I'm still alive, just haven't been up to much that's exciting except unpacking and stuff like that. I did do a asian grocery shop and found..... GF peking duck breast!! *happy dance*
I also made this http://www.grouprecipes.com/55939/savoury-sweet-glutinous-sticky-rice.html, some sticky rice to great success. I have really missed yum cha and this stuff is VERY similar to the stuff normally found wrapped in bamboo leaves. I changed the recipe by not having chinese sausage (wheat gluten curses) and adding some chinese five spice powder (read the label! Two out of three brands had flour in) and YUM! I've got some in the freezer so hopefully it wins the "can it be frozen and then shoved in the bento for lunch" challenge.
Also, in a blatant attempt to promote her site, Not Exactly Bento is having a competion - http://notexactlybento.com/?p=1289. And I'm mentioning it in a blatant attempt to win a bento box because I want a new one. The site is also worth a look if you don't feel hungry and want to get hungry really quick! The mardi gras cake on the competition page? *drool*
February 25, 2009
February 13, 2009
Moving Day Eve
Tomorrow is moving day, which means my bento is kind of sad compared to many in the bento challenge group. Leftover thai red curry and coconut rice (which I love so much I can't be sad it's in my lunch today) along with grapes, cheese and mochi.
When I first got this box that started my bento obsession, I thought that I'd have a much easier time filling the layer with compartments. Not so! While it does limit my snack food love, I find it very hard to eat those snacks because the whole box has to be pulled out to get to them. AND when they're out I have three sections worth of food just sitting there, waiting to be munched. 9 times out of 10 I eat the lot in under 30 minutes for lunch. Which probably isn't so good.
With the bento I make for The Boy, I just use one of my square lock'n'locks, the 800ml I think (about the size of two sandwiches on top of each other). His bento always looks better than mine. Sure everything is lunch, but he works from home at his desk so I think he just leaves it open and munches for an hour or so. I feel weird doing that at work because noone else does. Plus, he can go get a snack from the fridge really easily.
Result of all this thinking? I might get another bento box but I'm TRYING to hold out long enough so I can say it's a birthday present to myself. May is a long time away!
I think I want one like this http://cgi.ebay.com/Japanese-Thermal-Bento-Lunch-box-Usagi-Red-Thermal-9_W0QQitemZ130286992854QQihZ003QQcategoryZ4003QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262 as it's thermal, so I can have hot lunch outside when it's cold. Plus, it has two little containers, so I could take one out for a snack at my desk without feeling like a little piggy. And of course with that bento, the shipping is HUGE so I may as well grab a few other things. Like boiled egg molds since The Boy insists that a bento isn't the same without them. I can take them or leave them. But in a shape they are adorable so I might be more willing to make them _all_ the time. And some food picks to make teeny little kebabs or something with.
I'm really glad I discovered bento. To a scary degree. I'm not embarrassed when I was caught on flickr looking at the bento challenge photo pool by (soon to be) Housemate. I was proud! I love going out with my lunch and having tasty food to picnic with. I enjoy making them and attempting to make them look good. I'm even liking all the vegetables and fruit (yes, I'm 5 and don't eat my veges often) and I'm sure I'll really like the smaller butt that comes with eating them too. I'm glad that The Boy has taken them to his heart too - though possibly that's to placate me. Whatever. He needs to eat better and lose some pudge.
But bottom line there are two things why I heart bento the most:
(1) I'm enjoying food again, the making it, the eating it, the buying it without being a complete sook about not being able to eat gluten.
(2) Saving money is good and the reason I'm saving is environmental! No more throwing out those sad looking veges for the most part.
I am proud of my bento habit. I even make bento when the majority of my house is encased in cardboard, in the middle of a raid (10 man Naxx). Bento!
When I first got this box that started my bento obsession, I thought that I'd have a much easier time filling the layer with compartments. Not so! While it does limit my snack food love, I find it very hard to eat those snacks because the whole box has to be pulled out to get to them. AND when they're out I have three sections worth of food just sitting there, waiting to be munched. 9 times out of 10 I eat the lot in under 30 minutes for lunch. Which probably isn't so good.
With the bento I make for The Boy, I just use one of my square lock'n'locks, the 800ml I think (about the size of two sandwiches on top of each other). His bento always looks better than mine. Sure everything is lunch, but he works from home at his desk so I think he just leaves it open and munches for an hour or so. I feel weird doing that at work because noone else does. Plus, he can go get a snack from the fridge really easily.
Result of all this thinking? I might get another bento box but I'm TRYING to hold out long enough so I can say it's a birthday present to myself. May is a long time away!
I think I want one like this http://cgi.ebay.com/Japanese-Thermal-Bento-Lunch-box-Usagi-Red-Thermal-9_W0QQitemZ130286992854QQihZ003QQcategoryZ4003QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262 as it's thermal, so I can have hot lunch outside when it's cold. Plus, it has two little containers, so I could take one out for a snack at my desk without feeling like a little piggy. And of course with that bento, the shipping is HUGE so I may as well grab a few other things. Like boiled egg molds since The Boy insists that a bento isn't the same without them. I can take them or leave them. But in a shape they are adorable so I might be more willing to make them _all_ the time. And some food picks to make teeny little kebabs or something with.
I'm really glad I discovered bento. To a scary degree. I'm not embarrassed when I was caught on flickr looking at the bento challenge photo pool by (soon to be) Housemate. I was proud! I love going out with my lunch and having tasty food to picnic with. I enjoy making them and attempting to make them look good. I'm even liking all the vegetables and fruit (yes, I'm 5 and don't eat my veges often) and I'm sure I'll really like the smaller butt that comes with eating them too. I'm glad that The Boy has taken them to his heart too - though possibly that's to placate me. Whatever. He needs to eat better and lose some pudge.
But bottom line there are two things why I heart bento the most:
(1) I'm enjoying food again, the making it, the eating it, the buying it without being a complete sook about not being able to eat gluten.
(2) Saving money is good and the reason I'm saving is environmental! No more throwing out those sad looking veges for the most part.
I am proud of my bento habit. I even make bento when the majority of my house is encased in cardboard, in the middle of a raid (10 man Naxx). Bento!
February 12, 2009
Using up all of my rice
I'm moving house in two days and am slowly trying to use up things. Like the last couple of cups of rice in the containers. In the photo you see my first ever fried rice. Conclusion? It's fine. Just some random veges, some bacon, tamari and some garlic. I ate it for lunch and while not disgusted by it, I'm not enthused. I am not a fried rice fan. Though it was really quick and used up stuff.
But my other creation with rice was pretty great, though needs tweaking. I wanted coconut rice, but I'd already made the rice and I'd already eaten dinner. So rice pudding. I googled rice pudding with cooked rice and made a thing inspired by the top two results.
Cooked rice (I used a combo of white and brown), about 1-1.5 cups
Milk - less than a cup
Coconut milk - 165ml (a little tin)
sugar - about 1/3 of a cup (a bit much for me)
Cinnamon
Dried cranberries
First thing ingrediants were put in a pot on a highish temperature until boiling, then reduce to a simmer. Add cinnamon (I would have added nutmeg and a few things if I'd had them) and cranberries. Simmer til thick.
Next time I think I'll either add more milk (I used about a third what most of the recipes did) and possibly add some cream. I had this for breakfast and found it a bit sweet. The Boy had half and found it great, which is weird since he's usually not a sweet fan. It needs more creaminess in my opinion, and maybe instead of sugar while cooking it needs a drizzle of honey or maple syrup when serving instead. But still pretty good!
In the bottom left of the lunch above is some tandoori marinated tofu I found in the supermarket. Yum! I'm not sure if it tasted tandoori but it was still darned tasty. I just plonked it in my frypan until browned and chopped it up. It was very tasty cold in my bento and nice but weird for dinner with hot chips (cleaning out the freezer, I swear!).
But my other creation with rice was pretty great, though needs tweaking. I wanted coconut rice, but I'd already made the rice and I'd already eaten dinner. So rice pudding. I googled rice pudding with cooked rice and made a thing inspired by the top two results.
Cooked rice (I used a combo of white and brown), about 1-1.5 cups
Milk - less than a cup
Coconut milk - 165ml (a little tin)
sugar - about 1/3 of a cup (a bit much for me)
Cinnamon
Dried cranberries
First thing ingrediants were put in a pot on a highish temperature until boiling, then reduce to a simmer. Add cinnamon (I would have added nutmeg and a few things if I'd had them) and cranberries. Simmer til thick.
Next time I think I'll either add more milk (I used about a third what most of the recipes did) and possibly add some cream. I had this for breakfast and found it a bit sweet. The Boy had half and found it great, which is weird since he's usually not a sweet fan. It needs more creaminess in my opinion, and maybe instead of sugar while cooking it needs a drizzle of honey or maple syrup when serving instead. But still pretty good!
In the bottom left of the lunch above is some tandoori marinated tofu I found in the supermarket. Yum! I'm not sure if it tasted tandoori but it was still darned tasty. I just plonked it in my frypan until browned and chopped it up. It was very tasty cold in my bento and nice but weird for dinner with hot chips (cleaning out the freezer, I swear!).
February 5, 2009
Combining my current obsessions
While I love making and eating my bento lunch, I didn't want to feel like a 5 year old walking to the park to eat it everyday. Yes, my bento box has a bag with a handle, but why not paint an L for loser on my head and be done with it? So I made myself a new handbag! Yay! It was soooo quick. The longest part was all the paper cutting making the right size pattern that would fit the essentials - bento, book, wallet, keys, other keys, etc. And now I have a very usable prototype. The pocket on the outside needs work, and I want some sort of top closure, but I'm loving the soft cord fabric.
And since I had a COMMENT! on this blog, which means someone is reading it (which I never realised *wave*) I thought I'd talk about my latest experiment in cooking GF.
Last night I had the cooking urge. I cooked for nearly 2 hours from the moment I came home. Crazy, yes? But it was pretty tasty. Still a work in progress though. I made faux onion bhaji and fried tofu....
All I did was mince a couple of serving spoons of chickpea flour (also known as besam or gram flour) with some salt, pepper and a pinch of cumin with enough water to make a paint like consistency. Mixed in a diced onion and dropped spoons of it into about an inch of oil I'd heated in my wok*.
Result? Tasty if you like raw onion. Which the Boy, the Housemate and I do, luckily. We also thought more flavour would be good so maybe next time I'll fry up the onions in some indian style spices beforehand.
The tofu I just dipped into some chickpea flour and fried in the same oil. I liked it! Needs a dipping sauce of some sort, maybe sweet chilli, but definately not bad at all if I do say so myself.
I have some of each today in my lunchbox so here's hoping it works okay for lunch or I'm spending my last $5 on sushi for lunch.
In GF food news, I am LOVING the Food For Health Gluten Free muesli (http://www.foodforhealth.com.au/). I've had it for two weeks practically every day and I'm not sick of it yet. Lots of seeds though, so you might have to spare some extra attention on your teeth brushing each morning, but well worth it for a GF muesli that's not cardboard (Freedom Foods) or so solid you nearly break a tooth (Whisk and Pin - watch out for those smoked almonds!). I found it at my local Woolworths for about $8.
And since I had a COMMENT! on this blog, which means someone is reading it (which I never realised *wave*) I thought I'd talk about my latest experiment in cooking GF.
Last night I had the cooking urge. I cooked for nearly 2 hours from the moment I came home. Crazy, yes? But it was pretty tasty. Still a work in progress though. I made faux onion bhaji and fried tofu....
All I did was mince a couple of serving spoons of chickpea flour (also known as besam or gram flour) with some salt, pepper and a pinch of cumin with enough water to make a paint like consistency. Mixed in a diced onion and dropped spoons of it into about an inch of oil I'd heated in my wok*.
Result? Tasty if you like raw onion. Which the Boy, the Housemate and I do, luckily. We also thought more flavour would be good so maybe next time I'll fry up the onions in some indian style spices beforehand.
The tofu I just dipped into some chickpea flour and fried in the same oil. I liked it! Needs a dipping sauce of some sort, maybe sweet chilli, but definately not bad at all if I do say so myself.
I have some of each today in my lunchbox so here's hoping it works okay for lunch or I'm spending my last $5 on sushi for lunch.
In GF food news, I am LOVING the Food For Health Gluten Free muesli (http://www.foodforhealth.com.au/). I've had it for two weeks practically every day and I'm not sick of it yet. Lots of seeds though, so you might have to spare some extra attention on your teeth brushing each morning, but well worth it for a GF muesli that's not cardboard (Freedom Foods) or so solid you nearly break a tooth (Whisk and Pin - watch out for those smoked almonds!). I found it at my local Woolworths for about $8.
Combining my current obsessions
While I love making and eating my bento lunch, I didn't want to feel like a 5 year old walking to the park to eat it everyday. Yes, my bento box has a bag with a handle, but why not paint an L for loser on my head and be done with it? So I made myself a new handbag! Yay! It was soooo quick. The longest part was all the paper cutting making the right size pattern that would fit the essentials - bento, book, wallet, keys, other keys, etc. And now I have a very usable prototype. The pocket on the outside needs work, and I want some sort of top closure, but I'm loving the soft cord fabric.
And since I had a COMMENT! on this blog, which means someone is reading it (which I never realised *wave*) I thought I'd talk about my latest experiment in cooking GF.
Last night I had the cooking urge. I cooked for nearly 2 hours from the moment I came home. Crazy, yes? But it was pretty tasty. Still a work in progress though. I made faux onion bhaji and fried tofu....
All I did was mince a couple of serving spoons of chickpea flour (also known as besam or gram flour) with some salt, pepper and a pinch of cumin with enough water to make a paint like consistency. Mixed in a diced onion and dropped spoons of it into about an inch of oil I'd heated in my wok*.
Result? Tasty if you like raw onion. Which the Boy, the Housemate and I do, luckily. We also thought more flavour would be good so maybe next time I'll fry up the onions in some indian style spices beforehand.
The tofu I just dipped into some chickpea flour and fried in the same oil. I liked it! Needs a dipping sauce of some sort, maybe sweet chilli, but definately not bad at all if I do say so myself.
I have some of each today in my lunchbox so here's hoping it works okay for lunch or I'm spending my last $5 on sushi for lunch.
In GF food news, I am LOVING the Food For Health Gluten Free muesli (http://www.foodforhealth.com.au/). I've had it for two weeks practically every day and I'm not sick of it yet. Lots of seeds though, so you might have to spare some extra attention on your teeth brushing each morning, but well worth it for a GF muesli that's not cardboard (Freedom Foods) or so solid you nearly break a tooth (Whisk and Pin - watch out for those smoked almonds!). I found it at my local Woolworths for about $8.
And since I had a COMMENT! on this blog, which means someone is reading it (which I never realised *wave*) I thought I'd talk about my latest experiment in cooking GF.
Last night I had the cooking urge. I cooked for nearly 2 hours from the moment I came home. Crazy, yes? But it was pretty tasty. Still a work in progress though. I made faux onion bhaji and fried tofu....
All I did was mince a couple of serving spoons of chickpea flour (also known as besam or gram flour) with some salt, pepper and a pinch of cumin with enough water to make a paint like consistency. Mixed in a diced onion and dropped spoons of it into about an inch of oil I'd heated in my wok*.
Result? Tasty if you like raw onion. Which the Boy, the Housemate and I do, luckily. We also thought more flavour would be good so maybe next time I'll fry up the onions in some indian style spices beforehand.
The tofu I just dipped into some chickpea flour and fried in the same oil. I liked it! Needs a dipping sauce of some sort, maybe sweet chilli, but definately not bad at all if I do say so myself.
I have some of each today in my lunchbox so here's hoping it works okay for lunch or I'm spending my last $5 on sushi for lunch.
In GF food news, I am LOVING the Food For Health Gluten Free muesli (http://www.foodforhealth.com.au/). I've had it for two weeks practically every day and I'm not sick of it yet. Lots of seeds though, so you might have to spare some extra attention on your teeth brushing each morning, but well worth it for a GF muesli that's not cardboard (Freedom Foods) or so solid you nearly break a tooth (Whisk and Pin - watch out for those smoked almonds!). I found it at my local Woolworths for about $8.
February 3, 2009
020209RBento
This week is the week I started making not just bentos for me, but for The Boy as well! I'm quite excited by this. I love bento-ing and now I have infected him as well!! Plus (don't tell) he could probably stand to lose a few kilos.
As he works mostly from home I'm going to focus on the days he goes to uni but am going to try for every day as he has the bad habit of just grabbing whatever (generally dim sims and microwaving them) for lunch because he can't think of what to have. If he has a lunchbox full of things he has no excuse!
The picture is his first ever bento (made by me at least). Packed with stuff though he said he got rather hungry in the afternoon so he requested more protein to fill him up more. Requests already! AND he completely loved the carrot kinpari from justbento.com which is good because we have a LOT of carrots and there's only so many carrot sticks a girl can eat!!
This weeks challenge from justbento.com was to make a bento for someone else, done! already! But I'm going to continue last week's challenge of pinching those pennies as I just paid bond on my new house (yay moving over the next month!). So I am completely broke until next week. But happily I went shopping on Sunday for the essentials and managed to only spend half of what we normally do!! We will need to grab some more veges at some point due to the supermarket having awful specimens but that'll be pretty cheap. While I won't be able to guarantee new exciting bento for the next little while, as I try to use up all our food before we move (and can't buy much more *g*) I now know that he likes everything pictured above.
The challenge for myself last week was to make a "pretty" bento and I don't think I really made that challenge until today's bento (see flickr stream). It just looks really good to me. The beautiful emerald of the broccoli for one! Never thought I'd say that!
This weeks challenge is to limit the meat in my bentos. I've been going off meat lately for the most part. I ate kangaroo mince happily last night but the mini hamburgers aren't appealing. Ham is okay though, enough that I have some today because I needed a space filler. Crazy, eh? So expect many eggs in my bentos this week! I'm aiming for a tamagoyaki for Thursday because I start later then and don't think it would be good made the night before. But that experiment shall occur soon to if Thursday is successful.
In non-bento news, I am officially enrolled in my Millinery course AND my Couture course for this year. I start in March and *happy dance* it's going to be awesome. I'm glad I have a couple of weeks to get all my supplies! Penny pinching bentos are going to continue for quite awhile I think!
Also, I have a Level 80 Shadow Priest now. I am a nerd!
As he works mostly from home I'm going to focus on the days he goes to uni but am going to try for every day as he has the bad habit of just grabbing whatever (generally dim sims and microwaving them) for lunch because he can't think of what to have. If he has a lunchbox full of things he has no excuse!
The picture is his first ever bento (made by me at least). Packed with stuff though he said he got rather hungry in the afternoon so he requested more protein to fill him up more. Requests already! AND he completely loved the carrot kinpari from justbento.com which is good because we have a LOT of carrots and there's only so many carrot sticks a girl can eat!!
This weeks challenge from justbento.com was to make a bento for someone else, done! already! But I'm going to continue last week's challenge of pinching those pennies as I just paid bond on my new house (yay moving over the next month!). So I am completely broke until next week. But happily I went shopping on Sunday for the essentials and managed to only spend half of what we normally do!! We will need to grab some more veges at some point due to the supermarket having awful specimens but that'll be pretty cheap. While I won't be able to guarantee new exciting bento for the next little while, as I try to use up all our food before we move (and can't buy much more *g*) I now know that he likes everything pictured above.
The challenge for myself last week was to make a "pretty" bento and I don't think I really made that challenge until today's bento (see flickr stream). It just looks really good to me. The beautiful emerald of the broccoli for one! Never thought I'd say that!
This weeks challenge is to limit the meat in my bentos. I've been going off meat lately for the most part. I ate kangaroo mince happily last night but the mini hamburgers aren't appealing. Ham is okay though, enough that I have some today because I needed a space filler. Crazy, eh? So expect many eggs in my bentos this week! I'm aiming for a tamagoyaki for Thursday because I start later then and don't think it would be good made the night before. But that experiment shall occur soon to if Thursday is successful.
In non-bento news, I am officially enrolled in my Millinery course AND my Couture course for this year. I start in March and *happy dance* it's going to be awesome. I'm glad I have a couple of weeks to get all my supplies! Penny pinching bentos are going to continue for quite awhile I think!
Also, I have a Level 80 Shadow Priest now. I am a nerd!
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