Obento May 31, 2010

Beginning on bentomaking of this week!  Is it the end of the month today!?  Five months have passed since the beginning of the year, how quickly! *sigh*
Well, today's bento..... is boring, haha.  I overslept since my clock lost more than twenty minutes.  Although I like my bento to be healthy, meat is always helpful when I don't have enough time.  Meat needs nothing other than heating and seasoning.  So all you have to do is sear your meat, *sizzle~~*   Let me explain for those unfamiliar with Tondon.  Tondon consists of rice and seared or barbecued pork slices seasoned with sweet syoyu/miso sauce.  'Ton' means pork, 'don' means domburi.  Quick Bento yeay!!



Tondon (rice, pork slices, shoyu, miso and sugar or mirin)
Boiled cut asparagus (salt, black pepper and olive oil)
Kimpira - stir fried julienned carrot and sliced chikuwa (salt, shoyu, sugar and brown sesame oil)

Obento May 27 & 28, 2010

GOOD morning!  In spite of early morning, I made chicken curry this morning because I wanted to have it.  This curry is super easy and quick!  All you need to do is throw all ingredients together in a pot and cook for a while.  But unfortunately, I had no time to make chapati or naan.  Yes I packed rice as always.  I added some syoyu to this curry so that it will go well with rice.



Today's bento
Quick chicken curry (chicken breast slices, grated onion, garlic slices, syoyu, uster sauce, curry powder, garam masala, coriander powder, flour) with a half of boiled egg
Braised bonito dices / two sorts of mushrooms
Shredded veggie salad with lemon dressing
Honey braised sweet potato slices with black sesame seeds
Medium polished rice





Yesterday's bento
Salad (boiled egg and potato, salt, mayonnaise, lemon juice)
Sauteed pork rolls with ketchup (cheese, shiso leaves)
Sauteed cut asparagus (salt, black pepper)
Nimono (dried shredded daikon, satsumaage-fried fish paste)
Kiyomi orange wedges
Medium polished rice topped with siokombu

Have a great and yummy weekend!! ^o^

Obento May 25 & 26, 2010

Good morning, ohayou gozaimasu!!  Middle of the week, how's everything, folks?  It's still cold here so the kerosene heater in my room is working right now.  June is just around the corner, though... Ugh I am contributing to carbon footprint!  I'd better endure the cold.  I can't wait for summer!!



Today's bento
Tamagoyaki slices
Boiled asparagus with sesame dressing
Braised bonito dices
Stir fried julienne carrot and red bell pepper (oyster sauce, salt and black pepper)
Chicken fritter (beni syoga and salt)
Garnish (shiso leaf, lemon slice and hanabira fu)




Today's post has another bento picture.

Yesterday's bento
Biryani - Indian rice dish (rice, chicken, onion, bell pepper, salt and several sorts of spices)
Raw vegetable salad with lemon dressing
Kiyomi orange

Obento May 21, 2010

♪ Sakura sakura~~ ♪　What day is it today??  Friday, yaaay!!  And today is my hubby's birthday.  He is going to participate in the Toya marathon tomorrow.
In the meantime, fortunately, Sakura trees are STILL blooming in my area.  But we can't yet go on a ohanami picnic since we have lots of things we've got to do on weekend.  At least, I wanted to make a sakura bento this morning.  Maybe this was the first time I dyed food with food coloring.  I used red food coloring obtained from safflower for usuyaki tamago (egg sheet).  Look!  Do these blossoms look like fish sausage, don't these??  Gosh!  This time, I discovered that natural food colorings weren't strong unlike synthetic ones.  Though this bento didn't come out as I thought, I'm going to keep it up.  I need to attempt a lot more.  Long and winding road~~ ♪ HAHA



I found fresh fillets of atka mackerel sold at low price yesterday.  So I made some fish patties last night.  Salmon chirashi zushi under the blossoms and cut edamame.  And hodgepodge salad (I call it) and fried pumpkin slices seasoned with mentsuyu.

Obneto May 20, 2010

Good morning world!!  Today's bento... Here you are! ^^
This morning, I made Sosu katsudon (rice topped with cutlet with sauce).



Chicken tenderloin cutlet
Grilled mackerel
Usuyaki-tamago (egg sheet) / edamame salad
Marinated bell pepper
Rice
Nori under the chicken cutlet slices
Lemon slice, Broccoli sprouts and Red cabbage sprouts



♪ Today's simple cooking ♪
You can use various vegetable besides bell peppers.

How to Cook Wafu Bell pepper Marinade
1) Cut some bell peppers then fry or saute it in some vegetable oil
2) Sprinkle a little mentsuyu  on the fried bell pepper and toss well
You can add a little bit of sesame oil

Mentsuyu consists of soy sauce, sugar, mirin and dashi.  Do you have  it?  If you like Japanese cuisine, it is useful for various cooking.   You can use mentsuyu for Noodles, Nikujaga, Tempra, Nimono, Kimpira, Wafu salad dressing.  And it's so helpful when I overslept and have little time in the morning since I don't have to prepare many seasonings other than mentsuyu.

Obento May 19, 2010

Today's bento is omusubi (also called *onigiri*) bento.  Omusubi is simple, quick and transportable so it is perfect for lunch and snack for a trip around.  I think it's healthier than sandwich.  These omusubi have salted salmon pieces in the center.



This round container has
Fried chicken (leftover)
Tamagoyaki slices (contains minced ginger pickle)
Stir-fried tanba shimeji (mushrooms) and bacon slices
Turnip flower pickle skewers
Cherry tomatoes, broccoli sprouts and wedges of lemon and kiyomi orange

Obento May 17, 2010

Let's get started!  Beginning of the week.  Today's bento is also just WAFU (Japanese style) bento.  I'm actually getting tired of them, hehe.  So I'm going to make a different type of bento.  I'm not sure how it will come out though.  Stay tuned!

Sauteed cut asparagus
Sauteed mushrooms (shiitake, maitake)
Stir fried egg and julienned carrot
Curry sauteed bonito pieces
Edamame, red cabbage sprouts and hanabirafu (flower shaped gluten puffs)
White rice topped with pieces of kombu sheet

Belated Spring !?  Many of the flowers around are bursting right now, uwaaai!!

Obento May 14, 2010

Phew~~~ I managed to do bentomaking (two bentos) and was able to work it out, yay! Luckily, Kuusou sent me a nice idea. She made spring rolls for her family so I stole an idea of *Spring roll bento* from her hehe. Thank you so much Kuusou!



Cut harumaki (spring rolls)
Slices of chicken steak
Sauteed snap peas and fresh cherry tomatoes
Grilled salty salmon chunk
Wrenched kamaboko and red cabbage sprouts
White rice topped with koume



Slices of rolled hot dog onigiri (not makizushi)
Harumaki (spring rolls)
Slices of chicken steak
Sauteed snap peas
Cherry tomatoes
Two kinds of kiwis and sun fruit citrus




Have you ever made some harumaki??  Hot harumaki is SO good.  Yuppi also love it.  Usual harumaki consists of a harumaki skin and seasoned/thicken vegetable and meat.  But you can use various foods for harumaki filling.  For example, leftover from the previous night, cooked chicken or meat, potato salad, stir fried rice or noodles, Chili con carne ,shrimp paste and so on.  Also you can use fresh banana, apple pie filling, pumpkin pie filling for making hot dessert harumaki.
This morning, I used a combination of cheese, hum and ketchup for harumaki filling because this combo barely gets limp after awhile unlike usual harumaki.


Just-fried harumaki (spring rolls)


Here are my bento accessories.  I should confess that I don't eat any tomatoes.  Though I don't like to put a tomato in bento, they help me whenever I have trouble filling bento spaces.  But that's okay because fortunately the bento eater is not me, LOL!  Hubby doesn't mind tomatoes.  I will never put it my bento, never...


Three color tomatoes
Jewels!?


Red cabbage sprouts
The taste is mild.

Have a happy and yummy weekend!!

Obento May 13, 2010

Goood Morning World!  Also today, a bento diary from Japan.  Today's bento is a fridge-cleaning bento since I didn't have good ingredients enough in the fridge.  In case like this, how about *Chahan* for your bento??  The odds and ends in your fridge will (may) be cleaned up! 



Curry flavored bacon chahan (stir fried rice)
Sauteed hot dogs
Boiled carrot flowers and a cherry tomato
Potato salad (leftover)
Kamaboko flowers, edamame beans (look like leaves!?) and red cabbage sprouts (as usual, love it)

Is this bento too cute for Ossan (adult men) !? hahaha OK, I know, it's my complacence.



Phew~~ Yuppi is going on a school trip tomorrow. So I'll have to make two bentos tomorrow. What should I make for her bento!?

Obento May 12, 2010

Potato kimpira
Ketchup flavored pieces of chicken breast
Edamame/bacon omelet
Stir fried shirataki (konnyaku noodles) and shiitake (mushrooms) and takenoko (bamboo shoot)
Kamaboko and Red cabbage sprouts
Medium polished rice topped with koume (tiny plum pickle)


♪Today's Simple Cooking♪　Ta-daaah!
Yes, I love potato~~♪　This morning, I made potato kimpira.  Kimpira is stir fried julienne root veggie.  You could use various veggies, for example, carrot, broccoli stem, celery, burdock, daikon etc.  And it's okay to season it as you like.  Mostly, it's seasoned with syoyu and sugar and mirin, so it goes well with a rice bento.



How to Make Potato Kimpira
1) Peel some potatoes and cut it into fine strips.
2) Stir-fry it with a little of vegetable oil and water until get translucent.
3) Season it with some of shoyu and sugar, and a bit of butter.
4) Sprinkle a little sesame seeds (if you have it).
(Butter matches potato perfectly.  But you can add a little curry powder instead of butter.)

Obento May 11, 2010

White rice topped with grilled salmon and edamame beans
Simmered bamboo shoot and chicken and carrot
Mini omelet
Sweet potato salad
Cherry tomato and Red cabbage sprouts

♪Today's Simple Cooking♪
I think beans and root veggies (potato, carrot, lotus root, burdock and so on) are sooo good for health so we should have either every day.  I often put them in bento.
This morning, I made sweet potato salad.  It's easy to make, plus of course yummy!

How to Make Sweet Potato and Walnut Salad
1) Peel a sweet potato and cut it into bite-size pieces then boil until get soft.
2) Drain and place it in a bowl.
3) Add some of mayonnaise and cut walnut, and a little salt then mix well.
(You can add some of raisin or apple slices if you like it. ^-^*)

Obento May 10, 2010

Let's get started!  Today's bento is ALSO Nokke-ben (rice topped with bento dishes). 
It's so simple and easy to pack that it's right up my alley, Ha.
This magewappa is ideal for nokke-ben! Because this one can contain alot!!

Edamame
Carrot kimpira
Curry flavored/braised mushrooms (tanba shimeji)
Slices of bonito steak
Scrambled egg
Daikon sprouts
Red cabbage sprouts
Brown rice



Yesterday was Mother's Day!  Some of you celebrated and some of you were celebrated, I guess.
Anyway, I hope all of you had a nice Mother's Day.  I was thinking of my mother in heaven and Hubby's mother, and grateful to them.
And let me stick some pictures of surprises from Yuppi on this posting, since she hopes that.  She hopes everyone will see her products ^^

 




Yuppi-made flower arrangement


Yuppi-made cookies


Yuppi-written letter


Yuppi-made ring

Thank you for seeing!

Obneto May 7, 2010

Heeey, what a dull shot!  It was dark in my room.  Though Sakura started to blossom at last yesterday, it's raining and cold today so I need heating right now. 
I think it's a little hard to see what today's bento dishes are.  BUT now the time is coming to show my second magewappa, yay!!  I got the lid painted the illustration of daisy.  So I love daisy!  Isn't it a bit cute??  Is it hard to see?? tee hee



A chunk of grilled salty salmon
Karaage (Japanese fried chicken)
Panko fried shrimps with sauce
Sauteed asparagus
Ham-wrapped potato/cucumber salad
Kiyomi orange wedges
Rice topped with koume

Today's bento contains lots of deep fried food since Yuppi was going on a school excursion.  Karaage and panko shrimp are her favorites.  But unluckily, the excursion was postponed because of the weather so she will have her bento at school.  Sorry!  I missed taking a picture of hers.

Have a nice and yummy weekend, my friends!!

Obento May 6, 2010

Our no bento days passed so my bentomaking started again today.  We had a long weekend. (Or should I say *Belated spring holiday*?)  Many national holidays concentrate at this time.  We call it *Golden Week* in Japan.  Those who had the longest golden week took a 7-day holiday.  We had only 5 days.  Although we usually enjoy an Ohanami picnic during golden week, cherry trees this year don't yet start to blossom at all in our area, booo  So I missed a chance to make a ohanami bento.  But we were able to enjoy some trips around.



Today's magewappa contains
Pieces of teriyaki chicken tenderloin
Slices of rolled negi omelet
Simmered carrot blossoms
Daigakuimo (fried sweet potato with sesame seeds)
Two cherry tomatoes
An edamame (green soy beans) skewer
and White rice