Gyoza EcoLunchBox Solo Bento

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Solo Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

It's gyoza day! This is always a hit with the kids, guaranteed. And I know traditionally you don't add extra minced choy or spinach, but in my house you do! And you don't even hear any complaints about it because gyoza is so much fun to eat! I used a mixture of ground pork and turkey, and also added green onion, shoyu and sesame oil. You can send along a little container of dipping sauce (or not). I packed these in our EcoLunchBox Solo Cube atop a few garden lettuce leaves and golden (and cherry) tomatoes. The little side Dipper holds just the right amount of sliced nectarines, grapes, and a strawberry. Yummy!

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Solo Bento

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Solo Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I made a giant truckload of gyoza (see my method and recipe here) tonight; enough for 20 per person... or so... but of course, some of them were destined for bento so we didn't actually eat that many. I could have, though! These were made with ground pork and turkey, green onions and chopped swiss chard. Because I'm just that untraditional. I packed as many as I could fit in the EcoLunchBox Solo Cube, which is perfect for this kind of "dry" meal, alongside the last few remaining baby strawberries, pickled onions, carrots and daikon, and a small Okinawan sweet potato. My kindergartner can handle this easy-open box, secured with a felt band, and it's just the right size for her appetite as well. Enjoy, TinySprite!

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Bento and a Spelling Bee

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Hello again! Sorry I've been a bit negligent about posting bento here for a week or so. The day after Valentines Day, MisterMan participated in his school district Spelling Bee again this year. Last year he took home the top prize, and this year he snuck into 4th place. He was the only returning placewinner from last year. This year's competition was fierce, complete with 21 4th-grade spellers from 5 schools, multiple elimination rounds of off-list words, tie-breakers, and even parent protests. It was a nail-biter, I tell you! In the end MisterMan was tripped up by "scalene", but when he stood onstage with his ribbon he looked just as pleased as ever. I'm glad he likes words so much; I think it's quite a nice hobby to have. We're so proud of you MisterMan! To celebrate, we spent the long weekend checking out some dinosaur exhibits and cool kid museums. And yes, there were frozen desserts involved too! ^_^

Today's bento is packed in my super awesome EcoLunchBox two-tier set, with homemade pork gyoza (see my method and recipe here) in the lower part and a variety of refreshment in the upper part: baby satsuma, a smattering of grapes, strawberry, blueberries, and house-pickled cucumbers. Gyoza are guaranteed kid-pleasers, tasty with or without dipping sauce, easy-to-eat finger food, and made for bento. I made my filling with pork and chopped baby bok choy, because I'm wild like that. You can use almost anything you like: even mushroom, scallions, water chestnuts (for crunch), bean sprouts, whatever. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Bento

Gyoza EcoLunchBox Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Is it just me or are these holidays coming up way too fast? I don't know where the time is going, but I can't believe it's been almost a week again between posts. I have been making bento for both kids, and I do snap a pic when I remember, but I haven't logged into the blog for a long time to post or respond to comments. Sorry! Knowing that we don't have any dietary restrictions to consider really takes a lot of pressure off, and I am very grateful for our food allergy reprieve. Since learning we don't have to keep wheat- or soy-free, I've make ma po tofu and now gyoza -- with standard wheat skins! I made a double batch as usual, so that I can snack along the way and to ensure that there will be enough for bento lunches. I used thick (medium) skins, and folded some with single pleats and some with no pleats. When I ran out of skins, I went out and bought a package of thinner skins to finish off the filling, and they worked just as well. I used the method here and packed some in my EcoLunchbox Solo Cube for TinySprite. MisterMan got a similar (heftier) bento. I added a cup of quick-pan-fried bok choy with oyster sauce and a few raw carrots. The little Dipper holds a sampling of berries as well as a couple of way-out-of-season homegrown sunsugar orange cherry tomatoes. My plants are still growing and there are still some fruit stubbornly hanging on and ripening in the cold fall weather out there. It almost tricks me into believing summer is still alive...

Gluten-Free Gyoza Bento and Method

Gluten-Free Gyoza Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today's bento contains homemade gluten-free gyoza. Really!

Ever since deciding to try a gluten-free diet for TinySprite nearly 6 weeks ago, I've been trying to come up with alternatives to all our favorite wheaty foods. So far I've been successful with cookies and breads, but I was worried about gyoza. You see, we love gyoza. And wonton too. But how are we going to make them gluten-free? Well, luckily I'm not the first one to wonder this. I decided to use Andrea Nguyen's recipe and method for making them with mochiko, tapioca and millet. She made it seem easy enough, and even noted that they tasted great! Well, it was hard! Hard for a non-dough-expert like me, anyway. I'm not a fan of rolling and cutting out dough, but for gyoza I'll do it. And if I can do it, so can you!

Nguyen's Recipe for Gluten-Free Basic Dumpling Dough

3 3/8 ounces (3/4 cup) tapioca starch
3 3/8 ounces (3/4 cup) millet flour
4 3/8 ounces (3/4 cup) Mochiko Blue Star Brand glutinous (sweet) rice flour
2 teaspoons xantham gum
3/4 cup just-boiled water plus 1 to 2 tablespoons cold water

I simply mixed everything up and formed a wettish lump of dough.












I pulled off balls about the size of golf balls.














Flattened them with my fingers.

Rolled them out with a wooden dowel and cut out circles that I thought would be big enough. They turned out to be a bit bigger than standard sized wrappers, but she cautioned that this dough doesn't really stretch and give, so I wanted to make sure I could fill them sufficiently without them tearing.

This recipe made about 24 wrappers, but mine were a bit thick since (as mentioned) I was concerned about tearing. In fact, they look like tortillas, don't they?

I filled the gyoza wrappers as usual, placing a teaspoonful (or so) of pork and scallion mixture, then folded into a half-circle. The edges do not glue together like regular skins, but must be pinched together like dough. I was able to make pretty good pleats and close off the edges. These are ready to go into the pan.

Yes, they turned out to be a bit thick, but making them bigger was a good move since I could fill them pretty heftily. I pan-fried and steamed them as usual. They developed a crispy bottom and soft tops, and held up pretty well! The wrapper was a bit chewier than the normal wheat wrappers, but not in an unpleasant way. Otherwise, they tasted great! TinySprite loved them! I ended up making the wrappers on one day, storing them in a sealed container in the fridge overnight, then filling them the next day after bringing them back to room temperature. This is due to the fact that the wrapper-making was a bit time-consuming. The wrappers stored just fine, staying soft and pliable without drying out. I'd consider this recipe a success and would definitely make them again!

Spinach Gyoza Bento

Spinach Gyoza Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Gyoooooza! I found spinach wrappers in the grocery so I had to make gyoza. I think the green color is pretty cool-looking. I used ground turkey meat and added chopped scallions and choy mixed in to make the filling. This double stainless steel box set I got from Bento & Co comes in handy for this kind of bento. I placed as many gyoza as could fit into one box, atop a bed of shredded cabbage, and in the other box I packed the usual fruit (cara cara oranges, strawberry, blackberries, tomato) and vegetables (broccoli, carrots, and edamame). We have a glut of cara cara oranges around here; I can get a net bag of about 12 oranges for 99c. As a result, they make an appearance in daily bento, at breakfast, and in my midday smoothie. I love their ruby pink color, and they are sweet and juicy. Score!

Gyoza Field Trip Bento

Gyoza Field Trip Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

It's field trip time! I just realized today that there are only 3 weeks left of school. Where did the time go? And there are 2 field trips scheduled in the next 2 weeks as well. Seems the teachers want to take a break too, I think. For this bento I decided to pack potstickers (gyoza), which are a great finger food and easy to pack in a disposable container. I used a recycled strawberry basket lined with wax paper, and piled a bunch of gyoza on one side. I've made gyoza before (see this post), and I've used whole wheat wrappers before (see this post), but this is the first time I tried NOT-PLEATING them. It sure goes a lot faster this way, but for some reason they look skinnier this way. Maybe I subconsciously underfilled them. When you pleat them, you can put a bigger ball of filling inside, I think. I'll definitely go back to pleating next time. Anyway, the kids still loved them.

This time I used a mixture of chicken and pork filling, with chopped green onion, spinach, and a bit of shoyu/salt/pepper/oil/cornstarch. Pan fry to get the golden bottom, then add water to the pan and steam. My kids pick these up and eat them as is, but if you like you can pack along a dipping sauce. I found a little fruit sauce container (with lid) that was perfect for yogurt topped with blackberries, sunflower seeds and wheat germ so I put that next to the gyoza. After that I wrapped the wax paper around to keep things sealed, and I put the rest of the food (corn, broccoli, strawberry and cara cara oranges) on top.

I was just able to close the container, as you can see. I put a rubber band around it to keep it from popping open, and slipped a fork and spoon underneath. This bento and a water bottle went into a plastic bag and he was good to go. Yes, it's a lot of plastic, but at least they're all repurposed containers that got another use before disposal. Interestingly, he's going to visit a local grocery store for a behind-the-scenes tour of what it takes to get the food on the shelves and most importantly, how to pick healthy fresh foods. Is that awesome or what? ^_^

Potsticker Bento

Potsticker Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

TinySprite and I stayed home again. She got over the last cold, but now she has a lingering cough. Plus she was so tired she actually took two naps today. I'm guessing the busy weekend left her worn out and her body needs to make up some sleep recovery time. So this bento is small but full of substantial, filling foods. She got a (store-bought, leftover from the weekend's festivities) potsticker, some fresh roasted sweet potatoes, edamame, carrots sticks, and chopped "green oranges", cherry and blueberries. Not really sure what a green orange is, but that's how it was labeled at my Asian grocery. It was indeed green-skinned, but it was very sweet and ripe. We had the day off yesterday, so this weekend is stretching out a little bit longer for us. Wednesday tomorrow already. Yay!
Added to What's For Lunch. Take a look!