The Leftover Bento

Sometimes when you are too tired to cook, make use of leftovers and arrange them beautifully in a bento box. In photo: Inarizushi, Japanese Potato Salad, Garden Salad, Rice with Furikake, Laver, Quail Eggs, Chicken Apple Sausage. 

Semi-Homemade Bento

This was a really simple bento that I made for my bro, he likes cooked spinach so I decided to incorporate that into today's bento. The kebab is ham and cheese cut lengthwise and folded back and forth, the potato salad I made from a couple days ago, I made the spinach Tamagoyaki by using the same method and ingredients as a regular Tamagoyaki but added mushrooms and spinach, I used instant chow mein and the two prawns were cooked by just dropping them in boiled water for a few minutes, topped with bulldog sauce and kewpie mayo. For side dishes, I sliced up some plums and put some garden salad with radish and almonds as another side dish. 

Wheat Spaghetti and Grilled Chicken

I Love You Pizza Pocket

I picked up this heart shaped sandwich maker today at Kukje Market. I decided to fill it with pizza ingredients but you can fill it up with any sandwich filling. It's a cute idea to give to close friends or loved ones especially when they need some cheering up. 

Pizza Bread

Pizza Bread aka Pizza Pocket

Ingredients: Spaghetti Sauce of your choice (I used the Ragu Mushroom kind), Diced Mushrooms, Pepperoni, Mozzarella Cheese, Sliced bread

Directions: 

Step 1: Dice up the mushrooms and put into spaghetti sauce, heat on medium heat

Step 2: I like to grill the pepperoni a bit, you can skip this step if you want

Step 3: Take two slices of bread and microwave for 30 seconds

Step 4: Put the slices of bread onto a sandwich maker or if you don't have one, you can just press the edges of the bread together when you are finished putting all the toppings. 

Step 5: Spread the spaghetti sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, and spread some spaghetti sauce on the other bread, close it up

Step 6: Put the pizza bread in a toaster oven for 5 minutes

Step 7: Enjoy!

Curry Bread

Curry Bread aka Kare Pan is a Japanese bread which is like a sandwich filled with curry. Instead of using flour to make a dough for the curry filling, I used white bread. 

Ingredients: White Bread, 1box of Curry, Chicken (optional, I used Chicken breast fillets), Egg, Panko, Canola Oil

This is the curry that I used, it's really easy to make and has instructions in English. This kind of box curry is best to use since it has a thick consistency or you can always use leftover curry but make sure the curry isn't very runny. 

Directions: 

Step 1: Cook curry by following the box instructions, while the curry is heating up, cook the chicken

Step 2: Dice up Chicken and cook with butter, garlic olive oil, diced onions, onion powder, garlic salt, pepper, soy sauce. 

Step 3: Open Curry package into a bowl and mix with the grilled chicken

Step 4: Take 2 slices of bread and cut off the crusts

Step 5: Heat in the microwave for 25 seconds. (This helps give moisture to the bread, helping to seal it later. 

Step 6: Place filling in the middle, leaving room around the edges

Step 7: Place the other bread on top and press the bread together all around the edges

Step 8: Whisk one egg, place the bread on it making sure it's fully coated

Step 9: Dip bread into a plate filled with Panko, make sure both sides are coated

Step 10: Pour the Canola Oil into a sauce pan, when oil is hot enough, put the bread in and cook both sides until a nice golden brown, and repeat steps for the rest of the Kare Pan. 

Buko Ice Cream

Buko Ice Cream (coconut and tropical fruits) with Chocolate Syrup and Maraschino Cherry on top. 

Soy Sauce Boiled Eggs

Cook boiled eggs. I cooked them my way by filling the pot with water to the top of the egg, poured in some salt to make for easy peeling, cooked them on high heat uncovered for 18 minutes-20 minutes. Then I let them sit in a ice bath for a couple minutes so it won't be too hot to peel off the shells. 

Next, I pour some soy sauce into a pan and set it the stove to medium heat and put the boiled eggs in. You can just move the pot in a circular motion to cover the entire egg with soy sauce. Continue to do this for 5 minutes and set the stove to low heat and let the eggs continue to sit for another 5 minutes. 

Egg Roll

Ingredients: Chestnuts, Shitake Mushrooms, Clear Noodles, Cabbage, Carrots, Onions, Ground Pork, Egg Roll Wrapper, Egg (helps to meld ingredients together)

Sauces Used: Oyster Sauce, Fish Sauce, Soy Sauce

Dry Ingredients: Salt, Pepper, Sugar

Sealed with: Mixture of Cornstarch & Water ( Use a brush to put on the edge of the wrapper to close it)

Hello Kitty Egg

Hello Kitty Egg is made by using a Hello Kitty Egg Mold. This could be a cute touch to your simple meals like this one which is just instant chow mein which I added shredded seaweed. 

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes are made from scratch. After I cook and peel off the skin, I use a potato masher to mash them and then season with butter, garlic salt, pepper, dried basil, and a bit of 2% milk. 

Grilled Chicken

Pineapple Glazed Salmon

Grilled Tilapia

Kawaii Snack Plate

Kawaii Snack Plate

Today I went to Ichiban-kan,which is located in Tanforan Shopping Mall and has a bunch of bento items. I picked up a Sandwich maker which also has instructions on how to make curry bread, animal shaped cookie cutters, and Kewpie brand Sesame dressing.

I made a Sandwich using Nutella and Lingonberry preserves from Ikea. I used the cookie cutters to cut shapes out of Swiss and American Cheese. I spread some cream cheese with onion and chive onto the cracker and place some turkey and the cheese on top. With the left over cheese pieces, I sprinkled them on top of the hot Cheetos and microwaved them. Then I cut up some apples cuz you know I gotta eat healthy somehow. Lol. The cookie cutters and bear sandwich maker is very useful for creating Kawaii bento. Make someone smile by making them a Kawaii bento. :)

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog

Today I decided to try making the Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog since its been the latest trend to wrap everything in bacon. Lol. 

Jello Shot Cake

I made a Jell-O shot cake yesterday for my BFF. 

The bottom layer is an Italian pastry that I crumbled by putting them into a ziplock bag and using a rolling pin to roll over it. Then I mixed in half a cup of melted butter and laid them into a baking pan that had parchment paper. Let it set for 20 minutes in the fridge.  

The middle layer is half cup boiling water with 2 packets of gelatine (Knox brand) equivalent to 2 tbsp that is mixed in well with a whisk, then adding 1 cup of condensed milk, 1 tbsp of Lemon juice, mixed well then poured on top. Let it set for for 30 minutes in the fridge. 

The top layer is 1 cup boiling water mixed in with 2 packets of gelatine, 3 small packets of strawberry jello, 1/2 cup Cherry Noir Grey Goose Vodka, 1/2 cup Triple Sec Liquer, and a splash of orange juice. After all the ingredients were thoroughly mixed, I poured it over the condense milk layer. I let it set for 3 hours in the fridge. Went out to dinner, came back and it was ready to decorate. I used cool whip (located in the freezer section) as a frosting. I used half of the cool whip to frost the cake, then I used Tiramisu wafers and Almond Chocolate Pepero aka Pocky sticks to decorate around the cake. I mixed the other half of the cool whip with Wilton's gel food coloring in the color violet. I filled it up in a piping bag and using tip #2D to pipe rosettes onto the cake. And Voila, Jell-O shot Cake! Give it a try! Your best friend will love it. Lol. 

Nutella French Toast

A fast and easy way to make French toast is choosing the bread of your choice and dipping them into 3 beaten eggs. Butter the pan and place the bread on the pan, flip them over and cook the other side. Cut them diagonally, place them on a plate and spread the Nutella on top. Cut up small slices of banana and strawberry and place them on top. Tastes great with your favorite ice cream and some light syrup. 

Quesadilla

Ingredients: Shredded Mexican Cheese, Flour Tortilla, Meat of Choice or substitute mushrooms and onions for a vegetarian quesadilla. 

Directions: Spray the pan with Cooking Oil, place tortilla onto pan, place shredded Cheese then top with meat or veggies. Fold over the other half of the tortilla, let it sit for a couple minutes then flip over. Leave it on the pan for a couple more minutes then turn off the heat and place onto plate, you can easily cut the quesadilla with a spatula. 

T

Spamwich

Croissant Sandwich

Infused Tea

Infused Water

Ebi

These Ebi are topped off with Tokatsu (bulldog brand) sauce, Kewpie Japanese Mayo, and Bonito Flakes. 

Ingredients: Tiger Prawn, Corn or Tapioca Starch, Japanese Panko bread crumbs, Canola Oil, Flour

Tortilla Wrap

This is a very simple and easy appetizer to make, you don’t even need to know how to cook. You can decide if you want cream cheese w/chive and onion on the tortilla or ranch dressing on the tortilla. Either one of them tastes great with it. If using the cream cheese w/chive and onion as a spread, spread that on the tortilla first then add turkey or meat of your choice and some lettuce and then roll it and cut it up and serve. If using the ranch dressing, prepare all the fillings inside first, then top with the ranch dressing, roll it up, cut and serve. If you don’t want to share, just roll it up like a burrito, and munch on. 

 

This is a brown rice tortilla with omega-3. You can choose this kind of tortilla if you are looking for something healthier. The bacon I used is Turkey Bacon, tastes just as good as regular bacon but less fattening.

How Do You Like Your Eggs?

Many times we will go to the restaurant and not know how to describe how we want our eggs cooked or you may work at a restaurant and you are tired of the confusion and frustration when customers don't like the way their eggs are cooked. To avoid all that chaos, I've created a diagram about how eggs are cooked. Next time you ask somebody, "How do you like your eggs?", you can just show this to them and ask them to pick one. 

Dashimaki Tamagoyaki

Dashimaki is a type of Tamagoyaki which is a Japanese style omelet that has the flavor of dashi in it. Dashi is a fish stock that is found in miso soup. In order to make dashi, you can just buy the dashi packet, it’s much more work if you try to make it yourself, and I don’t think it’s worth it if you only need a little bit because dashi stock is only good for a few days then the taste will weaken.
Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 4tbsp Dashi stock
• 1tbsp Mirin (you can substitute with sugar if you don’t have mirin, mirin is like syrup, if you don’t like the egg to be sweet, put sake instead)
• 1/2 tsp Light Soy Sauce (not low sodium, the bottle says ‘light soy sauce’ so the egg will be a nice light color)
• pinch of salt

Tools:

• rectangle pan (optional but very useful to have: $12.00 at Ichiban-kan)
• paper towel
• long wooden chopsticks
• spatula (optional but will make it easier for beginners)
• sushi mat (optional but will make your egg look prettier and more presentable)

1. Make the dashi stock: With 1 tsp of dashi powder, add 1 cup of hot water and mix
2. In a bowl, put in 4 tbsp of dashi stock, 1tbsp of Mirin, 1/2tsp light soy sauce, pinch of salt. Mix the ingredients together
3. In another bowl, crack 3 eggs and beat the eggs with chopsticks, pour in the mixture and and mix together
4. Pour the egg mixture into a measuring cup so it will be easier to pour from
5. Set stove to medium heat, pour oil onto the pan, fold the napkin up and using the chopsticks, run the paper towel around the pan and let it absorb the oil, pour out the excess oil into a small bowl.
6. Dip the chopsticks into the eggs and scrape a bit of it on the pan to see if the pan is hot enough, if the egg immediately starts cooking, then it’s ready
7. Pour in egg mixture, let the eggs cook partially and start rolling the egg
8. Put more oil onto the pan by using the chopstick to move the oiled paper towel around the pan
9. Pour in egg mixture again and push some of the egg mixture onto the bottom of the egg to prevent browning
10. Repeat steps
11. After there is no more egg mixture left, flip the egg a couple of times (like cooking eggs over easy).
12. Place it onto a sushi mat and cover up the egg, wrap the sushi mat over it tightly giving it a nice rectangle shape and let it cool off for 2 minutes
13. After the egg has cooled down a bit, it will be easier to cut through
14. Cut it straight down to get rectangle shape, you can eat by itself of you can add rice and nori to it to make nigiri sushi
15. After it has a rectangle shape, you can also cut diagonally and move one of the pieces to make a heart shape

To see how it’s made, check out this video:

This is a pretty difficult way of cooking an egg so keep practicing and you’ll have yummy good looking eggs anytime. For different variations, you can put shitake mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots, spinach, or cheese to your eggs. The possibilities are endless, give it a try!

Shrimp & Scallop Alfredo Fettucine

Sauce:
*1 stick butter
*2 tablespoons cream cheese
*2 cups heavy cream
*1 cup Parmesan cheese
*1 tablespoon minced garlic
*2 tablespoons fresh basil or parsley
*salt and pepper to taste

Pasta:
Cook according to box instructions or for 8-10 minutes
After fettuccine pasta is cooked, strain it and take a little butter and mix it throughout all the pasta. You may use olive oil instead of butter if you prefer.

Mushroom and broccoli:
Sliced up mushrooms. Cook broccoli and then cut into small pieces

Shrimp and scallop:
Boil water and put shrimp and scallop in and cook until ready

Lastly put all the ingredients into the sauce and mix. Enjoy!

Bento

This bento has: Wonton in Tom Yum Soup, Chicken & Mushroom Stir Fry, Steam White Rice with Ebi Furikake & Salmon Furikake, Seaweed Laver surrounding the rice, Tuna Sandwich on Wheat, Quail Eggs, Sliced Strawberries, Salad w/ Cherry Tomatoes & Ranch Dressing. I made the shape of a the rice with a rice mold and it makes it easy and faster to pick up the rice with chopsticks. The faces on the quail eggs are nori which I used a face hole puncher to apply these faces onto them. I’m glad I bought this bento box, it’s easy to separate my food and since there’s all these compartments, it helps me to have more portioned meals. Bento meals don’t have to all be made completely from scratch and you can just use leftovers to help make your meals faster and easier.

Other Bento Ideas:

Shin Ramyun

Shin Ramyun is my favorite ramen. There’s many different ways to cook ramen, but the way I made it, everything about it was so flavorful.

1. I let the water boil, while I cut up the narutomaki (spiral fish cake) and kimchi
2. When the water has boiled, I put in the dry packaged ingredients first and stir
3. Then I put in the ramen in (you can break in half before putting in if you want), use the chopsticks to pull the noodles apart
4. Let it cook for a bit and then put in the narutomaki and kimchi
5. The final step, I just break one egg and with a long wooden chopstick, I stir it around in the pot.

The noodles came out fine, not too soft and not crunchy. The narutomaki had the flavor of the ramen seasoning so it gave it more flavor. The kimchi is a great way to add veggies to your ramen. Since there’s other ingredients in the soup, it makes the shin ramyun less spicy and more enjoyable. It’s a good hangover soup or a quick fix when you don’t wanna pay too much money at a restaurant for it.

Japanese Potato Salad

Here’s the ingredients & directions. I gathered some ideas off the web and incorporated them into this:

• 4 Potatoes
• 2 Boiled Eggs
• 2 Slices of Cooked Ham (I used turkey, I diced them up grilled them on the skillet)
• 1/4 Cucumber
• 1/2 Carrot
• 1/2 Onion
• 1/2 Cup of Sweet Corn (I used the fresh corn and just cut them off the cob)

Mayonnaise Dressing
• 3 tsp Rice Vinegar or Sushi Vinegar
• 1 tsp Dashi
• 6 tbsp Mayonnaise QP (Kewpie-Japanese Mayonnaise)
• 1 tsp White Sesame Seeds (Optional) I didn’t use any and it still tasted great

Step 1: Cook 2 eggs hard boiled-Put eggs in water, put some salt in, put water up to level of eggs, put lid on top, let cook for 15 minutes, after it’s cooked, drain with cold water to keep from further cooking.

Step 2: Cut up potatoes into quarters so it will be easier to mash them up later. Boil the water and put the potatoes in with some salt to give it a bit of flavor and then let it cook for 8-10 minutes. Check on the potatoes to see if they are cooked to your liking.

Step 3: Cut the Carrot & Onion and cook them together. When they are done, use a strainer to take out the excess water.

Step 4: Rinse out the water from the potatoes, then add the dashi & sushi vinegar, put the heat onto low heat to help incorporate the flavors, get a potato masher and start mashing the ingredients together.

Step 5: Put the potatoes in the fridge and start cutting the cucumber & Ham or Turkey (your choice). Set aside the cucumber. Using a cooking spray, spray the oil onto the skillet to grill the Ham or Turkey.

Step 6: If you are using Sweet Corn in a can, you can open the can now or using fresh corn cut the kernels off the cob.

Step 7: Now that you have all the ingredients ready, you can take the potatoes out of the fridge and put all the ingredients together and mix with QP mayonnaise and add the white sesame seeds.

Step 8: Chow down!  Mmm…yummy. Even my mom who doesn’t usually like Potato Salad because she said the Western potato salad seemed too watery and runny, said this was a great alternative for her. These can be packed in a tupperware so you can eat it throughout the week for your bento box. Share, Enjoy & Give it a try!

Tuna Sandwich

This is the kind of Tuna Sandwich that my dad and I make, I thought I’d share this with the rest of you so whenever you wanna make a tuna sandwich, you can just look this up again. I don’t have a picture of the finished tuna cuz my bro finished it all yesterday but hopefully you’ll get the idea. (^o^)

Ingredients

• 1 Can of Tuna (drained)
• 1 Stick of Celery (diced)
• 1/4 Onions (diced fine)
• 1 tbsp Relish
• 3 tbsp Mayo
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• Pinch of Pepper

Directions

1. Drain the tuna
2. Dice the celery & Onions and put aside
3. In a bowl, put the tuna in, then the celery and onions
4. Next, use a measuring spoon to measure out the relish, mayo, and other dry ingredients
5. After all the ingredients are in the bowl
6. You can use the tuna for onigiri rice balls or you can make them into a sandwich by using whole wheat bread or dinner rolls.

The ones shown on the left: I cut the dinner roll in half and put mayo on both sides, applied the tuna on one side,

placed slices of thinly sliced cucumbers on top of the tuna, then just put the other half of the dinner roll on top of it.

If you want to make a Tuna Melt:

1. Put butter onto both sides of bread (I recommend using ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter’, it’s an easier spread), with the butter side faced down on the pan
2. Put a slice of cheese onto both sides of bread
3. On a separate pan, grill the tuna
4. When the cheese has slightly melted onto the bread, put the grilled tuna on top of one of the bread
5. Place the other bread on top of it and flip it back and forth
6. When the bread has browned enough and and the cheese is really melted, your Tuna Melt is ready!

Cream Cheese Shrimp Roll

Cream Cheese Shrimp Roll

Ingredients:

• Cream Cheese
• Green Onion
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Egg Roll Wrapper

Directions:

1. Put Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder on the Shrimp and mix well
2. Using kitchen scissors, cut the egg roll wrapper in half diagonally so that there is a triangle shape
3. Peel off each wrapper so it will be easier and faster to make the rolls later.
4. Put saran wrap on top to keep the wrapper from drying (If it dries out, it will be too hard to roll)
5. Cut up some green onion into fine pieces
6. In a bowl, mix green onion with cream cheese
7. Take out one egg roll wrapper, put one shrimp, a bit of cream cheese and roll it
8. Smear a little bit of cream cheese at the end of the roll, this will act as your glue so it will seal the shrimp roll.
9. Fry it & Enjoy!

Inari & Onigiri

For the tuna, I added: 2 tsp Sesame Oil, 1 tsp Sesame Seeds, 2 tbsp Mayo, 1 tsp Granulated Sugar, a pinch of Pepper, and Cayenne Pepper to give it a bit of spiciness.
I covered the tuna with some saran wrap and let it chill in the fridge while I started on the inari.

I scooped some rice in a bowl and added the sushi powder seasoning (you can add bit by bit to your liking). After I got the rice to taste the way I wanted it to, I took half of it and put it in a different bowl. I added some tamago seaweed seasoning and mixed it together with the rice. Then I opened up the Inari and added some of the rice into it and closed it like an envelope. After finishing the Inari, I started making the Onigiri.

I bought some stuff from Daiso (Japanese $1.50 store) to help make the onigiri into a heart and star shape. For the circle shape, I just molded it with my hands. I cut up a strips of seaweed to make iteasier to hold and sprinkled some tamago seaweed seasoning to top it off. Give it a try!