Well, I have found water lillies, freshly fried, give you a wonderful feeling – especially if used with a mayonnaise sauce…
The Mystery Blog Poster…
Monthly Archives: April 2009
: : Bento #3 ~ Getting slightly easier but harder too : :
3rd bento box is done but some technical problems has arisen.
-Wilthering seaweed.
-Yolk in quail’s egg has settled on the bottom. Haha!
-Wasn’t easy to cut out the shapes in the quail. Haha!
-Make sure that nori sheets are oil free!
-Use something to completely level the noodles! It’s not flat enough
-Get some cherry tomatoes or something that is red to give it the red color.
-Don’t be lazy to cut cucumbers to fill in.
-Get a smaller food container.
-DON’T USE TOO MUCH HAM!!
Red rice noodles stir-fried with long beans, yellow capsicum and onions. Seasoned with 2 teaspoon of Mirin and 1 teaspoon of Lea & Perrin’s Worcester sauce. Surprisingly, the veggies didn’t mix too well, or the noodles were perhaps a bit too long. Anyway, separated out the veggie into a smaller corner where I covered them with some cut-out shapes of ham and carrots.
The quail eggs were interesting to cut. The danger was that too much pressure and the egg may just burst. Also, I found that the egg yolk have all sunk to the bottom because the eggs were propped upright.
This was neat to do. I cut the stars in the egg and stuffed in some star-shaped carrots. Used the same mould so it stuck together well. Haha! The idea came from this Japanese Bento Blogger. She’s amazing.
I also wrapped around sheets of nori seaweed around the eggs since these were leftovers from the flower cutting. It left a very nice color combination. Better than I thought.
Didn’t fill up the entire container because I thought it might have been too much eggs by then.
The stir-fried veggie is underneath. Yes, ham. Ham. HAM!!! Very very salty and fatty. 🙁
A garden full of flowers. Tried to make the green lawn but there’s more to bento making then what I had expected. Need to find a way to make the noodles more flat. It was too uneven so the flowers weren’t completely flat. Probably better to use rice.
Ok, now all I need to do in the future is think how to avoid the usage of ham. Also, to cook fish or meat for lunchbox. Been lazy the past few weeks so it’s either egg or beans for the protein source. Else, I’ll eat only a small protein portion during dinner and put the other half into my lunchbox.
: : Conversation with Granny ~ Bento cutting with shapes : :
Yesterday during Sunday’s cooking session.
Granny : Wah! You so rajin (hardworking) make shape one ah.
Wena : Ya lor. Ok what…
Granny : Huh! I tell you. You only do one time. Afterward, you malas (lazy) do one.
The last time she said this to me, it was when I was first starting my new diet back in 14 Feb 2009. So, haven’t stop yet.
Brain is on overload trying to think of what to do. For tomorrow, maybe some kolomee makeover. Still got a lot of red rice noodles to finish off.
: : Bento Box ~ Difficulty in Meal Preparation : :
The one thing I realised about the various bento recipes and pictures out there, is the high usage of forbidden ingredients in the low sodium diet i.e. cheese, ham, processed food. Plus, a lot of the Japanese bento recipes are currently using a lot of sugar in their meals.
I kinda cheated on using ham for tomorrow’s meal but have to seriously cut back on it. Same goes for the sugar. I have to see whether there are some alternatives or other more traditional Japanese-type of recipes that may help. Then, see if it can be combined with the usual Chinese home-cooking that my Granny does.
Although, I’m still trying to top the 5-7 servings of grains and veggies. Am rethinking how to deal with breakfast and slowly cut out milk from the diet. Not exactly that easy.
: : Bento #2 ~ Getting better but still a bit sloppy : :
Ok, getting slightly better at bento-ing but the difficulty is trying not to use ham. Too much salt is not good for Wena. 🙁
The pink apple case is a jelly mould : 10 for RM2.80.
Left mould : celery slices at the bottom. On top are carrot shape food with a slice of ham.
Right mould : A layer of tomato sauce at the very bottom with the middle layer of organic alphabet pasta (60% wholegrain).
Middle : Scrambled eggs wrapped in a mould.
Both apple cases hold the same thing. I was getting worried that I wouldn’t have enough veggies so was trying to just stuff wherever I could with it. Each case holds french beans with some nori seaweed strips as well as a quail’s egg each. On top are carrots and hams. One thing about using the cookie cutters, I’m going to get a soft plastic mallet to gentle hammer the darn cookie cutters. Only a few pieces of ham so hopefully not too bad on the salt intake. Next time though, can’t have it in here. Sigh. Anyway, leftover scraps of carrots and ham went into a peanutty roast terrine at the bottom.
Tried out making a terrine with peanuts, cashew nuts, cheddar cheese, ham, onions, golden mushrooms, carrots, wholemeal breadcrumbs and one egg. Turned out better than I expected. A bit high in calories so have to be very careful when taking a slice.
Doesn’t look too bad, no? I have to check out other terrine recipes, especially vegetarians ones that doesn’t call for cheese or peanuts. Maybe have to start thinking of trying out with beans. Granny said that it’s not something that she would eat too often but she couldn’t stop eating it. Haha!
Tomorrow, have to go and buy a packet of red and brown rice from Umang’s office. Also, on Tuesday, I’ll be getting my bento sets. The cookie cutters had already arrived, now just the containers. Which will probably flipped my Granny a bit considering that there’s already a lot of plastic containers everywhere. I haven’t told her yet about my intention to goto Daiso at the Curve to check out for some bento stuff. I hope that there are still some left in there.
: : Bento Beginner : :
Sloppy work but what the hey. First time beginner. 🙂 Egg filling between 2 honey wholemeal bread. All vegetables except for the cherry tomatoes had been steamed.
Postnote : My 2nd cousin Davin has made this interesting commentary about the 2nd picture.
Is that someone sitting on the balcony of the longhouse looking over the Mountains (broccoli) on the left and Clouds (cauliflower) on the right?