March 18, 2010

お久しぶり。

A little bit sparse with the posts lately; the school year here is about to end, and I'm a bit crazy with the planning of last-minute classes and Graduation for my 6th graders.

Here are two bentos from among the lunches I've been bringing lately. I really don't know why I keep getting cherry tomatoes; they look pretty but I don't really like raw tomatoes that much. --; I'll look for something else.



The Snoopy bento makes a guest appearance!
Upper box: Rice with tamago (egg) furikake, bacon-wrapped asparagus, cherry tomatoes.
Lower box: Miso and green bean salad, fish cake kabob, pork shumai, tamagoyaki (grilled omelette).
Extras: Apple, yogurt (not pictured).



Upper box: Chicken dumpling, cherry tomatoes, sweet potato, asparagus, grilled salmon (hiding kinda), fish cake kabob.
Lower box: Sekihan, stir-fried greens.
Extras: Banana, yogurt.

Sekihan is a special rice dish where the rice has been boiled with beans and comes out red. It's often served as a dish to mark someone's coming of age. It's not my favorite thing, but it has a lot of fiber. XD

And I think I've been focusing a lot on シド lately, but I just managed to get a ticket for the current tour, so I will laud them a bit more. ^^ For today's soundtrack we have "Sweet?" It's one of my favorite videos/songs. XD



I want Mao's hair in this one. But it would be soooo short. XD

March 3, 2010

Rabbit food. Well, not the beef.



Upper box: Rice with salmon furikake, broccoli, glass noodle salad.
Lower box: Sukiyaki beef and yellow peppers stir-fried with sweet onion sauce. Leftover from dindins last night, and soooo good. ;;;_;;; With carrots, and the ever-present Riiraakuma fish cakes.
Mini bento: Strawberries again. Gotta eat them up.
Extras: Cheese wedge, and carrots for me and the baby bunnies to snack on. ♥

Today's bento prep track: "sleep," just released today by シド.



Ahahha, Mao looks good in that suit and knows it. 8D

March 2, 2010

Same fish, different day.

Went shopping and got some different stuff. >D Today I'm using the other half of the fish fillet from yesterday. Nice to have some other colors in there, although I'm not completely happy yet.



Upper box: Grilled salmon bedded on lettuce, with broccoli, carrots, and fish cake rolls.

Lower box: Glass noodle salad with ham and egg, rice with wakame furikake, and some carrots.

Mini bento: Strawberries. *_* NOM.

Extras: Vanilla yogurt, cookie/chocolate snack.

This morning's bento prep soundtrack: ナイトメア's "HATE." Hard to prepare bento when you feel the need to do furi (choreography) along with the song. XDDD



Hitsugiiiii. ♥_♥

March 1, 2010

Color fail. D:



Upper box: Grilled salmon bedded on lettuce, carrots, snow peas, almonds, and a chicken mince patty.
Lower box: Rice with ume furikake, pickles, broccoli.
Mini bento: Apples with dried cranberries.

Not entirely pleased today, although it'll surely taste good. I think the okazu box (okazu is anything other than rice) needs some yellow or another lighter contrasting color... unfortunately, I was out of yellow peppers. D: Also meant to use different furikake, but I found I was out of the salmon kind I like. TODAY THERE WILL BE SHOPPING. I want to get eggplant and try that as pickles, anyway. ♥

Highlight from this morning's bento prep soundtrack: ナイトメア's "Cyan". ♥

February 28, 2010

So much for breakfast...



Upper box: Shumai, snow peas, cherry tomatoes, grilled salmon, Riirakkuma fish cake slices.

Lower box: Heart-shaped tuna sandwiches with lettuce and tomato, another cherry tomato, and Yakisoba. Snow cheese wedge off to the side.

I don't know why I thought I would have time to make those sandwiches; it took forever and almost made me late for school. >_<; I had to skip breakfast and eat something after morning meeting. --; LET'S PREPARING A BIT EARLIER, D.

February 24, 2010

Fish and round things.



Upper box: Rice, hot dog fish, pickles.
Lower box, left to right: Pasta, straggler hot dog fish, snow peas, yellow peppers, "mochi" fish cake balls, meat balls.

Mini bento has the day off; brought a banana instead.

Very pleased that the hot dog fish came out a lot better than the penguins. ;;;_;;; The package said that after you mold the hot dogs you can prepare them any way you want, but I boiled them this time (instead of pan-heating) and they came out much nicer.

February 23, 2010

Snow peas were on sale...



Upper box: Rice with Ume furikake, pickles, snow pea garnish.

Lower box, from left: Pork shumai and cherry tomato, yellow peppers, Riiraakuma sliced fish cake, chicken mince, and snow peas tucked in everywhere.

Mini bento: Same as yesterday. Mikan and dried cranberries. Nom. O_O

FFFFFT my kitchen smells like shumai. XDDD

February 22, 2010

O-Bento-Hime!

Hello. I live.
I'm teaching English at elementary schools lately. I eat lunch with the kids, and since our school lunch is kind of ...meh... I bring bento instead. XD It's lovely being able to make and eat bento IN Japan. XD Lately I've been working harder on my cooking, so it's been a bit of a revival with the bento thing lately.

So yeah, went out and spent... well, not too much, actually. And got a new bento set. Also got myself a muchly-needed new frying pan and spatula... in green. XD The joys of non-stick cooking.

The bento is like pink and cutesy. I keep catching myself thinking of it as "Obento-hime." O_O;;; I love it. (;A;)

First, the outside. I got a pale pink bag to put everything in. It's only a matter of time before there's something cutesy hanging off one of the handles. --; Also guest-starring Thermos-sama. Also pink. But I've had the thermos for a while. XD



Next, we have the actual set as it looks all packed up. It's a bit hard to see in the photo but the bento box has slightly-embossed leaves and vines on it. XD My new chopsticks are Kutsushita Nyanko (Socks Kitty, which I love ;_; so cute), and I had to get the white furoshiki cloth printed with black cats to spread everything out on at lunchtime. ♥



And for lunch today...



Scary food is scary. XD
Rice with toasted sesame seeds, penguin hot dogs that didn't come out so good, and my homemade cucumber tsukemono (pickles) in the little heart. ;;_;; I've missed my pickles. ;;;_;;;
Below: Teriyaki chicken with spinach (right), cherry tomatoes and mini fish-cake mochi spears (middle), yakisoba with veggies (left).
Mini bento: Mikan sections with some dried cranberries.

Ate better yesterday, since a lot of it was food I cooked for the sake of my bento. Despite being waist-deep in PMS and in the throngs of a chest cold, I'm doing much better this month. Just goes to show that the more plant life I eat, the better/"cleaner" I feel. I could never be a vegetarian, but the school lunch program has too much refined carb/carb in general and doesn't incorporate enough plants for my liking. And yes, I like to say "plant life" instead of "fruits and veggies." ^^;

Gotta try those hot dogs over again, though. Need to use differently-sized ones and try boiling them. I have three molds.. I am dying to use the fish and crab ones. ;_;

今日から頑張ろう!!!♥