All posts tagged: Bento

Under The Sea Bento

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I put this one together last night, I made dinner and her bento at the same time. Nothing too crazy here, sautéed shrimp, boiled mini sausages, corn, rice, and fruits. I added organic, no chemicals (or anything weird) added food dye to the rice to make it blue. I found that all the stirring required to spread out evenly the blue made the rice extra sticky (even though I took care not to smash the rice). I don’t know how I feel about that, I might try just adding it to the water when cooking the rice next time. No real recipe this time. Just sharing the cute little fishies and showing off baby A.’s new bento box (a yumbox).

Friday Easy Bento

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After yesterday’s very labor intensive bento, I just wanted a very easy lunch that I could throw together in the morning with minimal fuss. Therefore today baby A. got an easy sandwich bento. The sandwich is made of brioche bread, home made hummus, ham and lettuce. I used a cutter to turn into a cute little piggie. As a side I made mini sausage “octopi” and just threw some berries in the container and called it a day. The hummus is what took the longest out of everything, and I threw that together fairly quickly the night before. I found these cute little cans of chickpeas that are perfect for making a smaller portion of hummus. I also made a very simple recipe since it was for a five year old, here it is: – 1 8oz can of garbanzo beans – 2 Tbsp of tahini – 2 garlic cloves – The juice of half a lemon – 1 green onion – salt and pepper Blend all of the above in a food processor, add …

Sunflower Bento

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The things we do for our children!! So yesterday, after a full day of work and a workout I headed to the kitchen to cook dinner. I knew today baby A. was heading back to class and I had sort of planned a bento in my head. After cooking the components, which were fairly easy, all I had to do was assemble it. I debated whether or not to wait until very early this morning to put it all together like I did last time, but decided I would just go ahead and leave it ready. After we finished dinner I went back into the kitchen and what proceeded was a two hour bento assembly. I had to cut each little petal by hand, then set it all so it would look like a sunflower. Then I had the great idea of making a cherry tomato stuffed with a creamy cheese filling which I had dyed blue, just to have baby A. try it and say she didn’t like it -_- so that got scrapped …

First Day of School Character Bento

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Today our eldest goes to school for the first time ever. We are excited but also a little  nervous, since a whole new stage of our life just started today. To commemorate such an occasion I decided to get back to writing in this blog, even more since I made this cute little character bento (kyaraben) for her first lunch at school. While it required a little assembly, it was a very easy lunch to put together and can be prepared the night before, so the next day is just the assembly. Components: Hard-boiled egg turned into a hatching chick (I followed this tutorial from HGTV). Sliced strawberries. Cherry tomato. Ham flower (bend ham slice in half, make several cuts around folded edge, and roll until it looks like a flower. I thought this was a great explanation on how to do it, but my husband says that after reading it he still does not know how to make it -_-, so here is a great tutorial from Just One Cook Book). Soy sauce noodles: …

Bento Series #14 — Healthy Joes

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I love sloppy joes. They are a no frills, delicious food that is pretty fun to eat since the whole purpose of it is to get sloppy with it 😉 Another huge benefit of it is that you can hide any veggie you want in it. Have a picky eater, such as a child or a husband? Then don’t fret, you can hide a lot of goodness in here and your fussy eater will never find out, neither will your child. This recipe in particular has a lot of vegetables so I renamed it “Healthy Joe.” Bento Components Healthy Joe Strawberries Tamagoyaki Healthy Joe — -1 package ground beef -3 carrots shredded or grated -1/2 zucchini diced -1/2 onion diced -1 small squash diced -1/2 red bell pepper diced -2 garlic cloves minced -1 cup ketchup -1 cup tomato sauce -1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce -1 dash hot sauce -1 Tbsp lemon juice -1 Tbsp brown sugar -1 tsp garlic powder -1 tsp onion powder -1 tsp cumin -salt and pepper to taste In a pan add …

Bento Series #13 — Potato Chip “Fried” Chicken

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This bento is a little bit mysterious… a little tricky… The reason being that potato chips are unhealthy, and fried chicken is unhealthy… but this meal is still super healthy. How did I manage to pull that magic trick? Let me explain. First off it is oven “fried”, second of all the oil used is coconut oil, which we all know is the cure for all ailments in the world O_O. The last part of this magic trick is that I don’t actually use potato chips, I use potato starch flour which can be found at any Asian market. The amazingness of this “fried” chicken is that the potato starch makes it super crispy and adds a delicious potato chip flavor to the chicken. Nevertheless if you can not find potato starch then you can use panko or flour instead. Healthifying (is that even a word o_O) a meal: 1- Always try to oven “fry” things when possible. A lot of the time you will get that delicious crunch without getting all the calories of …

Bento Series #12 — Salmon Fillet

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I am very proud of this bento, it is one of the prettiest I have made to date! Lets take a minute to admire my beautiful creation… admire… admire… admire it, I say! For all of its beauty it is actually pretty simple to make. Bento Components: Salmon Fillet Sushi Rice Fried Okra Baby Carrots Radish Flowers with Parsley Leaves Salmon Fillet– Ingredients: -salmon fillet (1 per person, seasoning per fillet add more if more than one fillet) -1/4 cup soy sauce -1 Tbsp sake (or white wine) -1 clove of garlic -1 tsp grated ginger -1 Tbsp olive oil -1 tsp sugar -salt and pepper to taste Mix all the ingredients in a resealable bag and place the fillet in it. Marinate the salmon for at least 30 minutes before cooking. In a frying pan saute the salmon with a little olive oil. Leave the skin on the fillet, cook the flesh side down for a minute, then skin side down for five minutes. Do not over cook, salmon can get pretty dry if …

Prepping And Cooking Ahead

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Sometimes when I have free time (oh glorious day!), usually on a Sunday afternoon, I like to do some prep and cook a few things ahead for the week. It makes my life way easier later on if I can get all my veggies cleaned and cut, if I can portion and season my meats, and in some cases, if I can actually cook the dish in advance. Now for story time: something you need to know about my husband and me, we HATE leftovers… End of story (that was a short one). I honestly don’t know why that is, but we like our dinner to be freshly cooked, and sadly cooking ahead kind of falls in a grey area between fresh and leftovers. Therefore I don’t like to cook too many things ahead, just the few things that I feel will not lose a lot of their deliciousness. That being said, I don’t have anything against prepping the food ahead of time and then freezing, or seasoning it ahead, as long as most of …

Bento Series #11– Spring Rolls

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With spring around the corner, I felt it was time to post my recipe for SPRING Rolls (see what I did there?) With winter finally starting to fade (not really up North, and no real winter down here in Florida -_-) it is time to make some healthy food that will help us get in shape for bikini season, a.k.a. summer. This recipe is perfect for that, full of fresh veggies and delicious crab meat, it will satisfy the tastebuds while being gentle to your body. It is also great for a bento since everything goes inside the wrapper and you can eat it with your hands, no silverware necessary. Grab, dip, and enjoy! Bento Components: Spring Rolls Peanut Sauce Spring Rolls — Ingredients: -1 container (8 oz.) of fresh crab meat (can be found in the fish counter). -2 carrots -1/2 cucumber with all the seeds removed -3 green onions -1 cup cooked rice noodles -1 tsp sesame oil -1 Tbsp lemon juice -spring roll wrappers -salt and pepper to taste The first thing you …

Dumplings: Delicious Pockets of Goodness

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Dumplings, oh how I love thee!! Little pockets of deliciousness that make my heart soar. Every country has a kind of dumpling: Japanese gyoza, Korean mandu, Italian ravioli, Chinese shumai, Spanish empanadas, etc. It is very versatile, and since there are so many recipes from all around the world, the combinations are endless! The best part is that they are a great freezer food! You can make as many as you want on a free day and flash freeze them to be enjoyed at a later date. Not only that, they can be cooked in so many ways: fried, steamed, sauteed, baked, etc! A couple of months ago I invited my family over for the weekend and had them help me make a huge batch. Ha Ha! Entrapment! *Cough* I mean, a great family activity! We made gyozas, shumai, and crab rangoons, then I flash froze most of them to be divided among both households, and had a lot of them for dinner that night. We were in dumpling heaven! Freshly made gyozas, right before being …