July 14th Bento Lunch

Hmmm....the pics didnt really turn out today. But you get the idea.

We didn't manage to get out for groceries until tonight, so it was slim pickin's for produce for today's bento. We had avocado maki and bacon wrapped chicken thigh for the main components of the bento.

In the top right corner you can see the lentil snacks I made last night. I got the recipe from a site that justbento links to. I forgot to put them in my bento, but BF said they were really yummy. It's a good thing too, because the recipe made about fifty of them.

For veggies, I used everything we had in the fridge. Steamed gai lon, broccoli, sugar snaps, carrot flowers and fried plantain tulips.

There are a few bites of cheddar in the top of the bento. For fruit I used apple slices to add more carbs since there isn't really all that much rice in the sushi. There are some butterflies cut from yellow kiwi (I actually liked this better than regular green kiwi. Its sweeter and has a smoother texture), a lychee, blueberries and some rhubarb that I cooked up with some strawberries.

I made the sushi, chicken, lentil snacks and rhubarb the night before, so this was actually really quick to throw together this morning. And considering how late I slept in this morning, that was a good thing!

May 27th Bento

Today I started with a diamond in the center and then filled in the corners. I think it turned out pretty nice and it was definitely yummy.

I tested out my rice cuber for the first time. The yellow rice is coloured with tumeric, the purple rice is flavored with shiso furikake and the white rice is plain with salt. I purchased the cuber from this ebay seller along with some other rice molds a few weeks ago.

In the top right corner there are a couple of gyoza. Bottom right is breaded pork cutlet pieces and asparagus bites. The other corners are foods that are in season here, fiddleheads and rhubarb.

To make the rhubarb, I took 1 chopped stalk of rhubarb, and 1 chopped strawberry, chopped and simmered them in a pot with about 2 Tbsp water until everything was soft and mushy. Then I added 2 Tbsp sugar, stirred until dissolved, removed from heat, and finally added about 1/2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in a little water to thicken it up. Rhubarb to me is just one of those tastes that brings me home, I love it.

There are also some sugar snaps, carrot flowers and broccoli floating around in there.

For fruit, there are a few slices of fresh pineapple, raspberries, blueberries, a little more strawberry, and a couple of slices of kumquat. The kumquat was so tart and tangy, it's a great way to cleanse your palate between bites. Dessert was a date square.