Soboro!

Today I pulled out the frozen ground beef soboro out of the freezer. I have another couple of bag, so it will make more appearances. I also made some egg soboro (both recipes are in "Just Bento") to go with it, cut up some carrots and a plum and put in some snow peas and of course rice on the bottom of it all. I do wish that my pictures weren't so fuzzy. It recently started happening all the time. I tried noise reduction and sharpen and that just seems to make them worse, so I apologize again for my lack of photography talent.

Lately I have been doing a lot of repeats, particularly with the potstickers because we had a lot of them in the freezer with different fillings. She is still not sick of them! I am hoping to make a few decorative ones before school ends since I have more time with the semester over. 

In school news I got two A's and two B+'s, so I am on the Dean's list again, Whee! This is so much better than when I was doing horribly in Spanish 101. Finally back on track. The Fall with be my last semester as an undergrad, then I look for work and see if I can get into a Masters program.

One of Pippy's Favorites

I have learned that the Korean barbecue was not her favorite. She ate some and said she liked it, but there was a lot left behind and she doesn't like to hurt my feelings. Yesterday's meal was gobbled up, and the curry with rice balls that I didn't post also was eaten completely. So, that is the progress report on what I can get Pippy to eat.
Today is very simple. I took out Just Bento's "hamburgers" that I made a while ago from the cookbook and doused them in some barbecue sauce. I think put a line of the sauce on the rice because she loves that combo. I also stirfried some beansprouts with snow peas and stuffed some tomatoes, which will not get eaten, in between along with a "baby" cucumber cut in a rolling bias.
Everyone who doesn't know yet, the bento community has an auction going on at ebay called Bento4Japan.
I also won some bento from Bento Fabulous which is a fun site to get ideas from, plus- I got a purple panda box!! The other two are also very nice, but...purple...panda... the cute!

I also made the background cloth. Because I couldn't find double sided cloth, I put two sections together and sewed them together. It is a little bulky, but it does the job when I don't have a bento bag to go with the box.

Just Bento Cookbook

It is finally time that I write a review for the Just Bento Cookbook which came out around Christmas in 2010 in America. I wanted to try some of the recipes and use it for ideas for display before writing anything about it.

So far I have made the "hamburgers", which are actually flattened meatballs, chicken kara age, cucumber and cabbage pickles, different soboros, tofu nuggets and broccoli (I used broclaflower) with grainy mustard. All of these my picky child liked. With the hamburgers I actually glaze them in a fry pan with the sauce first thing in the morning straight from the freezer. The soboro is lovely if you cook it leaving some of the liquid in the pan because it mixes so nicely with the rice.  I still have so many things to try in this cookbook! This is perfect for someone who simply doesn't have the inclination, talent or time to make all those super cute bentos that are out there.

Personally, I sometimes wonder about the taste of some of the cute bentos I have seen. Does American cheese really taste good on rice? I have the additional issue with the fact that my daughter does not like nori, which really limits the decorative things I can do with the bento, since that is a staple of cute faces and onigiri. Whether you like the cute bentos or prefer a more sedate lunch, this cookbook has excellent recipes for everyone. If my daughter will eat it, there is a good chance that others will like it too.



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.

A Just Bento Bento

I took out my trusty The Just Bento Cookbook and made ham roll-ups. So far she is liking all of the recipes I have used with the small complaint that the chicken yesterday was cut too big. That is easy enough to fix. I made the roll-ups the night before as was suggested. I was a little worried that the spreadable cream cheese that I used wouldn't firm up enough, but it was easy enough to cut through with a serrated knife. The tamagoyaki is how I normally make it, not with the recipe provided for this lunch. I also made the spinach that surrounds it all with a little bit of soy. There is also rice in the other box, but I didn't decorate it like it was suggested in the book because I couldn't find the carrot I had used and didn't want to cut up another.