Bento: Better late than never!

A back-dated bento from September (2 months ago!). I just dug the pics out of Buu's phone. ^^



From left: Inarizushi plain (cheese ♥ cutouts) and with egg mayo (ham ♥ cutouts), blanched sweet peas, stir fried aubergine with green pepper, coke simmered chicken and egg salad.



A mucky Usa-chan waiting to dig in. Egg mayo with "WEB" spelt out in ham. ugly but love counts right? :P

Do the kudamono like inari too? XD

I love bento days. Tiring but so worth the smile I get.

Pasta Carbonara with Leeks & Mushroom

After a long bento hiatus, Buu finally requested a bento for Monday. ;p

We shopped for some ingredients on Sunday and decided to experiment making pasta carbonara with 蟹味菇.

Brown Clamshell Mushroom, also known as Hon- or Buna-Shimeji, is termed as 蟹味菇 in Mandarin because of its distinctive mild shellfish flavor. To think I was cracking my head trying to figure what was 蟹味菇 in English when it was those dainty shimeji all along. Baka.

The ingredients are fairly simple:

• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
  
• Mushrooms (I used buna-shimeji)
  
• 1 stalk of leek (sliced diagonally)
  
• Prego mushroom carbonara sauce (1 can)
  
• Ground/ Crushed black pepper
  
• Parmesan cheese powder
  
• Cooking oil
• Pasta of choice (I used my Simpson's pasta. Try fettucinne or penne)

Heat up some oil in a pan. Once done, saute garlic, leeks and the mushrooms.

In another pot, boil some water and cook pasta according to its package til al dente.

After 5-8 minutes, empty carbonara sauce from can to the sauteed mixture and give it a good stir around.

When it starts bubbling, take it off the hob.

Serve hot by ladling the carbonara sauce over your desired pasta.

Top with some crushed black pepper, parsley and parmesan cheese.

The Simpsons and Scooby Doo Pasta

Happiness comes in small packages :)

I went to work feeling awfully frumpy. Bad hair day paired with universal unrivaled retarded sense of clothing. It was one of those days when I felt horizontally challenged and physical beauty challenged. meh... Still, there were great people who made me count my blessings again by the end of the day. Blessed is me...

Buu was very sweet to bring me for Ice Age 3 tonight. It wasn't as sight-splitting funny as I'd expected. Perhaps I stacked my expectations up too high. Personally, I felt that kids may have problems grasping the jokes. I hear the adults laughing at them more than the children considering there were quite some kids in our hall. The saving grace for the movie was Buck Wild, the Weasel, with its piratey swashbuckling actions. I think inside everyone of us, there's a Buck Wild waiting to be unleashed. Of course, these are purely my personal opinions. Watch it yourselves for your 2 cents worth.

Nevertheless, i had an enjoyable time. The company was what made all the difference. Thank you, pumpkin for treating me to the movie! It definitely defused my tensed nerves.

Before the movie started, we went to Cold Storage. I stumbled upon these cute pastas and couldn't resist adding them to my pasta collection.

Priced at RM 8.99 each packet, these are certainly not cheap by normal standards. But a little novelty doesn't hurt sometimes, won't you agree? :)

Especially when your loved one's eyes sparkle when he/she peers into the bento......

Minimalist bento

Curry fried rice, sunny side up, stewed pork with cabbage

A minimalist bento for the gardener whose birthday is inching near  :)

A working Sunday

Backdated bento posts for Buu.

Heart shaped tuna sandwich

More tuna sandwiches

Noodles with curry chicken.

The weather's so beautiful today. What a perfect weekend it'd be if I'm not working later. Ah, duty calls... you're a bother. Lazy Sundays, I miss you.

Have you smiled today?

I hope you have now...

=)

Buu's bento for today. An egg sandwich.

Mini dollar pancakes and Spaghetti

Lemme tell ya. PMS and boredom are the sickest bedfellows, ever.

I was totally pwn-ed by these j*rks yesterday night.

All in all which led me to decide that I need a lift of spirits today.

Comfort food was high on the radar, and many a thought came to mind. Warm mushroom soup or even clear Chinese soups were some of them. But then, twas quite a hassle as I am short of certain ingredients. After some deliberating, hmmm... one can't go wrong with pancakes right? Minified to dollar size, it should be just nice in portion and could probably leave me hankering for a second time. Do you know.... refined carbs are one of the reasons of bloating via sugar fermentation? So always be moderate when you're taking food from this food group.

Made the pancakes from the box of Pillsbury mix which I got myself few moons ago. It was really fun to watch the batter bubble and sizzle in the pan, not to mention simple to make. I've put off making the pancakes for eons as I did not have toppings or fillings of any sort at home except for a bottle of wild honey which tastes like alchohol. *wrinkles face* Still, I lightly drizzled the pancakes with that and happily sprinkled some 100s & 1000s and also chocolate rice atop the mini pancakes.

By golly, the colourful sprinkles appears to have a magnetic resonance to draw that little black cloud away. In addition, spunkz knows she's happy when she went:

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

With already a great start to the day, lunch did not pale in comparison and comprised of......

...... spaghetti with mushrooms, garnished with parmesan and parsley. I cheated and didn't make the sauce from scratch like I usually do. Bought a pre-mixed bottle instead. A depressed witch deserves some slack sometimes, I reckon. Haha. I made the pasta also because I wanted to trim my basil plant as they have been growing up real fast! Greens of the day was sweet peas or sugar snaps with a lone cherry tomato. I got the sugar snaps at a steal. RM 0.90/pack.

The after-lunch verdict? Talk to my satisfied tummy. :)

Sea World Bento

A backdated bento which I did for him, nuked the pictures from his blog. DSLR taken pics are so nice compared to my handphone snapped ones. I guess beggars can't be choosers, so I shall be contented with the current situation for the time being. :)

Tonkatsu (Japanese fried pork cutlet), furikake rice, stir fried baby vege, physallis and lea & perrins sauce in mini clickety click bottle

Sea World Bento

After pigging out (uhuk! pun intended) on tonkatsu, he got a healthy brekkie bento just like mine on the following day. I did a sea world themed bento for him. He had a whole army of crabs too. Slightly jealous coz mine was a no frills affair. lolx. And minus the crab army, mind you.

Tunacado & Tuvocado buns with Capt'n Penguin leading the way. The uber cute sea creature picks with a physallis fruit and a cherry tomato each. Boy, check out the green stuff. It's sweet basil harvested right outta my own balcony! I feel like a proud parent. *grins*

Meet Mr Krabs, the Klunky War General.

Mr Krabs was made by placing a cocktail sausage into the quirky wiener cutter (guys, don't cringe! :P ) which I purchased from Ipoh's 100 yen store on a recent outstation trip. I managed to swipe 2 different wiener cutters off the shelf - tulip and crab. After extracting the sausage from the cutter, you can choose to cook it through steaming, boiling or even gentle stir frying. Have fun playing in the kitchen if you have a chance to lay your hands on this toy.

Hope the love is enjoying his trip in PD. Catch a few fish yo~

tunacado vs tuvocado

I'm feeling uncannily healthy today. Brekkie is tuna+avocado mash sandwiched in whole grain bun.

I've waited rather impatiently for the avocado to ripen and decided to push it into the operating theatre today. Le avocado went under the scalpel this morning at 6.30 am. After some mishmashing and seasoning with lemon juice, salt and pepper, Mr tu-tu-tu-tu-tuNa (sung to the chip 'n dale rescue rangers chorus) joined in the fray. Popped the buns into the toaster oven after slathering them in olive oil. Once done, slap the tunacado or tuvocado mash on. Slap-dash-bang. Me likes. A fast brekkie bento.

Dear Slap-dash-bang,

I shall now knight thee as one of my royal knights in tag label land. Thou may rise now.

Comment: Avocado is tasteless basically, so unleash ur creativity in the mash. Add some chopped onions or tomatoes.

Caution: Pls wait till Miss Avo is really really really ripe for uhuk! unless you're masochistic enough to lace bitter goo on your tongue.

Collapsible lunch box which I got in Ipoh's 100 yen store

Great for sandwiches

Gotta get back to the daily grind for the time being. laters!

love, spunkz

Tonkatsu~

I dreamt of Lee Hom last night. It's the second time in recent months. And I wonder why... I do like his songs but have never been a fanatic. Well, the dream was sweet nonetheless. :)

I like how momentum just picked up naturally today. The past 2 days have been sluggish. I took a random off day yesterday. Priority: to settle some niggling house problems and also for a well needed rest. Even though I was determined to get some work done at home, I wasn't catching up much on it yesterday. Bleh. Not a very tummy-friendly and head-friendly day too. I intend to veg out the whole week to recover from the sluggishness soon. Hence, I'm giving most of the social activities already lined up a miss --> 'Coming Soon' special screening tonight and Dan's gig tomorrow. Geez, sorry fellas... Heartfelt apologies to all affected.

Lunch today will be tonkatsu (pork cutlet) on a bed of rice. Rice has furikake sprinkled on for flavour. Cherry tomatoes for a cheery air :) Sides of blanched baby i-forgot-what vege and physalis. Physalis is also known as Cape gooseberry. Erm, perhaps you can go google it just like I did. By the way, this is my first time trying this fruit hence wait for my comment laters. They were going real cheap at Tesco -RM 1.50/carton. Reckon it's stock clearance before they rot. The ones in the carton I purchased were still pretty decent. So far, none unfresh or rotted ones detected.

Need to get back on the work trail now~

Gambatte, ore~

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Updated:

The physalis is yum! Sweet and sour with a firm tomato-ish texture!

Bento accessories organiser

Thanks to Papi for being the sweetest dear ever~

Finally... *imagine Fergie crooning*

I received 2 boxes to organise my bento accessories!

*woot woot*

The interior look

Adjustable compartments

Egg molds, cutters, assorted picks

Punchers, silicone cups, mayo case, shoyu bottle, cutters, barans & misc

I'm a happy happy kid!

Maisie Eats Bento 100th Bento Giveaway

If you're a bento enthusiast, you might wanna know about this :)

There's currently a giveaway from Maisie Eats Bento in conjunction with Lisa's 100th bento post. Closing date is on 5th of April 2009 at midnight Eastern Standard Time. Don't miss out by checking this link !

This reminds me.. I've never kept count of my bentos. haha. Maybe I should start compiling.

I love bento-ing~ *grins like a chipmunk*

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*gasps*

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Click here ---> Pikkopots actually made a bento with DOMOKUN!!!!!!

aAaAaAaAhhhhh!!!

*kowtows*

Please hop over to this talented lady's site for more delicious looking bentos!She also does 'Lost' bentos. Amazing feats, I have to say.

Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you see that??????

I knowww.... I'm just too Domo-crazy... :)

Onigiri-sama bento

Today's bento features onigiri-sama!

I shaped the onigiri following this bentorial from JustHungry. Simple and neat, most importantly it avoids the cumbersome sticky-finger situation. Thumbs up!! There's another way of making onigiri using a Zipock bag which I saw on JustBento . If you're interested, do hop over here to have a look. Both these bentorials come with detailed pictures and instructions which I find really easy to follow.

JustBento also has a very comprehensive Onigiri FAQ which can tell you what you already know and what you do not know about onigiri. I'm absolutely smitten by these two sites which are managed by maki. They are very useful sites for bento beginners like yours truly here. :)

Left: Plain onigiri, Right: Onigiri with okaka furikake

Lookie! It's Zou-san (Elephant) peeking behind the onigiri with shiso furikake.

Full view of the bento. One of the plain ones behind is filled with katsuobushi mixed with shoyu.

The baran on the left hand side is Kuma-san (Bear)! Hihi. The barans were placed to prevent the onigiris from sticking to one other.

Onigiri is something which is really simple and speedy to make. It also makes up a substantial meal. Some even quoted it as the ultimate Japanese comfort food. Omoshiroi or pretty interesting, isn't it? Maybe you can start making some at home too!

Till the next bento, ja ne~

Credits:

Onigiri .gifs from Anikaos.com!

Couscous & Chicken Kebab Bento

I bought a bag of 5 lemons at RM3+ at Tesco few days ago. Initially, I had only planned on getting 1 of the tarty fruit for making my couscous. Upon inspecting, it was RM1+ for a fruit. Calculative obasan ego naturally led me to putting down that ONE fruit and picked up the ONE bag. Hence, these few days will see me doing everything possible lemony. It was hot wild honey and lemon last night with me spudding in front of the idiot box. Life's pleasures can be very simple. :)

As I looked up for lemony facts, I read from here that lemon juice acts as a tonic to the liver and stimulates it to produce bile, making it ready to digest the day's food when taken regularly at the start of the day. Hihi. So here I am feeling slightly luxurious, adding 2 slices of lemon into my water bottle filled with good ol' sky juice. Zesty stuff! Cheh wah. Like fancy dining only. wokay wokay, it's just once in a while! Besides, the added zing serves as an excellent motivation to encourage myself to increase guzzling.

Bento Update:

Yesterday's bento had Mediterranean notes lingering around. Yours truly endeavoured into couscous cooking with mediocre results. But it's okay. Just a bit more salt next time will do the trick. Personally, the taste is fine with me coz I grew up with Mum's less oil-less salt-less sugar cooking. Papi on the other hand found it slightly bland. I'll tweak it to suit his taste next time round. Mou ikkai~

Prior to cooking this, I researched quite a lot of couscous recipes on RecipeZaar before coming out with one of my own. And here's spunkz couscous recipe for sharing!

Couscous

Ingredients:

• 4 - 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1/2 bell pepper, chopped
• Handful of raisins
• Salt & ground black pepper
• Couscous
• Chicken stock (I used instant granules)
• Few sprigs of fresh sweet basil (Right outta my garden!)
• Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice or more or uhh.. less

1. Saute some minced garlic and sliced red onions in olive oil till fragrant. Add in couscous and stir for a while. I also added some raisins in at this point. It can be omitted if preferred.
   
2. Next, add chicken stock to the mixture till water comes to a boil.
   
3. Follow the instructions on the packet as different brands have different water to couscous ratio stated. I used chicken stock in place of water as I wanted to infuse more flavour. Add salt and ground black pepper to taste.
   
4. Take pan off heat and allow to stand for 5 minutes with the cover on.
   
5. Then, use a fork and fluff the mixture up.
   
6. After that, stir fry the mixture on low heat again this time by adding 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
   
7. Add in chopped tomatoe and chopped green peppers. (I sauteed mine prior to this step.
   
8. Before taking pan off heat, stir in 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and mix well. (May be upped or cut down depending on preference)
   
9. Sprinkle on some shredded sweet basil leaves. Mint leaves can also be used, up to personal preference.
   
10. Couscous is ready for serving.
    

I made chicken kebabs to go with the couscous. It's really pretty simple to conjure up. Feeling very adventurous, I also gave an Oriental twist to the self-made recipe!

Chicken kebab with 5 spice powder

Marinade:

• Chicken fillet, cubed
• Salt or some Kikkoman soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• 5 spice powder or as Martin Yan calls it: Magic powder!
• Smashed garlic cloves

1. After 2 - 3 hours of marination, I skewered the chicken cubes on satay sticks and alternating between a piece of bell pepper, chicken, onion, chicken... you get my drift, yea?
2. Slather some olive oil onto the chicken skewers before popping them into the toaster oven for around 10 - 15 minutes.
   
3. Remember to turn the skewers once in a while for even grilling.
   
4. Juices may run out during the grilling process. Save it and use it to drizzle on top of the couscous! Heavenly stuff, I tell ya!
   

This is Papi's bento:

Left: Couscous with Chicken Kebab

Top right: Chilean blueberries. Lemon wedges for Papi to make tea.

Bottom right: Screwpine cake for teatime. Monkey container with Lingam's garlic chili sauce.


P/S: Will post mine after I get the pics outta Lenny. XD

B-Less and C-Less, I'm Wallowing

Nobody likes to read negative stuff. But I figured that since I've been the happy kid for quite some time recently, I should have earned the right to mope and wallow once in a while. Promise, I'm going for the kill fast and will snap out of it after this post.

Parting seems to have gotten easier over time, I didn't feel that heavy hearted tonight. Good sign. All the practice had me firmed up good.

I was fine, fine and perfectly fine! Coming home alone, feeling good on the couch and finally enjoying some quality TV time. Heck I even watched one full episode of Bones. Didn't even noticed when that sneaky Wallow crept on me. Fine, so I'm wallowing now.

I'm Buu-less for a week and Cuzz-less for two. Misery loves company, yeah... how cliche.

It's ok, today's gonna be over soon. At least I'm booked for Friday, thanks to sayang's grace. We're heading down to Alexis for seafood pizza which Cass was raving about. Spookz always says, convert your misery into chomping energy. I think I won't mind desserts for Friday too. Hmm.... Godspeed!

May the days zoom by for I might gain too much weight before my loves come home!

Am already chomping on the confused lemon chips to improve the mood. And don't get me started on them. Comfort food rating?

f-a-i-l.

I hope they come out with better cross-breeds.

Gah...

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Today's bento

Top left : Cameron strawberries
Bottom left : Tomato drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with basil, bonito flakes and nori
Right : Blanched baby siew pak choy, roasted drumstick

Love my mini shoyu bottle on the right! On the left, I filled Monkichi with sugar for the strawberries.

Monkichi in action. The one showing his behind looks like he is $h1tting.

Strawberry with sugar...

Amai~

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@ suki da ne! @

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\(^_^)/

Credits:

Des-chan for her persistence in insisting on photographing. No pictures otherwise. Taihen arigatou-gozaimasu!