| Lunch Box 618: Cactus for lunch |
[Jan. 7th, 2009|09:56 pm] |
 I'm back from my holiday vacation with a typical what-do-I-have-in-the-fridge-today lunch: yakiudon, spinach with mayonnaise, baked Japanese sweet potato, taiyaki, grapes, and cactus fruit.
OK, the cactus fruit is pretty weird. I saw it in the farmer's market and figured that, at that price, I'd give it a try. I was delighted to see that fluorescent-looking fuchsia inside. Freaky-colored food is cool! But... well, there's only a tiny bit of flesh between the peel and the seed-filled core, the seeds are too hard to chew, and the taste did not impress me at all. You can eat the seeded part, sort of sucking the flesh out around the seeds and then spitting them out, or you can swallow the seeds. Me, I'll pass. Cactus fruit isn't nifty enough to be worth the trouble, in my opinion.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 571: Scrounge |
[Jun. 23rd, 2008|09:27 pm] |
 I wanted to do some cooking this weekend, but Saturday was taken up with helping some friends move into their new apartment, and on Sunday we went out to eat, so today's lunch is whatever I could scrounge up.
For dinner on Sunday I had a basket of fried food. Onion rings, mozzarella sticks, and fried chicken fingers. Shame on me, but once in a great while I want a sampler basket! I brought home some of the chicken, so here are cut-up chicken fingers with baked Japanese sweet potato and steamed sugar snap peas. On the other side I have cherries and a fruit salad made with persimmon, grapes, and jackfruit.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 540: Nuclear rice |
[Apr. 11th, 2008|08:08 pm] |
 Today I have some yakitori over rice, steamed broccoli, a fruit salad made with pineapple, grapes, and coconut gel. And none of the food was bizarrely colored, and the rice did not shine with a light of its own. I think that my camera has been having freak-outs because of my kitchen lighting. If you think this is bad, you should have seen it before I massaged it with Photoshop.
This time I grilled the yakitori up properly, with the wire rack from my wok on top of a large skillet. The result was great, but I don't know if I'll cook it that way again, as the sauce I repeatedly brushed onto the chicken contained sugar, which dripped into the skillet and stayed there... you can see where this is going, right? Thankfully, I was able to save the skillet.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 538: B is for Chicken and Eggs |
[Apr. 8th, 2008|07:19 pm] |
 Oyakodon is one of the uglier dishes in my recipe book. Honestly, while you're cooking it it looks like a swamp. And it is - a swamp of delicious chicken and eggs over rice. Somehow I made a letter B with this batch. B is for Bento, that's good enough for me.
Then there's baked purple sweet potato, steamed broccoli, grapes, and chocolate chip melon pan. I do likes me the chocolate chip melon pan. My friends and family do too; I often get requests for melon pan. As long as I have the time to make it - it takes about 4 hours because the bread has to rise - I'm happy to.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 537: Colors and shapes |
[Apr. 7th, 2008|10:21 pm] |
 The food in this lunch isn't anything particularly groundbreaking, but I sure went to town on the geometrical aspect of it, didn't I? All those colors and shapes, it looks like a toddler's activity board. Got some pigs in blankets, no-winged ones this time. Got both baked sweet potato and baked purple sweet potato, because I happen to like sweet potato. Got boiled spinach with a container of mayo. Got orange slices and grapes. Got milk? Fruit2O, but that's not in the picture.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 535: When pigs fly |
[Apr. 3rd, 2008|09:34 am] |
 Sometimes I bake cafeteria rolls. Sometimes I have a lot of kosher hot dogs. When those two conditions overlap I make pigs in blankets, such as you see here. Those are like hot dogs that come pre-bunned. That's so convenient it's almost decadent. Beside it I have some steamed snow peas, the top layer of which I made into a kind of fan because I thought it'd be pretty. And then I realized that I had winged pigs in blankets. Well, a one-winged pig in a blanket. (Sep-hi-roth!) Um, and finally I have some baked purple sweet potato - what a shocker! - and red grapes.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 533: Loafing but not lazy |
[Mar. 31st, 2008|07:09 pm] |
 All right. After consulting with my mother, who is a highly respected professional (flutist), I have baked a meatloaf that is... you know how good meatloaf can be really good? Yeah. Like that. Who knew that toast in the bottom of the loaf pan before baking would soak up the grease? (The toast peels off easily afterward.) I can't get a recipe out of my mother because she doesn't use 'em, but I can get some good advice! (Note: I meant my mother doesn't use a recipe. I do, and it's posted on my site if you want it.)
So! Here we have meatloaf, which looks a lot better in person than in this photo, no thanks to my bad kitchen lighting, baked Japanese sweet potato, steamed broccoli, and red grapes. The little red container is full of ketchup for the meatloaf. I like mine nice and ketchuppy.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 522: Vegan for a day |
[Mar. 3rd, 2008|09:29 am] |
 Whoa. It's finally happened. I've finally packed a vegan lunch. It wasn't by accident, either. I had some boiled eggs, and some carrot & raisin salad (which is made with yogurt) but I decided, nope, it's straight plant matter and fungus today. I can cope with it just to prove I can.
So, this day I ate simmered shiitake mushrooms, baked Japanese sweet potato, steamed broccoli, grapes, and pink orange. And I enjoyed it. I've heard that some call shiitake mushrooms "vegetarian steak," and while that my be taking it a bit far, they do have a substantial taste and texture to 'em.
Tomorrow, back to omnivorosity.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 521: Angry young lunch |
[Feb. 29th, 2008|07:33 pm] |
 I made this lunch when I was very angry. The bus I take from my office simply didn't come, so I had to wait for the next one, lengthening my commute from 2 hours to 3 hours. And it was bloody cold and windy. Needless to say, when I got home I was in no mood to cook. I heated up a can of chunky vegetable soup for dinner and threw some leftovers into the box for my lunch. At times like this, leftovers can save you from peanut butter and jelly.
So, here's what I had sitting in my fridge: takoyaki, French bread pizza, a boiled egg, zucchini & onion stir-fry, grapes, and pink orange. Actually, I did boil the eggs then, but it was right alongside the soup, so it's not like I put any effort into it. It looks like I hacked up the egg in my rage, but really I just didn't use a sharp enough knife.
I'm much better now.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 518: Back on the grill again |
[Feb. 26th, 2008|08:14 pm] |
 I'm recovering from my recent double-match with the cold, so now I'm doing some decent cooking. Here's some grilled chicken, which I cooked wrapped in tinfoil. That keeps it juicy and tender, but it almost eliminates the grill marks. It's served on mustard greens ohitashi, which is basically mustard greens rolled into cigars and sliced into maki-sized cylinders. To the side is a little container of mayonnaise because that's how I eat my greens, especially mustard greens, which taste like a condiment that I don't keep in my kitchen. Then there are some simmered shiitake mushrooms and lavender rice, the latter of which is made with water left over from my recent purple sweet potato pie. (It's made with water reserved from the potato-boiling stage, and thus tastes slightly sweet.) Finally, I have some orange segments, grapes, and pomegranate seeds.
My, it feels nice to once more have the energy to do real cooking!
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 516: Breakfast for lunch |
[Feb. 20th, 2008|08:29 pm] |
 Fried rice. Bacon and eggs. Let me tell you, those two make for an unbeatable combination. The rice soaks up the flavor (read: grease) of the bacon. If that does not tempt you, then I know you not. Or you're a vegetarian. Anyway, here's some bacon & egg fried rice with a side of edamame and some grapes.
I had some of this fried rice for dinner last night, and I'm having more of it for lunch today. I'm having bacon & eggs for everything but breakfast.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 432: Got starch? |
[Sep. 13th, 2007|07:05 pm] |
 Every so often I'll have a thought out of the blue: "It's been a while since I last made ____. Guess I'll make it again." And I'll make it, and then I'll wonder why I forgot about it in the meantime. Well, that led to me cooking up some soba. Not yakisoba, just soba noodles topped with stir-fried vegetables, and by the time you put yakisoba sauce over that the distinction begins to blur. Anyhow, soba is good. Hooray for rediscovery.
On the other side I have yet more inari-zushi. Look, the pack had a dozen pieces that had to be cooked all at once, and I don't know how well they refreeze, so I'm gonna keep it up until I run out! (Besides, they really are tasty.) And there's also little wedges of steamed purple sweet potato to serve as stabilizers to hopefully keep everything else from slopping all around in there, and finally a muffin cup full of palm seeds and grapes.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 429: By Arrangement |
[Sep. 10th, 2007|09:04 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | blueberries, boiled egg, box, fruit kebabs, grapes, mini-pita sandwiches, orange, palm seeds, pita sandwiches, simmered shiitake mushrooms, steamed japanese sweet potato, steamed purple sweet potato, stir-fried cabbage | ] |
It's all in the presentation Wow. This lunch is quite an eclectic mix of "whatever I had in my fridge." Mini-pita chicken sandwiches, each of which is a little bit of chicken smeared with mayo, wrapped in a lettuce leaf, and stuffed into half a mini-pita shell. I have a boiled egg (which spent some time getting acquainted with my star-shaped egg mold) on stir-fried cabbage which is bordered by simmered shiitake mushrooms. Then there's steamed Japanese sweet potato and steamed purple sweet potato, and finally fruit kebabs served on a few orange slices.
Lately the sweet potatoes I've been buying have been kind of dry, so this time I tried slicing them into 1/2" thick coins and steaming them instead of baking them. The result is as you'd expect: moister, differently textured, but tasting the same. Sure doesn't look as pretty, though! I stuck the fruit on toothpick-sized bamboo skewers after thinking that the grapes and berries and such reminded me of the gems in "Columns" (an old Sega Genesis game) and thus they would look pretty impaled in groups of three on wooden stakes. Er... well, you know what I mean.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 428: Golden Brown |
[Sep. 6th, 2007|07:49 pm] |
 Ahh, leftovers. Leftover rice, leftover shrimp, leftover shiitake, leftover everything. Put it together right and people wouldn't know it's stone soup unless you advertise it. So, here's some chirashi-zushi, takoyaki with mayonnaise, edamame, and a fruit salad made with grapes, palm seeds, and craisins. Finally, I have Nutter Butter cookies, and even those are leftovers. I brought them back from Dragon Con.
For me, Nutter Butters are the official cookie of giving blood. I used to give blood every time the Red Cross came by my office building, and then sit at the table munching Nutter Butters and drinking fruit juice. But then the Red Cross decided that I have Mad Cow Disease and stopped taking my blood. The blood drive at Dragon Con was by another organization... one that always flunks me because my iron level is low by 0.1%. My blood isn't good enough for anybody any more. But they did give me a T-shirt and some cookies for trying.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 427: Can't go wrong with sushi. |
[Sep. 5th, 2007|07:08 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | baked japanese sweet potato, blueberries, box, chicken musubi, craisins, edamame, fruit salad, grapes, palm seeds, shiitake sushi, shrimp sushi, smoked salmon sushi, sushi, tamago sushi | ] |
 I'm back from Dragon*Con. Did you miss me?
I should know better than to ask questions like that.
I'm in a back-to-basics mood, and what could be more basic to bento lunches than sushi? So I packed a variety of 'em, including tamago sushi, smoked salmon sushi, shiitake sushi, and shrimp sushi. Up above those is chicken musubi, which is like Spam musubi except it's made with teriyaki chicken breast. On the right I have some baked Japanese sweet potato and edamame, and a fruit salad made with grapes, palm seeds, craisins, and blueberries.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 403: Brown-bagged Spam |
[Jul. 20th, 2007|07:00 pm] |
 Recently I ran out of nori and had to get more. The only sushi-type nori I saw at 99 Ranch Market was brown, not blackish-green. So, I got some of this weird nori, and here it is, covering slabs of Spam musubi like plain brown wrappers on the magazines in the highest rack. Weird, eh? But as far as I can tell it tastes pretty much the same, if it's not as attractive. Then there are chicken flavored lotus slices, a pork & shrimp dumpling, and steamed green beans. On the other side I have a merry mix of grapes, cherries, and lychees.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 399: Homemader than usual |
[Jul. 16th, 2007|07:47 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | baby bananas, bly, box, edamame, french bread, fruit salad, garden, grapes, hoddeuk, kool-aid pickles, lychees, orange, red grapes, spongebob edamame | ] |
 Today's lunch starts with a turkey-bacon BLT on French bread. I baked the bread myself, of course, and this time around I'm making it with tomato grown in my own garden! This is the first tomato of the year for me. You can't see it, but it's there. Oh, you may notice that the French bread is a little bubblier-looking than usual. I tried adding a few extra tablespoons of water, and that makes a softer dough that rises more. I like the resulting light bread.
Then there's a package of... Spongebob Squarepants edamame. When I saw that in the grocery freezer I snickered. What does Spongebob have to do with soybeans?! But, what the heck, it was the cheapest edamame per ounce, so I bought it. On the other side I have some Kool-Aid pickles and a fruit salad made with baby bananas, orange segments, lychees, and red grapes. And, finally, I have some hoddeuk, which is a Korean pancake stuffed with cinnamony brown sugar and walnuts. I've packed that before, but that was storebought, and this is homemade. And easy to make. And gonna be part of my regular repertoire, I predict.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 389: Chicken sammitch |
[Jun. 27th, 2007|09:40 pm] |
 The last time I baked bread I decided to use up the last of the whole wheat flour I bought for my recent bout with Dwarf bread. My mother has mentioned replacing half the flour when she bakes with whole wheat flour so the loaf doesn't end up as a boat anchor, so that's what I tried here. The result is denser than regular French bread, but not heavy, and one can feel all virtuous because of the whole wheat nutrition-y goodness. Anyway, this bread is part of a grilled chicken sandwich, which is escorted by some baked Japanese sweet potato "fries," grapes, steamed snow peas, and a cherry Kool-Aid pickle.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 387: Inauthentic noodles |
[Jun. 25th, 2007|09:05 pm] |
 Normally I do experimental cooking on the weekends. I had plans for things to try on Sunday, but then a chronic condition acted up and left me without the energy or desire to cook food. Saturday's leftovers to the rescue!
Here's some jjol myeon (Korean spicy chewy noodles) with vegetables. I don't know the proper way to cook jjol myeon - the packaging is no help to this non-Korean-reading person, and I haven't found any website that could tell me much more than "noodles with vegetables." So, I cooked it pretty much the same way I cook yakiudon: pull veggies and other likely things out of the fridge (in this case lotus rootlets, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli stems, red cabbage, yellow squash, and snow peas), stir-fry them, then dump the cooked noodles in and stir-fry them a little more. Lately I haven't even been stir-frying things properly - I've been simmering them in shiitake-infused water, which adds some nice flavor and leaves out the oil calories. Oh, I also put some of the spicy sauce on the noodles, but only as much as I could tolerate. The noodles came with two sauce packages. I've used up over half of the noodles and less than a third of one of the sauce packages. Me and my wimpy taste buds.
In front of that I have a rather freaky rainbow rolled omelet. This time I had two cups of egg - one red and one blue - and I alternated between the two to get that stripy look. On the other side there be a peanut mochi, some fresh lychees, and a fruit salad made with mango, grapes, and more grapes.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 386: Shout out to my homies! |
[Jun. 22nd, 2007|07:34 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | baked purple sweet potato, box, chicken salad, fruit salad, grapes, lychees, mini-pita sandwiches, persimmon, steamed carrots, steamed vegetables, steamed yellow squash, steamed zucchini | ] |
 This lunch is dedicated to Maria, one of my coworkers. See all that pretty steamed carrots, zucchini, and yellow squash? The zucchini and yellow squash came out of her garden. She gave me a bag of homegrown produce after I gave her a purple sweet potato. (She ate it raw. Don't make that face - sweet potatoes are actually pretty good raw, as she proved to me. The orange ones taste and crunch much like carrot.)
I also have chicken salad mini-pita sandwiches. Saw cute little mini-pita breads, bought a bag, and decided to make teeny two-inch-diameter sammitches with 'em. The chicken salad doesn't have a lot of mayo, so as not to turn the pita all soggy. Then there's the everpresent baked purple sweet potato, and a fruit salad made with persimmon, grapes, and lychees. This fruit salad looks a little like a Sesame Street monster, admittedly not by accident.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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