Hehe... I'm off to a long-overdue vacation tomorrow morning, and I won't be back until the evening of the 27th, so I figured that I'd make one post before I leave for the wonderful beaches of Puerto Galera. Hehehe... (I know, I've been mentioning it all over the place, over on my main blog. I'm really excited about the trip. :D)

Anyway, here's something that's pretty simple.

- Instant pancit canton, sprinkled with plum-flavored furikake (just for an extra kick)
- Tamagoyaki slices (it's that brown because I added a bit more soy sauce than what most cookbooks would recommend. :D)
- tomato slices to sort of cancel out the saltiness of the pancit and the tamagoyaki.


( just a couple of more pictures )

And I'm off!! ^___________^

Alright, this next bento has no rice in it because on the day that I made this, my boyfriend and I agreed that we'll meet in the office for lunch and he'll take care of the rice as long as I took care of the viands. So, for that day, I made a tonkatsu sauce stir-fry with beans and mushrooms, a helping of bagnit and a pair of bunny hard-boiled eggs. The star candy was, of course, dessert.

Anyhoo, one of the things that I learned about making this bento was that the candy stars may not have been in such a good spot. I only figured this out because in the 15-minute trip to the office, the wax paper holding the candies was starting to get moist from the tiny bit of sauce in the stir-fry. If I had to let the bento sit for longer than that, and if my boyfriend and I didn't end up eating immediately when I got to the office... well, I would have ended up with a weirdly-colored-splotched bunny egg, or worse, tonkatsu flavored candy. Bleh. O_O;;;

Anyway, lesson learned. At least the photos don't show that I've botched it. XD XD

The bento lid was shut with the help of a couple of bands from my other bento boxes, and it was carried to the office in a furoshiki. ^_^;;



(Yes, I couldn't decide on which shot was better, as they're both kinda dark. Again.)

Well, here we go. I'm finally getting around to posting old bento pics that I've taken so were we go!

As the title suggests, the star of this bento is actually the sorry-looking mashed potatoes. Hehehe... I've actually tried making mashed potatoes before, but the VERY first attempt ended up being potato SOUP because I placed too much milk in the whole thing. ^^;;; I'm also loathe with the idea of buying those mix-in-hot-water types of instant mashed potatoes at the grocery so I insist on making my own, stubborn oaf that I am.

Anyway, the bento is composed of tamagoyaki, hotdogs, yet another of K's vegetable-with-cinammon stirfrys, and then, mashed potatoes with cheese. No gravy. Just quickmelt cheese.

The container below shows servings for two people. My boyfriends and I ate from the same bento that day since I got to join him for lunch. ^_^


Meanwhile, a single serving which I had for dinner that day, looked like this:


Messy-looking as it is, I'm actually proud of the potatoes since the consistency came out just right.

The potato recipe
Anyway, it's made of a batch of marble potatoes (the tiny ones). I chose those since they cook a lot quicker and more evenly. I was afraid that I'd be boiling the potato for an hour and I'd STILL end up with a raw core in the end, if I used one of those big potatoes...

Anyway, I washed each tiny potato carefully, then boiled it in water which was some salt and a laurel leaf. Once it's cooked, I mashed it all up (yup, with the skin on), seasoned with salt and pepper and added a small amount of milk to make it creamy. On a whim though, I took about 4 tablespoons of water and placed some crushed rosemary in it. Then I heated the water in the microwave and ended up with rosemary tea. I let it cool as I mashed and mixed the potatoes, then when the the rosemary has steeped enough, I poured it into the mashed potatoes (I used a sieve to get the rosemary bits out, of course). Then, top with cheese!^__^ I thought it was actually pretty nice, despite realizing much later, that I should have had gravy and butter somewhere in the recipe. XD

( more photos )

More of K's delayed bento posts. *yawn* Sigh. It's weird when your body clock refuses to adjust. Never been a morning person.

Anyhoo...

- Rice + furikake + fried eggplant slices
- tamagoyaki + sliced tomato + bagnit on a lettuce leaf
- packet of instant miso soup

* Bagnit is a local dish which is basically pork that has been smoked/cured and then later on deep fried. Best served crunchy and with dipping sauce. Not for the health-conscious. ^_^;;; Sorry, to lazy to look for a wiki link or something. I'll just try to edit this later. Anyway, I love the stuff.



( More pics + K's sad attempt to describe bagnit )

X_x

Another late bento post. Just one this time around since it was my boyfriend's day off that day, and this bento ended up as my dinner and the rest became lunch that we shared before I headed for work.

Anyway, tamagoyaki + hotdogs + asparagus/veggie stir-fry and rice with furikake, umeboshi and kani slices. Marshmallows for dessert.

My boyfriend and I ended up talking about how the umeboshi and kani slices reminded us of either Evangelion or Sin, the last boss in FFX.



( more pics )

*and she's off rushing away again*

busy, busy, busy...

A typhoon struck in our country a couple of weeks ago, and due to the semi-crisis that we had at our apartment that day, we were just plain cold, hungry and exhausted that day as well as the next.

The next day, my boyfriend and I pretty much just stayed home to recover from the previous day's exhaustion, so no bento then, and just a home meal made from whatever I could grab from the ref and some leftovers...

Hot rice, tamagoyaki, tulip hotdogs, asparagus and mixed vegetables in some sauce which I have now forgotten about... I'm pretty sure it was some white sauce that I made for dinner the night before... and some kani slices for garnish. ^_^;;

Blurry pics due to tired hands. :p



( a couple of more pics )

Bento that I made shortly after buying my "Love me little. Love me long." and Putifresh bento boxes (check my previous post. ^_^)

Consists of:
- rice with furikake and naruto slice, and shredded kani with a dollop of mayonaise
- tamagoyaki on a bed of greens, and a mushroom/mixed-veggies/cut-up naruto stir-fry (that's a lot of hyphens there...)
- dessert box with banana slices and flower marshmallows.

As the subject of the post suggests, it just finally occured to me to get a tamagoyaki pan, so I picked one up from the 88-peso/100-yen store near our house to try it out. I like it so much since, not only is my fried egg pretty (yes, I'm shallow), I can use it on other small stuff, too, like hotdogs or whatever. Really convenient especially if I'm just cooking for myself since I don't have to lug out the heavier iron pan that I usually use just to cook a small amount of food.

Since I've tested it out on a cheaper (thinner, flimsier) pan, I'm now convinced and I plan to invest in one of those higher-quality tamagoyaki pans which are more expensive, but with better heat distribution and higher sides, since I think I'll be using it a whole lot more now.



( More pics because I couldn't make up my mind on which pics I like better + dessert box )

Another quick one.

Rice + Furikake
Curry + Mixed veggies + egg (my kuma eggs are still earless...)
Chocolate-filled marshmallows.


( 2 pics + corned beef. Hehe. )

(xposted to tanuki_no_bento)

The last time that I was shopping at out favorite Japanese Grocery, they had freebies at the counter. I didn't exactly know what it was since all I could make out was the word "kani" on the box (not very good with Kanji...), and the fact that it expired in two weeks. So, I grabbed several boxes of the free Kani-things, and couple of days later, I decided to use it.

And it was yummy!!

Hehe... one thing I love about J-groceries is that when they go on sale, they REALLY go on sale. On top of that, they'd rather give away their goods rather than let it all expire and go to waste. ^_^

And our lunch for that day looked like this:


( more bento pics + recipe )

Haha! I was at WalterMart yesterday to meet a buyer for our MTG cards whom I met via eBay. After completing the sale, I figured I'd drop by the grocery and get some supplies. As I was shopping, I decided to drop by their 88-peso houseware bin. I was considering getting a mini-teflon pan that had a flower-shaped mold (flowers... me... I know, I know...), and as I walked around the bin, there it was! The lone pair of egg molds, tucked away in the far corner and covered by other cooking implements. I put the pan back immediately and grabbed the molds, dusty packaging and all. Hehe...

I remember that I went hunting for that pair of egg molds once, and I visited three malls just to try to find it but went home empty-handed. That was months ago. Then, one day, there it was when I wasn't trying to find it! Just sitting there! Needless to say, I'm happy. ^_^

And here they are:



( a couple of more egg mold pics + resulting eggs )

Hehe... I'm happy that my first attempts at egg-molding turned out okay, but I'm just a bit sorry that, well, the bunny's and the bear's ears are non-existent. Sigh. The one time that I only got large eggs, and not extra-large ones...

Anyway, I suppose it's not so bad. I still like the fact that at least the faces came out clearly (though my camera refuses to show them...)



I pack three bentos a day now. Two for my and my boyfriend's lunch (which we eat at the office) and one for my dinner (Lem is home by then since my shift starts later than his).

( And here they are )

Happiness!

Whee!!!

Finally managed a bit of time to post again. Just a simple one. A repeat of my boyfriend's beloved bacon + asparagus. And some omelettes and kani. ^_^



( 4 pics under the cut and a different box )

Gotta run again... @_@;;

(xposted at the bentolunch LJ community - here)

One of my first few attempts at making onigiri and musubi (I didn't buy the musubi molds)... Earlier attempts were made away from a camera...

Hehe. One thing that I learned about bento-making is that if you make a mistake, you can always just eat it. XD



Just a small lunch for today.
Egg musubi and a bunch of snacks. Namely, choco pretzels which are covered by the bunny choco wafers. Dewberry cookies, and strawberry cream gummies.

The thing is that I made too much rice, so I had to use it all up. I had to use my extra large bento box and make more stuff. It's in the ref right now, waiting to be my dinner when I come home after work.

( more pics + extra large bento )

(xposted at the bentolunch LJ community - here)

After my last shopping trip, I told myself that I'd be putting the bentos to good use.

In any case, I tried it out, and I particularly enjoyed using the usagi cookie cutter.

K's first attempt after a year of almost-not-cooking! XD XD



On top:
White rice and Usagi-shaped Ma-ling (a local alternative to Spam).

Bottom: (L-R)
Crispy Ma-ling scraps (what's left after the Usagi has been cut out), kwek-kwek (local streetfood which is basically hard-boiled quail eggs that are dipped in a flour batter, then deep-fried) with tonkatsu sauce, and hotdog octopi. All on a bed of salted iceberg lettuce.

Dessert:
Nissin Choco wafers, Blueberry and Strawberry-flavored Dewberry cream cookies, Potchi sugared strawberry cream chews (sort of like gummis...)

I wish I remembered to draw faces on the Usagi cuts. The hotdogs are actually quadrupi since I got lazy and cut only 4 legs. XD XD

( same food in a different bento for my boyfriend )

(xposted at the bentolunch LJ community - here)