Karaage Bento

Yuppi has a field trip again despite the rain. Today's bento features Karaage (Japanese fried chicken)! Looks like I make fried chicken for her field trip bento each time? Many kids are big on it. I was also no exception as a kid. Fresh-fried karaage is tip-top but it's tasty even cold, and marinated one is also good for bento. There are tons of karaage recipes out there, but I usually do in a simple way. I seasoned cut chicken thigh with some shoyu, ginger powder and black pepper, then dredged in potato starch, then shallow-fried it. The rest of this bento has two onigiri, usual tamagoyaki, honey buttered purple sweet potato, and a cup of grapefruit, orange and green grape for refreshment. Whoa I'ts already Friday!? And this one is the last bento this month!!! Happy weekend all!

Pork Gyudon Bento

A bento this morning is a super quick one! Gyudon is a bowl of rice topped with simmered beef and onion, known as one of fast foods. Do you know *Yoshinoya*? I rarely eat beef except for hamburgers and BBQ. So I make beef-don with pork! I know that sounds funny, but you know pork-don is a bit different thing from my pork gyudon... oh wait, what am I saying?? Haha! Okay I'll stop complicating things. I simply threw together pork slices, onion slices, some shoyu, mirin, sugar and water in a frying pan and cooked swiftly. Put it over brown rice in a glass bowl so Hubby can nuke it at work. Yes this is his lunch. Since He has left home too early recently, he's had an onigiri bento or no bento. I made him a decent bento for the first time in a while lol!

Brown Rice Onigiri Saturday

Happy Autumn! I'm happy everything is delicious this season! Those of you who are where it's winter now, sorry! You're heading into the spring right? Instead I'm heading into the cooold winter. So at least I have to relish fall deliciousness before the winter coming.





Today's bento is not fancy at all. Since the season of newly harvested rice has arrived here I restarted purchase genmai (brown rice). As you know genmai is great for your health. I heard that genmai itself was a complete nutritious food. But to be honest, I don't like it so much because of the texture haha! I sometimes want to eat it, but if I keep eating it everyday for a while I would get bored. And you can't get the most out of the nutrient of genmai unless you masticate it thoroughly. So I polish my genmai a bit in a rice polisher before cooking. But no worries, the bran removed from brown rice is just a little bit, so it's like you just scratch surface of brown rice grains. By this way, you can cook genmai as you do white rice, also it's closer in texture to white rice. I don't think it really makes sense to eat food that you don't like no matter how healthy it is. I'm currently loving this slight-polished genmai. It tastes good so I can keep eating forever. By the way, sprouted brown rice can also be cooked like white rice, but it's somewhat more expensive than regular one, isn't it? Not that you can't make brown rice grains sprout on your own at home, but doesn't that sound like a pain?


In the meantime, I'm sorry I'm behind on announcement of the giveaway winner. Far more people entered the giveaway than I'd expected, THANK YOU! I felt so bad that I could only draw one person so I actually prepared the second prize! It looks like it takes me a bit longer until everything is ready. I'll first email the two winners before announcing. Stay turned!

The first prize.


The second prize.

Sandwich Bento --- Teriyaki Chicken and Herb Shrimp

Hi! How is your week going? My routine has a bit changed recently so I have made few bentos this week. To be exact, I have made some onigiri everyday though. Today Yuppi has a field trip again! So she worked so hard on her bento this morning. She wants to show her teachers and pals her bento that she prepared all by herself. It's nice to see her enjoying cooking no matter how much the kitchen gets messed up (to be honest... sigh) lol! She will be having a blast with the pals at some fun places to go to.

Yuppi made two kinds of sandwiches for today's lunch. The one is a combo of teriyaki chicken and tartar sauce, the other is sauteed shrimp seasoned with some sauces and herb mix. She also packed a mini macaroni gratin (Japanese mac and cheese) from last night's dinner in the bento.



Kyaaaahh more bento checkers today!!



What are you guys doing here!?!?



Since Yuppi so wanted me to have the same sandwiches, I got this one for lunch yay! The sandwiches were surprisingly yummy!


I also had a leftover gratin and a bottle of sweet milk kohi (Japanese latte).



It's been two weeks or so since the giveaway post. Hopefully I'll draw the winner this weekend. Have you entered yet? No time to hesitate. Plus you know what, I have another good news! Anyway happy weekend guys!!

Autumn and Sandwich Bento and Chili Pepper

A field trip bento again! Despite that, it's cloudy and drizzling today. At least I want to make a bento lunch bright and cheerful on a day like that. Today I made ham/egg sandwich, pan-fried chicken-with-bone sticks, a cup of fruit yogurt for refreshment.



Waaaahh I didn't notice at all someone examine this bento carefully! I hope it's OK!



By the way, sadly, the product from our tiny garden almost ends as fall is around corner. I planted a togarashi (chili) pot this spring for the first time. It went best in all the plants we've grown this time. I'm still wondering what to make with it because my family don't like spicy food except for me.

Satoimo Shrimp Sandwich

Thanks so much for entering my giveaway and the encouraging comments! I appreciate it. The giveaway will be open for a while. You are all welcome. Those of you who've entered it already, stay tuned!

Today I have something new to share. Though I made this bento a little while back, I've saved it for when I can have time to write a recipe for it.
Can you guess what these are? Yes they are satoimo, a sort of taro! Raw ones are slimy, but cooked ones are a bit sticky and smoother than potato. I think its texture is kind of similar to avocado's. Not that I'm big fan of it, but I love satoimo sandwiches so I thought I wanted to share the idea of this bento. Of course if you dislike satoimo or can't find it at your supermarkets, potato would work as well as satoimo on this recipe.



This is a do-it-yourself sammy bento. I prepared two kinds of fillings using satoimo and shrimp. And I baked some bagels and buns using one dough.



Sandwich filling -- Satoimo (taro)

Peel satoimo and cut into easy-to-eat size pieces, then boil in salted water until tender. Then drain and flavor with a little butter and ground sesame. Though you may not have heard of a combo of satoimo/potato, butter and sesame seeds, it has a soft and tender flavor, like kind of a comfort food.


Sandwich filling -- Shrimp

Boil shrimps, then drain and shell. Season with some mayonnaise, ketchup and lemon juice as you like.





You can eat satoimo and shrimp together, or separately as well.



Here are my soy milk whole wheat bagels and *butt buns*. Some friends liked this naming lol! I actually mismeasured the liquid amount of the dough. That's why these bagels look kind of tough haha!

Pink Bento and Meat Ball

Quick post! This is a bento the other day. Does it look kind of gorgeous? All I made for the bento was mashed potato, and I only cut veggie. The rest of the bento are meat balls that Yuppi made in the morning, rice topped with umeboshi, a mini bottle of salad dressing, a mini frozen gratin cup (store bought), and two slices of baked sweet potato (also store bought) for dessert. A super quick bento!






This one is Yuppi's bento she packed herself, which has pretty much the same foods. The pink stars on the lettuce are red daikon (radish). She also had a mini jar of sesame dressing for the veggie.



Happy weekend all!

P.S. Don't you forget anything? My giveaway's here!

Tondon Bento -- Shoyu Honey Pork

A bento today is really simple but simple is not bad. You don't need to feel ashamed just because you don't work hard on bentomaking. Bento is only one part of dairy meals. You make meals not to show people your creations but to make your family and yourself smile, so take it easy. --- Note to self... LOL! What I fixed for bento this morning are a cup of ruby grapefruit, tamagoyaki slices, mashed potato seasoned with red dekofuri, which you can hardly see how it's bear face-shaped. And main... is tondon!! It's short for pork domburi in Japanese --- a bowl of rice topped with grilled pork slices seasoned with special tondon sauce. But mine is not special at all. I make it in a super lazy way!

1) Cut pork slices into bite size pieces, then dredge in a little flour.
2) Saute the pork in a frying pan, then seasoned with shoyu and honey as you like. Then put it over rice. Done!

A combo of shoyu and honey will turn out a simple but great sauce. It needs nothing else. And it can be applied to chicken. So you don't have to buy a bottled tariyaki sauce anymore. I put a little sesame seeds and mustard sprouts on the pork. Yuppi also had a panda choco cookie for a little treat.



I have another few photos to share because It's boring having only one photo on a post. Some of you saw them already on Twitter or Flickr though.


This is where Yuppi went on a school trip. It was such a nice day!






Since It's been too darn muggy here for the last couple of days due to the typhoon coming, I needed shave ice to get rid of the heat and humidity around me. Our kyorochan did a great job this time also.



I have to share freaking scary photos! We got two kegani (crabs) from Dad the other day. It kept glaring at me with an angry eye till eaten by us. It was really yummy though. Do you have courage to eat it??


Whoaaahhh!


For those who've not checked my bento giveaway yet, click here!

Love From Japan

This giveaway has closed. Thank you so much for the entry! (SEPTEMBER 16, 2011)


Hey everyone! At last... it looks like I get to do a giveaway whooooo yey yey! First of all, I want to apologize to everyone that it's been such a long while since I've mentioned my first giveaway for the first time. Actually, It was supposed to be done in honor of my 100th post, but oh Lord, the biggest earthquake and tsunami did attack Japan right before doing it. Since then, I'd been considering if I should not do a fun event like a giveaway, or should put up my giveaway items for auction to raise Japan earthquake relief funds. However, I eventually figured that the fastest and best way I could do something at that point for the affected people was not to call off the giveaway but to donate money directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society. I hope everyone understands my feeling.

Although I've done bento for quite a long time I'd actually never known that there'd been lots and lots of bento lovers worldwide until I started this blog. What made me even more surprised was that they all enjoyed their own bento style!　Not only that, I do feel so much love, caring and even a bit (or lot) of fun in every single one of their bentos. That has really inspired me so far and that's why I love looking at everyone's bento. But I feel bad about not having much time to leave a comment to all of them. And yet so many people have come by and made a sweet comment on my post since I started this blog. It has meant a lot to me. I also think I'd like to pull for people trying to make their daily bento -- in particular who are much younger than I am. And above all I appreciate that so many bento buddies have been supportive of Japan since the earthquake. All of these things made me want to do something that can show my appreciation and love. Now let me say, THANK YOU so much for always being awesome and thoughtful and inspiring! And of course, for bearing with my clumsy crazy articles lol! (But no worries, I do enjoy it myself hehe). OK, you may get fed up with reading too long story, right? Me too! I will move on to the main point now.

Ja jaaaaan!! Here are bento weapons you might get, which I selected with enjoyment. I sure hope the winner like and use them.
A two-tiered plastic bento box, a pair of chopsticks, four plastic dessert cups that fit in deep containers.


This is a bento Yuppi made the dishes and I packed them in the same bento box as the one above a while back. One of our collaborations. (Note: This bento isn't included in the giveaway since I ate it already lol!)


Two boxes of my favorite wax paper, flower-shaped silicon cups, a sheet of tiny bento stickers.

A regular bento sized furoshiki and a picnic bento sized one. Do you know about Furoshiki? It is a traditional beautiful Japanese cloth that is very versatile. Large ones are available as a scarf, picnic mat, shopping bag and so on. I really like the black one I selected this time.


I thought this giveaway was supposed to feature Sakura because I was going to do it during the Sakura season. And I think Sakura symbolizes Japanese culture. I'm soooo excited by thinking that one of you will use these lovely bento goods!
Maybe I won't announce this giveaway anywhere else because I'd like to send it to one of those who've enjoyed this blog so far. And I haven't set the entry period yet. It will be open until I get satisfied (wow how random!) Maybe for a couple weeks or so.

Here are the entry conditions I came up with. It's no problem even if you've never commented on the blog before.
1) You like to visit here and see my bentos.
2) You'd really like to use these items for your own bentoing.
3) You live where I can ship the package. (I suppose I can probably ship it to pretty much any countries, but in case I can't, I'm sorry!)

If you meet all the conditions above please write whatever you'd like to say in the comment box below. It's okay to even write just *Hi* or anything. You'll automatically be entered into the giveaway once you make a comment. Not that you need to show how much you like the blog, in case haha! This is to show my love for y'all. Just go and win!!

Note: Sometimes my DISQUS comment box doesn't come out on your comp/mobile screen. In that case, you can comment here.

たまにDISQUSのコメントボックスが画面に表れないことがあります。その場合はこちらにコメントを！

この記事をやっと書き上げて思い出したことは、もしかして日本にもこのブログを読んでくれている人が何人かいるかも知れない、と言うことでした。なので日本語でも書いてみたいと思います。日本には数え切れないほどのお弁当ブロガーさんたちがいますが、私はこのブログを始めるまで世界中にこんなにもたくさんのお弁当大好き仲間がいるなんて全く知りませんでした。日本の伝統的な食文化の良さを取り入れようとしている人、日本人とは全く違う発想をお弁当に盛り込んでいる人、食べるのがもったいないぐらいに手の込んだ愛らしいキャラ弁を作っている人、本当に様々です。でもどれもみんな食べる人に対する愛情がこもっているのは海外も日本も同じ。みんなのお弁当から沢山の刺激をもらい私自身のお弁当作りもだんだんと変わってきました。このブログを始めて以来、当初の予想に反して（！？）沢山の人たちが励みになるコメントを残してくれました。批判めいたものが一つもなかったことが本当に驚きです。そしてこのブログを通じて色んな人たちに出会えたことがほんと～にうれしいです。この前の地震の際には沢山の海外の仲間たちが日本のことを心配して、なんとか力になりたいと一生懸命行動を起こしている様子を見て、ありがたい気持ちでいっぱいになりました。それから私は結構長いことお弁当を作っているので、私よりもずっと若い人たちが日々、お弁当作りをがんばっているのを見るとものすごー感心します。かげながらそんな人たちを応援したいとも思っています。まあそんなこんなで私の感謝と愛をあらわせる事をなんかしたいとずっと思っていましたが、よ～うやくその時が来ました！！応募期間はまだ決めていませんが私の気が済むまで募集する予定です（かなりてきとうやん！）。多分２～３週間は開けておきます。応募方法は簡単。下のコメントボックスに書きたいことをなにか書いてね。例えば*こんにちは*だけでも何でもオッケー。特にこのブログに対するあなたの想いをあらわす必要があるというわけではないので、念のため。これは私のみんなへのラブをあらわすためのものです、はは！なのでみんなも下の条件に合うならどしどし応募してね！

お弁当グッズプレゼント、参加条件
1) このブログに遊びに来て私の弁当たちを見るのを楽しんでいる
2) 私が選んだお弁当グッズをあなたのお弁当作りにぜひ使いたいと思っている
3) 私がプレゼントを発送できる地域に住んでいる