Beet Tofu Avocado Pickle Onigirazu

 

This one may be vegetarian but it's substantial and flavorful. I wanted to make a snack for TinySprite using some random ingredients I had from salads this week. So here's what I did:

First I put the rice (this one is a mix of black, brown, and white), then I placed some baby kale leaves to keep the sliced beets from making the rice soggy. Then I layered sliced tofu, avocado, pickled red cabbage and red onion, then topped with baby spinach leaves to protect the rice again. To the bento I added sliced pluots, raspberries and yellow pear tomatoes. 

All packed up for TinySprite when she gets home from school. Happy Friday friends!

 

Toast Of The Day: Tofu and Broccoli!

I've never pan fried a slab of tofu before but I figured I'd try since I've seen this broccoli-tofu combo before.

And then I figured, might as well put an egg in it too, right?

I fried the broccoli bits til they got nice and crispy, and with chili oil drizzled over the whole deal, it was really good!

I'd definitely make this again.
😊❤🍱🥯🍳🥦🌶

Salmon Bowl

Here's something about me: I really enjoy bowl eating for aesthetics as well as practicality. It's so easy to throw everything on top of a bowl of rice or salad greens, especially when I want a variety of flavors at the same time. And I like the way it looks all colorful and pretty. 

I make fish at least once a week and it's usually salmon although sometimes we'll have cod, sardines, or tuna. Or anchovies tossed in pasta or salad. I pan fried this salmon last night and sliced it cold into my bowl. I kinda like everything cold like this sometimes, especially when I get back from working out or if it's a warm day.

Ma Po Tofu Bento Bowl

Ma Po Tofu Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

My "dry" ma po is perfect for bento because it minimizes leakage in bento format. I served over rice in the cute apple bento bowl, and you can top with chopped green onion or cilantro. Since my version is almost chili-free, I add spicy chili sauce after the fact into my own bowl. The top tier contains chunks of super sweet cantaloupe and scattered strawberries because we're kind of low on fruit these days. The kids gobbled so much down there wasn't any leftover at all for my next day lunch. Aww!

Sakura Ma Po Tofu Bento

Sakura Ma Po Tofu Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

MisterMan's ma po tofu gets an accent of three beet-dyed sakura cut tofu "blossoms" floating atop his meal. Did you enjoy the cherry blossoms in your neighborhood? Seems this year I noticed quite a few specimen trees that I never noticed in years past. There's one fabulous double-blossomed tree that I pass every single day, and somehow I never realized its striking beauty until the past couple weeks. I can't take a picture because there's no parking, but I've been slowing down to appreciate it each day. So here's my homage to that lovely spring display. His upper tier has a couple of the last market strawberries, and some cups of: marinated baby bell peppers and pickled red onions; pickled turnips with sliced kumquats, pickled carrots and daikon, and pickled bittermelon. The baby turnips recipe called for lemon, but I substituted kumquats -- it's delicious this way! I think the kumquats would be nice by themselves as well. They are an unusual fruit in that the flesh and juice are tart but the skin is sweet. Have you had them? And this batch of bittermelon was marinated in equal parts vinegar and pineapple juice. It's a lot more palatable this way. I think this method is a winner! I may put together a post of all my pickling experiments, in case you have a hankering to try any of these, and so that I can remember what I've tried so far. What do you think?

Easter Bunny Ma Po Tofu Bento

Ma Po Easter Bunny Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Seeing as it'll be Easter in a few days, I thought I'd make an Easter bento for my little ones. This one is for TinySprite, who asked for her ma po tofu in her favorite panda bowl, so of course I obliged. I scooped it over black rice, and topped with sliced green onion, a tofu rabbit (cut with my nice metal cutter from the same shop as the one I got my dragon, goldfish, double flower, butterfly and bird cutters). I even gave him a carrot with cilantro greens to keep him happy.

The top tier of her bowl contains tomatoes, Moloka'i Okinawan sweet potatoes, carrot, broccoli, blackberries and strawberry. I brought these sweet potatoes back with me from Hawaii, where I saw this red-skinned purple-fleshed variety for the first time. Usually the Okinawan sweet potatoes have a whitish outer skin but this type, supposedly grown only on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, are distinguished not only by their red skin but their creamier flesh, as seen here. Too bad I can't find them in California. We'll be enjoying my stash for a few more days while they last, though!

Ma Po Tofu Panda Bento Bowl (and why we're eating wheat and soy again!)

Ma Po Tofu Panda Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

And it's yet another donburi-type bento in the ever-favorite panda bowl; this time ma po tofu (adapted from Lovelylanvin's fantastic recipe here). This batch contains chopped pickled mustard greens (because I love 'em), along with scallions and even some choy sum. As usual, there is no hint of chili sauce at all in the kid version, which is why it looks so drab and dull (sigh). You may (or may not) have noticed that ma po tofu had been absent from our menu of late. This is due to the fact that TinySprite had tested positive for both wheat and soy in a blood IgE test. We assumed she was allergic to these foods and I had therefore been diligently trying to remove and replace them in our family diet. Well, recently she was retested via the more accurate skin prick test and we discovered that she is not allergic to wheat or soy at all. In fact, she was negative for all the common food allergens. So here we are eating wheat and soy again! I learned a lot about soy- and gluten-free cooking and eating during those months, and when I shared what I learned on this blog [you can search "gluten free" in the search bar up top and see how much I did!], I discovered that a whole lot of you are allergy-conscious as well. I have a new respect for folks who must live with food allergies; it can be tough and frustrating. I'm not abandoning soy- and gluten-free eating -- I actually like the taste of non-wheat flours, and I still have a lot of soy-free soy sauce (yes, it does exist!). The upper tier doesn't add much in the way of color, with blackberries, black grapes, and orange-fleshed plums, but I hope the sakura-shaped carrots brightened up this ho-hum bento for my girl. ^_^

Mabo Tofu Dragon Bento

Mabo Tofu Dragon Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Today's bento is ma bo tofu (recipe here), over mixed rice in a lettuce leaf. I attempted to cut a tofu dragon with my awesome cutter. I first cut a thin slab, about a half inch thick, of tofu the length of the cutter, then pressed. The cutter made a precise cut; the problem was removing the dragon in one piece. As you can see, I got most of it out pretty well, using the rounded end of a chopstick. The only problem was that one of the hind claws broke off. I simply replaced it on top of the meal, and it looks fine. I added a nori eye and some fancy cut radish halves, which kind of look like lanterns. This would make a nice celebratory bento, I think. I have now used this cutter on tofu, cheese and dragonfruit. It's very cool. The rest of the bento contains a variety of early summer fruit: apricot, blackberries, cherries and strawberry.

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By the way, Happy Little Bento got a mention at KoreAm Journal, and a short interview with me, in an article on the power of social media in bento box popularity. Take a look to see mentions of other bentomakers such as HapaBento, OhayoBento, Bentobird and Adventures In Bentomaking. Cute pics too!

Meatballs and Bunnies Bento

Meatballs and Bunnies Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Chicken meatballs today, in tomato-cider vinegar sauce. This batch is made with ground chicken, oats, shredded zucchini, wheat germ, onion and my experiment: quinoa! I cooked the quinoa separately and added it into the meat mixture before simmering in the tomato sauce. Very tasty! There's also curried lentils with spinach and grape tomatoes in another section, black rice topped with two tofu bunnies and a radish "Easter egg", and the usual fruit portion with strawberry, grapes and kiwi. This 4- sectioned bento box comes in handy for meals like this one, with different flavors I'd like to keep separate. Festive, isn't it?

Bento4Japan is still going strong. Remember, 100% of your donation goes to Japan Disaster Relief. There've been some bids on the origami crane earrings I made (yay!) -- these are lightweight, delicate and feminine. Would you like a chance to win them? A lovely gift for your favorite girl, perhaps? Or yourself ^_^

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.

Christmas Lights and Rudolph Bento

Christmas Lights and Rudolph Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Here is MisterMan's last school bento of the year! So I decided to throw in the rest of the holiday cheer.

I made 5 spice chicken, baked a la hapabento's recipe. Of course, I changed it a little, but still it came out okay! It's pretty tasty, and the kids seemed to like it. I used skinless thighs, since that's all I had, and browned and baked it after marinating in shoyu and 5 spice. Quick and easy! Giant lights, actually made of mini sweet peppers and a cucumber, lay atop a bed of furikake rice. Tofu cube Rudolph with cucumber, red pepper and nori detail. There's a rogue broccoli, and fruits include overripe plum and raspberries.