Sticky Rice Froggy Bento

When afterschool activities run from 4:00 until 5:30 or 6:00, I'm thinking of dinner making itself. Sticky rice is a great self-cooking meal. Just toss everything into the rice cooker, press the button and go! If you have a fancy Zojirushi, you can even set the timer. Today I made a half brown half white batch with shiitake, lup cheong, baby bok choy, and char siu. In the past I've also added chopped kabocha and roast duck. You can use whatever you like, and pack it into the lower part of the cutest Kotobuki Froggy Two-Tier Bento ever. In the top tier, toss in some elephant heart pluots, grapes, and carrots. So easy; my favorite kind of dinner-to-bento meal. Done!

Lunar New Year Dragon Bento

I know it's not the Year of the Dragon, but I'm making a dragon bento because 1) it represents the dragon dance that is typically performed in the Lunar New Year parade, and 2) I wanted an excuse to use my very cool dragon cutter. I've shown it to you before (see it here) -- it is very intricately designed and of very good quality. I've used it on tofu (see that here) and even dragonfruit (look here!). It's a little tricky to get the cheese out of the small crevices, but it can be done using a toothpick or small tweezers.

I used cheese for the dragon in this bento, and I dyed it red with beet juice. He is chasing a baby orange tomato "ball." This tomato is from my garden -- my plant from last summer is still producing fruit. I know, I know... weird. But we've had a very mild winter here in California and everything is out of whack. Underneath is lucky sticky rice, made in my rice cooker (see my method here). Those baby yellow chard are also homegrown from my garden; I have several chard plants and they are all producing leaves, but they don't get much bigger than this. Just right size for bento, I guess! There's also a lucky mandarin, some blueberries, and a grape tomato. I hope you enjoyed the first day of the Year of the Sheep, and that it portends a grand year ahead. ^__^

Sticky Rice Panda Bento

I made sticky rice today, which I love to do on extra busy days because all I do is throw everything into the Zojirushi and walk away. This batch is made with half white half brown glutinous (sticky rice) which I presoaked overnight to make sure it got nice and soft. About midway through cooking I tossed in finely chopped baby bok choy, sliced shiitake mushrooms, sliced lup cheong, and cubed kabocha. Yes, the kabocha goes really well in this dish! You won't hear any complaints about it. I guarantee it. After cooking, sprinkle some green onions on top for a fresh look. The top tier of the cute panda box holds strawberries, grapes, and persimmon from a neighbor's tree. I know you are excited to hear about the winner of the ECOlunchboxes Tri Bento -- the winner has been chosen! I'm waiting to hear back from her, and if I don't get response (or if she is located outside the U.S.), I'll have to pick another. Check your email! Maybe it's YOU! Stay tuned!

Sticky Rice Ono Bento Bowl

Sticky Rice Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I love the sticky rice bento. Well, I love sticky rice (see my method and recipe here) for dinner first of all, because it's super quick and easy. Chop everything up and toss it into the rice cooker about 15 minutes before the rice is done. This batch has half brown and half white sweet mochi rice, and I added lup cheong, char siu, shiitake mushroom, baby bok choy, onions, and then sprinkled chopped scallion on top after. I have also added fried garlic or cubed kabocha squash before as well. I packed MisterMan's bento in the cute apple bowl, with the top tier holding an artful (to me) arrangement of plums, grapes, and pickled cucumbers, onions, carrots and daikon. Our bento these days often look like this, with no special touches other than the colorful naturalness of the variety of ingredients. MisterMan has been making his (and his sister's) bento recently, and I think his work is starting to look just like mine. So proud \(^__^)/

Sticky Rice Lup Cheong Bento

Sticky Rice Lup Cheong Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Too spent from the activities of the weekend to think about cooking? Sticky rice is one of those one-pot meals that can be thrown together without much planning, which is why I like it so much. See my method and recipe here. I make mine in my rice cooker, tossing the chopped lup cheong, char siu, bok choy, shiitake (and sometimes even kabocha) at the last 15 minutes or so of cooking. I leave the heat on past cook time, just to get the rice on the bottom to burn just a little bit, getting a little crunchy. So good like that. This meal is perfect for bento because it's just as delicious at room temp as it is fresh out of the rice cooker. Sometimes I pack it in a thermal jar, but it's tasty in a regular bento box, like here, too. I topped it with a heart-shaped Okinawan sweet potato, and added plum wedges, a sprig of broccoli, a sun sugar tomato (from the backyard vine -- still growing!), and a grape-grapefruit salad which I hoped would go over well. It didn't. She brought all the grapefruit home. Ah well. Can't win 'em all. ^_^

Pickled Sticky Rice LunchBot Bento

Pickled Sticky Rice Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I made one of my favorite one-pot meals for today: sticky rice! See my method here. Since TinySprite is allergic to soy, I omitted the lup cheong (Chinese sausage) and replaced the meat with regular ham. I've also used Canadian bacon before (in this bento) and it went over just fine. This batch got shiitake mushrooms and a new kind of green: broccoli stalks. I thought it would give a little bite to the rice. And another new kind of green as well: pickled mustard greens. I know it sounds crazy, but my kids love pickled vegetables. Even mustard greens. Weird, right? It has a very strong flavor and totally changed the way I usually think of this dish, but in a good way. They liked it! Go figure. I put my girl's portion in the LunchBot Trio alongside: fresh pear slices, blueberries, strawberries, Okinawan sweet potatoes and carrots.

Sticky Rice and Canadian Bacon Bento Bowl

Sticky Rice and Canadian Bacon Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Twitterfoodparty showed up this month in the form of bacon. You can check out this month's submissions on twitter by searching the hashtag #twitterbaconparty. I rarely cook bacon at home but happened to need a gluten-free alternative to lup cheong for the sticky rice (method here) I was planning to make. Most Chinese sausages and deli meats are marinated in shoyu, making them no-nos in a gluten-free diet. I steamed some sliced lup cheong separately to be mixed in everyone else's servings, but TinySprite was satisfied with diced and pan-fried Canadian bacon in hers. The overall flavor just wasn't traditionally the same, but it'll have to do, since I don't plan on learning how to make my own Chinese sausage! It was still tasty enough, though. I packed some in her favorite panda bento bowl, along with a selection of fruit in the top tier: cherries, lychee, blackberries, peach, and sweet potato. Next month's theme will be strawberries!

Sticky Rice Panda Bowl Bento

Sticky Rice Panda Bowl Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

More panda and more! I found this ultra cute panda bento bowl set recently, and yes, even though I have several panda bento boxes already, I had to get this one because it's a bowl set, which makes it perfect for things like donburi (rice bowl meals) or... sticky rice. I don't usually pack donburi because my kids aren't big rice eaters, but they do like sticky rice. Go figure. This batch (see my basic recipe and method here) contains regular white sweet rice mixed with koshihikari short grain brown rice. I added char siu, lup cheong (Chinese sausage), shiitake, baby bok choy and small chunks of kabocha. I made sure to add the choy and the kabocha at the very end of the cooking cycle; maybe 5 minutes before the end. You want the squash to be firm and not mushy. I topped this rice bowl with chopped green onions - doesn't it look nice? The top tier has a nice stylized divider, making it perfect for the berries, oranges, Okinawan sweet potato butterflies and a tiny sprig of broccoli. And look at the cute panda face on the lid! It clips securely, and even came with the little fork and spoon, which have tiny heart-shaped cutouts in the handles. Naturally I couldn't resist. ^_^
Added to Allergy Friendly Lunchbox Love.

Sticky Rice and Purple Stars Bento

Sticky Rice and Purple Stars Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I made sticky rice (see my basic method here) using shiitake mushroom, baby bok choy, Chinese sausage and kabocha (as I did in this bento here). Actually, today's bento looks quite like that last one from 6 months ago, doesn't it? Well, if it works... I like to add in colorful vegetables to increase the nutritional value and make it look appetizing. Since the rice is cooked in chicken broth and the sausage is tossed in during cooking, the rice is infused with lots of flavor. I topped with star-shaped Okinawan sweet potatoes. In this LunchBot, there's also steamed broccoli, peapods, carrots, pluots, strawberry, and cherries.

In other news, Happy Little Bento blog got a writeup on PBS.org by Alice Currah of SavorySweetLife. The article is called "Bento Lunches For Kids", and you can take a look at it here. I hope it gets a lot more parents interested in preparing healthy and nutritious bento lunches for their school-age kids this year!

Sticky Rice Bento

Sticky Rice Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

This bento contains sticky rice, one of my favorite one-pot meals (my basic method is here). For this batch I used regular white glutinous (sweet) rice, and mixed with Japanese brown rice. I presoaked for a few hours before cooking, and about 15 minutes before the end of the cycle I added sliced lup cheong, shiitake mushrooms, and shredded baby choy. You can add other ingredients if you like. I've made it with cubed kabocha, which resulted in a nice colorful batch. You can also add in chopped green onion after the rice is finished cooking, which is what I did here. I packed it inside a lettuce leaf, alongside some carved carrots and a piece of corn on the cob, which I decorated with Okinawan sweet potato hearts. The fruit square contains yellow peach, strawberry and blackberry. The last square has yogurt topped with chopped fresh pineapple, sunflower seeds and wheat germ. If I pack yogurt, I try to overlay it with fruit to keep it contained as much as possible. It's actually Greek yogurt, so it's not very runny. I also usually tell MisterMan when there's yogurt in his bento, so he can try to minimize the amount of swinging around he does with it >.<

Finally, remember the Bento & Co contest to "Make a Bento for Someone You Love"? There were 223 entries, from France, USA, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, England, Norway, Morocco, and Japan. I wanted to thank all of you for voting and supporting my entry. I didn't win the grand prize trip to Kyoto, but I did place high enough in the final 20 to receive a generous gift certificate to Bento & Co! So, thank you very much, bento friends! ^_^

Sticky Rice and Red Fruit Bento

Sticky Rice and Red Fruit Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento is one of my (and my kids') favorites. Sticky rice is fun to make because you don't have to stick to traditional ingredients -- well anyway, I don't. Here is my basic recipe. Today I mixed brown and white glutinous rice along with brown and white regular rice. I cooked it in pure chicken broth, and towards the end of the cooking cycle I tossed in sliced lup cheong (Chinese sausage), sliced shiitake mushrooms, chopped squash and baby bok choy. All the flavors meshed together very well in this batch. I presoaked the rice for a few hours, which is essential if you are using brown glutinous rice. Super tasty, and nice colors too. The other side turned out to be an all-red fruit section, with strawberry, grapes, blood oranges and radish. Oh, and there's a yellow carrot in there for contrast.
My fellow bento enthusiasts have come together to establish a Bento4Japan eBay auction theme. There are books, bento boxes, goodie packages and more listed there, and all the proceeds will go towards the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. So you can satisfy your bento shopping while helping a good cause at the same time. Please take a look: simply use the search term "Bento4Japan" here!

Sticky Rice Bento

Sticky Rice Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I made sticky rice today and it just begged to be used for bento. It's a nice way to put together a one-dish meal. I make mine in my trusty rice cooker, which happens to have a "sweet rice" setting; but you could probably use any old rice cooker. This batch contains Chinese sausage (lup cheong), shiitake mushrooms, and shredded baby bok choy. You could also add char siu or other vegetables if you like; I don't think it's necessary to stick to traditional ingredients. The rice itself is a mixture of one part regular Japanese white rice to two parts sweet (glutinous) rice. I found brown glutinous rice in my market and used some of it to replace the regular glutinous rice, but I think the brown takes longer to cook. Or I could have possibly soaked it longer. Anyway, I ran through another cycle and it was okay. I also replaced the water with chicken broth, which imparts a nice aromatic flavor. I put the sticky rice in a thermal frog bento, and sent along another box with steamed broccoli, romanesco and yellow cauliflower, plus carrots and blood oranges. And a frog fork to complete the set. I have two new thermal food sets to test and review, so stay tuned for that. Hope you all enjoyed your Chinese New Year!

Sticky Rice Method
2 cups glutinous (sweet) rice
1 cup medium grain (Japanese) white rice
3 cups chicken broth
Start rice cooker. About halfway through the cooking cycle, add ingredients of your choice, such as sliced lup cheong, shiitake, char siu. I used baby bok choy, which I added even later, to avoid too much wilting. You can also use green onion. Stir and serve! Delish!

*Note added 4/2/11: If you're in the market for a thermal bento jar like this one, there's a blue version up for auction right now on Bento4Japan! Just click here to see it!

Christmas Tree Bento

Christmas Tree Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Sticky rice, the sequel. When you make a big batch, it lasts a couple days! I formed a bowl of rice, putting the "fillings" underneath so I would have a plain rice top to decorate. I made a steamed broccoli Christmas tree, decorated with tiny carrot disc cutout ornaments. They aren't stuck on, so they'll probably scatter all over by lunchtime :) Tofu circles and halved tomatoes surround. Fruit bowl has kiwi and raspberry "holly" atop satsuma mandarins.

Merry Christmas, it's coming!

Sticky Rice & Wreath Bento

Sticky Rice & Wreath Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Made yummy sticky rice! Love to use sticky rice for bento. All the goodies are already in there, and the kids really like it. I added a small salad with marinated artichoke heart, carrot sticks, peapod vase with flower, and cherry tomato "wreath"! It's just a circle of tomatoes, but I'm calling it a wreath, and it's my festive Christmas detail in this bento :)
Plum and yellow carrot flowers for dessert.

Do you have any favorite "one-dish" meals you like to prepare because it's a fast and easy way to get the protein and veggies on the table all together? As you may have seen, I do... and I am always on the lookout for more!

Sticky Rice Bento

Sticky Rice Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I made sticky rice using brown and white rice, and added a bunch of goodies into it as well. This batch I made using the mushroom broth, which made it more flavorful. There's also a tomato stuffed with chopped olives and feta, peapods, star radish, and tricolor cauliflower. On top of the rice I put three orange sunsugar cherry tomatoes and a skewer of purple and yellow carrots (they still had some at my market last weekend!)

Fruit side has strawberry, blueberries and one of the awesome Dapple Dandy plums. They still had these too, but they are definitely getting a lot smaller.

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...