Trip down memory lane bento

This isn’t a proper bento at all, just some breakfast for a train trip – but I just had to post it, because I’m sooo going down memory lane with that one.
I used to get Kinder Milk-Slices (not my translation, that’s what’s written on the packet!) all the time when I was a kid. I haven’t had one in ages – I didn’t really think they existed here before I found one in the supermarket, where I was idly looking for some quick and cheap yoghurt to bring on the trip. When I saw it, I knew I had to make a blogpost to gush about it. *grins*
I wonder if it will still taste like I remember it? Or will it be one of those things that make you wonder about your tastes as a kid?

Of course, the thing that goes best with a Milchschnitte is a beautiful red apple.
And yoplait lemon yoghurt is also definitely awesome, though I didn’t have it that much as a kid maybe – I remember it being a rare delicacy or possibly something you got on vacation.
There’s Muesli in the plastic box which is my own addition. With chocolate and nuts, my favourite type!

The only thing I wish had existed when I was a kid was the smoothie I’m bringing on the side – smoothies are great! Why weren’t they invented yet then?

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Bento #248 – lazy bento

Sometimes you feel like making an elaborate bento.
And sometimes… you don’t.

But on the other hand, there’s never enough time to praise the awesomeness of peanut butter. PB, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
I never tasted any peanut butter when I grew up. It’s just not stuff we have much over here. I first tried it when I was visiting a friend from the States. At first, I was suspicious – salty peanut paste and marmelade on the same toast? – but once I bit into it, I was an immediate convert. What I had missed!
It’s not just a toast spread either – it makes a great dip for all kinds of vegetables, I put it into my pad thai sauce to increase the already lovely peanuttiness, and let’s not even get into all the awesome possibilities of stirfry and satay sauce…!
I like mine best chunky, and without additional sugar. Sadly the grocery stores (where you can even get it, it will be in the “import” section if you don’t have to go to an Aisan supermarket to get it in the first place…) have stopped carrying that variant right now, it seems. Sigh.

How do you like yours?

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Bento #136 – sushi box

Nigiri with salmon roe, tamagoyaki, avocado, enoki mushrooms and fried tofu on sushi rice.
The box held up nicely by the way :) It doesn’t seem to leak anything poisonous and was easy to wash.

The BF gets the same – and since he specifically asked me to buy more sugarpeas, he gets some more of those. (Yay!)

I’m only taking one layer of the wooden box today – that’s because the sushi is about the amount of rice I took yesterday, plus the proteins. But don’t worry – I also packed a big breakfast box.

In it is a scones muffin (or muffin scone?), a piece of pink grapefruit, some leftover tamagoyaki and avocado and two animal containers – one with creamcheese and one with apricot marmelade. Yum!
I can’t eat breakfast at home – my stomach doesn’t boot until several hours from waking up – but these days I’m starting to get hungry when I get to work. This is probably a good habit from the fruit baskets the home office offered. Now that I sit out at a customer, I have to bring breakfast instead. :P

The muffins are scones baked in muffin forms – so easy and delicious! And as a bonus point, these were actually made by the BF. (Yay^2!)

Mmm, fresh scones on a sunday morning… what could be better?

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Bentos # 104 and 105 – breakfast boxes

Now that’s more like it. Same ingredients as this box, but much more bento-like!
One big box for me and one small for the bf, who isn’t a big breakfaster either.

Breakfast for today. The theme was “red” since I was planning to give blood. And they moved the bloodbus date under my nose again! Hrmph. Oh well, at least I have a reason to make smoothies and breakfast next week as well!
Big box: Rye bread with baba ghanoush and carrots, corn “flowers” (I do feel rather flattered by the practice of cutting cornflowers becoming so common on Bentolunch these days, seeing as I started it there), grape tomatoes and pear slices.
Small box: Mini banana muffins (thriftily made in fastfood condiment containers!), chocolate covered coffee beans, more pear, grapes and a frozen strawberry.

The BF has been experimenting with the blender ever since we bought the food processor and is pampering me with fresh fruit smoothies. Wow! I call that service! Mmm, icy delicious orange and strawberry smoothie for breakfast before going to work, and bento when my stomach is able to take solid food at work!

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Bento #103 – Happy Egg

A breakfast/snack box – since I have started training Aikido I actually start feeling hungry in the morning! And since I should go in early tomorrow to get as much work done as possible while the sun is still up, I thought I’d better get something to start me of well and soften the hunger should my lunch and/or dinner be late. It’s crunch time at the codemonkey farm!

In the middle is a happy egg weebl, then there are two pieces of bellpepper filled with caponata (which is still good) and decorated with fresh herbs, then there are some grapes, two dates, two physalis, bell pepper sticks, and the last of the tiny cheese tarts. *sigh* They were cute, but expensive, since I ended up not liking one of three…
The bread is extra so it doesn’t get soggy. It’s a ready-baked baguette roll from the freezer.
That should last me a bit…

And a note to all you nutritionists: Sitting on your ass all day but thinking/coding until the head smokes does use up an incredible amount of sugar! It’s amazing but rarely considered in nutrition advice…

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Bento #96 – more weekend leftovers

I should use more leftovers for my bento. The sad thing is that I’m really picky when it comes to leftover food – I had some more things in my fridge that I had planned to pack but when the time to pack came, I looked at them and knew I wouldn’t want to eat them any more. *sigh*

On the other hand, having a free side container all of a sudden means I could put something more colourful in there, and the box needed any colour it could get!

The big compartment holds potato wedges separating oven-baked breaded mushrooms and fish (my dictionary says it’s called plaice), and a sauce kitty with Hollandaise.
The small compartment on the top holds red and green grapes and a quick mayonaise salad containing chopped carrots, apple, leek and corn.
The small compartment on the bottom holds mozarella, tomatoes and basil leaves.

Breaded soy-marinated fish and vegetables
This is after something I tasted in a restaurant once, and had to try at home. The original recipe used fish, but – vegetarian friends rejoice! – the mushrooms tasted much, much better even! It was just regular champignons but they tasted amazing. I think eggplant would also fit it rather well.
It’s rather simple as well.
For the marinade: Dark soy sauce, a spoon of honey dissolved in it, crushed ginger and garlic. Marinate (or if you want to save time, cook the stuff in it for a bit).
Bread with flour, salted scrambled egg and milk, and crispy breadcrumbs with sesame seeds mixed in.
Oven-bake or fry.

I think a fruity yoghurt sauce would fit it really well, but the BF requested Hollandaise, so Hollandaise we had…

Also, a fruit breakfast box from last Friday, which I didn’t post then because I wasn’t that fond of it:

Stuffed dates (recipe courtesy of The Daily Tiffin), grape skewers, apple and kiwi slices, and pocky in the lid.

Oh, and Jennifer! I looked into the Japanese store this Friday and they still have the “Deli Club” three-compartment box in blue and red for 100 SEK (~14.43 USD) each. If you can’t find it anywhere else, I can look into how much shipping to you would cost…
I bought a male box there this time, for the same price, and it’s HUGE! I wanted a slightly bigger one but this one is amazing. 810ml! Maybe if I’m REALLY hungry someday… else my BF is going to use it. Apologies for the bad picture, the camera didn’t cooperate without a flash.

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Bento #70 – Totoro, Totoro

Totoro has come to my little windowsill garden and made things sprout! So I celebrated him in a Bento.

Salmon Teriyaki with rice and carrot salad; Totoro scene cut from nori.

I spent entirely too much time doing Nori-scissor cutouts for this one.
I re-did the nori once because it shriveled up from the moisture in the rice before I could get a good photo. This one is still slightly shriveled, so I'm not entirely happy, but OK.

What I learned about cutting Nori:
Use a small, sharp scissor, ideally with a pointed tip. Don't use knives – all they do is break the nori. It's very much like paper, but much thinner – I couldn't use the force I normally apply when cutting paper because quick movements with the scissor can rip the Nori. This also means that I can't do as long, curved cuts as I normally do – I had to work my way very carefully and in steps.
When the nori gets in contact with heat or moisture, it shrivels up. Be careful that your fingers are dry! Other bento blogs recommend putting cheese under the nori to keep it from shriveling, but that sounds quite gross to me – I need to figure out something else to put my Nori cutouts on.

Teriyaki recipe:
Teriyaki sauce:
1 Tsp. freshly grated ginger (I have mine frozen and shave off thin slices with a really sharp knife. When I try to grate it all it does is stick to the grater, so the knife technique works much better for me.)
1 clove crushed or finely chopped garlic
1/3-1/2 finely chopped onion
1 Tsp. sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sake; I used white wine this time because I don't have sake. Other recipes recommend substituting water and sherry, or rice vinegar. The white wine was an experiment but it came out nicely.

Marinate the meat/fish in the sauce mixture for at least an hour (up to 8).
Put everything in an ovenfast pan and broil at about 200C until the meat is cooked and crispy. Occasionally spoon sauce over the meat to prevent it from drying out.

Also from this day: Froggy breakfast!

I too got inspired by the photos outofthisplace posted yesterday!

Breakfast box, so only one layer (I posted the lunch box last evening already):
Bell pepper froggy! The eyes are dried soybeans that I painted with marker since I don’t have blackeyed peas. :)
Half a wholewheat toast with cottage cheese, sunflower sprouts and bell pepper chips (left over from the froggy), carrot shaves as color contrast.
Under the froggy: more sunflower sprouts and chocolate wheat cereal as a snack for during the day.

Remember to take a look over to The Daily Tiffin for my and ss_biggie’s Tuesday columns!

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Backdated Bento #59&60 – When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…

Not much going on bento-wise for me recently because of work-related stress and general end-of-winter tiredness. My stomach was feeling the neglect… so it demanded light, non-fatty food today!

Upper and lower layer: Storebought frozen veggie and kimchi dumplings on stirfried asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms and squash; bottle of dip sauce
Middle layer (breakfast): Two apple bunnies, a physalis, toasted dark bread sandwiches with butter and chives – one of my childhood favourites! This breakfast includes everything we used to call a “feel better” meal except for a cup of hot cocoa – apples and dark bread with butter and chives is wonderfully homely and reminds you of spring! I should remember to grow my own chives again, as frozen ones don't compare.

In the upper corner of the photo is a cup of emergency noodles in case I had to work late and got hungry, but I didn't need it.

I made one for tomorrow as well, using leftovers from dinner:

Upper layer (left): Tomato soup, thai basil deco
Lower layer (right): Wholewheat tortellini filled with sundried tomatoes and thyme (storebought fresh pasta, and impressively tasty), parmesan, olives filled with feta, a pickled bell pepper and some more basil. The olives and pepper kinda make it look like a demented chicken…

Yes, I love all kinds of filled pasta, why do you ask? The supermarkets here have their own brand of fresh (non-dried) pasta that is rather tasty and easier than making your own tortellini. The wholeweat version has the added benefit of being a lot more filling than this kind of pasta usually is – perfect bento food!
The tomato soup is homemade and a perfect speed recipe. It's not much more than crushed tomatoes, some tomato concentrate to reduce the liquid, a bit of butter, salt and sugar and lots of herbs. Of course, the longer you let it cook the better it gets, but it is a really nice and speedy sauce/soup for whenever you are too hungry to cook much as well.

Dessert: A tangerine, almond crush pocky.

;)

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Backdated Bento #58 – more of a school lunchbox than a bento

Originally posted to :

I've been too tired to make a bento all week. I'm really out of energy right now. So the only thing I achieved is to throw together a quick breakfast today…

Buttered toast, yoghurt, babybel cheese, grapes, chocolate wheats, a mandarin and a physalis. Nothing fancy :(

Here's to hoping the next week gets better!

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Backdated Bento #57 – Good morning to everyone who has just tuned in to this program!

Originally posted to :

I didn't really need to pack a bento today, but I felt the urge to do so anyway! So I packed some breakfast/snack goods.

Blueberry toast sammich polyhedron (uh… I need a nice cookie cutter…) with a star cutout; apple slices, grapes and physalis; a babybel cheese and Oreo cookies.
And a Mango Lassi – style yoghurt (not quite Lassi but it tastes nice!)

The HK box is really good for breakfast/lunchbox style bentos. The arrangement works rather well if you start putting things in starting in a spiral. I also like that a lot of prepackaged food is just the right size to fit, e.g. babybels and Actimel yoghurt bottles.
The depression in the lid that contains the fork and spoon is a little tricky to work with as you can't put anything too solid below it. But with a little tricking you can usually work around that.

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