I will be taking a short hiatus from blogging here as I spend more time looking for new seafood ideas my children will eat. Personally, I love nearly all kinds of seafood so this will be a fun experience for me.
Hmm… mahi-mahi, red snapper, fresh lobster and shrimp, marlin, swordfish, shark, and more! Maybe even some flying fish if I’m lucky…
When I get back I should have some great new bento ideas!
Off in search of new seafood ideas
July 22nd, 2010Bento Day - fast and easy
July 22nd, 2010Last night I was in a hurry to make supper, so I made something that turned into lunches instead of supper.
Its a noodle bowl - 1 pack of isntant Ramen noodles per person, 1/2 a medium carrot grated per person, a small handful of frozen vegetables (I used green and yellow beans), and top with the egg mixture and soya sauce.
The egg mixture is 1 - 2 eggs per person, sugar, soya sauce, and a small squirt of garlic chili sauce. Beat the eggs, and fry with browned diced onions. Cook until its firm and break into small pieces.
For a meal, drain and serve the veggies and noodles in the bowl, then add dash of butter and soya sauce, and top with the eggs and any other garnishes you like.
For bento, leave off the butter and soya but put the rest together in the bento box, and put the sauce in a sauce bottle.
The whole family loved this one, and it was fast to make too!
Do you put fruit in bentos ?
July 16th, 2010When you are making a bento box, how do you decide what to put in it? Is it what colors complete the picture you are making, or is it more of a nutrition selection? For me its those but its more what will get eaten and won’t end up mashed up before lunchtime.
My lunch eater loves fruit of all kinds - pineapple, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, bananas, apples, pears, etc. Almost any fruit that is sweet is on the favorite list. The problem is that many of those fruits don’t travel well. Bananas easily get squished, and berries end up in a paste as often as not. There are two fairly easy solutions to these problems - jelly, and containers.
If you have fruit that is very squish-able, such as grapes, you can always mix up an agar-agar jelly with the fruit, grapes in this case, inside the jelly. This will keep the fruit from rolling all over, and cushion it from any potential impact. Plus its way cooler to eat fruit that’s in jelly than just fruit by itself! It also lets you add another color to the bento to go for that rainbow of color, or possibly bring the fruit in line with your selected monotone theme.
The container is another possible solution. Fruit gets squished when it rolls around, or when its not packed in a hard container. If you get a good bento box, and use hard dividers as well as foil or paper cups to help keep foods separated and secure - your squish ratio will drop to nothing. I often use paper muffin cups because they are disposable and often fruit won’t leak through if its whole. If you need a waterproof solution, try either foil cups or silicon cups - both of which should be recycled.
Fruit and veggies are an important part of bento, and you should not leave out fruit just because it sometimes get squished. Do a little extra work and it will go the distance, just like the rest of the food!
Making lunches in the real world
July 8th, 2010All the talk you want about bento this and cute that doesn’t matter in the end. It all comes down to does the person eat the lunch.
My oldest daughter just started going to school, and taking her lunch.
Every day I do my best to send a healthy meal, and some things for snacks. And every day about half of it comes home. At first I was depressed, but now I’m taking it in stride.
It turns out her school is providing snacks! That is a very good reason why she’s not eating all her packed lunch.
My ego took a bit of a beating, but its recovered now. 
Is soup worth the effort?
July 2nd, 2010On a cold winter day, who doesn’t enjoy a nice hot bowl of soup? But the question is, how much trouble is it to add soup to bento, and is it worth it?
Bento foods are generally healthy, tasty, and most of all fairly dry. Any sauces that go with the dishes are generally left off so the food doesn’t get soggy before you eat it. Soup is the complete opposite of this mindset.
When you add soup to a bento lunch, you need to have a thermos or other special soup container. It needs to be well insulated to keep the soup hot until you eat it. The container must also have a tight sealing lid so the soup doesn’t spill out. These containers are generally easy to find, but can be quite expensive for a quality unit. If you don’t buy quality, you may experience cracks in your lid or insulation lining which require you to throw out the old unit and buy a new one.
Preparing good soup can be very time consuming, sometimes more so than a typical bento. For example if you are making homemade chicken noodle soup, you need to thaw and prepare, and cut up each of the chicken, carrots, celery, and any other ingredients you add. Then you need time to let it all simmer and the flavors mingle. The end result is totally awesome, but the time to get there can be the showstopper on a busy morning.
The most important question is - how do your lunch-eaters like the soup you send? That is always the important question with any lunch. If the person doesn’t like it or eat it, there is no point sending it. My response has generally been an enthusiastic one. I”m not sure if its all because of the quality of the soup, or more because its a rare treat and special.
In my eyes, if you have the time to make good soup it is always worth it. However, if you don’t make soup very often or you use store bought soup, it might not be worth investing in an expensive soup container to start with.
Stay tuned for the next article as we go from soup to nuts. (This blog has got everything, man!)
Bento #46 - Ribfest-licious!
June 30th, 2010I live in Ottawa, Canada. Towards the end of June every year is the International Chicken and Rib Fest where cooks from the US and Canada come to have a cook-off. The food that they make actually got me back in love with ribs because they have so much meat on them, they are tender, and very tasty. Enough background, on to the bento!
Today’s bento is 2 paper cups of BBQ pulled pork, a foil cup with 2 dill gherkins and 2 dill mini onions, and about 6 Shanghai bok choy. To this I added a package of instant ramen noodles. To eat I cooked the noodles, then topped them with the bok choy, and BBQ pork.
If you want to make the BBQ pork at home, simply get a small pork roast and cook it on low in a slow cooker. When its falling apart, drain the water, and cover with your favorite BBQ sauce. Let it cook more on low, stirring it every 10 minutes. When you are happy with the look and the beautiful smell, its done! (it was cooked after the water was drained actually, this last part is just to add flavor!)
The Shanghai bok choy is easy and tasty. I prepared about 6 large bunches. Cut the base of the leaves off the stem, trim the base of the stalks, and slice in half lengthwise. If the base of the stems are thick, cut pieces off them to help it cook faster. Boil a small pot of water. Add the bok choy when water is boiling. Also add a good dash of garlic powder, and at least 1 tbsp of soy sauce. Cook until the bok choy is soft to your preference. Drain, and serve. It will keep some of the garlic and soy sauce flavor to blend with its natural and slightly bitter flavor - very yummy!
If you think this lunch will be too dry for you, add a pat of butter and a dash of soy sauce on the ramen noodles before adding the other toppings.
[picture to be uploaded shortly...]
How to avoid a messy lunch
June 28th, 2010Ever sit down for lunch, open your bento box and find everything messed up? Here are some tips on how to avoid that problem.
1. Pack it full.
If you pack your bento box full, things won’t slide around and get all mixed up with each other. This isn’t that hard normally since bento boxes are quite small. Except for mine - its big and shiny! 
2. Leave sauces off.
When you pack the lunch, everything should be quite dry. If anything needs a sauce, include small containers that hold the sauce. This keeps foods from getting soggy, and keeps flavors from mixing up too.
3. Use foil, plastic dividers, and cups.
In many bento lunches you see foil cups or mini-muffin papers or even silicon cups holding food. These are great ways to keep things that are moist (like fruit salad or veggies) in place. They can also add a flair to your meal! Plus you can use the plastic grass or even just waxed paper to divide foods so they don’t become mixed together. However, these dividers don’t help much with liquids running.
4. Layer your foods.
If you are putting more than one food on top of each other in the bento box, make sure it is in the correct order. Normally rice, noodles, or potatoes are on the bottom, followed by vegetables and meat, and then topped with sauce or sprinkles (normally not both together). If you must add the sauce at preparation this order will help preserve the tastes you expect. If you put the sauce on the bottom, it can slosh around more and affect the other foods beside it.
5. If you are making a jelly, use agar agar powder instead of gelatin.
Many cute bento have a jellied salad or some such. If you use gelatin powder in these (such as Jell-o), you risk them melting when they are stored at room temperature. If you make the jelly using agar-agar powder, once it sets it stays firm. You won’t have to worry about it melting during the day.
In general, a little planning ahead is all it takes to avoid mushy food or foods that get mixed up together.