Bento Meals: 6/16/10

So today's bentos were also a semi rush job, but not bad. They gave me some fun ideas for later on. :-)

Lunch: 2 sweet potato balls with butter and brown sugar, 4 kimbap pieces with seasoned carrots and marinated mushrooms, a quick mashed avocado (with a little lemon and salt), and some "hint of jalepeno" tortilla chips. The sweet potato balls are decorated with a nori cat and rat.

Snack: cherry vanilla yogurt, strawberry pieces, and halved seedless red grapes.

The cat and the rat are actually a sentimental symbol for my husband and me. In college, he and his brother were the Ratones (rat-oan-aes) and one of their friends made a comic strip that featured these Ratone characters. When my hubby and I started dating, he called me his Kitty Cat (now I'm just a MankyCat) and he gave me a pendant with a cat holding a rat by the tail. To rats with cats (or mice with cats) are a lovey-dovey thing for us.

Bento Meals: 6/15/10 (and 6/14/10)

For 6/15/10:
Yay for a bento meals! (Especially ones with pictures!)

The image is a little dark, but I can't guarrantee I will be able to post a lightened version when I get home. I'm just happy to have this! (Thanks goes to my husband, who downloaded and emailed me the picture to put up here.) So....

Lunch (bottom tier): Various types of Kimbap. Kimbap is like a korean version of sushi, using unseasoned rice. There are three pieces with marinated Shiitake mushrooms, two pieces with seasoned carrots, two pieces with the mushrooms and carrots together, two pieces with the carrots-tamago-scallions, and two pieces with mushrooms-carrots-tamago-scallions. Included is a small bottle of soy sauce.

Snack (top tier): halved gluten-free buckwheat pancakes and a small side dish of syrup.

The Kimbap was delicious and filling. So filling, in fact, that I'm not sure I'll actually get around to eating the snack, but we'll see. One never knows when hunger will strike an expecting mother!


For 6/14/10
No picture was taken of yesterday's bentos. I didn't have time and they weren't anything spectacular enough to drag a camera to work in order to get pictures.

But what I had...
Lunch bento: Cheese filled raviolis (containing wheat) with basil tomato sauce.
Snack: 4 mini gluten free buckwheat pancakes with a small container of syrup and cantaloupe cut into bite-sized chunks.


Side Note
Sadly, it's very apparent to me that I need to go grocery shopping. We are getting low on various staples. On the plus side, we obviously have enough to make delicious scrounge meals like the kimbap and pancakes above! Regardless... Me thinks I shall hit the store tonight or tomorrow and get some extra stuff. Besides, I would love to have more cantaloupe... The last one was so good...

Purchases!

Star Wars bento hasn't happened yet, but I hope to make it soon... or three of them (one for me, one for my honey, and one for my baby).

We did, however, get some nifty items yesterday for belated Mother's Day, early Father's Day, and very early birthday gifts for my husband and me. Of course, we really got them to use for my son, but hey... why not? :-)

These are the items we got from Williams Sonoma:

Starwars Pancake Molds, Star Wars Cookie Cutters


Latticework Pocket Pie Mold, And Heart Shaped Pocket Pie Mold


My husband already broke-in the Latticework Pie mold last night. He made us apricot-pear pocket pies! I'm a lucky woman.

I hope to get the star shaped pocket pie mold, because the Williams Sonoma around the corner has some left, and they are not available online or in most places. I'd also love to get the Buttercup Cakelet Pan below.



Wouldn't that be just perfect for strawberry shortcakes and the like???

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! :-)

Lunch: Easter Bento: March 31, 2010

Mobile pics of today's bento lunch! It was very pretty, healthy and inexpensive. I prepped and steamed the veggies, pealed and dyed the egg, cut the nori, and arranged the bento before heading to work, and took very little time. And it was very tasty and satifying.

What was in the bento:

dyed hardboiled egg with nori polka dots, steamed sweet potato flowers (held in place with gochujang, aka korean red pepper paste), sugar snap pea (sliced), scallion (cut into long pieces), pickled red onion slices, yellow cauliflower, furikake seasoned nori, brown rice