More Bentos

I made three bentos this weekend in preparation for the week's lunches (and dinner to take with me to class). The colors are pretty but I'm not quite satisfied with the taste of raw veg by itself. I need to get some sort of container for ranch dip or hummus. Also need to work on my lighting techniques... *grumble*

Leftover Pasta and Veg Bento
Top: veal-stuffed agnolotti with bacon, mushroom, and peas; cherry tomatoes
Bottom: carrot sticks and snap peas with spreadable Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese
(Notes: microwaved the pasta with the tomatoes on top, making them hot and bursty; not enough cheese for all the veg)

Ravi Kabob Bento
Top: Rice with stewed chickpeas; cherry tomatoes and spreadable Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese
Bottom: Chicken Tikka Kebab
(Notes: antibacterial grass food divider between tomatoes and rice; forgot a food pick and had to scrounge for a fork!)

Grilled Chicken and Sweet Potato Bento
Snap peas, cherry tomatoes, chicken, sweet potatoes
(Notes: antibacterial grass food divider between veg and chicken; love my elephant food pick!)

Strawberries and Cupcakes - Together!

I had a craving for coconut cupcakes over the weekend, so I sent the bf on a mission to procure coconut flakes, coconut milk, and powdered sugar. Unfortunately, Trader Joe's has a very limited baking section and had only one of the above items (coconut milk). He did, however, bring back a nice quart of strawberries, so I changed plans completely and made chocolate cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting.

The cupcake recipe was adapted from Joy of Baking, but I may have taken a wrong turn when I substituted milk for water when dissolving the cocoa powder. Also, I fear I overcreamed the butter and sugar, making for an extremely dense batter (looked like mousse). The cupcakes turned out okay but rather dry and had an odd bouncy texture rather than being crumbly. I had better luck with the frosting though, which was 1 bar of cream cheese mixed with a stick of butter, strawberry puree (blended and sieved strawberries), and powdered sugar. I used a resealable plastic bag to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and got some ugly ones that were eaten immediately, and some rather pretty ones like the one below:

I also had some cut up strawberries with lunch this week and used two of the adorable animal food picks I got for bento! My coworkers are at a loss for words when looking at my lunches lately.

Making Use of Leftovers

I love leftovers. For some reason (probably the thrifty voice ingrained in my head by my mother), I derive immense pleasure from turning leftovers into delicious next-day meals. The best leftover is roast chicken, which can be shredded and reused in a variety of cuisines from Mexican (quesadillas) to Italian (filling for ravioli).

This time, I purposely ordered way too much Peruvian rotisserie chicken (it's so cheap, how can you not buy more?) and shredded 3/4 of a chicken for meals throughout the week. As a full time consultant and part time student, I take all the help I can get for fast meal preparation. Some of the chicken went into the standard quesadilla with store-bought tortillas - they last forever in the fridge, shredded cheese, and sauteed onions. Most of the chicken, however, was saved for delicious chicken salad sandwiches in which I mixed the chicken with its accompanying mayonnaise (not sure what's in it but it's light yellow and phenomenal), a bit of the green pepper sauce (very spicy so a little goes a long way), and some sliced green onion. I topped sourdough bread with smoked provolone and the chicken mixture, popped it in the oven for a few minutes, and had myself a gorgeous, scrumptious open-faced sandwich.

Speaking of leftovers, ever since my experiment with onigiri, I've developed a fascination with bento boxes! What a creative and clever way to use up leftovers. I always have small amounts of leftovers too, not quite enough for a full meal but too much to let go to waste. After reading many many posts on Lunchinabox.net, I visited the online store for Ichiban Kan and bought way too many bento supplies! I have yet to use the cutesy food dividers, sauce containers, and food picks, but leftovers from dinner last night yielded this adorable version of a bento box:

Left: broccolini sauteed in garlic and shallot
Middle: rosemary rib-eye steak
Right: buttermilk mashed potatoes with green onions

Here's to many more adventures in bento-making!

Yes, I like food.

I think all I do lately is think about food, read about food, look at pictures of food, cook food, and take pictures of my food. Oh, and eat food, of course. Here are a few more delicious meals from the past week.

Penne with prosciutto, mushroom, zucchini, and parm


Cute mini quiche with rosemary, prosciutto and parm


Grilled chicken drumsticks with Vietnamese marinade from Kim O'Donnell

I'd particularly like to point out this hash brown stirfry (below). This delicious-looking creation came about the other morning when I wanted a diner-esque breakfast and had only frozen tater tots, no potatoes. So I put some oil in a pan, tossed in the tots, covered the pan, and let cook for about 5 minutes until thawed. Then I mushed them all up, pushed them to the side, and added my other ingredients (bacon, onion, some broccolini). Once everything had cooked through, I pushed the whole mess down flat into the pan and turned the heat up to make the bottom nice and crispy, then tossed it around and repeated several times. Oh man, was it good. Tater tots may have to be an emergency staple in my freezer from now on!

Awesome hash brown stirfry topped with an egg over easy

Adorable Onigiri

Inspired by the gorgeous photos and instructions from Lunchinabox.net, I decided to try my hand at making yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls). I used Japanese Kokuho Rose rice which is short-grained and sticky, perfect for holding the onigiri shape, and filled some of the onigiri with curried tuna (drained canned tuna mixed with mayo, curry powder, green onion, and salt). This technique from Just Hungry helped with the shaping of each ball. To differentiate filled and plain onigiri, I rolled the edges of the plain ones in toasted black sesame seeds. I also mixed some sesame oil into the soy sauce used for brushing each ball before pan frying.

onigiri (untoasted)

The result? Georgeous, toasted rice that pairs nicely with curried tuna and would be even better with some kind of dipping sauce (maybe more soy). I deem this experiment a success!

yaki onigiri