In today’s bento, I’m trying new recipes, bacon wrapped enoki and stir fry chicken with miso. It’s very simple, satisfying for bento items.
Stir fry chicken and green pepper in miso, stewed konbu, bacon wrapped enoki, omelete, steamed veggie, grape tomatoes.
Left: his bento. Right: my bento.
Today’s menu:
I’ve done a lot of thinking on planning on this one.
Last night and the night before, I made several bento items ready, and put them in my lock-lock, stacked nicely in my fridge. I had the burgers made, ready to cook, put some in freezer for future bento. This morning, all I need to cook is pan-frying the burgers, cook omelete, 1-min reheat veg in microwave. I thought 30 min will be good. It took me 45 min to have my hubby’s and mine ready, and 7 min to clean up and put all dirty pans, dishes in the dishwasher. I think I can make it in 30 min next time.
I don’t think I have enough time to do a lot of cooking in the morning. I have to plan better next time. Definitely for bento, I will not cook fancy vegetables. I would just steam them the night before half-cooked, then pop it in the microwave for 1-min. Or, I would just use raw veg, have them cut and wash the night before, ready to go.
Tips for spare time / during the weekend:
Since I got back from my one-month vacation, I haven’t managed to go back to my old cooking routine. I totally lost my momentum in the kitchen. Last night, after coming back from my first exercise since last October, suddenly I got all this energy. I was so hyper making salmon furikake, stewed konbu, marinating chicken to make kaarage. I was thinking of having onigiri, chicken kaarage, steamed veggie, and omelet for my bento today. I set the timer on my rice cooker. Everything set, all I needed to do was getting up earlier this morning to put them together. And, of course, I didn’t. I am not a morning person at the first place. I fight with my alarm clock every single morning, snooze, snooze, snooze, snooze, on top of that, my back and legs were sore. I truly wish I were more enthusiastic welcoming sunrise. I could’ve made it the night before, but, the taste won’t be the same. I love freshly made onigiri.
I ended up buying some stuff from the salad bar in our cafeteria, very little food, it cost me $4.52. I couldn’t stop dreaming of having onigiri.
This is more to comfort food. I need it bad for Monday. Yummmm.
Get myself started again in making bento. From 3-color rice inspiration, added stir fry mushrooms to add more veggie servings to my daily diet.
Pretty excited waiting for lunch time..
I just went back home, visiting my family. It’s been hard to get back to the real life, homesick.
I’ve gained quite a lot of weight this past three years. I think my portion is getting larger and larger each time. When I went back home, my stomach had to adjust a bit with eating smaller portion. Now I force myself to bring tiny cute containers to bring my lunch, and use USDA food pyramid guidelines for the proper serving amount. I’ve lost 5 lbs in 3 weeks just by doing that.
It’s easy to get carried away out here for most of the food served always always in huge portion. And, it’s cold too, makes me want to eat a big bowl of noodle soup… slrrrrpppp.
