#10 A 2-tier bento

Originally Made: Monday August 29th, 2011
The Box: Lube Sheep URARA 580mL

TOP: Egg muffin, rice with furikake
BOTTOM: Watermelon, chicken, cha siu, bitter melon and (more) chicken

I have a few bento pictures on backlog >_>  I need to procrastinate less on posting as I start to forget details -_-"  This is my first time posting a two-tier bento.  I wasn't used to having all that space in the upper tier ("bottom" in the above pic) so it wasn't filled very densely or high. I'll need to work on that.  This is a the first time I added fruit to a bento.  Before getting silicone muffin liners I didn't have any good way to separate fruit from other foods, plus I generally I'm slow at cutting fruit so I didn't put any in my bentos.  But there was some cut up watermelon in the fridge around that time so I just cut it up even smaller to fit in this box.

That egg muffin was the last one left in the freezer, and the furikake was homemade.  The rest was all leftovers.  We have bitter melon fairly often at home (we also grew some in our backyard this summer), and so I had some here in a stir fry with chicken breast.

Stuff I've bought

So awhile back I mentioned that I bought some bento supplies online and now I'm finally posting about it lol.  I'm part of a few online survey panels and for one of them I finally earned enough to cash out for some PayPal money, which I used on Ebay :D


I bought silicone food cups and decorative picks, which you can start seeing in bento #9 ^_^


Once I saw these cute emoticon picks I knew I had to have them XD
They have different facial expressions on each side.


Plaid and argyle patterned picks, only single-sided.

In an order from a different Ebay seller, I bought my first multiple tier bento box.  I'll be showing it off in another post, along with a box I just got off of Amazon.

Furikake, soboro

I had too much time on my hands today so I decided to make bento stuff: furikake and soboro!

I happened to have a bowl of shredded carrot that's been sitting in the fridge for more than a few days now and I figured that I should do something with it before it goes bad.  I remembered that Just Bento had a furikake recipe using carrot, so it seemed like a good idea to try making furikake since I had most of the other ingredients anyway.  I've been meaning to try my hand at making some since it doesn't seem that complicated and it's much more economical to make it myself than buy store-bought.



It came out quite well if I do say so myself :D  I followed the carrot and sesame seed furikake but added bonito flakes and cut up nori to my version. I didn't have any nanami/shichimi togarashi on hand so I used red chili pepper flakes instead.

Later in the day I made salmon soboro from canned salmon.  I didn't plan on making it but when I was looking through furikake recipes on Just Bento I came across the tuna soboro one, and then wondered if a salmon version existed since I had a can of salmon at home but no tuna.  I ended up finding Hapa Bento's salmon soboro recipe so I used that.



It came out pretty well but I would've liked more of the ginger flavour to come through and also for it to taste slightly more sweet/less salty.  Next time I'll make adjustments and also add another stalk of green onion for more colour :)

#9 Most colurful bento yet

Originally Made: Wednesday August 17th, 2011
The Box: GIORNO Fine Color Series 510mL

LEFT: Rice, dried shredded carrot & roasted nori bits
RIGHT: Egg muffins, bread and butter pickles, celery and lap cheong (Chinese sausage)

One of my more colourful creations~  I really had to pack that rice in order to make room for everything else.  I had some shredded carrot on hand so I dried it in a frying pan and mixed it along with some cut up nori for a sort of quick furikake. There are two egg muffins in here, each cut in half.  The celery and lap cheong stir fried with garlic were dinner leftovers.

You may notice in this bento my use of food picks (faces! ^_^) and the pink silicone muffin liner holding the pickles. I got both from when I bought some bento supplies online awhile ago...which reminds me that I still need to make a post on that ^^;;

#8 Egg muffins

Originally Made: Monday August 15th, 2011
The Box: Lock & Lock 460mL w/divider cups

LEFT: Rice, bits of roasted nori
RIGHT: Egg muffins, string beans, chicken breast (hidden)

Finally, not a crappy picture lol.  I made egg muffins for the first time, loosely following this recipe.  Mine included sausage, chopped string beans, chopped chives, and shredded carrot. I changed the egg to milk ratio though and added more milk, which I think was what made them more moist than I preferred.  I ended up heating them on a frying pan after baking in order to get rid of the excess moisture inside. Then I proceeded to burn myself on the edge of the pan but that's another story >_>

The string beans cooked with garlic were dinner leftovers.  I cut up some nori and sprinkled it on top of my rice to make it look more interesting (ran out of store bought furikake).  There's also a few small pieces of chicken breast underneath the egg muffins.

#7 Corn and green beans

Originally Made: Friday July 29th, 2011
The Box: GIORNO Fine Color Series 510mL

LEFT: Rice with corn
RIGHT: Chicken nuggets, string beans

My camera was low on battery, so another crappy cellphone picture -_-"  I felt like having corn that day so I heated a can of peaches and cream corn and then mixed some it into rice.  The beans were leftover from dinner the day prior, cooked with garlic.

#6 More tuna patties

Originally Made: Thursday July 14th, 2011
The Box: GIORNO Fine Color Series 510mL

LEFT: Rice with vegetable furikake
RIGHT: Mini tuna patties, blanched carrot

Continuation of Crappy Cellphone Pictures >_>  This one is actually worse than the last lol -_-"  I was in a dimly lit food court and that white bar of light (from one of the ceiling lights) at the bottom left was unavoidable >:|

More tuna patties, again three pictured here with each cut in half.  This box I'm using doesn't have any dividers and I don't usually pack my rice very tightly, so the things inside were slightly shifted since I had this placed in my bag on its side.  But nothing major so no harm done.

I bought some bento supplies online which I've just recently received in the mail, so there'll be a post on that in the near future :)

#5 Tuna patties, sweet pickles

Originally Made: Tuesday July 12th, 2011
The Box: Lock & Lock 550mL w/divider cups

LEFT: Rice, bread and butter pickles
RIGHT: Mini tuna patties, bok choy

I didn't have time to take a picture of this bento before leaving the house, so I only have a crappy cellphone pic taken right before eating :P

My first stab at making tuna patties, loosely following Hapa Bento's tuna squares recipe.  I say "loosely" because I made a bunch of substitutions lol.  No celery at home so I put in shredded carrot.  Ditto for onion so I used green onion.  And we don't typically have mayo in my house so I experimented with cream cheese.  For the bread crumbs, I used panko.

I thought they came out out pretty well but needed a bit more flavour.  That's likely due to my use of cream cheese (which isn't as flavourful as mayo) and using less salt than specified.  Next time I'll add more salt and try try other flavourings.  I'm thinking tomato sauce or soy sauce.  I also have half a container of gochujang at home that I should use.  Anyway, three mini patties are pictured here, each cut in half.

Also, the pickles.  Up to this point I've been having dill, which I don't mind but what I really like are sweet pickles.  My family recently finished the dill jar and we had one jar of bread and butter pickles sitting around so it's all good.  But man, it took me like five minutes to open the jar x_X  The seals on those things are tight.

#4 Fried rice and okra

Originally Made: Tuesday June 28th, 2011
The Box: Natural Lunch Time 380mL

I didn't have to be at school for as long as usual on the day I put this together, so I packed a smaller meal.  My dad made the fried rice earlier that day with some cha siu, BBQ pork, carrot and egg.  The rest is leftover okra cooked with pork and garlic.

#3 Pretty carrot, chicken nuggets

Originally Made: Thursday June 23rd, 2011
The Box: Lock & Lock 550mL w/divider cups

I decided to be a little creative with the carrot and use some cutters that I had (which I originally bought to use as cookie cutters).  Of course, I didn't think of it until after I had sliced the carrot so the thickness of the slices weren't exactly even -_-"  But lol it's not that obvious from the photo, right? ^^;;  More greens and chicken nuggets.  Truthfully, I probably could've done with just three nuggets but *shrugs* I like meat lol. That stuff in the bottom right corner is a bit of almond-peanut nut cluster snack thing.

#2 More carrot, pickle, pork...now with chicken

Originally Made: Tuesday June 21st, 2011
The Box: Lock & Lock 550mL w/divider cups

Like with my first bento, more blanched carrot and dill pickle.  There's a certain sweetness that comes out in carrot when blanched that I like.  The meat and the greens were leftovers.  The darker meat is marinated pork cooked with garlic, while the white meat is chicken, also cooked with garlic.

The greens...sorry, I'm not actually sure of what they're called >_>  I have a hard time remembering the names of all those different leafy green vegetables...gotta make an effort to learn the names ^^;;  But they're from my family's garden, I know that lol.  My mom always grows vegetables in the summer months.  I mixed a bit of vegetable furikake (store bought) in the rice for some variety.

I experimented with cupcake liners by putting everything on the right side in their own liner to see if it made packing easier or look nicer...not really lol. I mean, clean up was easy but that's about it. It was a bit fiddly trying to work with more than one paper liner.

#1 My first (photographed) bento

Originally Made: Thursday June 16th, 2011
The Box: Lock & Lock 550mL w/divider cups

So this is my first bento that I've photographed. The carrots are blanched and the pickle in the very top right corner is sliced dill. I actually prefer sweet pickles but dill was all there was at home so I just went with that. Beside the pickle is a bit of leftover ground pork with chives, which I think was leftover from when my mom last made dumplings. The meat in the bottom right is pork that I sliced off baby back ribs leftover from dinner the day before.

One step at a time

So...this is going to be a blog to keep track of the bentos I make, and any other bento-related stuff that comes up.  I've had a casual interest in bentos for awhile but it's only recently that I've wanted to document what I make, and so this blog was created with that in mind.

I don't actually cook often (dinner leftovers will be making a frequent appearance lol) but I'm hoping that making bentos will help me improve my kitchen skills (somewhat?) and encourage me to step out of my comfort zone.

I'm still learning how Blogger works and all that so the blog's look will likely change over the next couple of weeks. Or maybe not, if I'm lazy :P