Back to Bento!

Back to Bento!, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Welcome to 2011! Are you ready for a new year? We had a nice long break of two weeks during which time I easily forgot about making bento, meals and cooking, and worrying about school and scheduling in general. It was nice, but now it's time to get back to business. Although I went grocery shopping today, I of course forgot to pick up various bento essentials, so my bento may be lacking in areas for awhile. Today I decided to use my LunchBots Trio, a stainless steel rectangular bento box with rounded corners and two permanent dividers. It may not look like it, but the three sections are equal in volume. I know because I tested it with water. The dividers do not keep the sections completely leakproof, but unless you're packing something very soupy or runny it works fine. I made pan-fried balsamic vinegar chicken and put the pieces in one section along with a tiny brown rice / barley / lentil furikake musubi. Another section has pan-fried garlic purple potatoes, pickled cucumber and carved carrots. Last section has a honey tangerine and peapods. There are also two bunny picks to celebrate the new year. Happy New Year friends!

Shoyu Chicken and Jack Bento

Shoyu Chicken and Jack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Shoyu chicken bento today, with sliced lotus root (renkon) simmered in the same sauce. Also, roasted baby Brussels sprouts and purple potato slices. I filled in with an orange and a yellow pear tomato for color. Other section has a purple carrot skewer, white nectarine, strawberry, black grapes (underneath) and a carved jack o'lantangerine. Today's the first day I've thought about roasting stuff in a long time -- guess that means fall is just about here. I hope we cool off gradually though; today was a perfectly comfortable 76F. ^_^

Balsamic Chicken Bento

Balsamic Chicken Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Balsamic chicken was adapted from Maki's recipe: I marinated chopped chicken thighs in equal volumes balsamic vinegar and shoyu. Instead of draining off, I just pan-fried the chicken for a few minutes until browned and let the associated marinade reduce during cooking. Sprinkle with sesame seeds after. The reduced sticky sauce is great with steamed broccoli and rice too. I made a batch of Thai purple and white jasmine rice (not the same as glutinous purple rice, or black rice, which I've used before and which turns a much darker black color). I mixed it with furikake to make an onigiri for my boy's bento. Topped with sweet potato / purple potato flowers, this bento now qualifies for Hapabento's May B.O.M.B contest! I also added steamed broccoli, raw yellow carrot spears and a radish. Fruit side contains strawberry, grapes and one of the last remaining Cara Cara oranges. I'm SO sad that they appear to be unavailable suddenly, and the last time I saw them they were $3 a pound! Oh well. I'll have to wait for the summer fruit production. Our tree is now full of apricots, which I hope will mature into bright orange fruit soon!

Fish Tacos, Deconstructed Bento

Fish Tacos, Deconstructed Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento has snapper fried in pepper and lime juice, next to cabbage slaw tossed with red onion, oranges, cilantro, and cumin. At home we made fish tacos with tortillas and I added sour cream and hot sauce, but omitted that from the bento. We have a lot of fruit in the house right now, so I put some oranges, strawberries, red grapes and kiwi in there. I added some purple carrot discs for color and a purple / regular potato "mushroom" in the center for fun. That's it! Quick and easy.

Honey Shiso Pork Bento

Honey Shiso Pork Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

MisterMan gets honey shiso pork in this bento. The meat was marinated in cider vinegar, honey and julienned shiso, then grilled. The recipe actually calls for pork chops, but I used pork strips for ease of eating. You could also simply cut the meat off the bone after cooking as well. Next to the pork I packed roasted brussels sprouts and diced purple potatoes. The sprouts and potatoes were roasted side by side, tossed in olive oil and garlic powder, as per my usual custom.

The other sections contain juicy ripe strawberries, blueberries, and a little cuplet of cottage cheese scattered with chopped raspberry jewel plum and wheat germ. On top, I placed a clover of pumpkin seeds -- after all, it's nearly St. Patrick's Day. Happy St. Patty's Day, bento friends!

Eggplant Tofu Bento

Eggplant Tofu Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento has stir-fried eggplant and tofu in chili garlic sauce, which I thought for sure might be met with some resistance in the under 7 group, but they both gobbled it up! So in it went to MisterMan's lunch bento, with yellow pepper flower details, purple potato "chips", carrots, broccoli, grape tomato, grapes and a RED apple heart.

Lentil Curry Bento

Lentil Curry Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Starting the week with the 4-square 4-color bento box!

Here's a little historical tidbit: Many moons ago, when hapabento and I were just young'uns, we each had a round bento box. We also had other boxes, but we noticed something interesting. Whenever we used the round box, the bento looked beautiful. Even when we were tired that day and only had leftovers, somehow the food you threw in the round box became a lovely bento. Try it, you'll see. Amazing, right? So, this box was christened The Magic Round Box. Its status remained until the appearance of hapabento's 4 Square Box. I was skeptical at first, but then I got one, and lo, it's true. I mean, look at it -- it's got 4 boxes within another box, all perfect stylized squares of varying colors. You can color-coordinate or not, mix and match flavors or textures, use a theme, the options are seemingly endless. Very cool, right? And so, the Magic 4 Square Box was born!

Anyway, back to today's bento: MisterMan got lentil curry over rice with carrot butterflies, purple potato chips, spring greens salad with peppadews and radish mushroom, and fruit box with grapes, red pear and sliced kumquats.

Radish has a heart shaped spot, did you notice it? And the red spotted background is one of a few that I got as a gift from a bento buddy... thank you!! It's just right to start off the "red" month of love... ^_^

Happy Monday bento friends!

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. :)