American Bento

It has been quite a while since my last bento.  In the meantime, I have had a baby - a beautiful little boy.  As you can well imagine, there was another adjustment necessary (what a year for change!). We went from a teenager just about to graduate and go to college to not just 3 but 4 children under the age of 5!   :) The pregnancy was not an easy one but I am truly grateful to have our littlest boy safely delivered and thriving.   Just because I can, here is our latest little bundle of joy:


I think I have finally figured out a schedule that works and am back to making bento.  Here's one:


This is a new bento that I bought from Tuesday Morning.  It was originally made by mybento.com.  It is a cute oval shape and has handles on the top for easy carrying.  I'll post a picture of the closed bento when DH comes home from work. 

The top layer of bento holds a cucumber and tomato salad, tamagoyaki, some pepper slices cut in the shape of flowers, and nuts.  I think it would have been nicer to put a layer of lettuce beneath the tomato and cucumber salad but I didn't figure that out until after the fact.

What are tamagoyaki?  They are a lovely Japanese folded omelet.  I've tried two variations this week and both have turned out well.  This one is rather plain: egg, water, a little pinch of salt, and some sugar (1/2 tsp or so).  This doesn't really make the tamagoyaki sweet but does amplify the egg flavors nicely.  To make this, I blended 2 eggs with the salt and sugar in my magic bullet (you get a really uniform mixture and it seem lighter that way than if I do it by hand).  I cooked half the mixture until the egg was just barely set.  Then, I rolled it over itself.  I then cooked the other half of the mixture and placed the first role on one edge and rolled the second around it.  I then transferred it to a cutting board and allowed it to cool.  DH and I nibbled on pieces as I was making the rest of this bento.  You could easily get 2 or 3 bentos out of one tamagoyaki.  If you had a smaller pan, you could easily make it with 1 egg instead of 2.


 This bottom layer is the result of making it up as I go.  On the left is sautéed cabbage, leek, and carrot with dill.  The two onigiri are very western: flavored with red wine vinegar (from my own vinegar pot) and stuffed with roasted red pepper.  There is a stuffed tomato on the right.  The filler on this layer is the protein: sautéed shrimp.  The shrimp are made with garlic, salt, pepper, white wine, tomatoes, and parsley. 

We had snow last night and I was hoping, indeed praying, for a snow day.  It would have been so nice to run errands and pack for our trip a little early and have some time to relax!  Oh well!  This little dream of mine caused me to put off my bento making until this morning.  Fortunately, I had some precooked shrimp in the freezer.  As a result, this bento was ready in the flash.



Layer 2 was made from pantry staples and leftovers.  I tossed the ramen noodles with Green Giant Healthy Vision veggies: carrots, zucchini, and sliced green beans in a rosemary butter sauce.  The shrimp are obviously on the side.  I added one lovely leftover item: a breakfast strata.  This strata includes sautéed spinach and tomatoes inside.

We are leaving for Russia by the end of the week and are trying to get rid of excess food in the house.  Supplies are dwindling, so this bento was made from freezer and pantry staples  -  well, mostly from those.  I still have fresh veggies and fruit to put in the top.  Scallops seem pretty unusual in a lunch but I needed something that would defrost quickly since I didn't plan this bento until I woke up this morning.  I think it turned out very nicely nonetheless.


Layer 1 contains fresh veggies and cheese, orange slices, blackberries, and blueberries.  There is also some rice pudding dusted with cinnamon.  The veggies, fruit, and cheese are all fresh.  The rice pudding is premade.


Layer 2 contains a main course of saffron rice, pan-seared scallops, and frozen veggies (Green Giant Healthy Weight veggies: sliced carrots, sugar snap peas, black beans, and edamame).  I've added some white wine to the butter sauce.