Autumn Leaves Bento Box

Autumn and roasting seem to go "hand in hand". Well, lately in at my house it does. It's quick, easy, healthy and warms up the kitchen all in one swoop. Especially if you mix and match the veggies. Today's featured bento contains some of the mix and match repeats from yesterday's lunch. But don't get discouraged, please read on, for at the end I'll tell you how I made the dry stir fried "wheat meat" which is included in today's vegan bento box. You just can't see it; it's hidden under all that yummy roasted asparagus and yellow carrots! Those yellow carrots are really bright yellow aren't they? Wow. The purple carrots are roasted too; the renkon (lotus roots) are not, they're simmered, but I'm adding these guys to the list of potential items for roasting next time. The orange "leaves" are sweet potatoes and before you ask... nope, they're baked...and lastly the plain tomatoes. These are perfect the way they are. If you look closely between the carrots and asparagus, you can see the sliced peppers that were fried with the "wheat meat". One of those slices is a purple pepper which lost it's color during the cooking process. Would of been cool, but oh well.

How to make the dry strir fry:

Slice and soak some "wheat meat" overnight in a marinade of your choice. I did the "teriyaki" thing with these. The "wheat meat" is store bought, but some day I will attempt making my own. If I ever do, I'll document my process here.

I thinly sliced peppers and onion, crushed a clove of garlic and a bit of fresh ginger.

Heat up a frying pan and add a touch of canola oil. When nice and hot, add the drained slices of "wheat meat" and stir to keep from sticking. Keep stirring while adding the remaining ingredients. The idea is to cook until the moisture is gone and the veggies cooked but still a little crisp. I like to start off with less moisture and add as needed until done. Starting off with too much liquid may cause vegetable sogginess which is not the desired affect.

I like to add some sesame seeds at the end for interest and a bit of flavor.

This dish is a nice break from animal protein and you may not even taste the difference. Have fun coming up with your own combinations of vegetables and seasonings.

Why dry stir fry? The best practice for a successful bento box lunch(packed to eat later) is not having a lot of moisture inside. You could say it's rule #1.

Sweet Potato and Goat Cheese Bento Box

Today's bento is packed in a cute little Wonderbread sandwich box; a gift from gamene! A perfect size for a child's lunch or a snack for Saba Man. It's shape, especially the depth is ideal for presenting a variety of food items. In this instance, two halves of a salmon patty,topped with a maple leaf cut egg, and individually wrapped in lettuce. Some corn pudding (recipe in the near future) and a tasty mix of sweet potato and goat cheese. I've been practicing using cutters with some recently purchased maple leaf, oak leaf and acorn shapes: three sizes each! However, I will not get to use the littlest maple leaf shape. It had bigger dreams of living in some trendy cupcake shop and I fear it hid away in the trash and made it's escape. Too bad, for it could of starred in this very tasty and healthy bento!

Sweet Potato and Goat Cheese

Bake 1 pound of sweet potatoes, peel and place in processor. Add about 2 ounces of goat cheese and mix thoroughly. You could leave it at that, but I add a heaping tablespoon of butter, salt and tiny bit of black pepper. Eat it cold or heated.

Egg Shapers for your Bento Box

Egg molds have been a trial and error thing for me and I've made many a egg salad sandwich with all the failures. After some research and experimentation, I've discovered the rules. The first is to place the egg in the mold while it's still very warm, otherwise it starts to crack. Secondly, coat the inside with a nonstick substance. I like olive oil or butter. Yes, non-stick spray works too, but I don't like the taste and the egg definitely absorbs any flavors. Finally, use a large or extra large eggs depending on the mold. Even large eggs don't fill out the ears in the bear mold and the star mold result is a flower instead. Not so bad, but still... If an extra large egg is too much for your little one, you could cut it in half, wrap the remaining half tightly for the next day or eat it yourself. (I like latter)

Try coating the inside with some flavored butter, like garlic or herbs. Leave the egg in the shaper for a day to allow for full flavor. Yum!

Today's featured bento box contains a first victory over the car mold. Also in this snack are some tomatoes, kiwi berry, sweet potatoes, kamaboko, seaweed salad and simmered mushroom and carrots.

Quick Seaweed Salad: Soak dried wakame in a mixture of dashi, water and mirin. Set aside. Mix together sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and finely chopped roasted garlic for the dressing. (all measurements are too your personal taste) Drain the wakame and toss with the dressing, add toated sesame seeds for garnish. That's it.

Have fun using your egg molds! Beep beep...

Simmered Veggies and Chikuwa Bento Box

The chilly weather has brought on cravings for warm and comfortable home cooking. One of my most vivid kitchen memories of my mom is cooking nishime. Having the responsibility of turning the konnyaku slices into cute little twists was a thrilling sense of accomplishment for me.

There are many nishime recipes online from which you can choose. I don't have a recommendation except try to avoid using too much sugar in the broth. You can opt for a more traditonal stew using Japanese taro and gobo or go with basic root vegetables like carrots and potatoes. It's home cooking so choose your favorites. My nishime, like my mother's, is a little different each time, with various combinations of root vegetables and onions. Sometimes to my disappointment, there's a substitution by using shirataki noodles instead of twisted konnyaku slices. I believe the core of the dish is the broth. The usual dashi, soy sauce and mirin combination is fool proof for bringing out the best flavors of this dish. Again, I usually skip the sugar and rely on carrots to sweeten the dish. My favorite ingredient is the konbu, which by tradition is tied in a tight little knot before placed in the pot. Simply delicious. For a bento box lunch, I recommend packing only the solid pieces unless you use a thermos type box with leak proof seal.

The nishime in this bento box is chikuwa (broiled fish tube) stuffed with carrot, konnyaku twists, turnips, gobo (burdock), potato and mushrooms. I was out of konbu strips for knotting, so I added chopped wakame. It wasn't quite the same but still tasty.

Bento Box Close Up

I'm occasionally stumped when attempting to present a pleasing bento. Color is important by far, and for me it's the fun part when designing a bento box. The anticipation after buying purple carrots keeps me motivated for sure. The "not fun part" is texture. I have made plenty of bento boxes that are boring, boring, boring and it's not for lack of color, but lack of texture. By texture I mean both visual and touch. This other "bento dimension" is challenging and it's something I'm learning with each attempt. This photo captures a recent bento box that hopefully showcases texture as well as color. Of course, bento boxes are a personal thing, to each his own, as they say and I support every one's creativity. What do you like or dislike about your bento?

Of course TASTE is a priority for me, but what's your opinion or thoughts with regards for bento design and satisfaction? Are you a super artist that easily whips out cute charaben? (I'm envious of these gifted folks) How about practical, no fuss, no muss bento boxes without the Sanrio character? Do you sketch your bento box design beforehand or are you filling each tier "on the fly"? What combinations of food items or accessories make your bento box complete? Is your major focus about health and nutrition?



This box contains Lettuce Wrapped Salmon. It's made with grilled salmon and sliced cucumbers wrapped in green leaf lettuce. The sauce is a combination of kochujang/mayo/honey/sesame. Any fish or meat can be substituted and romaine lettuce lettuce is awesome for wrapping. It's delicious and BONUS... you don't need utensils to eat it.

Goodies from Seattle Deli

It was a very long day so we stopped at our fave Vietnamese take-out place to purchase fillers for tomorrow's bento boxes. Saba Man has BBQ Chicken banh mi with mango and assorted fruits packed in the now familiar pink sandwich bento box. Hehehe... it's the only basket bento box I have, he's used to the cute polka dots ,and his coworkers have stopped asking about it. So there you go. The snack box contains tofu spring roll, miso egg, takuwan, edamame and lotus root cooked with ginger.

To prepare this lotus root, simmer sliced lotus root in water,shoyu, mirin, sliced ginger until the liquid evaporates. Let cool completely then place in the bento box. Eat any pieces that don't fit.

Baseball Bento Box

A bento box for the last Mariner baseball game of the season. It's huge. Plenty to share. I've never packed such a large bento box before and I got scared that I would run out of items. I kept filling and filling. There's so much in there that I'm sure it will last through the entire game and we'll munch on leftovers in the car while waiting to get out of the parking lot after the game. That's the worst part of sporting events I think, especially if we lose. Hopefully having some yummy snacks will tide us over until we can hit the freeway.

Inside this 2 tier box are salmon patties wrapped in lettuce, wasabi stuffed eggs, sauteed tofu with onions and garlic, sweet potatoes, inarizushi and edamame. I'm hoping that the edamame will keep me from buying peanuts. But I doubt it.

Here's how I made the wasabi stuffed eggs. Hard boil some eggs, cut in half, and scoop out the yolks into a separate bowl. (like deviled eggs). Mix the yolks with mayo (I like Kewpie), salt and wasabi paste. The measurements are flexible based on how many eggs are boiled and how much sting is wanted with the wasabi. After thoroughly mixing, refill the egg halves and stick them back together. It won't be exact and they will look a little lumpy, but it's okay because then they are wrapped nori. The nori part is optional but I like the way it tastes. That's it.

Here's a close up of the sweet potato slices with nori details.

Vegetarian Ketchup Fried Rice

Since I'm not currently packing bento boxes I thought I would dust off an old family recipe for "Ketchup Fried Rice". Ketchup!!! Really? Yes, it's an island thing. And before I switched to soy I used to fry this baby up with...SPAM!

I no longer eat meat (hold the "SPAM is not meat" jokes) I substitute with other protein options or just eat it with egg. In fact, you can use this recipe as the filler for "Omurisu"

Ingredients:
1 cup of chopped protein: TSP, Tempeh, or wheat meat
2 C Ketchup (more or less to taste)
3-4 C day-old Cooked cold rice
Sesame oil
Cooking oil
Tabasco, optional
1 medium Round onion chopped
4 Eggs
Chopped green onions for garnish

Cooking Instructions:
Chop the Spam into 1/2 inch pieces, fry with a little cooking oil on medium/high heat. Use a large frying pan or wok. Add the chopped round onion, cook until the onions are tender. Add the sesame oil. This is for flavor and to keep the rice from burning and sticking. Immediately add the cold rice. Keep stirring and tossing to heat up the rice, when the rice starts to get hot and loosen up, slowly add the ketchup. Keep stirring until the rice is covered with the ketchup and until the desired taste is achieved. When done, set aside. Grab another frying pan and fry the eggs. When the eggs are done, scoop some of the rice in a bowl, top with an egg and garnish with the chopped green onion. Serve with Tabasco. Adjust the amount of sesame oil to your taste. Use cooking oil instead if the rice is sticking and you don't want to add too much sesame. This recipe will not work with freshly cooked rice.

I recently featured this recipe in Saba Man's bento box. He ate it with gusto and didn't miss his beloved SPAM.