At a recent party, I had a few (a good number acutally!) to-die-for cupcakes. They were super-moist chocolate (mocha?) with cappucino icing piled high!
So far that was the best birthday present at the party, if you ask me!
They came from CupCakeCetera.
Props to peeps on cupcakey goodness!
March 28th, 2012A new quick pickle salad
March 21st, 2012If you have been reading bento recipes and finding you can’t get the ingredients, then this one is for you!
Easy to make pickle salad
1. Grate some baby carrots.
2. Grate or dice celery.
3. Finely dice some green onion.
4. Put 2 tbsp ea. of grated carrots, celery, and sourkraut into a bowl.
5. Add sprinkle of salt, minced garlic, and black sesame seeds (1 tsp).
6. Toss the ingredients to mix, and add a small amount (no more than 1 tbsp) of the juice off the sourkraut.
7. Let it stand in the refridgerator for 30 minutes to 4 hours.
8. Toss again before serving.
This salad is easy to make, easy to keep for a few days, and its a good substitute for Japanese pickles if you can’t find the ingredients.
If you want to play around with this recipe, you can try adding the ingredients to the sour kraut jar when there is only juice left. Or try that with sliced fresh ginger.
What makes it bento?
March 15th, 2012I’ve been thinking lately -what makes it a bento lunch? If the lunch is healthy and fun to eat, is that all it needs?
Lately I’ve been sending tacos for lunch with my kids. Tacos aren’t on the normal bento list, but they could be. If I make it into a pinwheel taco, and cut it into smaller pieces on toothpicks, and added rice and salad - now its looking more like a bento.
Is it that it needs more than one thing as well? If I put one big sandwhich in their lunch thats not really bento. But why not?
Hmm…
Its fun being ahead of the curve
March 9th, 2012I’ve been writing this blog for a while now, and if you go back over the entries you can see a fairly wide variety of topics, recipes, and ideas. One thing I try to keep stressing in all my posts is that lunches should be healthy - it just seems like common sense.
I got a newsletter home from school this week that stressed how to make a healthy lunch for kids. There were the usual predictable suggestions - always have fruit and veggies in every lunch, try different types of cheese (swiss versus cheddar) or differnt styles (strings, balls, slices), and similar suggestions.
One thing that was missing was the other half of the bento core principals - make the lunch fun and interesting or the kids won’t eat it. Of course the other principal is healthy lunches are a must! But its equally important that the kids want to eat the lunch. It can be the healthiest thing in the world, but if its not eaten it doesn’t matter.
I’ve been busy lately and haven’t made the bento, or “fun” lunches as my kids call them, for a while now. The result? Falling into a rutt with the same old thing and many lunches thrown out at school or brought home uneaten. The one exception was home made tacos!
So, its fun that I’ve been ahead of the curve on trying to make healthy fun lunches for my kids. But I can relate to those people who don’t do that. Like my kids, I prefer fun!
It aint easy bein’ green!
October 12th, 2011Chinese takeout has some really yummy dishes, including chinese greens. However my kids don’t like these veggies based purely on looks - after I start eating them with gusto they dig in and find they love them too.
The way around this is to use the artistic bento idea to make those veggies part of a pretty picture. Greens make great trees, seaweed, grass, or other objects. Or maybe a big green monster they can save us from by eating!
That is the true reason for bento in my mind - to make kids want to eat a healthy lunch. If you accomplish this, then you are at the heart of this art!
A new twist for rice
October 7th, 2011If you are tired of plain white rice, and don’t want the fuss or extra fat associated with fried rice how about mixing it up a bit?
Try putting beans and / or potatoes in the rice. Rice by itself is good, but adding some beans (can of brown beans, cooked brown/red/black beans) makes the rice richer. This is true with many Chinese and other regional dishes, but many people do not mix beans with their rice. However, the Caribbean islands frequently do it, and often next to spicy dishes.
Another option is potato. Now if you were on the fence about beans and rice, you are likely scratching your head on this one. Potato is a starch like rice, and why mix them? Honestly, its personal taste and texture. This one is as much about texture as taste or added nutrients. When the rice is cooked add diced cooked white potatoes and mix it up. Again you can find this on some Caribbean islands. Its a great way to use up leftovers, and the potatoes mellow out the rice.
So if you are looking for a different way to present rice without frying it, try beans or potatoes. You may have a new hit on your hands!
Indian gives a new twist to bento
August 26th, 2011Last night we had take-out Indian food and it was super yummy. Even the kids liked it! Mind you I went savory instead of spicy..
That got me to thinking about bento, like always. Indian food bento would be awesome, but there are some hurdles to work out, namely the sauce(s).
Nearly all Indian dishes have a sauce. Each sauce is different, and tasty. The problem is how to keep these sauces from mixing or leaking in a bento.
An easy solution is to use naan bread to make barriers between the different foods. Put the rice on one side, bread fence, butter chicken, another fence, and some saag paneer for your green veggies. Optionally you could put the rice on the outsides as well.
Another variation is to use the rice to separate the sauces. This method would be butter chicken, rice, and saag paneer with bread on top to prevent mixing during transport. This lets some sauce mix with the rice, but it keeps sauces apart.
And lastly there is always the paper or silicone methods. Use the green grass plastic paper from sushi to separate the dishes, or put each portion into a silicone muffin cup.
No matter how you serve it, Indian food is super tasty!