I was browsing through my ever helpful bento book & one of the recommended bento items was a bag of Japanese mixed vegetables. I am only familiar with the kind we get in local supermarkets (corn kernels, green peas, carrots) so I was curious about it…When I was on my weekly trip to Hatchin, I was surprised to find out that they are selling bags of this Japanese-style mixed veggies so I grabbed a pack, without even knowing how to use it!!

Bento no. 37

Thankfully, the ever helpful bento book had instructions, & I got myself a bottle of tsuyu for simmering the vegetables. The bag contains about 6 or 7 different kinds: imo, carrot, shiitake, renkon, takenoko and I forgot the rest. ^_^ Basically, I only had to simmer them in tsuyu diluted in water. And because the veggies are pre-boiled before being packed and frozen, I didn’t have to cook them for a long time to soften.

For the main dish, I had miso-marinated chicken, as adapted from JustBento.com. Following Maki-san’s recipe, I marinated skinless chicken breast fillets in a mixture of 1 tablespoon white miso and 1 tablespoon of mirin. I then added half a tablespoon of white sugar. I mixed everything together and put in the chicken, making sure that all the surfaces are covered with the marinade. The original recipe called for sake, but I only had mirin, so I used that. Turned out really tasty too. ^_^

I let the chicken marinate at least overnight. To cook, I only pan-fried the fillets until done. The miso on the surface of the meat caramelized for a bit, and that made the chicken taste even better.

All in all, this bento is really easy to make & the edamame & veggies (especially the renkon) did add nice colors and textures to my lunchbox. Looks like the veggies will now become part of my bento staples. ^___^

My very first bento!

This one here is my very first attempt at a bento, made on Dec. 26th last year. As always, it was not for me, harhar. This was for my boyfriend — I had a smaller version. Obviously, he eats more so he needs a lot more rice than I do.

Looks yummy, because I wasn’t the one who cooked the food!  It was Schatz’s mom, haha. That’s right, I was just the “food stylist”. Anyway, deconstructing the lunchbox:

1. Steamed white rice with furikake
2. A generous helping of takuan/daikon on top of the rice – this is one of the Japanese versions of “atchara”. Takuan is pickled radish.
3. Main dish is left over Christmas ham — simmered in orange juice. Yummy! Might try this one again very soon.
4. Buttered asparagus, if my memory serves me right.

I’ve been on and off with obento since then, but I hope that things will be a lot more regular now that I have many new ideas for my daily lunchboxes. I am slowly learning to cook more things, experimenting with this and that and learning bento designs and stuff — it’s all very exciting for me with this “domestic” hobby of mine.

I’ve started living alone in January. I’ve finally moved out of my family’s house and now fully independent. OK, I’m renting the flat, so I’m not exactly 100% independent. But still…yada yada. The nice thing about living alone is that I do everything for myself and I have lots of space for…more creative pursuits. Haha. Like bento, for one. And so to sort of chronicle my independent life, and my improvements in bento-making, I decided to start my own Hitorigurashi O-bento, aka ‘Living Alone Bento’. Somehow, translating that in English doesn’t sound too happy, does it?

I’m such a bento newbie and a struggling cook, but I feel that these past months of experimenting with food has given me some degree of culinary confidence (powtah, sarap pakinggan nun a) and now I am inspired to keep on making bento (and buying bento stuff over Ebay? That counts too…). I do hope I’d be able to keep this up, so I can keep track of my progress as a bento maker.

So here begins Cat’s culinary adventures in kawaii cuisine! *insert sound*

For the first entry, my baon for March 18 (at least I think it was March 18. It says so on the pic date stamp). I make 2 obento for each day, because I like to have my dinner at work (while watching Jdorama, harhar).

Bento #3 This was my lunch for the day. I used my 2-tier PutiFresh apple lunch box. In the bottom tier, I had plain rice sprinkled with my noritama furikake, then shaped into a heart and a star using my onigiri molds. I had extra rice so I shaped that into a small ball. It tasted OK, but I guess I’m getting tired of the taste of nori, so I might have to lay off it for a while. Good thing I got this pack of furikake with 5 different varieties: nori, tamago, sake, tarako and…I forgot the last one ^^;; Also, I forgot to pack in some soy sauce for the onigiri…kaya pala matabang!! Anyway, I got those kawaii animal-shaped sauce bottles from Ebay so I will have them in my future onigiri bento ^_^

On the top tier of the box is this. Fom left: 1 small longanisa ball , colorful Jellyace, bear-shaped marshmallows and some Rinbee. Hehe, I have to have Rinbee! Anyway, I can’t think of anything else to use as gap fillers because I don’t have grapes etc. I will have to hit the supermarket soon. If only I wasn’t on this stupid shift…Since I started on this shift, I never had time to go grocery shopping. I’m a starving girl!

Now, Bento #4 is my dinner. I packed it in my generic yellow 2-tier lunch box from Japan Home. Generic, because they don’t come from those makers with cutesy names like PutiFresh (made by…Lube Sheep, hehe). Anyway, I had Cheez Whiz sandwich. I removed the crusts, then used my tulip shaper to cut the middle portion of the sandwich. More Rinbee as gap filler. The blob at the right is another longanisa ball, separated from the sandwich with baran (sushi grass). The top tier of this lunchbox is similar to Bento #3, minus the longanisa.

My personal assessment? So-so bento. I was in a hurry so they aren’t so pretty. Also, many bento purists demand a balance of nutrients, color, texture and many more…obviously, those are lacking in these lunch boxes O_o. NO VEGGIES! I don’t have carrot flowers!!! I want carrot flowers!! But I’m giving myself some slack. It is, after all, just my third officially photographed bento. Nyahaha. I don’t expect to be a bento master anytime soon. But the nice thing about making bento is…you can make your mistakes and eat them too!