Boston Bento

Another older one:

Contents:
Baked egg cup with spinach
tomato and cheese salad
candy
baby carrots
Spanish rice with beef and ham

That’s right people! Beef and ham! The ham was planned for the bento, but I also had a little steak left over from dinner that I didn’t want to waste. As you can tell from the pic, this is another older one and you can see that there is a lot more food in here than I normally have in my lunch now.

Looking at this reminds me of how much I love those egg cups though. A perfect bit of protein to get me through the afternoon and if you like eggs, there are a million difference combinations you can try. Best of all, they are really easy to bake in the toaster oven the night before.

Sometimes when work is throwing me for a loop and I want to spend my lunch hours hiding from the world, I will use my bento as a way of a little pick-me-up. I’ll pack something extra special and it makes me remember that small moments and treats can have a really large effect.

And so I present, Shrimp Cocktail Bento…complete with the semi-homemade (with recipe posted at the end) cocktail sauce. Trust me, it’s hard not to feel awesome about your lunch when everyone else in the lunch room is eating boring sandwiches and brown/red smoosh in Gladware containers. You can start to feel the sophistication oozing out of your pores and creating an aura of kick-ass all around you.

Contents:
shrimp and cocktail sauce
sauteed spinach with garlic
wasabi peas
chickpeas with parsley, olive oil, and vinegar
raspberry gummies

Homemade cocktail sauce:
ketchup
horseradish to taste (I like mine pretty spicy)
squeeze of lemon juice
hot sauce to taste

While my lunches this week are taking on a more healthy outlook, I am sad to say that they aren’t much to look at. I know that salad can be really fun and interesting if I push myself to make it look nice, but I’ve been too distracted with football game commercials, finishing up season 2 of Dexter, and now hula hoop lessons to dwell on what else can be done to make a carrot look like..well..something other than a carrot. So while I spend some time planning my next food project and bento, here is another bento blast from the past:

Monkey faces!!!

For details on the contents of the bento, just click on the picture.

Just a little something I made with leftovers from Chinese take-out. The Lo Mein was lacking in the promised vegetables, so I added a zucchini. I figured it was a good way to add volume without eating more of the greasy noodles. The dumplings in the top section are filled with spinach. Last but not least is my darling little clementine.

In between attempts to vacuum seal everything in my kitchen (I just got one of those FreshSaver things) , I managed to make this bento. I know that the use of the frozen veggies is “meh,” but I do have to confess to enjoying the ease of them. And also, I REALLY like them in my mashed potatoes.

Contents-
Ham and turkey (thanks mom!)
babybel cheese
white sweet potato mash with veggies

Some of you out there may remember my sadness over the closing of Kotobukiya in Porter Square. No really, the loss of that store really did change the look of my bentos and though I know there is another shop in Union Square…well, things haven’t been the same.

Then today, my sister sent me a link to Ebisuya. Rumor has it this store is owned by some past employees of Kotobukiya! Could this mean that I will be able to find my usual products with no problems? And what is this about free parking? Be still my little heart. There is hope for my poor lonely bento boxes yet.

I hope to get to the store myself within the next few weeks, but if anyone has been there yet, please feel free to write a comment below to let us know how things are looking.

You know you have a pretty intense obsession with food when you spend your day home sick reading a book about charcuterie. However, when you’re not feeling so good, slow cooking is definitely something you want to think about. Throw something in a slow cooker or oven, and don’t think about it for a bit while you take a nap. Or better yet, defrost something in the freezer and fry it up quick in a pan.

Both of the cooked elements in this bento were cured and brined by me. The bacon is something my readers are familiar with thanks to my “bacon odyssey.” And the chicken breast was brined by me as well. I tried brining recently because I wanted a way to keep my chicken breasts moist without adding fat. Also, i am such a fan of brined turkey at Thanksgiving, I thought I would give it a try. So after 2 hours in a lemon and garlic brine, I cut the breasts into strips and pan fried them with some Pam. Easy, easy, and something I will definitely do again…hopefully with some pork chops!

Here is another early bento. This time I want to point out the lack of bento box. I’ve been noticing lately that I have been leaning more towards using my regular tupperware over the bento boxes I have. I think this is because most bentos are not dishwasher safe and they often require a bit more care than other containers do. Also, I must admit that some of my boxes are looking a little worse for the wear.

If I remember correctly, this bento was a rush job. I was more focused on using up leftovers but also trying to add as many different colors as I could. I’ve read that more colors and variety speak to the palette and make the meal appetizing.

For more details about what is in the bento, just click on the pic.

This is a very early bento I made. I had a lot of work to do when it came to filling up blank spaces. But you gotta admit, it sure does look happy.

The purpose of posting this rather bland bento is to illustrate a concept that I keep coming across in my readings about Japanese food and bentos: bite-sized pieces.  While I have yet to find a definitive answer as to why this is, many people think that this is because slicing large pieces of food isn’t really all that possible when you are using chopsticks.  In his book “A Taste of Japan,”  Donald Ritchie argues that Japanese food is served cut-up because Japanese chef’s focus more on presentation than other cultures do.  This would most certainly apply to bentos as you often need to cut food down in order to make it fit attractively in box. In many cases too, it’s the least you can do to make sure you are fitting enough food into that box as well.

I especially like this bite-sized food idea when it comes to portion control and using bentos as a way to eat better. Taking smaller bites but having more of them can often make you feel like you are eating more. Also, it can help you to slow down your eating so you can allow your body to feel full. Basically, it just another way to make you slow down and actually enjoy the meal.

The Boy will be eating this today:

Contents:

Cucumber and babybel cheese
chicken and apple sausage
roasted sweet potatoes (again!)
japanese candy

No knife required!