Feisty Bento #30: Shooting Stars

I realized my bento last week containing pulled pork was a waste of a canvas!  When you have an item that you want spread across so widely like this, hello, it's perfect to add cute little garnishes on top and possibly make a picture!  Silly me.  Anyway, broiled asparagus (tips AND stems, mind you, just that the stems are hidden underneath the prettier tips), grape tomatoes, the same kind of pulled pork over the "negative" cut of bread, stars + one heart (because all one person needs is one heart!) cut out of 12 grain bread (the remainder tucked under the pulled pork) with green onion "tails". 

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #29: Two Car Family

I decided to sleep in a little today because someone woke me up close to midnight and kept me up for 20 minutes!!! and, as usual, I had trouble falling back asleep.  I don't have much trouble [anymore] falling asleep, just falling back asleep after I've been woken.  My mind goes nuts.  In any case, when I woke up, I was bleary and knew that sandwich bento would be the quickest way to get myself out the door and on my way to work on time. 

To brighten it up a bit, I used cutters to make a heart and star orange bell pepper before chopping the rest of the pepper up and scattering it around the salad.  (Hidden underneath are tomato chunks and then just some Romaine lettuce.)  The sandwiches are the usual that I've been preparing, and some grape tomatoes for a sweet burst of juiciness.

Happy Bento!!!

Feisty Bento #28: Leftovers

Leftover pasta courtesy of my sister- over a lining of plastic wrap so it doesn't stain or smell up my container; cut up grilled chicken courtesy of my brother with a carrot container of tonkatsu sauce in case the chicken turns out to be boring.  In hindsight, I should have used a darker container to hold the dark sauce, but I wanted a bright color next to the light chicken.  Other container is all veggies- bean sprouts courtesy of Mom, cabbage courtesy of my sister; think it has no salt so the tonkatsu can probably be used to liven that up as well.  Ah, leftovers.  You may call me an ungrateful brat, but I'd rather make my own stuff.  =P 

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #27: Lock & Lock

Told you I'd use those brand new bento supplies sooner than later!!! Love the belt! I love the fat lil bunny on top of it especially, haha. It's keeping my two separate Lock & Lock containers tightly together. No kinchaku/wrap/bag around my bento today because the size of these boxes would take up too much room in a bag, inside my ('specially purchased handbag to fit a book for my commute + my bento right side up) bag. But loving it!!!

And, the contents.

turkey+cilantro+mayo+Romaine+tomato sandwiches on 12 grain bread; grape tomatoes & organic baby carrots orange bell peppers + roasted pine nut hummus

I like how quick it is to make sandwich bentos. Plus I have the stuff so I have to use it before it goes bad. If you looked inside my fridge, though, you'd be terrified; there is enough food in there that I could just not go to work for a week and not leave the house, and not go hungry. Yes, that's a lot of nots, but oh well. And I LOVE hummus... that creamy, salty goodness (seriously, no pervy jokes or I will hurt you) on crunchy veggies is the bestest.

Packed in a 430 ml Lock & Lock along with a 180 ml Lock & Lock container, both purchased at Han Ah Reum on Northern Blvd. separately. These are great containers with a supposedly airtight seal- haven't tested this theory and will not be, but they are popular among the bento-making set for their ease of use, locks on all sides and variety of sizes.

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #26: Hidden Carbs

enocchi mushrooms broiled with soy glaze; grape tomatoes; broiled asparagus
SPECIAL... FreshDirect's Pulled Berkshire Pork with Sweet BBQ Sauce (was on President's Picks last week), with 12 grain bread underneath to soak up the juices, so though you can't see the carbs, they're there.

Yummy!

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #25: No carbs!

Umm.... this one is a bit weird because there's no grain/carb.  So what happened was I was thinking what to make the carb... when my fuse blew because I am silly.  And then I was hurrying and couldn't go re-set it... so, big bro, if you're reading this, can you re-set the fuse please?  Thanks! 

Roast pork, kalbi; roasted asparagus with sesame oil (in paper cups to blot some oil), grape tomatoes and enocchi mushrooms broiled with soy glaze from this recipe

Today promises to be a busy day, so I'm going to sit here quietly for now, scarfing down onigiri from Cafe Zaiya and drinking tea (Earl Grey). 

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #24: More Sandwiches

Another sandwich bento today; woke up late and was trying to make whatever would be the quickest.  Since there's no cooking and no cooling involved in sandwich bento, and I still have bread/turkey/etc., it was fairly easy to whip this one up.  Too bad it looks nearly identical to yesterday's except I used the two biggest cutters I had (the heart and a car) so I could get the most sandwich out of it

The awkward thing is... since I was running late, I was unable to eat the sandwich scraps for breakfast at home like I did yesterday.  So I stuffed it into a sandwich baggie and brought it to work (I don't really like eating on the train).  So now, if someone walks by, they might wonder why the hell I'm eating a sandwich with two big "holes" in the center... lol!

Bento-related... the nicest thing ever!!!  My brother's friend in LA heard that I was bento-crazed and having trouble finding things here on the East Coast.  He told her how I was searching for this one bento/lunch jar set with bunnies + the moon, and she went to look for it for me!  But that's not the nicest part. 

Hello Kitty onigiri wrappers (if you ever buy onigiri at Chiyoda, Zaiya- these keep the seaweed separate from the rice until you unwrap, to prevent the seaweed from sogging up.  These are super cute though- they've got Hello Kitty designs on it and little Hello Kitty head stickers to seal them, that you can write on what kind of onigiri it is!!!), sauce bottles in the shape of tomatoes, carrots and a green bell pepper, and a bento belt (for holding your containers shut).  SO ADORABLE~ kawaii~! ^_^

When she couldn't find the moon+bunny lunch jar I wanted, she went ahead and bought me some stuff that's hard to find here!!!  How freaking sweet is that?!?! 

Thanks Lilly!!!  I love it!!!!

Expect to see this stuff in action soon!

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #23: Boring Bento

MOST BORING LUNCH EVER.
Yellow bell peppers; roasted pine nut hummus; baby carrots
Grape tomatoes; turkey+cilantro+mayo+Romaine+tomato on 12 grain bread

It's not a Hello Kitty!  It's a tulip, just wider than most.  Someone asked me to make sandwich bentos- well here's one.  I'm not going to make these again until I am absolutely desperate- this has to be the worst bento ever, not just color-wise but feeling-wise, I am not excited to eat lunch at all.  Maybe it's because I had to cut out a sandwich!  (I ate the scraps as breakfast.)  Or maybe I just feel like I can eat sandwiches, veggies and hummus anytime at all and bentos are meant to be special, made with love & care and.... I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy. 

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #22: Kalbi, again

Grape tomatoes; enoki mushrooms broiled with olive oil, kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper; asparagus broiled with sesame oil (for that nutty flavor!), kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
Homemade kalbi (courtesy of ME), white rice pressed into little rolls, sprinkled with furikake (seaweed + rice ball variety)

Big bro had a BBQ yesterday, so I marinated the short ribs for him.  Came out pretty well, but salty - needs to be eaten with rice.  Ah well, I can't get it perfect on the first try all the time, right?    Maybe I used super salty soy sauce, or too little brown sugar.  Will fix it next time.  Yumm otherwise. 

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #21: Mixing Carbs

mixing up the carbs today:
oong choi, the last of my gyoza (they didn't have the bags at Mitsuwa when I went!) with gyoza sauce, on a napkin in case the veggies leak under the partition;
roast pork/scallion onigiri with extra roast pork around for padding; beef chow mein with red vinegar bottle

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #20: New Nori

gyoza with gyoza sauce; hollow-veggies (oong choi?) with garlic, onigiri with tuna salad, roast pork

Ran out of my pre-cut strips of nori, so had to use a new kind.  I'm not liking it.  It feels weird when I'm wrapping and it doesn't taste that good either.  Blegh.  Must pick up more pre-cut nori strips... ah well, I was pleased at first because this one covers nearly the whole thing, but I'll be fine with a little less nori.

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #19: Symmetry

Roast pork (char siu), steamed spinach, more roast pork, onigiri with roast pork & scallions inside, green grapes, and onigiri with masago tuna salad
I forgot to pack sauce bottles for the roast pork onigiri.  Hope it's not too dry -=oT

Happy Bento!!!

Feisty Bento #18: Pizza & Salad

This is interesting.  I tried to do this in a hurry.  Leftovers from last night's dinner - I know, isn't it a bit weird?  I don't normally ask to have my salad packed up, but it was my entree and I still had a decent amount left, just enough, in fact, to fit perfectly in the bottom tier - on the left, fried chicken tenders with Romaine lettuce, tossed with honey mustard, cheddar, tomatoes, bacon, red bell peppers, yummy.  It actually also had "vermicelli"/angel hair in it originally but I accidentally ate all of that during dinner.  (I mean, I wasn't purposely trying to eat it all.  Really.) 

The right side, slightly more interesting; I packed pizza (from Singa's, from the other night)!  Pizza and salad, what could be healthier?  Broken into bits you see their garlic breadsticks with cheese (really yummy and cheaper than the pizza, funny enough), marinara in the cup for the breadsticks.  There's a small slice of pizza with sausage on the bottom.  (I heated these items in the toaster oven, then let them cool a bit before packing.)

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #17: Beef Satay

Gyoza with piggy bottle; green grapes
Peanut sauce in lion face container; Malaysian beef satay (restaurant leftovers) over couscous salad (yummy with peanut sauce and the cucumbers?!  Drool!)

I'm so stupid.  Went to Mitsuwa on Sunday and saw they had the Leaflet Tight box I bought (the small green one) in a slightly larger size, for only a dollar more, and I didn't buy it.  The green one is a good shape and pretty cheap - like $13.99 for the 650 ml one, and the one I bought 500 ml is $12.99.  Arghhh... could have used it... ah well.  What would I do with my green one, then?  I guess pack snack-bentos???  I don't know... doh-well.

Happy Bento!

Feisty Bento #16: Just couscous

sliced up pickle; couscous with feta; grapes and grape tomatoes

Happy bento!!

Feisty Bento #15: More Chicken Stew

left: couscous salad with feta crumbled on top right: chicken stew to be mixed with couscous; two gyoza; grapes and grape tomatoes

Happy Bento!