new bento box

My dear friend Jen gave me a new bento box. She spent most of last year living in Africa and traveling Europe and found the bento box in Norway and got it for me.

I adore it, especially since tomatoes are my favorite food.


The first bento using the new box!

top: white rice with furikake
bottom: roasted kabocha; steamed rapini; poached chicken; ginger-oyster-green onion sauce


My mom came to visit last week and cooked a bunch of stuff for us. I miss her cooking so much. The chicken and sauce are something I haven't eaten since living at my parent's but it's the easiest thing in the world. And the sauce is delish on any steamed green, fish, or chicken.


Ginger Garlic Green Onion Oyster Sauce
-knob of ginger, grated
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-a few green onions, sliced thin
-enough oyster sauce to cover the ginger and garlic
-dash of soy sauce

If you have a microwave: put the ginger and garlic in a microwave safe container and pour soy sauce on top, just enough to barely cover the ingredients. Microwave for 45 seconds or until fragrant; mix in at least twice as much oyster sauce as soy sauce, then mix in the green onions. If you like a thinner consistency, add water or more soy sauce.

If you don't have a microwave: in a shallow pan, gently heat the ginger and garlic with a teeny bit of water, until fragrant. Transfer into a container and add a dash of soy sauce and at least twice as much oyster sauce. Then add green onions and stir. If you like a thinner consistency, add water or more soy sauce.

The sauce will keep in the fridge for a while.


We've always poured the sauce on steamed or parboiled greens -- such as rapini, broccoli, napa cabbage, green beans, kale, chard, spinach -- and poached chicken. It's delicious either hot or cold (proteins, veggies, and sauce) and pairs so well with rice.

If you poach the chicken, leave the chicken in the poaching water until cooled. If you take it out while hot and slice it, the chicken will end up dry and flaky. Another tip if you make poached chicken: add some ginger to the water and keep the water afterwards to make soup!


Here's what it looked like for dinner before it became my bento:

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

I will be gone for a few weeks, but when I come back I will have photos and hopefully some new ideas. Hope all of you continue bento-ing!

And the winner is...

Ask A Life Coach!

She says, "I loooove the pork loin idea in baguette that is my favorite because it loooks SO delicious and my husband would love it.

(I've been packing him bentoes for lunch.)"

The winner was chosen using the random generator.

Thank you all for the comments, it was fun to see everyone's favorite posts. I'll do another giveaway... I'm hoping to go to Tokyo late this spring for a friend's wedding and hope to pick up some bento goods while I'm there.

bento giveaway contest!

I hope you'll find today's post from me an exciting one. Announcing a bento goods giveaway contest open to readers of this blog living in the U.S.!

To enter:

• Leave a comment to this blog entry
• Comment must include:
• A valid email address (so I can contact you if you win)
• A link to your favorite entry on this blog
• An explanation of why the entry you've chosen is your favorite (please don't say this entry is your fave)
  
• Comment must be left by the end of the day CST February 16, 2009.
  

The winner will receive an assortment from the goods shown in the below photos.





A mini apron, adjustable bento belts:





Assorted animal picks, animal-printed plastic muffin trays, food-themed dividers:





Onigiri molds, bento bag:





sausage animal makers, onigiri molds, nori face punches:





more printed muffin tins, chopsticks holder:




So, a couple of disclaimers:

• You will not win ALL items shown
• Some items may not arrive in original packaging / a few might be missing (I hope you understand that I have promised small bits and pieces of the above to IRL friends)
• One comment per person please

Questions? Leave me a comment here!

Good luck all!!

EDIT BY KP- I WILL ALSO ADD TO THIS GIFT FROM MAMICHAN!! Whomever Masami picks as a winner will also receive a new bento box set and bento book from me:) Thank you, Mamichan!!

Still bento-ing

Yup, still here! Still packing lunches! But I have been overwhelmed with life and have not been posting:( My appologies.

Here is today's lunch.

Spicy breaded chicken on a bed of spinach, rice with furikake, sliced fish cakes, and a tomato.

Second tier has oranges.

One of my favorite boxes, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

And Spongebob!

Here is lunch for wednesday, I think.

Sliced steak, edamame, and rice with soy sauce in the cute bunny container.

And an equally cute bear container.

Watermelon.

Blue Dragon bento box.

Dreamy Friends bear bento box.
Miso glazed salmon, rice rolled in Korean nori, cut up celery, tomatoes, and lemon slices.

Bento box:)

Quick and easy

I've been under the weather for the last two weeks so my bentos have been simple, easy, and fast. Not all your bentos have to be inspired and time consuming...the kids don't mind.

On today's menu: tuna salad on toasted bread, and sliced tomatoes.

Bryce got sliced oranges in his bottom tier. It looks like a lot, but this is actually just one orange slice really thin and small.

Devin had grapes.

Friday's lunch was just as simple and was actually a special request.

Bologna sandwiches on sliced french bread.

And sliced watermelon.

Pork in Baguette Bento

I made pork loin baked in a baguette this morning for the lunches today.

The top tier has sliced pork in baguette, marinated cucumber slices, half of a tomato, and some ketchup in the container.

The bottom tier has grapes and string cheese.

I used my nifty Nikyoro sandwich bento boxes again.

new year, new box.

My mother sent me a new bento box for Christmas. So I started off the new year with a new bento box :)

Pork Loin Roasted in a Baguette

This is a new recipe that I came across and will be incorporating into my bentos.
The recipe is on Joanne Weir's website http://www.joanneweir.com/recipes/mains/pork-roasted-the-way-the-tuscan-do.html And it is awesome! The long baguettes that I found were to thin to use for this, but I found some mini baguettes that were a little fatter, so I just cut the pork loin in half and used two mini baguettes. I also omitted the herbs for the kids.

First you cut open the baguette and scoop out the insides.

Season your pork loin and then brown it on all sides.

Put the loin inside the bread and tie it closed with twine.

This is what it looks like all cooked and ready to eat. I slice them up and the family devours them.

Breaded chicken and salad

Chicken and salad bento.
Devin's had spicy breaded chicken and Bryce's had regular breaded chicken.
In the second tier, there was a green salad with sliced carrots, a tomoato, and asian pears in the cup. The container has salad dressing in it.
Here is Devin's box.

Here is Bryce's.

I'm Back!

Todays lunches weren't terribly fancy, but they were colorful!

First tier has miso-glazed salmon, rice, half of a hard boiled egg, and a lemon slice. Sliced scallions on top of the salmon and soy sauce in the red container.
Second tier has julienned potatoes sauteed in sesame oil and a little soy sauce, seasoned nori in the cup, grapes and a tomato for a splash of color.
Here is the box used for Bryce's lunch.

And this was Devin's.

My poor neglected blog!

Tomorrow, I promise!