Bento Boxes

[taxlady]

This has been an interesting thread. I've been making bento school lunches for 4 years now for dd. I love all of the discussion and enthusiasm, as I sometimes get into ruts. We have bento containers, planetbox, and tiffin containers and I like to make lunch interesting. I have a lot of pictures, but I don't know how to post them. Some of the dishes are prettier than others, but especially when the primary teeth are falling out, the small bites are appreciated. We love bento-style lunches here!

I think the easiest way to post pictures is to click the little paper clip icon (attachments). A dialogue box will open up where you can attach your pix. It's a good idea to know where on your computer the pix are stored and what they are called, before you try to attach them.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

New ingredient use:

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I think the easiest way to post pictures is to click the little paper clip icon (attachments). A dialogue box will open up where you can attach your pix. It's a good idea to know where on your computer the pix are stored and what they are called, before you try to attach them.

Hey! That's slick, I didn't know I could do that! Cool, I deleted a bunch out of my albums last night because they got too full!

That's a lot easier than the way I've been doing it! Thanks, TL! XOXOXO

 

[Kathleen]

@velochic, please post pictures!!!!!

@ PF, unicorn meat! I almost bought that, but kept picturing little niece tears.

I have no idea what I am making tomorrow. *ponders*

 

[PrincessFiona60]

@velochic, please post pictures!!!!!

@ PF, unicorn meat! I almost bought that, but kept picturing little niece tears.

I have no idea what I am making tomorrow. *ponders*

I got the t-shirt, too! I used to tell the nephew I was raising cats for Kitten Teriyaki...

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I Keep Forgetting

This is the perfect time of year for looking for Rice Ball (Onigiri) shapers. The stores are full of plastic Easter eggs, I found two sizes when I went looking. And they are cheap...got a dozen for 88 cents!

 

[spork]

bento o'noodles

Some Mr. Bento pics of my udon noodles in soup.

Most of it is straight out of the frig. Udon noodles are best packed at room temperature; you definitely do not want to pack it hot or you'll get a gooey softball sized glob come lunch. Coat and mix it with a couple drops of oil to keep the noodles separated (I use chili oil). It's topped with couple slices of grilled pork shoulder, green onion and ginger strips pickled in a salt brine (traditionally dyed red). The broth is homemade - half pork from the shoulder bones and half katsuo-dashi.

I often have blanched carrots and green beans in the frig. They were quickly sauted in butter-garlic with matchsticks of abalone mushroom and finished with a steam of white wine. The stuff in the little container is spicy kimchee. My top stack is usually my snack bin. Clementines, because I'd heard through the grapevine that their season is coming to a close, and cashews.

It's a bit lukewarm, so if I can, I nuke the noodles and soup for about 15 seconds before dumping the soup on top of the noodles to eat. Oh, and, best to use a thick noodle like udon. It sure beats Cup-o-Noodles.

 

[spork]

hmmm... maybe I'll design a label to stick on my salt-shaker "Ground Unicorn Horn"... no, I would probably overdose on sodium.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Some Mr. Bento pics of my udon noodles in soup.

Most of it is straight out of the frig. Udon noodles are best packed at room temperature; you definitely do not want to pack it hot or you'll get a gooey softball sized glob come lunch. Coat and mix it with a couple drops of oil to keep the noodles separated (I use chili oil). It's topped with couple slices of grilled pork shoulder, green onion and ginger strips pickled in a salt brine (traditionally dyed red). The broth is homemade - half pork from the shoulder bones and half katsuo-dashi.

I often have blanched carrots and green beans in the frig. They were quickly sauted in butter-garlic with matchsticks of abalone mushroom and finished with a steam of white wine. The stuff in the little container is spicy kimchee. My top stack is usually my snack bin. Clementines, because I'd heard through the grapevine that their season is coming to a close, and cashews.

It's a bit lukewarm, so if I can, I nuke the noodles and soup for about 15 seconds before dumping the soup on top of the noodles to eat. Oh, and, best to use a thick noodle like udon. It sure beats Cup-o-Noodles.

Beautiful udon soup! I love a good udon. I'm writing down your suggestions.

I drained the juice from two cans of diced tomatoes last night and reserved it to heat and pour over my rice, mushroom and red pepper balls for lunch today...it was really good!

 

[Damien]

In a pinch one night I tossed together some Miso soup with carrot, boiled gyoza and fresh ramen noodles.. GF loved it.

-Damien

 

[PrincessFiona60]

In a pinch one night I tossed together some Miso soup with carrot, boiled gyoza and fresh ramen noodles.. GF loved it.

-Damien

That sounds really good!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Nothing exciting tonight, I'm using the new Pig Bento with sliced Strawberries, Mint, sprinkled with sugar in the bottom and Homemade chicken and Dumplings in the top.

My shipment from All things for Sale arrived and I have several sizes of rice molds, some Nori cutters, to make cute bear and bunny shapes from my Nori. A little chick that serves Garlic Gomasio, a ceramic chick that will be serving my Redmond Salt and a ceramic Lucky Cat that will serve sesame seeds. Other odds and ends, the Shrek's way of thinking, all odd!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Erin Go Bento!

My St. Pat's Bento!

 

[Kathleen]

That looks fantastic! I may make green rice for St. Pat's Day!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I got some dried mushrooms today. I'm going to make some kind of mushroom dish with rice and chicken. It will be Bento-ized, too!

 

[spork]

That looks mighty tasty, PF!

Kathleen, another very traditional taki gohan is green peas cooked with the rice. They're first blanched and then dumped into the rice. Usually with just water and a dash of sake and salt, cook. It looks great, but tastes only so-so to me.

A Mr. Bento from last week:
a) 2 squares of corn bread, easy pre-mix because I don't have good baking skills, they thaw out of the freezer in like 5 minutes; b) a spicy red New Mexico adovada with cubed swordfish, abalone mushroom, carrot and onion; c) Chinese gara soup, a light consomme of chicken plus pork, from a jar of granulate, with some slices of white chicken, surprisingly sweet ginger, and nappa cabbage; d) clementines and lime flavored Tostito chips.

The adovada stew was a less than successful experiment with a seafood I rarely eat. My Mr. Bento is where most of my week's kitchen failures end up.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

That looks mighty tasty, PF!

Kathleen, another very traditional taki gohan is green peas cooked with the rice. They're first blanched and then dumped into the rice. Usually with just water and a dash of sake and salt, cook. It looks great, but tastes only so-so to me.

A Mr. Bento from last week:
a) 2 squares of corn bread, easy pre-mix because I don't have good baking skills, they thaw out of the freezer in like 5 minutes; b) a spicy red New Mexico adovada with cubed swordfish, abalone mushroom, carrot and onion; c) Chinese gara soup, a light consomme of chicken plus pork, from a jar of granulate, with some slices of white chicken, surprisingly sweet ginger, and nappa cabbage; d) clementines and lime flavored Tostito chips.

The adovada stew was a less than successful experiment with a seafood I rarely eat. My Mr. Bento is where most of my week's kitchen failures end up.

Sounds good, why was the adovada a failure? Just didn't care for the flavors?

I'm toying with making a red pepper dish of some sort, I have 6 of them in the freezer that I need to use. I still have some campari tomatoes to use up, too! Two huge packages of chicken drumsticks that were on a reduced price yesterday.

I'll be busy cooking today it looks like.

 

[spork]

I don't know, seafood is challenging with really strong spice. Maybe I just had high hopes with the swordfish and was just a bit disappointed.

The other day, at a WalMart no less, I saw a pack of miniature red and yellow peppers. I'd never seen them before at other grocers! They would make great bento.

Don't forget old school cellophane. If you make a salad for your lunch box, you can wrap cut tomatoes in them until ready to eat.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I don't know, seafood is challenging with really strong spice. Maybe I just had high hopes with the swordfish and was just a bit disappointed.

The other day, at a WalMart no less, I saw a pack of miniature red and yellow peppers. I'd never seen them before at other grocers! They would make great bento.

Don't forget old school cellophane. If you make a salad for your lunch box, you can wrap cut tomatoes in them until ready to eat.

Kathleen mentioned stuffed mini peppers! I've seen them in The Good Food Store and have eaten them, they are perfect for tossing in a lunch whole.

I know about fish being overpowered by flavors. Had you tried swordfish on it's own before using in the adovado? I've never had it, so I know nothing of it's flavor profile.

I'm going to run to the store for some fresh basil, I have some mozz. A caprese salad sounds good.

 

[spork]

Swordfish is surprisingly very "fishy" in finished smell and taste. So some people trim its skin, plus its thick layer of fat underneath where a lot of contaminants like mercury is trapped. FDA recommends limiting its consumption. I left it on. Its white flesh is dense, won't flake; I still think it would hold up to something like your chili verde recipe. One of my signature ways to prepare it is: buy a loin cut with well defined concentric fat, trim to exact circle, slice thin almost like a carpaccio, season and pan sear in medium heat olive oil, about ten seconds on one side and two seconds on the other, the objective is to create a round white disk with concentric light brown circles exactly like the growth rings of a tree trunk. I use it in various ways; I think it would work well with a caprese.