Bento Meals: 5/6/11

As my previous post mentioned, I am trying to rekindle my interest in eating by cooking foods I tended to enjoy making (and consuming) at my previous apartment.  So... without further ado...

Dinner:  Bibimbap

Containing:

Poached egg

Seasoned gochujang

Aehobak Namul (recipe: Click Here)

Seasoned ground beef (leftover bland burrito meat w/ bulgogi flavoring added... turned out very well)

Seasoned and sauted veggies (separately: carrots, onions, cucumbers)

White rice 

Bento:  Bibimbap Lunch

Containing:

Leftover seasoned beef

Leftover Aehobak Namul

Leftover seasoned gochujang

Shredded cabbage and carrots

White rice

Bento:  Cucumber NaengGuk Breakfast

For base cucumber naengguk recipe:  Click Here



Breakfast Fun: 1/30/2011

I've tried encouraging my son to try different types of food, especially vegetables, while also teaching him that even though he may not like certain items in one form, he may like them in another (like he may not like steamed carrots, but he may like diced carrots in his stir fries).  I'm happy to see that he's been more receptive of late.  I am also trying to make some of his meals cute, especially with food items he may be hesitant about or may have tried once and wasn't willing to try again.  I'm actually impressed by how many things he has been willing to try and even likes (more often than not, anyways).  The breakfasts below were inspired by my efforts.

This is the breakfast I made for my son.  The star flower was actually inspired by the Sunflower Egg idea I found on Cute Food For Kids.  I used small smoked cheddar weiners and a fried egg star mold for the flower, ketchup for the stem, and a sugar snap pea (lightly sautéed and cut diagonally) for the leaves.

He wasn't sure how to eat it, but seemed to like how it looked.  When my husband cut it up for him, he gobbled it down.  He tried the sugar snap pea, and left only some of the tougher fibers (which he has trouble with for some fruits and vegetables).  All in all, a pretty good success.

My husband and I had an omlette seascape.  I made basic omlettes with american cheese, sliced mushrooms, and minced garlic inside, topped with a small home-grown scallion.  Sliced sugar snap peas, sautéed in in the oils from cooking the weiners, were the sea plants and some mushroom slices (also cooked in the meat oils) were subterrainean rocks.  Each plate had one octopus  made from smoked cheddar weiners with sour cream eyes.  All our meals were delicious, and my son ate some of our mushroom omlettes.

By the way, the bananas a the top of the page were decorated using a tooth pick and a fork tong.  All you do is lightly draw your design on using a tooth pick (or fork tong, or whatever else you think may work), and the drawing will show up within a few minutes.  The messages on the above bananas were a day or two old.  :-)

Bentos from Parenting Magazine

I always find it super spiffy when I see neat lunch ideas or containers that are obviously inspired by or at least similar to bentos. Usually, it's the containers that are seen more than actual examples of what to pack.

Lately, I've been going through my old magazines. When I get a new one, I go through it immediately. I save the pages I want to keep and recycle the rest, because they just take up too much space (and xeroxing the pages I want before donating the magazines just never seemed to actually happen).

A week or so ago, I saw in my newest copy of Parenting Magazine a mention of packing bentos. They actually used the term (which sometimes happens, but not often), and had a very cute example of a bunny. They gave a quick description and said that you can go to their website for more information. Of course, I had to do it and I'm glad they did. There are such cute ideas on there that I haven't seen before or for a while. They also give a "how to" in making the key elements. Here's some of the photos and ideas I liked the best. (Click here to go to the website.)

Jelly sandwiches... I would not have thought to make them like this! Thought I don't know how well gluten free breads will work for these.

A pizza sandwich and "cake" sandwiches. Now this is something I can make with the gluten free breads and I'm sure my son would love them. I also really like the mash potatoes in the secont bento's top tier.

I'm actually more impressed by the green peas "roll" and the cheese mouse, but the cat is very cute too.

Not too fond of the bear, though I'm sure kids would love it. I do like the use of the grapes. I tend to pack halved grapes often enough, so seeing them used like this, in so easy and yet pretty a manner really caught my attention. Only one draw back... less packed grapes! And note the cute cherry tomato with cheese slices in the center. How cute and interesting is that?

Obviously, I think the hedge hogs are adorable and a great idea. I also like the deli meat and egg ribbons gathered together like that. For the cute tiger... I've seen this done before, but still love the idea. The main thing I like in this second bento, though, is the idea of cutting a meatball in half and placing sliced cheese between the halves. Very similar to the cherry tomato idea above.

Onigiri cows... I mean, really! That's adorable!!! (And oddly, it reminds me of my husband.)

The main thing I like in the following bentos are the chicken nuggets. No need to pack dips if you cut the nuggets in half and put a dab of dip between them. That is an excellent idea! Of course, the spaghetti nest with mozzarella ball birds is very cute too.

And lastly, mini "hamburgers". Meatballs, halved like before, with lettuce, cherry tomato slices, and whatever else you wish on a nice pick... to make bento perfect mini hamburgers. :-)

Hope you all enjoyed. Definitely check out the website and the "how to" guides. I definitely plan to implement some of these ideas in future bentos (and maybe as nice touches to regular meals).

Bento Meals: 7/23/10

I haven't been making bento lunches the last few days. I had 2 packages of different types of bau (stuffed buns) and leftover bulgogi dolseot bibimbap (a korean dish of rice topped with vegetables, marinated/grilled beef, and an egg). As you can see, I was pretty much covered with food. Then yesterday, we also had a free lunch from Costco, though I enjoyed the last of my bibimbap over the items they brought in, of which I am glad I only took a small sampling.

Today's lunch bento, which I hope to start devouring soon, has a main dish of ojinga bokkeum (spicy stir-fried squid). Anyone who followed this blog for a while (or looks into older entries) will see that I am obviously a big fan of this dish. This time, my husband made it. We use Maanchi's recipe as a base (click here for her recipe) and it is always a win! That doesn't mean we don't plan to try other people's versions too, just to see what suits us best.

This time, we used squid slices that were already scored. My husband found we were low on green onions, but this wasn't a huge concern given all the other veggies I was going to have him add. We were also out of white sugar, so my husband added brown sugar. We added carrot and zucchini matchsticks; the zucchini pieces were salted and squeezed to remove excess moisture. The sauce turned out a bit thin, which we've never had happen before (but wasn't surprising), so my hubby added some tapioca starch. This concoction turned out very well, though I prefer our usual ojinja bokkeum.

Our son ate more of this new version than I remember him ever eating our regular version. A nice way to get him to eat more veggies given that he's still in that stage of veggie-pickiness. The squid was a lot easier to eat because of the scoring and the veggies toned down the spiciness. Still, the flavor was missing something, but I'm just happy my son ate the entire amount we served him within a short period of time (rather than his long period of pick-while-play method).

On to the bentos:

Lunch Bento

ojinga bokkeum (spicy squid stir-fry w/ extra veggies) topped with furikake

white rice

broccoli, lightly cooked

quicky dipping sauce (gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, salted green onion and garlic, and sesame oil)

Snack Bento

cantaloupe (musk melon)

celery

natural peanut butter w/ brown sugar

Thoughts inspired by processed foods in bentos...

First, I wanted to mention that we found out the gender of our little Pinto. It's a girl. The running joke with everyone we've told thus far is that we now have "A Perfect Match". One of each and the oldest being a boy... not what we expected when we talked about having kids (before we had our son), but nice nonetheless.

Now on to the main point of this post.

I've been looking at a number of really nifty bento blogs. One of my favorites is E-Obento, which is run by a woman in Japan who is apparently very well known over there for her creative meals. The webpage is written completely in Japanese, but I've learned a lot from her blog by simply looking at the photos she posts (both of completed meals and of the prepping pictures). Heck, the broccoli "flower" I made recently was inspired by her carnations. Granted, mine was a "quickie" flower, but I still like how it turned out and owe the credit for the idea to her.

However...

After a while, a few things have become more and more clear, the more I look at most bentos...
1. There is a disturbing amount of highly processed foods used, especially processed meats.
2. A goodly number are unbalanced in their food choices (like providing mostly proteins, bread and cheese in a given meal, especially noticable on E-Obento).

For many parents, the processed foods aren't that big a concern, but unfortunately for my family it is. We seriously monitor how much processed foods we buy/eat and are slowly cutting out more and more, the main ones we avoid being most junk foods and processed meats. This isn't hard to do since we have to avoid so many foods due to my husband's issues with gluten. Sandwiches and wraps are nice treat for us, which means the need for sandwich/wrap fillers are far less. Add to that my limitted intake of red meats and poutry, and you cut out many deli meats. Bacon, sausage, and hotdogs are rare for us as well. (And I do see the irony that my banner here features octi-dogs.) Even before I started cutting back on meats, we were careful with these items when we purchased them, buying ones that didn't contain sulfites, nitrates, and other particular chemicals.

I'm not saying we don't eat any processed foods. We definitely do! We just try to limit them and we definitely read the labels to try to make informed decisions. We rarely eat ketchup or salad dressings, but I use a decent amount of soy sauce and red pepper paste. We avoid buying potato chips, but do buy tortilla chips (which I love to melt cheddar cheese on them with salsa... delish but I rarely do this now). We don't have a lot of condiments compared to most people I know, but I do try to always have one (and usually only one) container of icecream in the freezer and have been buying cereals more often rather than making oatmeal (cold breakfast is nice in warm weather). Donuts, cakes, breads, pastas, and the like are also considered treats (either being very time consuming to make from scratch, semi-expensive as a pre-made mix, or darned expensive as ready-made).

There have been many times that my typical diet (ie. the foods I eat regularly, not "diet" to lose weight) has been described to me as very healthy. I tend to agree. At the same time, I'm not sure how one doesn't eat healthy because I'm not sure what people usually eat. My family doesn't eat out often, and when we do eat out, we typically choose healthier places or make more balanced choices (substituting fries for a side of veggies and so on). It's just second nature to us because of years of avoiding gluten. Currently, I've been eating gluten because of this pregnancy, but still try to limit it and will continue decreasing the amounts more and more.

I'm not passing judgement on people who choose to each the items my family doesn't. It's not my place to... though I will if the parents are only offering their children junk food. We all have our pet-peeves. I really do feel that each family's dynamic is different and accept that mind is different. After all, how many middle-class caucasian families serve their children a diverse menu of foods, which regularly include Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Tex-Mex, Italian, French, and more? How many kids in a standard American family rarely has burgers, meatloaf, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni and cheese and so forth, and never even had fish sticks? We also tend to allow our son sips of our coffee (which is normally decaf but sometimes "caffeine-lite") rather than allow him to have sodas. Like I said, I know my family is not the typical when it comes to food. I also understand that you really can't get a real idea of the family's diet by just looking at one meal or one meal per day. How many people eat cereal, yogurt, a bagel, or oatmeal for breakfast without anything else but then eats full meals the rest of the day?

So back to bentos... I've just been noticing that so many people seem design their bentos with processed meats and the like and it's been making me think...

Bento Meals and Recipes: 6/30/10

I'm so excited about today's lunch, I'm having trouble waiting till later! Of course, I now eat two meals at work (if I don't pack a breakfast) because my pregnancy is making me hungry more often (though I usually can't eat as much throughout the day). I eat one meal around 11am and the second around 2 pm. I know I call one tier of my bento "snack" at times, but it really is a rather nice sized "snack", sometimes nearly as much as my actual lunch!

You'd think I'd be gaining a lot more weight given the extra eating and the growing baby, but I'm not. My weight gain has been perfect according to my doctor. Most of the weight is very obviously in the "baby bump". Of course, eating healthy and not using the pregnancy as an excuse to over indulge is helping, though it would be very hard to over indulge when I can't eat much and my unborn seems to reject a lot of sweets, treats, and fried junk! Sadly, even decaf coffee is on the "No You Don't, Mommy" list. People thought I hate pretty healthy before, but it's even more so now!


Top Tier:
chopped and sliced cucumber and tomato
roasted pepper and curry salad dressing (in the monkey container)
vanilla yogurt
blueberries and halved seedless red grapes

Bottom Tier:
spicy fishcake stirfry (uhmook bokkeum) w/ sliced onion and julienned Portabella mushrooms
veggie fried rice


Now for a few recipes!
I apologize in advance, since I tend to use base recipes and then do my own thing with them, oft times, not noting the small changes I make or the amounts of other items I added. I usually eyeball these things each time I cook the dish. I will do my best to estimate how much I used of things. :-)


Spicy Fish Cake Stir-Fry (with onion and Portabello mushrooms)
To see Maangchi's original recipe, which I use as my base, click on the following link: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/uhmook-bokkeum

1 package assorted fish cakes, each ball cut into half
1 medium onion, sliced (white or sweet preferred)
1/2 to 1 cup baby Portabello mushrooms, julienned (measured after being cut)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 to 2 Tbsps gochujang (korean hot pepper paste)
1 Tbsp sugar

1 green onion, chopped
1 Tbsp of vegetable oil
sesame oil, approx 1 to 2 tsps
toasted sesame seeds, to garnish

Heat vegetable oil in a wok (or large skillet).
Add the fish cakes to the wok. Stir until they begin to turn golden, watching the wok's temperature so they don't brown to quickly or burn. Mix in the onion, garlic, and mushrooms and stir fry for a couple minutes.

Add the gochujang (hot pepper paste) and sugar, mixing until the vegetables and fish cakes are coated, only a couple minutes. Gochujang tends to burn, so turn down the heat right before adding it.

Turn off the heat and remove the wok from the hot plate (if possible). Stir in sesame oil and green onion. Transfer the food to serving dish or individual plates and sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds.


Veggie Fried Rice
I had a number of veggies and some cooked rice I needed to use. So why not a quick, easy, healthy, fun fried rice dish? Measurements here are nearly non-existent. Sorry.

Leftover cooked rice, appox 3 cups worth
1 medium onion, chopped (white or sweet)
1 small head of raw broccoli, chopped, approx 1/3 to 1/2 cup
1 small to medium yellow summer squash, shredded, squeezed of liquid, approx 1/3 to 1/2 cup
1 to 2 Vegetable oil
Sesame oil
salt

Heat vegetable oil in a wok. Add onion and broccoli; stir-fry a few minutes until onions and broccoli soften lightly. Add shredded squash and mix for veggies for a couple minutes. Add rice and mix in until each grain looks lightly coated in oil and separated from eachother. Add a small amount of sesame oil and salt, to taste. Transfer to a serving dish or on individual plates.


We had our uhmook bokkeum and veggie fried rice with a large slice of cantaloupe. :-)

Today and Fun Egg Faces from BentoLunch Blog

First, here's a link to a Egg Faces Tutorial. Shannon from BentoLunch shows how to make these without the use of nori. The picture is from her tutorial.

Second, I didn't pack a 'real' bento today, per se. I grabbed one of my bento containers and put a bunch of cantaloupe in it for a snack. My lunch is going to be a packet of ramen noodles (drained and mixed with less than half of the seasoning and maybe some toasted sesame oil). I didn't pack my lunch last night because we didn't have any leftovers from our meal and I didn't get around to prepping food. This is all probably for the best because my tummy isn't too happy today. I think the coffee (decaf) isn't settling well, given that I almost never drink coffee now and I have an extra large cup I've been working on since this morning. Ugh... (I be a glutton for punishment, me thinks.)

Tomorrow, I might not have a bento either since I have the day off of work and will be going out to lunch with my mother and nieces... and I almost never pack bentos over the weekend (though we have a small Renaissance Faire we'll be going to, so I might actually pack us some stuff to nibble or have a picnic with).

Today's Lunch and How to Egg Sheets

Today's lunch was not really that pretty, but it was tasty enough for a stomach that isn't too happy. I will try to add a picture of it later, but if that doesn't happen, here's what it was.

One Tier: Brown rice mixed with leftover lasagna cheese filling, topped with basil cheese tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella and a side of corn. I also packed some spicy cucumber banchan for my ramen noodles, but don't think I'll be eating that today.



Now for a nice "How To" found on MyBentolicious. For her instructions, click on the following link: http://www.mybentolicious.com/2010/04/tips-009.html

I usually make egg sheets a bit more simply, but I want to try this method out, since mine don't look nearly as pretty as hers! And do I see another use for my tamago pan? Why, yes I do!

Carved Carrot Flowers!

I found this 3D carrot flower carving technique on Bento Zen. The carrot flowers are amazingly cute and I love how they are steamed, making them more vibrant, easier to carve, and easier to eat! The image on the left is from her entry.

Click the following link to read the entry and instructions:

http://bentozen.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/carved-carrot-flowers/

Update

Since my last post, I found out I am pregnant. Making bentos became low priority due to constantly feeling sick. Hopefully, since I'm in my second trimestor and food is looking appetizing again, I will start my bento making with renewed interest.

In the meantime, I found this link on a bento forum I frequent. The costs look really good and I know several of the items they are selling because I ordered them from another company that no longer takes online orders.

The website is All Things For Sale.

Enjoy! :-)

I've Been Negligent!

I've been packing my lunches diligently, but haven't been taking photos as much as I could or should. What can I say? I have so many time constraints of late that unless the bento is especially pretty, I don't take the photos. I'm not talking about just charaben (or the cute bentos with characters, flowers, and animals), but just generally photo worthy bentos. I'm sure I have a few I took pictures of, and will have to post them soon. Normally, I just scoop a bunch of leftovers into my containers in the morning and run out the door, or I pack it the night before and toss it in the fridge. Ah, such is the life of a mommy, wife, and full time employee! No complaints here, since I am very satisfied with both. :-)

I have been looking at wonderful ideas for cute bentos and nummy recipes. I would claim that it's for my son, who does get an occasional one for his trips to Grammies and such, but it's also for me because attractive food just seems to taste better. At the very least, it makes a tiny piece of me smile.

So... some examples of cute foods from various websites, and at least one interesting blog entry regarding bentos.

From Just Bento

These are corn muffins with tiger faces. (entry here)
I can see it working with little quiches too!

"What is a bento anyway, redux: It's not just about cute charaben" from Just Bento . This blog entry gives an idea of the realities behind bentos in Japan, especially the charaben.

From Martha Stewart

Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Filling (recipe here)

By jokergirl on the livejournal Bento Lunches community.

Panda Bear Bread!

Too cute! Recipe is located at Perfect Pandas. Hopefully, my husband and I can try this out with gluten free bread recipes. I can see our son loving these when he gets older. :-)

Eye See You!

I'm going to make some fake eye balls for my mother's Halloween dinner this Sunday, for a bentos this week, and for our smaller, but scarier dinner on Halloween night.

One idea I had was using Daifuku or sweet red bean filled mochi. The red filling with the mushy sweet outside would be a wonderful treat, and I could try using food coloring to paint on details (if it works). Dango (boiled mochi balls without fillings) was another option.

The other idea I had was for a more savory treat. My husband and I made some "Go Bulgogi", as he likes to call it. Basically, you make bulgogi (korean grilled marinated beef) using ground beef instead of strips. This made it easy to stuff into Onigiri and was darned tasty. So, for the savory Zombie Eyes, we were thinking about making the "Go Bulgogi" into meat balls before cooking. Then we would wrap the cooked meatballs in the mochi dough much like the red bean paste is wrapped in the mochi dough, though I'm not sure if I would use a plain flavor or a sweet. (I think the sweet mochi casing would be a nice compliment to the savory sweet meat filling!)

Here's one sweet recipe my mother sent me. It looks good and was very different than what I was originally going to do. Enjoy!

From About.com:
http://thaifood.about.com/od/thaidesserts/r/scaryeyeballs.htm

Chocolate Rib Cage

I found this last night, during my search. A chocolate rib cage! Couldn't you just die?!? The original project on the website was to fill the ribcage with organs made of cake with a filling that oozed out when the organs were cut. Pretty nasty looking, but a great idea! Click on the link at the bottom of this entry to see the full cake. Definitely worth looking at! (And then check out the zombie head cake!!!)

I fell in love with the rib cage part more so than the rest and it looks easy enough. I'm thinking about making this for my mother's Halloween Dinner this Sunday, though I might make it smaller. It's tempting to try to make it large so it can hold the Bone cookies, but we'll see. A smaller one might be cool and easier. We'll see if I have the time!

Hm... I wonder how chocolate bones would work in bento... Or if I can make one to work in it... hm...

Anyways, here's the link for the cake. The ribcage instructions are on page two: http://www.theyrecoming.com/extras/pumpkinfest03/

Halloween searches and Bone Cookie Recipe Link

I'm working on finding Halloween recipes to make for my family. Of course, any that would work for bentos are doubly nice. So many cute ideas, and so many that can be altered to work for lunches. Ooh... the possibilities.

I'll definitely post the websites as I find them with my top pick from their selection (even though there might be a few from the site). Hopefully, I'll be able to make a few and post pictures too, along with a review. If I can't, at least some of you might be able to enjoy the spoils of my research. So, to start you off...

Bone Cookies from "How Stuff Works": http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/meringue-bone-cookies-recipe.htm

Family Fun: Strawberry Ladybugs and other ideas

A friend of mine on one of my other blogs gave me a link to Family Fun when she was telling me about some adorable strawberry lady bugs that she makes her girls.

She uses a number of the website's tips and ideas to make her daughters' lunches and noticed that her children are much more likely to eat these cute food items. Seems to be the case, as many parents who bento have come to learn.

I took a quick look at the different sections and found them pretty nifty!!! Even the normal looking "kids foods" looked very tasty and bento friendly. (Like the Pickles in a Blanket.)

Anyways, here's a link to the basic Family Fun: Cooking With Kids section. http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/kids/

All images in this particular post are copyrighted and belong to Family Fun. Thank you.