2C water and 2T tonkatsu sauce, stirred and simmered until well absorbed and "dry." If it's too strong you can add applesauce to sweeten it up, which is what I did. Or you can add ketchup. The top tier of this cute bowl contains cara cara oranges, strawberries, grapes, blackberries and blueberries. And a tomato and a couple slivers of mandarinquat. I sent this lunch to school at room temperature, but it's also a great candidate for a thermal jar, to ensure a hot curry meal on a cool winter day.
Added to What's For Lunch.

Panda-monium Ma Bo Tofu Bento

We're having a meat week, following up the sausage pasta with ma bo tofu (I adapted Lovelylanvin's recipe), complete with a pair of tofu panda friends. I adapted the traditional recipe quite a bit; in fact it may not resemble actual ma po tofu much anymore. I have to omit all the chili bean sauce because the kids won't tolerate the spice, and I always add greens. Today I chopped half a bag full of baby bok choy, several green onion stalks and cilantro and mixed them in for texture, color and nutrition. Sometimes I use pickled mustard greens as well. Also, there is less sauce in mine, to keep it more bento-friendly. If you wanted to keep the soupiness, it would be better to pack it into a thermal food jar. But for us today, this donburi bowl-type bento box works just fine! Top tier contains all fruit: strawberries, grapes, kiwi, blood orange and little mandarinquat. If you've never seen a mandarinquat before, here's a photo, beside some yuzuquats and a standard satsuma mandarin for size comparison. The hybrid quats taste like kumquats, but slightly different. I think kumquats are the tartest, but it could be just me ^_^

Daytrippers Pasta Bento

Daytrippers Pasta Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Happy Monday! Are your Mondays as disorganized and chaotic as mine? No? Oh. Well, this is why you'll find many of my Monday bento are composed of food that cook easily from ingredients that are already in the pantry and refrigerator (or leftovers from weekend eats), and nearly always have no cute components whatsoever. Sometimes they are literally thrown together so quickly that there's no time (or need) to take a picture. Like today: it's a simple wagon wheel pasta bento tossed with nitrite-free chicken and roasted red pepper sausage and zucchini. Other section contains strawberries, grapes, grapefruit and tiny mandarinquat slices. Everything is packed in my Daytrippers bento box (from Paperchase), which comes with a separate section for the matching fork and spoon under the cute decorated translucent lid. TinySprite has a variable appetite, which grows when the meal includes her favorites. Like this one -- I know she loves this combo and it will disappear in no time, even without the cute parts. And that's a recipe for a successful bento ^_^