Fish Tacos and Hello Kitty Bao Bento

Deconstructed Fish Tacos Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Fish tacos, without the tacos, is what I packed for MisterMan in the 4-square bento, and I think it's what I packed in this box the last time too. There's grilled cod with lemon pepper on a bed of lettuce wraps, cabbage tossed with chopped cara cara oranges for citrus zest and topped with cilantro and green onions, a veggie cup with broccoli, yellow cauliflower, carrot, kabocha and peapods, and a fruit cup with grapes, blueberries and strawberry. Looks kinda nice and fancy, even, when you lay it out like this, right?

TinySprite asked for char siu bao Hello Kitty. I said, "Again?" But when I went back to see how many I'd done already, I couldn't find a single one. Could that be right? Am I missing something? I remember going through a huge Hello Kitty phase over the summer, but for some reason I never used baked char siu bao. The closest I could find was the steamed one here. So here we go: the first ever HK char siu bao. I whipped her out in a couple minutes; still not out of practice yet! I got a bow cutter from my cousin that I used with watermelon radish, then poked blueberries for eyes, carrot for nose, and purple carrots for whiskers. And cut two triangular slits for ears. Done! I thought it would be cute to add a separate HK box for the fruit and veggies. Awwww... ^_^

Portuguese Bean Soup Thermal Bento

Portuguese Bean Soup Thermal Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's wacky weather included warm (50F) sunshine, rain, dark clouds, blue sky and even hail. Whew! This unsettled weather calls for hearty nourishing food. I made Portuguese bean soup, a local Hawaii favorite and a hit with everyone in the family. I adapted Sam Choy's recipe to make mine.

Portuguese Bean Soup

2 smoked ham hocks
4C chicken broth and 4C water (or all chicken broth if you prefer)
1C diced carrots
1C diced potato
1 diced onion
1C diced celery
1 head cabbage, cut into 1" cubes
1 bunch kale, chopped
1 head cauliflower, chopped into 1" cubes
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 Portuguese sausage, sliced
1/2C dried macaroni
Cilantro

In a large stockpot, boil ham hocks in broth and water, then simmer until meat is tender. This part makes the house smell REALLY good and gives the soup its distinctive rich taste. Remove skin and bones from ham hocks, return meat to pot. Add remaining ingredients except beans, sausage and macaroni and continue to cook about 20 minutes. Return soup to a boil and add beans, sausage and macaroni, then simmer another 15 minutes or until macaroni is done. Garnish with cilantro. You don't even need to add salt or pepper; this soup is very flavorful and delicious. The recipe is easy to adapt to your preferences; you may add or subtract whatever vegetables you choose. My kids each asked for seconds, and I bet yours will too. The recipe makes a lot of soup, and it tastes even better the next day.

I took this opportunity to pack my other thermal jar; this one from Stanley. I'd used it before for chili, and I know it works very well, but I didn't show a picture last time. So here's what it looks like packed. As with the Zojirushi container, I preheated with hot water for a few minutes, then replaced the water with my preheated soup.

The side bowl of fruit was packed separately in his lunch tote. The Stanley jar insulates very well, and the heat doesn't conduct to the outer surface so this method worked well. He gets sliced blood oranges, a strawberry, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, a carrot and some peapods. I love this jar because it comes with a sealing lid as well as an outer cap which can be inverted and used as a soup bowl (shown with a spoon in the picture). A nice option for kids who have a hard time eating out of the jar itself. Can you tell I love this jar?

Chow Mein Bento

Chow Mein Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Slow Monday means another quick and easy bento. Spinach chow mein noodles get stirfried with a variety of whatever vegetables are on hand; in this case: bean sprouts, shiitake, garlic, carrots, and baby spinach. I added oyster sauce and shoyu for taste, and a little sesame oil. I also added sliced Chinese sausage as well.

We are getting so low on fruits these days -- he gets grapes, blood oranges and kiwi flowers. 2 grape tomatoes. Several maroon carrot tiny flowers scattered around to suggest spring. Is it working? It was such a dreary day too... so I couldn't get much light in the photo.

Happy March!

Jook and Taiyaki Thermal Bento

Jook Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento showcases a couple new things I got during New Year festivities, both in San Francisco and Los Angeles. We spent the past 4 day weekend roadtripping to L.A. to visit with family for New Year's and Valentines celebrations, and managed to slip in a bit of shopping too ^_^ !

First, notice the cute froggie thermal bento! I finally got one, since I've seen a few other bloggers use it, and it turned out to be perfect for this jook bento. I put jook (congee/rice porridge) in the thermal part with chopped scallions, and mixed stir-fried veggies in the upper smaller container. This little container has a lid of its own. You set it in the thermal and it sits on top; there's a larger screwtop handled lid which goes on top of it all.

Second, you'll notice his fruit box contains a new item: taiyaki! Along with mandarin, grapes and strawberry there lies a fish pancake, traditionally filled with red bean paste. I got a new taiyaki pan at Marukai in L.A.'s Little Tokyo last weekend, and couldn't wait to try it out! I used a whole wheat multigrain waffle batter and cooked it stovetop on my gas flame. It was pretty easy! I didn't expect it to go that well, so wasn't even prepared with fillings. But I did try chocolate, and that was gooood. I wasn't sure how much I could use without it exploding, but it turns out that the batter doesn't expand that much so I could have used a lot more fillings. I'll try that next time for sure. Oh, I almost forgot, can taiyaki count as pancake for Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Day?

Back to the bento routine after a long, fun weekend off!

Eggplant with Pork Bento

Eggplant with Pork Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

For this bento I made eggplant with pork, since I happened to find the cutest tiny eggplants at the farmers market on the weekend!

Besides that, MisterMan gets a veggie section with purple and gold cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, peapods, flower-shaped purple carrot & potato skewer, and romanesco (underneath). Fruit section has grapes, satsuma mandarins, strawberry, blackberries and raspberries.
Also, I put rice under the eggplant; it has a nice sauce so he is sure to like it together :)

To see the making of the eggplant recipe, see this post. It's a nice, tasty dish -- would you be surprised to learn that my kids wolfed it down?

Bunny Pancakes Bento

Bunny Pancakes Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

MisterMan gets bunny-shaped zucchini-squash 10 grain pancakes, vinegar chicken, little rice "cupcake" with furikake and red pepper "cherry", colorful cauliflower and romanesco, peapods, cucumbers. Fruits include grapes (underneath), strawberries and tiny sugar plum.

For the veggie pancakes, I used Bob's Red Mill 10-grain mix, and added wheat germ as well as quick-cook oats. I shredded one zucchini and one yellow squash, and added this to the mix along with an egg, 1T oil, and some milk. I use only enough milk to moisten the batter; this makes the pancakes fluffier and cuter... Also, easier to form into shapes :) I tried making bears too, but the bunnies looked better to me.
It's a veggie pancake, and I didn't serve it with syrup (or anything), but the kids still loved them, ha! For packing, I had to rearrange the ingredients slightly. But I think it still packed okay. ^_^

Tortellini Bento, and Bento Leftovers: What To Do With Them?

MisterMan's bento has tortellini and sausage leftover from an Autumn Party with friends. Roasted sweet peppers, purple potatoes and beet-dyed cauliflower. Yellow pear tomatoes and peapods. Fruits include clementine, blackberries, and raspberries. November is made for roasting stuff, I think!

I have been tagged by Susan of Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook to discuss what I do with bento leftovers after packing. Well, for me, the decorative touches are often minimal, so scraps do not always occur... the most likely leftovers for me would be after making cutouts from veggies like carrots, sweet potatoes, radish or cucumber. My method is simple: I almost always eat them myself! But I'll also put them in the bottom of the bento too. They'll add height to other items in the box.

1) Bread –I don't often make cute cutout sandwiches, but if I do, I'll put the extra bit in the bento too-- underneath. My girl will eat all kinds of bread bits.

2) Nori seaweed – Probably like others, I keep the sheets I use for cutouts in a zipperlock bag, and reuse them until gone. No extras there!

3) Cheese – I usually only use cheese for my girl, and leftovers go in with the box of grated cheese that is always in the fridge. I'll use cheese from this box throughout the day for quesadillas, pasta, sandwich melts, omelets, etc.

4) Cold cuts or cooked ham – Don't use this often, but very easy to simply eat up!

5) Fruits – Eat them myself, or save for kids' snack after school.

6) Vegetable or fruit peels – We compost these, or sometimes give to the dog (he really does like them! :)
Gonna tag Karina of Bunches and Bits next and ask her to share what she does with her bento leftovers!

Once you accept the tag, the rules are simple.
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When you have answered the question (which can be in any style/format you like), nominate another (one will do) fellow blogger (who is not already on the list) and pass the tag to your nominee.

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Have fun :)

Tagged:

1. javapot

2. susanyuen

3. sherimiya

4. karina


[Ps. No cute picture with this tag unless someone can generously suggest one which would be most appreciated! Hint, hint…anyone wanna sponsor or is just creative?? All credits will be given.]