| Lunch Box 631: More fun with chocolate |
[Feb. 24th, 2009|09:08 pm] |
 I have another glorious hodgepodge for lunch. Here you see the evidence of a walk through my fridge, or perhaps I should describe it as a drunkard's walk: okonomiyaki, yakisoba, steamed broccoli, baked purple sweet potato, grape tomatoes, mochi, and chocolate soybean clusters.
That last item is an aftershock from last week's chocolate covered bacon. When I ran out of bacon I had some melted chocolate left over, and the heck I'm going to wash that down the sink! So I poured in some of the dry roasted soybeans that I keep around as munchies, and lo and behold, a new treat was born.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 590: Red pickles |
[Oct. 1st, 2008|11:15 pm] |
 This is a confused lunch. It doesn't know if it is decent healthy American or Japanese food, or American or Japanese junk food.
Here I have some okonomiyaki, made on a day when I didn't have much in the way of toppings and fillings - so, what the heck, I cut up some turkey bacon and mixed it in. Result: good! (The little container is filled with okonomiyaki sauce, of course.) Then there's the everpresent steamed broccoli and some simmered shiitake mushrooms that think they look classy. And next to the Kool-Aid pickles they actually do. Finally, I have apple slices and almond jelly for dessert.
If you pack almond jelly in your bento lunch, don't expect to be able to eat it with chopsticks. That way lies madness, not to mention humor if anyone sees you. Pack a little fork or toothpick or something you can skewer those slippery bits with.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 566: Extra tentacles |
[Jun. 10th, 2008|08:03 pm] |
 The main part of today's lunch is one of my favorite easy-to-make dishes, okonomiyaki. If you zoom in on that picture you can see what looks like earthworms on top of it - those are squid tentacles. When making the recent batch of calamari I cut the longer tentacles off so they wouldn't tangle when I cooked them, and they ended up as a topping here.
I also have calamari, simmered shiitake mushrooms, steamed broccoli, and dorayaki. The dorayaki - a pancake sandwich with sweet red bean paste in the middle - was made with regular Aunt Jemima pancake mix. So inauthentic, but also so quick & easy to make.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 527: I'll take two |
[Mar. 18th, 2008|07:43 pm] |
 This lunch started out simply, with some okonomiyaki and its accompanying sauce in a little container. After that I somehow got fixated on the number two. Two dice-shaped onigiri (rice cubes?). two halves of an angry-looking boiled egg, two bundles of edamame, and two piles of pink grapefruit segments.
So, that's my lunch. Not amazing, but who cares, I like it. Oh, and like most people in Atlanta, I survived the tornado. Hope y'all did too.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 501: Purple and filling |
[Jan. 18th, 2008|09:18 pm] |
 I can't go for too long without some funky-colored food. Here I have some okonomiyaki made with purple cabbage, which gives the batter a lavender tint. Well, I think that's cool, anyway. And there's marinated, stir-fried tofu, baked Japanese sweet potato, and steamed broccoli, and a piece of mochi for dessert. None of them are funky-colored, but the anko inside the mochi is an unusual pink color, if that counts.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 487: The sequel to dinner |
[Dec. 21st, 2007|07:39 pm] |
 What do you do when you want to have this and that and the other for dinner, but a whole serving of each would be too much and you don't want to stuff your fridge with leftover half-servings? Pack 'em for the next day's lunch, of course.
So, here I have many things, beginning with a vegan hot dog in a cafeteria roll-based bun. The bun is made with eggs and butter, so I'm worried that it and the lump of soy may reject each other by lunchtime. The little blue container has ketchup, because frankly these vegan dogs taste much better when you drown them in ketchup. Then there's some okonomiyaki, baked Japanese sweet potato, baked purple sweet potato, steamed broccoli, soba noodles, and banana bread.
I could top this for eclecticism, but I might have to just close my eyes and chuck things from my fridge into my bento box to do it.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 461: Bright Idea |
[Nov. 2nd, 2007|09:51 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | baked japanese sweet potato, blueberries, box, coconut gel, fruit salad, inari-zushi, okonomiyaki, persimmon, purple okonomiyaki, steamed broccoli, sushi | ] |
 This lunch started out with seafood medley okonomiyaki made with red cabbage and some inari-zushi I made with rice tinted with beet juice. I just tipped a few drops of juice from a can of beets into sushi rice, and whoa. Hot pink! After that, the quest for color was on! I added baked Japanese sweet potato, which was much lighter than usual, adding a nice pastel contrast, and a fruit salad made with coconut gel, blueberries, and big bright slices of persimmon. Of course, I have steamed broccoli to provide contrast - bright things look brighter when you put them near something dark.
I may need to wear sunglasses when I eat this.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 452: A meal fit for a Guardian |
[Oct. 18th, 2007|07:48 pm] |
 Today's lunch is made with food. Different kinds of food. Food like seafood medley okonomiyaki, steamed broccoli, baked Japanese sweet potato, edamame, and storebought melon pan. Actually, only a small part of the melon pan - the one I had was about the size of a small tortoise.
The weird title is a reference to ReBoot, a CGI cartoon that's being revived as a comic now. Bob was Guardian 452, y'see. And I just found out that something I wrote is going to be a backup story in the first comic. Color me pleasantly startled!
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 414: Dice |
[Aug. 7th, 2007|08:36 pm] |
 I haven't made okonomiyaki in a little while, so here we go with some crab & mushroom okonomiyaki, colored purple because I used red cabbage, and okonomiyaki sauce in the little container. There's some steamed broccoli and marinated, stir-fried tofu packed nice and cozy together. Above that are chunks of baked boniato, which was a bit dry so some of the chunks split apart. Finally, more banana bread. Have I mentioned that banana bread is delicious?
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 380: The spice of life |
[Jun. 12th, 2007|08:38 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | baby corn, baked japanese sweet potato, blue food, blue okonomiyaki, blueberry mochi, box, crab rangoon, mochi, okonomiyaki, simmered shiitake mushrooms, steamed green beans | ] |
 Whoa. That's a lot of different stuff in there. Would you believe it actually took me only a few minutes to assemble? Everything here was already cooked previously and set aside for bento purposes. There's blue okonomiyaki - yep, I'm still making with the blue food! with okonomiyaki sauce in a blue container. I also have steamed green beans, baby corn, baked Japanese sweet potato, simmered shiitake mushrooms, a crab rangoon, and blueberry mochi.
That is one serious party in my bento box.
(Blogger's Choice thingie. Vote for my blog if you want. Vote for other bento blogs like Ss-biggie's blog if you want.)
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 366: Blackbread |
[May. 21st, 2007|09:45 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | blackberries, blueberry mochi, box, discworld, dried cherries, dwarf bread, fruit salad, lotus nuts, mango, okonomiyaki, pbj, pumpkin cookies, purple cabbage, purple okonomiyaki, steamed broccoli | ] |
 This weekend I tried a variation on okonomiyaki, a fave of mine. Wonder what it'd be like with purple cabbage? The answer: it'd be purple, of course! The cabbage itself tastes a little different, but it went well with the turkey bacon I mixed liberally into the batter and used as a topping. By the way, the batter had turned light blue by the time I made the third cake, but it wasn't noticeable after the cake was cooked.
Sometimes I get too adventurous in the kitchen for my own good. The result is the PBJ on the extreme right. If you don't see it right away, that's because it's on black bread. Dwarf bread, to be exact. If you're a Discworld fan, you already see the problem here! I found a recipe in Nanny Ogg's Cookbook, and after translating the British measurements to American 'cause I don't have a kitchen scale (Thank goodness for cooking sites with online calculators!) and tweaking a few things to compensate for the difference in British and American ingredients I gave it a go. And, although it wasn't a completely authentic Dwarfish recipe - they had to change it a little to make it edible for non-Dwarfs - it was really close. I could imagine using it as a weapon in battle. I can't recommend it except as an item of curiosity for Pratchett fans (who already have the cookbook, right?) so I haven't posted a recipe.
The rest of the bento is an exercise in relative normalcy. Steamed broccoli, blueberry mochi, some pumpkin cookies, and a fruit salad made with mango, lotus nuts, blackberries, and dried cherries. By the way, dried cherries are delicious. I could eat them by the double handful.
(And then there's the Blogger's Choice Awards. You can vote for my blog or other cool bento sites like Ss-biggie's blog. I'd like to shoot for 100 votes, but I don't have any ideas for what to do if I meet that goal. Any ideas? Ones that don't involve Dwarf bread?)
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 299: Two tasty tiers |
[Feb. 8th, 2007|08:17 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | apple, box, edamame, fruit salad, grapefruit, grapes, lychee, okonomiyaki, pecan log, pumpkin cookie, takoyaki | ] |
 "I'm in the mood - the mood for food!"
That sounded a lot more dramatic in my head. Trust me, it did. It even sounded neat when I said it out loud to myself. Quietly, though, because I was at work at the time.
Anyway, here we have a pretty good-sized lunch! It features okonomiyaki with shrimp, squid, mussels, octopus, and other seafoody goodness. The red container is okonomiyaki sauce, naturally. Then there's takoyaki, because you can't have too much octopus in your lunch. After that comes a bit of edamame and a fruit salad with grapefruit, apple, grapes, and lychees. For dessert I've packed some pumpkin cookies and a little bit of pecan log.
Lunch 299. Tomorrow I'll post my 300th bento. I should celebrate somehow. Maybe I'll go out for lunch! Wait...
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 283: Chocolate & nuts |
[Jan. 16th, 2007|11:03 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | apple, boiled chestnuts, box, chestnuts, chocolate, edamame, fruit salad, okonomiyaki, pear, persimmon, see's | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Baby's Tears | ] |
 Today's bento starts with seafood okonomiyaki, which has as fillings and toppings mussels, squid, octopus, and shrimp. It's hard to see the tentacles in the photo, but they're there, honest. On the side is some edamame. On the right I have some boiled chestnuts, which taste pretty much like roasted chestnuts and, like roasted chestnuts, can be a pain to peel. The pain is under my fingernails, and brings thoughts of bamboo slivers to mind. I figured out an easier way to peel them by using a spoon to separate the linings from the nuts, but that didn't occur to me soon enough. Anyway, I also have a fruit salad with pear, persimmon, and apple, and a pair of See's chocolate & nut clusters. See's candies, by the way, are the best chocolates in the known universe.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 274: New bento box! |
[Dec. 21st, 2006|10:33 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | apple, baked japanese sweet potato, baked purple sweet potato, box, broccoli, fruit salad, mango, mangosteen, okonomiyaki, pomegranate, pomegranate seeds | ] |
 The last time I was at 99 Ranch Market I found a neat new bento box. It's modern and functional rather than traditional and decorative. The plastic is microwave and dishwasher safe, and there are three removable trays inside, making it easy to take out the bits I don't want to microwave. The cover, which locks on, is clear so... Um, I guess so you can get a preview of your lunch without opening it.
Inside this box I have packed some okonomiyaki and the appropriate sauce, broccoli without Parmesan cheese (meaning the broccoli was stir-fried in olive oil as part of that recipe, but then I forgot to put the cheese. Sheesh!), baked Japanese sweet potato, baked purple sweet potato, and a fruit salad with apple, mango, mangosteen, and pomegranate seeds.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 249: Warm colors |
[Nov. 10th, 2006|09:14 pm] |
 Today's lunch starts with some okonomiyaki flavored with shiitake mushrooms. The last time I soaked shiitake I reserved the water, and used it here instead of dashi soup stock. The result was, obviously, shiitake-flavored okonomiyaki. The toppings are seafood medley - mostly octopus, but there's squid and shrimp and crab sticks in there too. Then there's some more roasted potatoes (including another purple one - it really is that dark), some obimake enoki, and a pair of hot dog octopi. On the other side is some almond cake and a fruit salad with mango & guava & persimmon. The persimmon is the orange bits. I used a vegetable peeler to slice off thin curls - that's how firm those fruits are.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 239: My lunch can outshine your lunch! |
[Oct. 26th, 2006|06:45 pm] |
 You'd think I went all Photoshop with today's lunchbox, wouldn't you? The ideal bento box should contain at least three colors, so they say. By this definition, this lunch is more than ideal.
This meal starts out innocuously enough with the okonomiyaki and a container of sauce on the lower left. This batch was made with seafood medley, which is bagged squid, shrimp, octopus, mussel, and crab sticks all mixed together. Then, on the right, things get strange. The upper compartment contains thin omelet bits that were food colored red and blue, a leftover from the previous lunch. Below are some shelled edamame, and some baked purple sweet potato. It looks like I went crazy with the food coloring there as well, but those potatoes - which taste like regular Japanese sweet potatoes - are naturally that color! If that doesn't make them cool, I demand to know what is. Finally, on the upper left, I have a taco-like Nutella crepe. Well, more or less a crepe; the wrapper is a thin pancake made at the tail end of a batch of waffles. (I was thinking of a dorayaki with Nutella instead of anko, but I didn't have enough batter for two pancakes.) But crepes can be folded in half instead of rolled into a cylinder, so I call this a crepe. Let me tell you, this is an excellent use for Nutella!
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 220: Brown-bagged rice |
[Sep. 25th, 2006|09:10 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | an pan, avocado maki, box, fresh lychee, inari-zushi, lychee, okonomiyaki, rolled omelet, seasoned shiitake mushrooms, steamed broccoli, sushi | ] |
 Today's experiment is inari-zushi, fried tofu stuffed with sushi rice. You can buy the tofu frozen or canned; I used frozen. It's actually somewhat pita-ish, not because it's actually breadlike, but because when you cut it in half it opens up into a bag, which you can stuff with, well, stuff. So, I made a few of these, and they were okay. I'm not impressed with the tofu I bought. I'll be looking for a better brand.
Then there's some rolled omelet, steamed broccoli, seasoned shiitake mushrooms (left over from a batch of chirashi-zushi), a little okonomiyaki, some avocado maki, a pair of fresh lychees, and half a storebought an pan.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 219: Chibification gone wrong |
[Sep. 25th, 2006|09:06 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | box, chibi okonomiyaki, coconut mochi, fruit salad, kiwi fruit, mango, okonomiyaki, okonomiyaki sauce, palm heart, spanish cheese, steamed broccoli, steamed taro, tamarind | ] |
 I originally got the idea of making okonomiyaki after reading Ranma 1/2. Well, in one of the more recent issues Ukyou (the character whose schtick is cooking okonomiyaki) acquired an assistant who kept botching up the recipe due to stinginess. Thinning out the batter, not enough toppings, et cetera. But one of his variants was actually a hit: tiny okonomiyaki that only had one topping. Hmm, why not try to make something like that? I chopped up the cabbage into one-inch strips to make it easier to pour, and made chibi okonomiyaki. They didn't end up "silver dollar" size - I'd need to cut the cabbage much finer than I did. But, still, these came out kind of cool. Next time I'll top them with jumbo shrimp so they really will only need one topping.
And with this are steamed taro with okonomiyaki sauce; steamed broccoli with Spanish cheese; tamarinds; a fruit salad made with kiwi fruit, mango and canned palm hearts; and coconut mochi.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 171: Funky green |
[Jun. 29th, 2006|08:48 pm] |
 The last time I made okonomiyaki I tried a new ingredient: cashews. Rather, the little fragments at the bottom of a can of cashew halves and pieces. Why not? The verdict: why not indeed? So, here we have okonomiyaki with fake crab meat, shiitake mushrooms, cashew bits, sesame seeds, and okonomiyaki sauce; funky Laugh-In style "stars" cut from steamed broccoli stems (close to the top, where they divide into florets); steamed Japanese sweet potato; and some strawberries and kiwi fruit that I did not intentionally shape into a Muppetty face.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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| Lunch Box 138: Jumbled stuff |
[Apr. 23rd, 2006|05:33 pm] |
 After eating jellyfish for the past two days, I'm back to more ordinary food. I know, I know, it's a letdown. I'll try to get some eel or squid to play with in the near future. In the meantime, here's some okonomiyaki (I seem to be making it with more and more egg lately), a green salad with ginger dressing in a little pig container, and mixed apple and lychee slices. The last one was pretty nice, as I've found out that the apple soaks up the flavor of the lychee syrup. They compliment each other well.
(Website post, with links to recipes.) |
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