Thursday, August 18, 2011

Bentos #26-7: Mix n Match!

Bento #26:


My bento: Fried Rice and Stir Fry Veggies (frozen) with a soy sauce fishy, and frozen chicken nuggets, with a spidey-dish of sweet and sour sauce.  And yeah... Sweet Baby Rays in the background.  I didn't actually take any of that tho.  I got it out for Dante's box. It just showed up in my pic. 


Dante's, same, but with a Rice Krispies Treat thrown in, and the Sweet and Sour Sauce in a Lightning McQueen dish.  We're such grown-ups.  :-D


 Bento #27: 


Salad with mozzarella and craisins again, Mini-lasagnas (see earlier post), and graham crackers. 

By the way, I forgot to mention it in the last post, but Bentos 25-27 were all made (in duplicate, mind you), in less than 10 minutes.  And the photos were taken with my phone.  

Happy bentos!

Rowan

Bento #25! Hamburger Helper.... Mmmm.

25 bentos in the blog!!  That sounds like an achievement to me! (Achievement UNLOCKED!) Woo hoo!

Ok, now that the celebration's done, I suppose I ought to actually POST the 25th one, huh?  Make it for reals?

But first, I have to post a pic of the new boxes!

My Grandmother found these awesome boxes at World Market for $5.00!!  How amazing is that?!  So she bought two.  Then I bought two.  Then I picked up two for Mom.  Then I picked up two for Chloe.  They're out of the green ones now.... lol.  Anyway, they hold about 1100 mL by my measurement and have a built in silverware compartment.  And they snap closed, which is nice (don't have to find a band in the morning!).



So anyway, drum roll please...

Bento #25



Our boxes side by side so you can see how awesomely huge Dante's is.  The top layer's shallow tho, so it looks bigger than it is.  Inside, we have Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper (YUM!), Salad with mozzarella and craisins with Raspberry Pecan dressing, and Dante has some fried rice up in the top. 

Ok, 'nother post coming in a minute, so until then....

Happy bentos!
Rowan

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Dante may be a genius

Really.  Check out this brilliant idea from the mind of Dante:  Cheater (non-deep-fried!) Donuts.

They're amazing.

And easy.

And awesome.



Super-easy:  Take a white hamburger bun.  Make a chocolate frosting sandwich.  Add marshmallow fluff if desired.  Top with chocolate frosting.  (add sprinkles if desired).  Enjoy!



Bento Mini-lasagnas: Spaghetti, Cottage Cheese, Mozzarella, and pasta sauce in silicone cups.



HOMEMADE GNOCCHI!  SOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!! 

It's delicious.  Really.  Recipe from Mario Batali's Simple Italian Food cookbook. 
(Recipe paraphrased/modified here)

Basic Gnocchi:

3 pounds potatoes
2 cups flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil

Boil the potatoes until soft, about 45 minutes.  Peel and pass through a vegetable mill (or strainer.  or just mash em).  Add flour, egg, and salt and stir until smooth.  Knead for 4 minutes or until ball is dry to the touch.  

Cut the dough into 6-8 pieces and roll into ropes approximately 3/4 inch wide.  Cut into 1 inch pieces.  "Flick the pieces off of a fork to score the sides" (didn't necessarily master that last part). drop into boiling water and cook until they float to the surface, about 1 minute.  Use a slotted spoon to pull out the cooked gnocchi and transfer them to a bowl.  Serve with sauce of choice.  We used Ragu Garden Combination and some seasoned burger Dante cooked up.  

Anywho... DELICIOUS GNOCCHI.  You should go make it.  Now.  Really.  and give me some.  :-D

Happy cooking!
Rowan 


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Food Catch-up, August Edition

ok, so got all caught up on the (2) bentos this morning.  Now for some other food catch-up.


Modified Tom's Chicken Soup

So we found a recipe called "Tom's Chicken Soup" in one of my cookbooks that looked really good.  But, being me, I couldn't just FOLLOW the recipe... So this is my version.  It's got Chicken, Fake Bacon, Potatoes, Shallots, Garlic, Chicken Stock, Mushroom Stock, Milk, and "Cream" (reconstituted dry milk at high concentrations...).  It was good and hearty. Served with Italian Herb and Cheese biscuits.  Yum.  


 Mini S'mores Bears

Fourth of July.  No marshmallows, Hershey's bars, or graham crackers anywhere in the apartment.  What's a girl to do? Pull out the chocolate frosting, marshmallow fluff and Teddy Grahams!!  Cute and tasty!


 Coffee Baked Alaska

This was the one specific food request Dante made for his birthday.  And I was only too happy to oblige.  This is pound cake and coffee truffle ice cream covered in coffee-flavored meringue, baked for just a couple mins, and drizzled with chocolate sauce and mini chocolate chips. 


Red Velvet Pancakes 

These were the breakfast part of Dante Birthday celebrations!  They have cocoa powder and such in them.  Found the recipe online here: http://cookingequipment.about.com/od/breakfastrecipes/r/Red-Velvet-Pancakes-With-Cream-Cheese-Glaze.htm  Mine turned out rather PINK instead of red, but... it takes a LOT of food coloring to get them even this red.  And I was using paste colors.

I think that's all of the highlights, at least that we have photos of.  Hope you enjoyed!

Happy bentos!

-Rowan



Bento Catchup, August Style

Long time no post... Hope all (3) of you weren't TOO miserable without my witty blog posts to keep you entertained all summer..... he he he.

Two weeks.... ha!  Try two months.  But sadly, I thought it might have been more than that.  Glad to see I was wrong.  So, the summer completely got away from me.  Been SUPER busy and haven't really been packing bentos.  At all.  I think I have two bentos to post from the entire two months.  And they're both kinda cheater bentos.  *Ashamed look*  BUT!  I am resolved to start packing bentos and updating this blog again.  Let's see if I stick to it.

Ok, Bento #23:


In super cheater style, it turns out a Hot Pocket fits REALLY nicely into the top layer of my bento box...
Then there are Teddy Grahams and chocolate frosting.  Mmmmm.  Homemade Dunkaroos!


Bento #24: 


Today's bento: Stir-fried steak and zucchini from dinner last night, with a layer of brown rice underneath and a soy sauce fishy.  It's super tasty, if I do say so myself.  *eyes the clock, wondering how long til lunchtime...*

Anyway, that's it for bentos folks.  Look for another post soon with other food/life/etc updates.  

Happy bentos!

-Rowan