Gomoku Gohan Bento

Gomoku gohan (also called 'takikomi gohan') is rice mixed with seasonings and some ingredients (chicken, root veggies, aburaage, mushrooms and so on) before heating.  It's one of my favorite rice dishes.  This time I used medium polished rice, chicken, two sorts of mushrooms and takenoko (bamboo sprout).  And flavored with shoyu, mirin and salt.  Bamboo sprout (shoot) is a food that tells us the coming of spring.  This gomoku gohan is a leftover from last night.  I ate it longing for spring.
Dishes I made this morning were seafood/negi omelet,
daigaku-imo (fried/candy-coated sweet potato)
and julienned carrot salad.



I'm sorry that I can hardly visit you, My friends!  I'm still watching the Olympic games...
Speaking of the Olympics, most Japanese are wound up for the women's figure skating - free program on Friday.  Asada Mao perfectly executed "triple axel" on the short program yesterday.  But Kim Yu Na was excellent and perfect.  She was awesome!!  They each have their own features and attractions on their skating.  Though I think both are great, expect Kim Yu Na will win.  But Mao-chan has challenged her jump (triple axel) until now so I heartily wish Mao-chan to get the gold medal.

Monokuro Boo Bento

This morning I made a chara-ben after a while.  I love chara-ben but I'm not skillful and have poor taste so I can't make it neatly.  Moreover, my hubby is unwilling to take chara-ben, he says "no thanks!".  I know I know he's not a child.  He'll be blushing when he open his chara-ben among co-workers, LOL ^0^.  So this Monokuro Boo is a snack bento for Yuppi.



The dishes I made this morning, corn/spinach salad with creamy sesame dressing,
boiled shrimp with ketchup/mayo sauce,
and salted salmon.
Tteriyaki chicken from last night's dinner.

Also today's bento box is a glass container.  Since this one is heat-resistant glass, Hubby could rewarm his bento with micro at his office.

Fridge-cleaning Bento

I was goofing off on a bento posting a short while.  My hubby took a rest from his work for skiing and Yuppi made papa-bento several times on behalf of me.  She's lately been keen to be *a little mama*.  She takes away my housework from me.  So I didn't have to make bento and took my ease.  But she is so fickle that I have no idea of how long time she can keep it up.  As expected, this morning she asked me if she didn't have to make bento today since she wanted to have more sleep.  So I made a bento for hubby after a while.

I didn't have much time for blogging because of watching the Olympics.  I've been riveted on the TV!  I'm watching the game of ladies' curling now.  The opponent is Team China.  Since they're formidable, I'm so excited!

Oh boy!  Japan has just lost... Congrats, Chinese curlers!!
The men's figure skating is now about to begin.




Today's bento contains weenies,
iri-tamago (scrambled egg) with kani-kama (crab flavored kamaboko),
kamaboko twists,
broiled mackerel flavored with yuzu-syoyu,
carrot kimpira (flavored with miso, salt, sesame seed and sesame oil). 

To be honest, I don't like carrot, but can eat this carrot kimpira without difficulty.
 Because it's yummy and its carrot smell is milder.  Carrot is so healthy that we should have it more.
Yesterday I didn't go shopping so I had to make bento dishes with only leftover ingredients in the fridge.
　

Wishing Hubby "a good work".


The big snow flakes were coming down this morning!
The snow has piled up considerably.

Black Heart Bento

Today I made Curry-shoyu flavored chicken, Scrambled egg and edamame, Stir fried shrimp and qing geng cai (mini bok choy), Fried sweet potato.



The two bento bako are the ones Yuppi used for a kindergarten's bento several years ago.  The metallic one is stainless steel.　*My Melody* is 35 years old, the same age as tiny poem!  They had already been born in my childhood.

Valentine's Day is coming soon.  I saw everybody made "Love Bento" so I copied them.  Yes, I also put "heart things" in today's bento hehe.  And made two heart onigiri.  Are you wondering whether my heart is black,too!?  My heart color is a pale orange now, like the salmon color on the rice... fufu
What color is your heart?

Bibimbap Bento No.2

This is my own bento!  I missed taking a picture of hubby's bento.
Bibimbap is rice topped with seasoned meat and veggie.  This round container is my latest favorite, 100 yen!!  But it's too deep to pack usual bento, a bit sad.  I made harusame salad and ingredients of bibimbap this morning, tsukune (ground chicken balls) is leftover, this low-cal and healthy tsukune consists of chicken breast, atsuage (fried hard tofu), negi (a sort of scallion), sesame, and salt.  The harusame salad is seasoned with syoyu, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and salt.  Harusame is noodle made from starch. 
Harusame salad is Chinese taste, tsukune is Japanese taste, bibimbap is Korean taste.  It's an Asian Collaboration, yeay!!
Have a yummy weekend! ^0^*

Chicken Tartar Bento

Today's menu... Chicken tartar (fried/uster sauce-marinated chicken with tartar sauce), Potato kimpira, A half of boiled/soy-seasoned egg, Kamaboko roses, Rice topped with okaka (smoked/dried bonito flake) and radish sprouts and sprinkled with a little salt.
My tartar sauce consists of mayonnaise, cut fine red onion and boiled egg and pickle (any sort of pickles), a little of lemon juice and salt.

Tondon Bento

Today's bento is Tondon !! (sauteed pork slices donburi) 
Nothing beats donburi when I need to make bento quickly.  Yes, I didn't have a lot of time, I overslept hehe.  Donburi is a bowl of rice topped with dish.  It's also popular as lunch.  Do you know Katsudon, Tendon, Oyakodon etc?   I love harmony of rice & dish.
Today's bento-bako is an enamel container.  This is one of my favorite bento-bako.  I like ceramic and glass containers better than plastic ones.  But they're so fragile that I often use enamel container.



I love purple veggies and often use purple daikon (radish).  The daikon blossoms are pickled with salt and kombu-cha.  Pickle is a standard item for Japanese bento as hamburger and hot dog are mostly garnished with pickle.
By the way, do you know kombu-cha?  Kombu-cha sold in USA are not real kombu-cha.  They're a kind of fermented beverage!  Japanese kombu-cha is made from kombu (seaweed) and seasonings and salt.  It's
powder, so we dissolve it in hot water, then drink it as hot tea.  We also use kombu-cha powder for cooking as seasoning.




The other day, I made some crepes.  We can have fresh and tasty strawberries during this season.  With fresh whipped cream...  Mmm drool!