hapa bento

I have a new bento box— compliments of our friends from JaponMania!  They asked me to review their new “Keep Cool Palette” boxes and I of course I agreed.  As a bento-nerd, I love talking about anything that has to do with bento boxes, bento-gear and bento shopping!  Bring it on.

The  first thing you probably noticed is that I did a charaben or kyaraben.   I know, right?  It’s not my usual approach for packing lunches… I’ll tell you more about this along with a special JaponMania discount later in this post.

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Monday is almost over….gotta post this now!

Today’s Meatless Monday bento contains:

Tofu burgers.  I made myself for the first time! I’m so proud.  No recipe yet because they’re not perfect and I have to tweak some ingredients.

Edamame.

Baked kabocha.

Fried scallions.

Enoki mushrooms.

Umeboshi.

Sprounted rice.

Sesame seed and salt furikake.

Yes, that is a lettuce leaf.  I broke my boycott.

2 more minutes…

Gotta post!

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I feel out-of-it.  We are halfway through  December and I haven’t even attempted a winter themed bento until today!

It’s embarassing I tellya, especially with the holiday B.O.M.B. challenge  up and running! Read the rest of this entry →

We were craving. 

Pasta.

Yay!  Fast, versatile and oh so yummy.

Today’s featured bento (and post)  is a quick one with chicken sausages tossed in marinara sauce with cappellini and topped with shiso leaf. 

Even simpler is the top tier filled with kabocha, broccoli tops and stems.  All roasted of course.

This bento was pulled together in no time at all…and with the holiday crush on “full throttle”… I ’m going to crave  pasta again soon.

Now that Saba Man is back at work I wanted to send him off with one of his faves!

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Our schedules, Saba Man’s and mine,  have been pretty wacky these past weeks and keeping up with packing our lunches at odd times throughout the day and night was a challenge!  And truth be told, Saba Man ended up *whispering* ” buying a lunch” last week!  But now we’ve re-grouped, timing has be re-calibrated and we are back on the bento bandwagon!

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I’ve heard that Americans celebrate this holiday with more gusto than the Irish living in Ireland!    

With that said, here’s my tribute to the “Emerald Isle” all the way from the “Emerald City”
… a lucky shamrock bento box! Read the rest of this entry →

I took a short intermission and now I’m continuing the “bento-stash” series with  kabocha!  We are nearing the end of winter; the squash and pumpkin season is wrapping up so I’m stocking the freezer with one of my favorite bento fillers… the kabocha!  Its sweet and  firm flesh is perfect for roasting, baking or simmering.  It also keeps well in the freezer for a couple of months if cooked first and wrapped up tight!  Another good property of kabocha is that it’s skin is soft enough to cut through with relative ease and it’s edible!

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Today’s featured bento is a snack size of the “huli huli” chicken bento from a few day’s ago.    Oh… by the way… Saba Man said it tasted more like “Kalua Pig-Chicken”!   Which gives me another cooking idea eh!  But that exercise will be placed to the end of  very long line of projects waiting for fruition. 

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The kabacha is roasted plain with just a pinch… the tiniest pinch of brown sugar!  Can you see the puckering of the skin from the heat.  I thought it looked interesting.  The chicken is the  simmered with my newest discovery “smoked salt”!  The recipe is here. 

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Bento boxes can come in all sizes and this box or “side car”, as I usually call it when it’s filled with a side salad or fruit, is an example of how to transform any “onesy twosy” leftovers into a mini bento snack.  And this little guy contains a tuna burger… so it’s not for me, it’s for a hungry Saba Man.   Eating this bento box along with a musubi makes for a balanced midnight snack!

Salmon Wraps and Roasted Vegetables with Quail Eggs

Salmon is the main course in today’s featured bento box. Wrapped up in whole wheat tortillas with a “special sauce”… okay it’s just mayo, but I told Saba Man that it’s special sauce just for fun.  Also in the box is asparagus roasted with olive oil, garlic, sea salt and cracked pepper.  The sweet potato and goat cheese puree is a frequent bento box item; it tastes like autumn to me.  It’s a stick-to-your-ribs kind of goodness.  The recipe is described in a previous post , but this time I omitted the butter.

Before and After Quail Eggs

Kabocha is the other roasted vegetable, added not only for it’s deliciousness, but for  color and visual interest. Those white spheres are really quail eggs!  Just for kicks and giggles, I molded them in my hands while they were still warm, manually shaping them into a round ball.   I just kept them in a bowl of hot water while I manipulated them.  If you want to give it a try, just use a light touch to avoid cracking.  Easy peasy.