Originally uploaded by catchan1980

As a pasta lover, I have been experimenting with various sauces for pasta. Red only, of course (not a fan of white). One very simple recipe I found in the net called for sardines in tomato sauce. I happened to have one sleeping in the cupboard and decided to try it. It was good! No-frills, fail-safe recipe — great for days when you don’t want to make something complicated.

Just saute the sardines in a little oil, add salt and pepper to taste. Toss in cooked pasta and you’re done.

The picture on the right contained leftover spaghetti, which I put in a microwaveable silicon cup (because I don’t want my spaghetti all over the place). The other sources of carbs are the salted rice onigiri. The cube ones were made using the cuber I got from Ebay. Topped the cubes with pork floss for a bit of color. The ball-shaped one is decorated with nori strips.

Next time, I need to make smaller cubes, because these are a little too big; shoved one into my mouth and had a hard time chewing because of the amount of rice.

The main “okazu” (dish) for this bento are longganisa (sausage) patties. I removed the meat from the casing, and formed it into small patties. Fried as usual. When done this way, I think it’s the perfect size and shape for obento. Also, you are sure that the meat is cooked through, because there is no more casing.

For more variety of flavors, I put in a kani stick, spring roll and a chikuwa. I also had a fair amount of veggies: kabocha nimono, broccoli, baby-cut carrots (not baby carrots, haha!) and sweet peas.

Somehow, I really love this bento. The colors are quite attractive, if I may say so myself.

PS: Just linked my Flickr account to this blog. I just realized that it was still linked to my old Blogger blog, which I’ve stopped using since last year. Saves WP space on photos

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!