Happy St. Patrick's Day Dinner

The reason I haven't been posting bentos this week is because I am on Spring Break. In the past I still had to get up early and make Pippy's bento and get her to school, but this year she volunteered to do it all herself so that I could get some much needed sleep. As a result or as Pippy said "because I am lazy" she has in fact not made bento, but usually a sandwich and a couple of times money for a school lunch which she said that besides the fact that she can't tell what it is, it was pretty good. 

Instead of bento, today I am posting my "boiled" dinner. The reason it is special is because I tried a different cooking method this year. Boiling meat has never been my favorite smell and all that water leaves the corned beef very tender, but tasteless and impossible to slice into neat slices. The cabbage always comes out waterlogged. The potatoes and carrots are usually okay, but because most recipes call for up to 3 quarts of water, they don't gain any real flavor from the bath. My Gramma would do a smoked pork shoulder which could take the boiling, but the corned beef just does not seem to like it as much.
For the corned beef, I pricked the meat on the fat side and stuck in some cloves. Then I rubbed the top with honey mustard and sprinkle brown sugar on top. This goes into foil, and wrapped so that the foil doesn't rest on the fat. Pop it into a 350 degree oven for a couple hours and it is done. I may try to cook it lower and slower, or maybe in a crock-pot to make it more fork tender, but the family absolutely loved it. As you will see in the picture, I need to trim off the fat too. What you get is a lot of liquor from the cooking which you can use to flavor the meat more (but it really didn't need it at all) or the potatoes, which, having only been boiled and tossed with butter might like the seasoning and make it feel like a boiled dinner.
The cabbage got special treatment too. I sliced a small head of cabbage a little thin, then sauteed minced garlic in olive oil. Once I could smell the garlic I threw in the cabbage (I have a huge skillet, for those who don't you may have to put it in in batches as it wilts) and tossed to make sure all the bits have the flavored oil on it. Then I pressed it down in the pan and let the cabbage get a little brown, tossed again and repeated.  My entire family, two of whom used to hate cabbage in boiled dinners, absolutely loved it. It has been asked for a repeat performance.
Sadly, I totally forgot the carrots. I also forgot Cat's Irish Soda Bread, but we were very full and unable to move, so everyone ate well.

Couscous and Tofu Patties

Today I made three bentos, one for Pippy, one for my eldest daughter and one for me. Since Cat and I have horrible school schedules today, I thought that making a lunch would be a good idea.
I am trying something a little different and that is couscous. This is one of those foods that really will not do well with the slippery chopsticks in the boxes, so they will be using forks for this one.
The tofu patties were from the Just Bento Cookbook, as before except this time I made them as per directions but without the edamame because I couldn't find ours. Also made the night before was some potato salad.  To fill out the kids' boxes I used some frozen peas, but it is not likely that they will eat them.
Pippy liked her bento yesterday for the most part, but the ham roll ups from the cookbook were a no go. On the other hand, her friend chomped them down, so it wasn't that it was a bad recipe.

Yep, I don't have any filler, so my box will probably be a mess by lunch time. I just can't find anything in the house that I both like and will not get mushy or something before lunch. I despise peas.

Ground Beef Teriyaki

This isn't a bento recipe yet, but given the praise for this dish that I made up because we have very little to work with in the house means that it will be making an appearance in bentos at one point. I have no pictures because the entire thing was eaten up pretty fast. As far as I know, there isn't another recipe for this, so here is what I did.

Teriyaki sauce:
1/2 cup of soy
1/2 cup of white sugar (yep, it is a lot, this is sweet and salty)
2 tablespoons mirin
2 teaspoons grated ginger (fresh or frozen, it keeps in the freezer a long time)
1 good sized clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

Mix together well and set aside

The "stir fry":
1 pound ground beef or pork or turkey, whatever you like
4 carrots (mine were medium sized)
Handful of edamame beans (they are a pain to shell btw so use frozen if you have them)

Cut the carrots into sticks. Mine were a couple inches long and fairly narrow.
Shell edamame beans if you are using fresh.
Cook ground beef in pan chopping it up until in small pieces
Drain in colander and set aside
Put carrots and edamame into the pan and add about 1/2 cup of water. Cover and let steam about 5 minutes until you can just pierce the carrots with a fork, time will depend on how small you cut the carrots. I suggest trying to have the carrot and edamame finish at the same time.
Take off cover and allow last of liquid to dry up and stir fry briefly. Get the carrots as brown as you like them.
Add ground meat back into the pan and stir together.
Stir the teriyaki again until well incorporated and add to pan.  Reduce heat and allow to simmer a few minutes.
Serve on top of rice.

Not only did my eldest and husband like it, but even more amazingly my youngest loved it too and was even asking for it this afternoon, but there was none left. Carrots and all! This will definitely make it into a bento in the near future. It is perfect to make the night before because letting it soak in the sauce will only make it better.

Chili Night

Even though it was hot out yesterday, it is going to be even hotter today, plus I will be in a hot kitchen for three to four hours for the Bread of Life. With that in mind I cooked up chili last night. My chili isn't the best in the world, but that may be because I really don't like beans a lot, but it was filling. I use two cans of black beans instead of one to stretch it out. The family liked it well enough, so that is really all that matters. More red pepper next time though. There were no vegetables other than the tomatoes in the chili. I will have to make up for that this week, but making a salad would have been fruitless because they would fill up on chili and not eat it anyway.
The beans and hamburger were from many months ago when they were on sale. I believe the ground beef was 1.99 a pound and the beans were just regular price. The crushed tomatoes and cheese came from the food pantry and the chips (not pictured) were a cheap buy at the dollar store.

Besides the cheese and chips we had some leftover sour cream sitting in the fridge on its way out.

Pantry Dinner

Most of the items in this dinner were created with things that I  have left in the pantry and freezer. The meatballs were for school bentos, but they weren't going to taste good in a couple of months, so I used them for dinner. All of the ingredients for the sweet and sour sauce were regular pantry items plus pineapple from the food bank. We always have rice because we buy a big bag when my loan comes in or if we get some money in, so that was taken care of. The green beans and the garlic were from our vegetable box and the butter we have from the freezer as I buy in bulk when we have some money to do so. All in all it was a nice dinner, Paige ate two servings and even ate all of her green beans. It was a little stove top intensive for the heat, but you go with what you have.

Sweet and Sour meatballs on sticky rice with garlic butter green beans. I probably should have put a marichino cherry in there to brighten it up a bit. It looks a little bland on that white plate.