Misha bento, Day 1 (and Day 0)

Since the month started on Tuesday, I did a test-run (bringing in a snack box of sorts) on Monday. I'd spent Sunday afternoon at a gigantic Asian grocery store, exploring the aisles and finding way too many neat things to bring home, including an assortment of frozen dim sum (yum!) and some small treats for my bento box. (I also cooked a bunch of rice, making onigiri and some pre-portioned servings to place inside my bento.)

Not pictured - because they're hiding in the bento bag -are my breakfast (string cheese and a hard-boiled egg) and a pink lemonade drink.



I like having a side dish or snack bento with little bits of things to eat, like raisins, cashews or almonds, Sunflower crackers, Apollo chocolates and bahn men cookies. That way, if I get a craving during the day, I can nibble a bit and satisfy my sweet tooth. I'm hoping to add apple slices and maybe a mayo cup of caramel dipping sauce as well - I'm trying to eat healthier, instead of those "10 for $10" microwave thing-in-a-box meals. It's hard to do when I'm such a picky eater. Flavors, odors, appearance and texture are big deals to me.

So for March 1st, I decided to try some recipes from Justbento.com - tori misoyaki and sweet pepper and carrot confetti. The chicken was cooked through, but I think I could have browned it a little more. It looked a little underwhelming... it was quite tasty, however. The confetti was better than I'd feared - I did not like the smell of the dashi as I cooked things. I cooked the chicken the night before, and the veggies the morning of. (Note to self: cook things the evening before when you can - less rushed!) I'd pulled one of the rice portions out of the freezer and let it thaw overnight in the fridge. Assembled everything with a piece of silicone grass to divide meat and veggies, a dash of tamago furikake to season the rice, put my treats in my snack box, stuck a hard-boiled egg in a Hello Kitty plastic egg, and placed it in one of my bento bags, with a Hello Kitty ice pack to keep things nice until lunchtime.


Yes, you're seeing a theme or two going on, aren't you.


~Misha