cute bento goods

I don't use a lot of bento goods when preparing my bento. Mostly out of laziness. But since I had some new ones I thought I'd try to incorporate them.

A monkey pick:



I think this pick is cute, but it's really just for decoration. I prefer to use things that also have a practical use. The bottom of this pick is like a comb.

bento contents
top: tamagoyaki (egg omelette), mini weenies
bottom: roasted beet and orange salad; chicken livers with chard


Bear sauce bottle and food dividers:



Sauce bottles are great, but they are such a pain to fill and clean. I do like the food dividers, though. I'm not picky about food not touching but it's nice to be able to physically separate things from time to time.

bento contents
left: beef gyoza (potstickers); roasted veggies and tofu
right: brown/white rice onigiri with shichimi togarashi furikake (top 2) and umeboshi (bottom 1)

And here's a recipe for you all, adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe that I found. It was really tasty!

roasted veggies and tofu

ingredients
2 tbs veggie oil
3 tbs soy sauce
teeny bit of Chinese mustard
3 carrots
4 stalks celery
1 package firm tofu
2 tbs ground toasted sesame

directions
-preheat oven to 425
-drain tofu for 30 or so minutes in a colander
-cut up carrots, celery, and tofu into bite size pieces
-mix together mustard, oil, and soy
-in a roasting dish or lasagne pan, lay out celery, carrot, and tofu and coat with the marinade
-put in oven 30 minutes
-take out of oven, coat with ground sesame
-put back in oven and turn the broiler on low for 10 minutes