Bento Berserk: January 2011

Welcome!

I created this blog with the desire to make lunch simple, fun and healthy. I had turned to bento to make this possible.

I live with my husband and our adorable pets and we live a fairly busy life so, being able to have a fast fun lunch makes it easier to save money and eat healthy. Bento is for everyone, not just children, and I strive to inspire people to make lunch an exciting aspect of their day, instead of the same old monotonous task and boring foods which inevitably lead to spending too much money on cafeteria food or fast food, or skipping meals all together.

This blog really has grown to be so much more than I had originally invisioned! It really incorporates my love for local and fresh food and making meals fun and tasty, not just lunch! There is great potential for all meals and bento still really inspires me, but I also really enjoy being inspired by the local farmer's market, and different books and I think the blog has really taken off to so much more than just a bento blog. I hope you feel inspired and enjoy it as much as I do!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Birthday Celebration!

Hello Everyone!

Today it is my birthday! To celebrate I went to a teppanyaki place with some friends and family! For those of you who do not know what teppanyaki is, it is a form of Japanese cuisine. The word teppan means iron plate, and yaki (in this case) is used to mean grilled, so teppanyaki is a method of preparing food that involves those items being cooked on a large heated iron surface. This is usually done in front of the patrons of the restaurant and is a combination of entertainment and eating. It was very exciting and delicious. I took a little picture to show you how it looks. Here the chef is cooking some chicken and vegetables! (and shrimp?)

In this picture the chef is flambéing the shrimp! It is quite an amazing thing to see the flame is enormous and very warm! Its a show stopper.

If you happen to be wondering what I ate while I was there, we started with a small shabu shabu soup (this is what they call it but it is the broth not the table top cooking shabu shabu), and a salad, then the show began with yaki shrimp, an assortment of vegetables, rice (everyone gets these items with their meal) and I had a delicious New York steak! It was so amazing! This place is definitely one of my favourites!

Also, my fiance made me this awesome cake for my birthday in the shape of one of my favorite icons, Hello Kitty!! It turned out great! Here's a little picture of it before we put in the candle and cut it up!

It was delicious!! Thank you to everyone for making my birthday special again this year! I really appreciate it and I had a great time, and I hope you did, too!!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Back to School Bento

Hello Everyone!
It is the beginning of a new semester and here is my first bento of the new year!

I chose this adorable festive red Hello Kitty Bento set. It has a matching drawstring bag that helps keep all my bento stuff together.

Here is the above view of the closed 2 tier plastic bento box held closed with a black band.

The 1st tier, In this tier I strained some fruits that were in a light syrup, and placed them inside their own division, and next to that in a separate section is a small cheese, some cashews, some salami cut into quarters, and a lychee coconut jelly.

In the lower tier,which can be viewed in this picture, contains a rice stir-fry with green beans, shitake mushrooms and some seasoning on the rice.

Well thats all about this bento! I hope you are enjoying the new year!

Unitl next time! Happy Munching!