Last night was a fun and fast meal to make.
Left over roast beef cut into 1/4″ wide slices about 2″ long.
Prep broccoli and grate long pieces of carrot.
Brown up some onions and a can of mushrooms in a pan with some oil.
Add some water, the meat, and soya sauce to let it simmer for a bit.
Then add the broccoli and carrot and cover to steam for a few minutes.
With the plain rice, the whole mean was just over 20 minutes start to finish and it is going to make some really nice bentos for the family today!
Archive for the ‘beginner’ Category
Rainy Monday sitr fry bento
Monday, August 23rd, 2010Quickie bento
Monday, August 16th, 2010Today my bento is very basic - rice, cooked carrots, and slivered roast beef.
For some extra flavor I added a dash each of soya sauce, garlic chili sauce, and diced cooking onions.
Its basic, but I honestly really enjoy this type of bento. As long as there is enough to fill me up. 
Off in search of new seafood ideas
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010I 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!
Bento Day - fast and easy
Thursday, 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 ?
Friday, 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
Thursday, 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. 
Bento #46 - Ribfest-licious!
Wednesday, 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...]