Wednesday: Overslept

My plans for today's lunch went out the window when I saw how little time I had. This was the result: leftover fried rice from last night, leftover takeout egg foo yung (lower level), with carrots, romaine, and Want-Want cookies on top (OK there's also a JellyJelly and a caramel apple pop; trying to lose weight requires that I cheer myself up with sweets). But also: guava juice!! I love it.

Jan's Mr. Bento was this:


two sushi rolls whose odd shape shows that I made them, with shrimp and ginger and a wasabi filled heart; wrap sandwich of cream cheese and hard salami, salad leftovers, and cookies with a chocolate coin.

Horrifying OctoDog Bento

I am cursed; even a simple octopus hotdog comes out looking like a crime victim; in this case, a poor innocent sea creature who has had its eyes poked out violently and bits of black stuff shoved into the empty sockets. Not far from the truth in my kitchen of emo-food sadism! Avie of AviesBento invented the phrase emo-food and I will be needing it so it seems. I need better knives. But that's probably what all the psychos say.

Today's bento included this victim plus a few other less heart-rending items:

From left to right: sushi rolls, raw carrots, and a tinfoil wasabi boat, Octodog on a green sea of carrot-top aspic, tamagoyaki with green onion and polenta wedges fried in a touch of hot chili oil, and wasabi peas with M&M's and a Jolly-Jolly jelly. This went in Jan's Mr. Bento.

And my lunch was a little simpler but still a bento:

Tamagoyaki, carrots, onigiri lightly fried in sesame oil, grapes, and jello jigglers.

I weighed myself this morning, something I do rarely because it takes so much explaining: how my feet are very heavy and large and probably weigh about 15 pounds each, my bone structure is also huge and heavy, my brain alone is probably 35 pounds at least...but the upshot is I am going to try to lose some weight. I think the bento lunches will help if I keep the vegetables up and the Pockies to a minimum.

Crazy Jelled Edibles

Browsing around other Bento sites, I found French Bento who does beautiful vegan bentos and makes pretty shaped aspics using agar-agar, the vegan's preferred jelling agent which does not use animal products. We spotted an envelope of agar-agar in the oriental grocery yesterday morning so I decided to try it out.

Agar-agar has many health benefits of a vague nature, but it also has the virtue of keeping things jelled at room temperature and even under some heating; nothing melts this stuff once it has grown firm.

In the plate above you see two creations using A-A and one using traditional Jello: the red square is cranberry-orange aspic, a savory to have with a square of cheese or something. The green blocks are carrot-frond aspic to be served over a bed of grated carrots with ginger. The round thing is a Jello jiggler made in a small muffin tin. Jello Jigglers (made with less water than normal Jello) will also hold at room temperature all day. Why I am suddenly fascinated with jelled things I do not know.

We tried out the cranberry aspic with steaks last night and found it to be excellent. In case you are interested here's how to make it -- and you could vary the ingredients a lot, and cut them in cute shapes for your Bento adventures:

Combine in a bowl:

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained
1 tbsp zest of a satsuma or orange
one small apple, cored & cut in chunks
one peeled satsuma or orange, cut in big chunks
juice of a few key limes or one regular lime
1 1/2 cups of pomegranete juice

Chop in a blender until it is a nice pureed mush. Put in saucepan and mix in 2 tablespoons of agar-agar powder. Heat gradually to a nice bubbly boil and cook & stir for one minute.

Remove from heat, cool slightly, then pour in to greased (Pam spray) pan -- I used a 9 inch square Pyrex one. Once it is cooled and starting to set, refrigerate. Cut as desired when you are ready to pack your Bento!

This is not a sweet aspic but the apple gives it some sweetness. You could certainly add sugar if you wanted it on the sweeter side. I can't wait to make shapes and create frightening EmoFood out of these!!

Friday Flubs

This was my first attempt at fancy and the results are quite humbling. What I had pictured: elegant little hot dog fish and a benignly smiling hard boiled egg half decorating wasabi egg salad.

What I got: the miserable survivors of a hot dog massacre -- "Run for your lives!!" -- and an evil or drunken overlord egg also evidently wishing to be elsewhere, perhaps in some banana republic where a maniacal facial expression gains you respect.


Today's Bento features the wasabi egg salad with its emotional storm on top, pita wedges, skewers of cherry tomato, celery, ham, and black olive, and blue raspberry jello with blue M&M's on top. May it taste better than it looks!


I do like the look of these; they made me hungry!

Bento for a Frigid Thursday

It's a balmy -20 F. outside as I write this. In a minute I will get dressed in 372 layers of clothing, venture out and attempt to start my car, and mosey off to work. Schools are closed today but my university (Motto: "Hell No We Won't Close!") is open for business as usual.

Jan's Bento has a hot theme to warm him up:


1. Szechuan shrimp stir-fry
2. Polenta wedges fried in hot chili oil
3. Bitter melon salad with lots of fresh ginger
4. Wasabi peas and M&M's

That should put the fire in the belly! He loves hot food so this should be OK.

I'm still seeking the perfect method for transferring soy sauce to the cute containers; it's messy with the syringe, and when I have soy sauce in a coffee cup, I am at high risk of drinking it by accident this early early in the morning. Hazards of bento!!

When Little Bento Schemes Work Out...

...Life is Good!!!

Everyone who loves a bento must have this feeling often: AHA! It fits!!

Today I scored a huge victory. My newly purchased mini-quiche pans make pies that fit in Mr. Bento's containers! Happiness all over.

Here are the pans:

I wasn't sure they'd actually work as they are the exact same diameter as the container, but the spinach quiche I made this morning shrank away just a tetch from the sides as it cooled. There's a limitless horizon of possibilities for these quiche pans. I'm seeing apple crumble, baked squash casseroles, oh just anything...


Today's bento for Jan had;
(1) the victory-quiche, plus:
(2) a Greek salad,
(3) daikon wedges & bitter melon on skewers with shrimp, on a bed of snow peas, drizzled with rice vinegar and with a little soy bottle for cute;
(4) 'Want-Want' rice crackers and a Jolly-Jolly jelly, from our recent grocery trip.


It's a good bento day for me; hope it is for you too!

Baby Bok Choy Takes Over

This beautiful baby bok choy, scored Saturday morning at the local Oriental Grocery, had been on my mind and this morning it took over today's Mr. Bento. I should have included something to show scale but the stem ends are less than one inch across and it is so tender and sweet!

I stir-fried just the bok choy very briefly in a little sesame oil with a drop of hot pepper oil, then topped it with leftover teriyaki chicken. The other parts of Jan's lunch today are a salad I made from julienned giant daikon and carrot with fresh cilantro and lime juice, and pumpkin soup.


We have two different Mr. Bentos; one came with only Japanese writing on the package and has 3 inner containers (and a slick chopstick carrier on the outside); the other was clearly designed for an international market and has 4 containers and a 'spork' in a loop inside. They're about the same outer dimensions so the 4-container Bento's containers are smaller. Today I gave Jan the 3-one so that the bok choy and chicken would have enough space. It's nice to have choice.

Today is the last day of my technology boot camp so as of tomorrow I will be Bentoing instead of eating sad taco salads with mystery meat the consistency and ?flavor of dog food. Alas for my university food service; formerly barely OK, now a disaster due to budget cuts and creeping junk-food-itis.