Monday, February 28, 2011

A cute one

Let's combine my new bento box and onigiri I freshly know how to make.

The main dish:
- corn
- sliced beef
- tuna/mayo onigiri (I filled up my fridge!!!)

Dessert:
- 2 mochi (sesame and red bean paste)
- chocolate pieces

 
Advice: be careful not to make your onigiri too big, or it wont fit the bento.  (happened to me on that one)

おにぎり

I finally tried to make onigiri!!! It has been a long time I have been craving to make some!
Now that I have the rice for it, and the hand-trick to make them, I had to find things to put inside...

No tuna/mayo in my kitchen...

Well, a look in the fridge, and I had some cucumber prepared in little cubes, and mixed with a few lemon drops and cheese (I'm trying any combinations that might be good)
And it is actually good!

As the rice was really sticking to my hands, I used a plastic bag (the ones for the freezer), opened it on one side so it would be as flat as possible.

I put half of the rice, my cucumber preparation, rice again and pressed it.
I was so proud of myself O(≧∇≦)O





New Bento Box!!!

I recently bought my second bento box (^_^)
This one is smaller than the first. It fits better the need in food quantity.
And I recommend it as it's really pretty, and can be used in the micro-wave (not like the other)
I can finally eat a warm bento!

So, here we have:
- japanese rice (that I cooked the normal way but drain it with my hands and few times to get it sticky)
- sliced carrots and bell peppers (as usual...)
- pieces of chicken with paprika
- cucumbers used as dividers
- chocolate hearts for dessert

Sweet noodles

After trying noodles recipes that didn't really turned out that good, I tried to make a dessert based on noodles.

You will need:
- the amount of noodles you wish
- a little bit of water (there is way too much water on this picture)
- icing sugar, that will melt easier in the water and give the sweet taste
you will need to put a lot of icing sugar, almost to make a paste out of it
- coconut chips if you like it

Eat it HOT

Noodles and crepes

 Here is another simple one.
Noodles mixed with sliced carrots and
bell peppers for the main dish.
I wanted to try that one, though those noodles are
better when you eat it right after you make it.
(not good reheated)
Then, I've been making some crepes, and I had a few left.
I rolled them with sugar, cut them and used toothpick to make smalls brochettes.
I added sliced bananas, oranges quarters and a peanut mochi
As I had fruits and crepes remaining, I used my Sando Panda box to not waste those and make it an afternoon snack

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Salad Mix and Asian Dessert


Here is one of the simpliest and fastest ones!

Main dish:
- lettuce
- cherry tomatoes
- cucumber
- carrots (placed in a cup)


Dessert:
- half a sandwich with jam (made with the Sando Panda)
- coconut balls
- Koala's March cookies
- sesame's mochi

You can find mochi in a chinese store (mine has every kind of ingredients coming from a few asian countries, including Japan)

AGaiN, that's a very easy bento, not especially good looking, but it's healthy and it takes 10 minutes to do!

サンドパンダ

サンドパンダ (Sando Panda) is a little tool to make cute sandwiches.
It actually sticks 2 slices of bread together, cutting of the crust.

Mine came up with a small box that can hold up to 2 sandwiches.

This is perfect for a quick lunch, or a snack.


Putting some colors

So I usually put the main dish on one side, and a whole part for the dessert.
Here, my main dish is made of:
- lettuce
- octopus shaped sausage
- sliced bell peppers

As for the dessert, it is:
- orange's quarters
- chocolate pieces
- rice pudding

There is also one hard boiled egg, but that's because it didn't fit in between lettuce & bell peppers.

My rice pudding was home made, but I failed on that one.
To make some, you would need round grain rice.
Easy enough (^.^)

Saturday, February 26, 2011

ゆで たま

Yude Tama are eggs' mold-shaped plastic thing. I don't really know how to explain, but they make your hard boiled eggs look like this:
Which I think is pretty amazing and FuN, especially for kids (^.^)

using it is simple:
- hard boiled your eggs
- take off the shell (be careful not to burn your hands if you are like me)
              - put the egg up in the mold and close it
              - put it in cold water for about 5 minutes
              - then you can take it off

Make sure your egg is hot for stage 3. if not, it might break

You can find the Yude Tama on the net, with several forms:
bunny head and bear head, car and fish, star and heart, onigiri, ice-cream and flower
...

Trying to make it look better

After cleaning out the chinese store next door, and checking on my left-overs, I came up with this bento:
- spicy sausage cut in pieces
- pasta with tomato sauce
- carrots
- cucumber
- corn
- cherry tomatoes
- red berries
And for the chinese things:
- cookies called "コアラのマーチ" (Koala's march)
- coconut balls

 To put colors in a bento, my favorite ingredients are
cucumber, carrots, corn and cherry tomatoes.
+ they're healthy!!!


The hard part is usually finding the dessert
(especially if you are like me and like sweets)
I recommend fruits, especially orange that can be put in quarters
Apples are not the best as they darken

If you eat with HASHI, be sure you can hold the fruits
(for example, bananas are sticky BUT they tend to 'crush')

My first bento

Even though it is titled "First bento" I will show my first "Two"

They both contain the same ingredients:
- boiled pieced of beef
- hard boiled eggs
- rice
- carrots
- cucumber
- cherry tomatoes
- and chocolate pieces for the first one

My advice: don't put too much in your bento box!
First because you need to be able to close it,
Second because you might not eat all of it.

Also, octopus shaped-like sausage are easy to make
(even though here it got burnt)
Cut the end into an 8 branches star and put it in boiling water for a few seconds.

The tentacles will simply spread out