Bento Update

[laterose]

Week two of the Bento Challenge is to focus on making healthier bentos, and to make one more bento then you did in week one. I did in fact make four bentos. I didn't think I was going to be able to do it on Friday, since that's my early day and I've actually been staying up late even for second-shift working me (I'm normally in bed by two; this

Comments

[kiyomi13]

So cute! This looks like a fun challenge to pursue! I was wondering, is that muffin paper that you're putting your fruit in? Also, how do you keep your food so nice and separated like that?

I'd like to try some of that tamagoyaki, it sounds super yummy.

Good luck with the rest of your bento challenge, looking good!

[laterose]

It is indeed a muffin cup! A silicone one so it doesn't get all soggy. I bought the silicone ones just for this, but I've found I really love them for muffins too. It's way easier to get the muffin out intact. But they were really hellish to clean after the muffins since there's a fill line 3/4 of the way up, and little bits of muffin got stuck under that. I think I'm going to invest in some I saw at Whole Market that didn't have that.

Getting them all separate is kinda challenging. If there's rice it helps to put that in first since you can kinda mush it together and it'll keep its shape, and then it'll support the other food. Mostly it's just trial and error since I don't have any dividers other than the muffin cups. I tried using foil to make a divider today, but that didn't really work out that well.

[laterose]

You should give it a try! Even if it's just every now and then and not the whole five week challenge. If you're not doing the insanely decorative ones it's not all that hard. And they're very tasty. :D

[calger459]

Nice! When I was in Japan I tried several times to make myself bento lunches since the alternatives to buy were always limited to crappy (the schools I taught at didn't provide lunches for the kids, so I always had to walk to a nearby convenience store), but I never had much success. You have way more variety than I ever tried, which I think is the key to enjoying these :)

It was basically a fried egg with nutmeg and cloves, if I recall correctly. I totally failed at getting the nice layers they talk about on Just Bento though. It was basically just scrambled eggs, kinda compressed into a patty

Are you talking about the sweet egg crepe stuff you can get as sushi? There's actually a special pan they sell at Tensuke you can use to make that, it's small and rectangular. I've never tried it, but I do have a recipe somewhere; basically you have to patiently cook and fold thin layers of your sweet egg mixture (I think it's just egg with some sugar in it) into a small brick. Super yummy, but it always sounded really intimidating to make :P

[laterose]

I think it's basically the same thing. The recipe at just bento, http://justbento.com/handbook/recipe-collection-mains/1-egg-tamagoyaki-japanese-omelette isn't as sweet, but in general she seems to post more savory/salty things than sweet things. So she might be leaving out some of the sugar. I might invest in one of those rectangular pans. She talks about how to make it kinda rectangular even in a round pan, but I fail at it. Still tastes pretty good though. :D