Simple Bento Meat Meat Meat

My bento 2011 is coming to the end. I'm probably going to make a few more bentos until the end of the year though. Looking back, most of my bentos had chicken or pork. I rarely use sausages or ham or something like that in bento, and my family like meat. Plus meat comes in handy especially in the busy morning. You really just saute or fry it in a frying pan. That's why I use meat very often. But I secretly think I want to be vegetarian someday...　It would be a hard road for me haha. Hopefully I will use less meat next year. We'll see.


This bento contains jako & sakura ebi onigiri, ketchup chicken and homemade yogurt for dessert.



This one is a very teriyaki chicken bento. This day, I didn't have anything (that could be bento dishes), egg or vegetable but chicken thigh. This mikan barely made up for the lack of fun. But sometimes you feel like a simple bento like this one is also best hehe.



To liven up my bento, I scattered ginger pickle slices around the teriyaki. Ginger pickle not only gives an accent to bento, but also goes well with teriyaki stuff.



For this bento, I made sweet salty sour sesame chicken, grilled mayo egg halves, and a sweet potato cup which I mixed boiled-sweet potato, dried cranberry, walnut, a bit of salt and butter all together. I don't know why but these foods in this bento look not tasty. I think it's because of the sunlight and my camera setting. The foods were really good, I swear lol. I think I need a lot more tries to get pleasing pictures.

Fried Chicken Bento and Ginger Pork Bento and Totoro

This bento contains two fried chicken drumsticks, macaroni salad, plain omelet and two onigiri. I rarely use drumsticks for bento because they are a bit hard to eat. I think bentos should be easy to eat. However I didn't have any decent stuff other than them in the fridge haha.


I seasoned the drumsticks with herb salt, then dredged in potato starch, then deep-fried (not as usual) them.


For these bentos, I lightly dredged pork slices with starch, then sauteed, then tossed them with a little of syoyu/mirin/grated ginger/water in a frying pan. Also I mixed shirasu (teeny tiny fishes) and umeboshi, then put it on rice as with the ginger pork.




What does this look like? As soon as I found this baby, I said *KUMA CHAN!!* I thought it just looked like a bear's head. But Yuppi said *TOTORO!!*


Yeah I know, it is Totoro as you say! Red Little Totoro!?!?

Bento and X'mas Prep

Happy Saturday night!! It's so nice to be relaxed sitting in front of the computer. I want to somehow post this year's bentos before the new year comes. These bentos are the ones I've made recently.

Patatas bravas (Spanish crisp spiced potato), chicken bacon rolls and cheese omelet.


Loco Moco -- chicken/pork patties with sauce and an egg sunny-side up on rice.


Chili shrimp on a bed of rice and julienne lettuce. And scrambled egg and a cup of sauteed chicken tender and bacon.


This one is for myself. The tiny pink things are ginger pickle by the way.


Is your Christmas prep going well? I've been making tons of cookies this week. We've already given the first batch away to some of our friends. It's always great to see (hear) people saying *wahhh, kawaiiii, oishii!* with what I made for them. I still have another batch to bake and pack and pass out. Though it's just self-satisfaction, it's always so much fun, isn't it?


Whoa somebody is shouting... *Let me ouuut!!*

Ebi Fry Bento and Chicken Rice Bento and Birthday

Ya Hooooi! Maybe... it's been a while!?!? I finally get around to writing a post whooo! I've got so many bento photos to post but I think I will only up three this time. I made ebi (shrimp) fry, boiled egg salad and onigiri for these bentos.





The other day, I thought I would make a omrice bento, but I ran out of eggs so this bento turned out chicken rice. In Japan, *chicken rice* means fried rice with ketchup and chicken in it. So you can probably say chicken rice is *omrice without an omelet*... Maybe I'm getting things complicated again? haha. Also I made potato milk soup along with the chicken rice.



In the past week, we had two birthdays. 6th is mine, 9th is Yuppi's. Not only this year was a terribly tragic one for everyone in Japan, but it's actually rough for us two also. However I am thankful that we are all healthy and great! And above all, that I've been able to continue fun bentoing! I really want nothing other than them.



Yuppi wanted a PlayStation Portable or 3DS or Smartphone for her birthday, but I talked her into waiting it until she finishes her entrance exams next February because she now has to study very very hard. So I made her a little flower arrangement and gave a cute cupcake-shaped jar instead.





This cake is from my favorite cake shop. Not only is it darn cute but scrumptious!! With a wonderful harmony of strawberry mousse, custard cream, raspberry jelly and sponge cake, mmm... melting!!



I can never believe it's been 12 years already! She is still a giant baby though haha! I am glad that she is a loving girl now. The only one on earth who loves me this much, and my best friend. She was really happy with all the little surprises I'd prepared.