プリティーお弁当 #5 and #6!

Well, it’s finals week, and this is pretty much what I do at my desk all day.

Ok, ok. I don’t really just sit around and do nothing. I sit around and read novels, study Japanese, write e-mails, check facebook… uh…tweet random news stories AND…since the cafeteria is closed all week, I think about making the next day’s OBENTO!

☆ ヽ(´ー｀)ノ ☆

I’ve been making bento all week, but Monday’s bento (vegetable goyoza, stir-fried veggies, and taki-komi gohan) and today’s bento (leftover lentils, broccoli, saffron rice, and curried chicken) just… weren’t all that pretty, so I did not photograph them. These were the two exceptionally nice looking bento this week!

Now, for the contents! First, Tuesday’s obento!:

• stir fried vegetables
• steamed broccoli
• mini hamburgers w/ ketchup
• taki-komi gohan (rice steamed with dashi, miso, renkon, and carrot)

 

I actually had made the stir-fried veggies on Monday, and these were leftovers. I tried to replicate the same kind of stir-fry that they make in the school cafeteria, but they have a really well-seasoned wok, and my non-stick frying pan just doesn’t compare! I also can’t generate the kind of heat on my electric burners like they have on the gas stove at school.
Also, being from Pittsburgh, I only use Heinz ketchup. None of that Kagome crap. I love that the bottle has “Heinz” written in katakana on the label. I may have to save this bottle for posterity.

☆

Next up is the bento for tomorrow!

• steamed salmon
• blanched spinach with sesame dressing
• carrots steamed with butter + honey
• white rice with salmon/wakame/sesame furikake
• honey umeboshi (despite being called “honey” they’re not very sweet!)

I’ve also been trying to make different kinds of ethnic-type foods… Monday’s was kind of Chinese with the goyoza and stir fried veggies, Tuesday’s… I’ll say it was American because it was a mix of everything, and today’s was clearly Indian-influenced with the lentils and curried chicken. Tomorrow’s bento is clearly Japanese, as you can see, with the fish, umeboshi, white rice and furikake. Maybe I’ll make pasta tomorrow night and have an Italian bento for Friday!