5 Minute Bento

This morning, I was running a bit late, consequently, I had about 5 minutes to spare to make my bento (and I ate my breakfast at the same time! Talk about efficiency!). This resulted in a rather simple, but complete bento. My bento gear ended up being themed, but due to my hurry it was actually unintentional. The theme seems to be Studio Ghibli (it will become more obvious when you see the closed view and the bag).

In the bottom tier of the bento, I cut up one pita into decent sized pieces not only for storage but for dipping. They are to be partnered with the small pink container that actually contains a bottom layer of fresh salsa and topped with a thin layer of sour cream. The top tier contains not only a cute cat shaped pick but also an assortment of cheese (swiss, gruyere and cheddar), some dried mango, almonds, and some beef pepperoni sticks cut up into little pieces. These type of components are easy, delicious and quick and useful for fillers in your bento (which is why you may notice they repeat sometimes in my bento). You also may notice here I used a white divider that is shaped like an H. It actually came with the bento (along with a another simple straight divider and a special tray for small pieces of sushi or small onigiri). This divider was really useful for this sort of application because it easily, quickly and effectively divided the upper tier into four sections. Finding a box that has included dividers that are made to fit securely in that bento is a very good strategy. It will really help you fill your bento in a neat and tidy fashion. It will also contain food items a lot better than some of the flexible dividers that one can use such as the thin plastic grass dividers. I am really looking forward to this bento. I am sure it will be quite tasty, although it was simple and only took 5 minutes to make. This goes to show that even if you only have a few minutes, you can still make an interesting and yummy lunch, even if it is simple, and having a lunch with you is much better than trying to get through your day either without one, or having to spend money at the cafeteria or at fast food restaurants because you didn't have time to make a lunch. 

Here you can see the theme a bit. The main bento is Ponyo themed, and the small container is Kiki's Delivery themed (it is actually one of three similarly shaped containers that all fit inside one another!). 

And here is the bag. I apologize because it is not a very good picture and it doesn't show the bag very well, but at least you can get an idea of what the pattern on one side looks like. As you can see it is Totoro themed. The great thing about this bag is that it has quite a bit of room inside, it as a little mesh pocket inside, and it is thermal! So I also included an ice pack inside because I wanted to make sure the salsa, sour cream and cheese stayed cool. 

Well I hope you enjoyed today's entry.... Until next time, happy munching!

Green Lantern?!

Today we had a belated family celebration for my fiance's birthday. On his actual birthday we went for sushi, I apologize, I did not take any pictures of the food to show you, but I will try to do so next time :).

Today we went to a very nice steakhouse, it was delicious.... but that is really not the point of my post.
I though I would share with you all the cake that was a group effort between my fiance's sister, mother and I. His mother baked the cake while is sister and I decorated it. My fiance loves the Green Lantern so we decorated the cake accordingly. I have to say I like how it turned out :). It's not perfect, but it was still pretty cool, and he was pretty impressed, and that was the most important part :).

We iced it with buttercream (his favourite), and then used coloured icing and tips to create the symbol and to trim the edge of the cake. :)

Another view of the cake from the top! Well that's all for today! Until next time, happy munching!

Onigiri Bento

Today I really wanted to make something different. I wanted to make something that I had not posted about before. I wanted to make some onigiri. I have made onigiri before, but I have never taken a picture and posted it on the blog. Just a little info: an onigiri is a rice ball. It is essentially exactly what it sounds like, white rice typically in the shape of a triangle, but also made in other shapes as well, that is wrapped in nori (seaweed) and has a filling of some sort. Traditionally onigiri are filled with umeboshi (pickled plums), or other salty or sour ingredients. These are very popular in Japan and are widely available, especially at convenience stores.

In the top tier I placed three onigiri. You maybe wondering what is that purple stuff on them? Well I made two different kinds, the middle plain looking one was filled with homemade fruit salsa, and the two  other are filled with pickled cauliflower. The purple stuff is furikake, which is a dried seasoning intended to be sprinkled on rice. There is a wide variety of furikake, but here I used shiso (an herb in the mint family) furikake.  In the second tier, I placed a hard boiled egg. You may notice here... this doesn't look like an egg at all... it looks like a heart... Well there are these  Interesting little devices used to shape hard boiled eggs that are very popular in bento! I also placed some carrot sticks, and in the pink container is some Russian dressing for the carrots. I also added some dried mango and cheddar and gouda cheese.

I also included a bit of cucumber salad. This salad is very simple, but delicious. Its basically cucumbers in a dill sauce. 

Here's a picture of how the bento looked all closed up! It's so cute! When I saw this box, I knew I had to add it to my collection. :) I also stored it in a thermal bag with an ice pack for food safety. 

Well that's all for today, until next time, happy munching!

Lickity-Split Bento!

I was really tight for time this afternoon when I was making my dinner bento, fortunately, I had all the ingredients on hand I just had to prepare them. First, I grabbed the steaks and cut them up into smaller strips, then I tossed them in the frying pan with some olive oil and lemon pepper while I cut up the vegetables, then for the sake of quickness I tossed those into a separate pan and cooked both at the same time. Afterwards I tossed them together with some teriyaki sauce and served it over some rice.

For vegetables I used snow peas, carrot, mushrooms, cabbage, and red pepper. 

I packed it all up in this single tier Hello Kitty bento that features an adorable picture, a snap tight lid, and  stores a fork and spoon between the tier lid and the bento lid. It is very convenient. Also, unlike usually, I packed my bento hot so it was still hot when I got to class! Hurray! Overall it was very delicious and filling.  That's all on this quick bento! Until next time, happy munching!

Phở

I've been feeling the onset of a cold lately and things really cumulated today when I ended up in the walk-in clinic with an ear and throat infection. Needless to say, I was in quite a bit of pain between the two of them and I wanted nothing more than something delicious and soothing to eat for dinner tonight.   To facilitate that my fiance took me to get some Phở. If you've never had Phở before it is a Vietnamese noodle soup typically served with beef or chicken (called phở bò or phở gà respectively). The noodles are typically rice noodles, however many places also offer egg noodles as well. There are also vegetarian varieties available as well.  Usually you are also provided with a plate of bean sprouts, lime, and basil that you can add to your soup at your own discretion. The place we usually go to also has amazing spring rolls. I really wished I had taken a picture but I didn't think about it until after I'd eaten them. These spring rolls come in three varieties: vegetable, shrimp and pork. My personal favourite is vegetable. Typically my fiance and I always go to the same Phở place. We've tried several others and none can quite compare to this one. I always order the same phở when I go (although I have definitely tried some of the other varieties, this is just my preferred order), it is lean well-done beef Phở. I usually do not add any bean sprouts or assortments to my soup, but I like to toss in a bit of soya sauce and sriracha (a Thai hot sauce). I also like to have a bit of hoisin sauce (a Chinese dipping sauce) in a small bowl on the side to dip my beef in. Overall, I would definitely say that this is one of my favourite things to eat and I really wanted to share it with you all. I hope you have the chance to try some, too. I would love to hear your experiences! Until next time, happy munching!

Very Western Bento

Hello Again Everyone! Today's bento is actually very westernized I think. I used this neat bento that I actually received by accident when I was shipped the wrong box, however, I still like it because it is very different from a lot of my other bento. It is also quite spacious, and has a nice square shape that can be useful if you want to pack larger items, which I definitely took advantage of.

In the bottom tier I packed a peanut butter and apple jelly sandwich (that's homemade apple jelly by yours truly). I also included some pepperoni bites (due to their nature I wanted to store them in something that would separate them, however due to some reorganization going on at my place, I wasn't able to locate the right dividers and cups so I substituted with a simple plastic baggie. I little less eco-friendly, but it does the job. In the upper tier, I packed a variety of cheeses including dill havarti, old cheddar, dubliner, and swiss gruyere, some dried apricots and mangos, and almonds and soya beans.

This is actually a dinner bento that will be great to last me during my three hour class that intersects dinner time today. I am very excited to enjoy all these delicious items!

Until next time, happy munching!