hapa bento

UPDATE: Entry phase is now closed and the voting begins here on Facebook!

Woo hoo!  It’s Back-to-School Bento Contest time!  UPDATE:  See below for new dates!

But first… today’s Back-to-School bento is filled with yummy Lazy Tuna Sushi. The basic recipe is here.

And  as you can see the recipe can be modified to suit your tastes.  This time I left out the scrambled egg and bulked up on the tuna.

The very roomy bottom tier allows for a whole boiled egg which I molded into a fun fish-shape, zucchini, carrots and cherries!

Yes… my bento box collection has a new addition thanks to our friends at Japanistic.com

Isn’t it adorable?  And very versatile too.  I can think of many ways to pack this cutie!  How about a sammy in the bottom tier with fruit on top.

More information on about this adorable Elpha 2-Tier Onigiri Case along with other cool bento items can be found on their site.

What?  You say you’d like to have this box for your very own?  Okay… here how you can win one:

Win this bento box with matching travel chopsticks!

Contest Rules:

1. Contest is open to US mailing address only.
2. Post a photo of  your bento creation on my hapa bento flickr group.  Add “hapa bento contest” in the description.
3. If you are not a member of Flickr then email the photo to me or add to the comments below and I’ll post it for you.
4. You can enter as many bentos as you like, but only one of them will be selected for the final voting.
5. The bento entry must be a recent creation.
6. Charaben or kyaraben is accepted but not required. Your bento entry does NOT need to be cute.
7. Entries will be accepted from now until Sept. 2, 2011   Extending until Sept. 9, 2011
8. All selected bentos will be accepted for final voting.
9. Voting will take place Sept. 10, 2011 through Sept. 16, 2011.

I can’t wait to see your bento entries!

Good luck and have fun!
For more bento tips, information and recipes subscribe to hapa bento via your email or newsreader

Japanistic – cool, fun, well-designed Japanese bentos and other products!

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I love veggies.

I wish, I wish, that I had loved them when I was a kid. All those wasted meals, staring at a plate of glorious carrots, string beans, or bell peppers. Wishing that we had a family dog that would “clear my plate.”

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Does this look like chicken?  Maybe teriyaki or barbecue styled?  Not even a little bit?

But lest you think that I’m trying to pull a fast-one,…Saba Man actually likes my wheat-meat (seitan) creations!

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I think I’ve already complained (in earlier posts) about being too busy too cook  so I’ll spare you the moaning and groaning.  Let’s skip the dirty details on my long days and get to the bento!

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Today’s featured bento has more of the very cool green bamboo rice!  It cooks up very nicely and add a bit of pizazz to the ‘ole bento box lunch! 

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It’s the weekend and Saba Man volunteered to stop at the store  in-between running his own errands . (isn’t he sweet?) 

 ”What do you need?” …he had his pen poised and ready to add to his list.

“Oh… whatever you want for lunch and some tomato soup”  (The weather has chilled down so I was craving  soup)

“Easy-peasy” and he was out the door! Read the rest of this entry →

Today’s featured bento box contains roasted (surprise) lemon chicken.  Roasted zucchini and brown rice complete this tangy meal in a box!   It’s a short post tonight so I’ll provide the recipe for the chicken another time. With pictures!

The zucchini is roasted in garlic infused olive oil, sea salt and freshly cracked black and white pepper!   Doesn’t  that zucchini look overly oiled in the photo?   But it didn’t taste too greasy… hmm…I need to add blotting papers to the bento making tool chest!

How do you pronounce “quinoa”?  “kee-NO-wah” or “KEEN-wah”?   Well, I wasn’t sure so it’s added to both boxes.  The ”kee-NO-wah” to the large bento box and  “KEEN-wah” to the snack box.

The large bento box has fried chicken drumettes, roasted trio of peppers-zucchini-mushrooms, Turkish Apricot Garbanzo Bean Salad, and the quinoa.  This quinoa recipe starts off with cooked quinoa. Mix an egg with mirin, salt and pepper like you were about to cook scrambled.  Add that mixture to the quinoa and heat in a pan until the egg cooks and coats all the granules. 

I added another phase to the same quinoa/egg mixture for the large bento box.  Tuna.   Mix in canned tuna, a splash of shoyu and blend it all together until it looks like a lumpy mystery food.  At this stage, form patties and fry in hot skillet with oil until browned on each side.  I used olive oil, but the next time I may try sesame oil. Insalata caprese makes it’s second autumn appearance, (without the teeth this time).  Rosemary skewered, roasted baby potatoes with butter is the other treat and edamame fills out the rest of the box.

There’s a rather large bag of quinoa left in my pantry.  What else can I do with it?  If you have an favorite dish or recommendation, please share.  However you pronounce it, “kee-NO-wah” or “KEEN-wah”, I would love to give your recipe a try