As promised, here is another Easter-themed bento... Easter chicks in costumes ready to attend an Easter parade :). The chick in the bear costume looks rather unfriendly, he's probably not very happy that he needs to wear a costume and parade it around ;).

The basket is filled with 2 chick-onigiris, my version of quick and super simple Pork Bulgogi, 3 piccolinis, 2 half- hardboiled eggs (meant to look like chicks in a seal costume), a few pieces of strawberries, 2 slices of kiwi, a few pieces of grapes, red currant and lettuce.



Quick Stir-Fried Pork Bulgogi

• 500 grams pork, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 7- 8 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 - 2 tablespoons hot pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons Gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
• Sugar to taste
• Toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

• Heat oil in a wok. Stir fry pork, minced garlic and onion slices.
• When slightly brown, add soy sauce, hot pepper flakes, Gochujang and sugar.
• Continue frying until the pork is cooked.
• Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve hot with rice.

If you are a careful observer, you would have noticed that the chick in the bear costume has a much friendlier expression in last two the pictures of this post. I didn't like his grumpy face at all, so I finally changed his eyes and made them smaller and slightly rounder.

He still looks sad, but doesn't he look like a more well-behaved chick ;)?

That's it for now, it's getting quite late again here. I hope I can post my Peter Rabbit cake tomorrow. I have made the figurines but haven't baked the cake yet. Hopefully I can complete the cake tomorrow!

It's almost Easter, so I decided to make something Easter-related : an Easter bunny :)! Well, at least my version of an Easter bunny - a rabbit with a pink bunny costume ;). I love rabbits anyway, so making this bento was a lot of fun. My long time readers should know that I even have four rabbits which I love to death :D).

If you want to try to recreate this bunny at home, scroll down and look at the (short) tutorial below. Please excuse the blurry pictures...!

Blushing Bunny Onigiri

• Cooked white rice
• Cooked pink rice (you can use Sakura denbu, beet juice or a drop of red food colouring to colour your rice.)
• White-coloured cheese for the nose and to accentuate the eyes
• Nori (roasted seaweed) for eyes, nose and lips
• Plastic wrap to shape the rice

Form the pink rice into a half-moon shape. This will be used to cover the bunny's head.

Make two long ovals for the ears.

Using the white rice, make a round ball, then cover it with the pink half-moon shaped onigiri.

Afterwards you only need to attach the ears and then add the eyes, nose and lips. I blushed her cheeks with pink edible dusting powder.

Filling: Blushing bunny onigiri, fried shrimps (ebi furai), cheese chicken nuggets, a piece of broccoli decorated with cheese and red currant, green beans/smoked ham rolls, tamagoyaki, Tonkatsu sauce and mayonnaise (in the blue and pink polka-dot containers), 2 slices of orange, 2 pieces of strawberries, a few pieces of sugar snap peas, a flower ham and 2 pieces of faur watermelon (from cucumber, surimi and black sesame seeds).

I will make some more Easter-themed bentos or sweet goodies in the next few days, so stay tuned :)!

I know, I know, I said that I would be busy renovating the house today, at least I thought so. Luckily the worker is doing most of the job and I don't really have to help much, so I could spend most of my time in the kitchen :).

Another spring-inspired bento. I made three San-X characters: Rilakkuma the bear, Kiiroitori the yellow chick and Mamegoma the micro seal.

This bento is quite easy to make. The only rather complicated part is making the bears and the chicks from quail eggs because everything is just so tiny. I coloured the bears with soy sauce and the chicks with turmeric extract. I also made some flower-shaped California sushi. The Mamegoma seal is onigiri filled with chicken schnitzel and mayonnaise. The rest are cocktail shrimps, tamagoyaki, a few pieces of grapes, strawberries, blackberries and lettuce. The watermelon is made out of cucumber and surimi.

California Sushi

• Sushi Rice (cooked rice, vinegar, salt, sugar)
• Nori
• Surimi
• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Mayonnaise
• Tobiko

That's it for now, need to help the men at work again...! Till next time :).

I bought this new slim 'bento box' yesterday. Well, it's actually not a bento box but a container for storing screws, nuts and bolts, etc - I bought it in a building supplies/home improvement store ;). It only costs about €1, so I thought, why not? I have been itching to make bento using a slim bento box and my new slim bento box which I ordered online a few days ago has not arrived yet, so when I saw this container, I didn't give myself a second thought and directly place it in my shopping trolley :D).

I am still very busy since we're going to start renovating our house tomorrow, so if I haven't been visiting your blogs or replying any comments or e-mails, please do understand :).

Fortunately, the weather has been quite nice lately. It's still rather cool but mostly sunny. I see lots of flowers around, including cherry blossoms and plum blossoms (which look very similar to cherry blossoms but the petals are slightly darker). My bento today is spring/hanami inspired, thus the pinkish props :).

By the way, I made kimchi yesterday, so the bento box today is filled with some Korean goodies, such as Kimchijeon (Korean Pancakes with Kimchi) and Onigiri seasoned with Kimchi juice. The two little piggies are made out of quail eggs and coloured with beet juice. I shaped the piggies into round balls by slightly pinching/forming the quail eggs with my fingers when they were still warm. This really works...! I first read about this method in Tata's blog, so thanks, Ta :)!

Kimchijeon with Whole Kimchi Leaves - serves 7
Adapted from Maangchi

• 7 Kimchi leaves
• 150 grams ground pork
• 125 gram minced tofu
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• Flour for coating the kimchi leaves

Please check this link for directions. I made the second type of kimchi pancakes, the one with ground pork, minced tofu and whole kimchi leaves. I find this version tastier than the normal round kimchi pancake with the flour/water batter.

Easy Kimchi Onigiri

• Cooked rice
• Kimchi juice
• Chopped green onions
• Nori (roasted seaweed) to decorate the onigiri

I also had tamagoyaki, 1/2 mini cucumber, 1/2 mini orange sweet pepper, 1 chilli, 1 blanched carrot flower, blanched broccoli, 2 ham flowers, grapes, 1 strawberry, 2 blackberries and red currant in the bento box.

Now I need to get some sleep as it's almost midnight here. So good night, everyone :)!

I didn't intend to make any bento today because I lacked the motivation and I somehow had zero inspiration too! I had a busy and stressy week and I had been thinking of using my whole weekend only to relax. Unfortunately I haven't really had the chance to relax yet. Saturday is the day when I clean the house, I despise this chore, but it has to be done! Then I still had to clean my rabbits' cage, which is humongous - it looks like a massive wardrobe ;)! Saturday is also the time when we normally do our grocery shopping - at least this I do not detest ;). I saw lots of Easter decorations in the supermarket I went to, including some pretty Easter baskets. I had been eyeing one Easter basket since last week, it looks really nice and I thought it would be lovely for a picnic-themed bento. Finally I decided to buy it today. This basket is one reason why I couldn't resist not to prepare any bento. It's new so of course it has to be used immediately ;)! However I just made something very simple without elaborate and intricate work - only the old, plain grilled panini, but totally scrumptious...! After work I sometimes buy a grilled panini from a bakery in Frankfurt. It's filled with chicken cold cuts, cheese, rucola, tomatoes, some mustard and mayonnaise. I had been thinking to recreate this beautiful panini at home for quite some time, but I was often too lazy to do so or simply forgot to buy some bread. Well, this morning I didn't forget and bought 2 freshly baked Ciabatta rolls.

Ingredients - serves 2

• 2 fresh Ciabatta rolls
  
• 6 slices deli chicken breast
• 4 slices of cheese
  
• 1 tomato, sliced
• Rucola
• Mayonnaise
• Dijon mustard
• Black Pepper
  

Instructions

• Cut the Ciabatta rolls in half.
• Spread the inside with mayonnaise and Dijon mustard.
• For each Ciabatta roll: place 3 slices of deli chicken breast, 3 slices of tomato, 2 slices of cheese and 5-6 Rucola leaves. Sprinkle with black pepper.
  
• Grill in the oven for about 3-5 minutes.
  

Just a short post... I managed to make this bento last Sunday, just directly after I made the Rilakkuma Picnic Bento. It didn't take long to fill in this bento box, probably around 5 minutes, because it's super tiny. I used the bottom tier of my Hanako Kokeshi bento box. Please see the red bento box below, if you want to know which one is the Hanako Kokeshi bento box..

I couldn't put much variety in the box because there's really not much space at all. If you own a Kokeshi bento box, I am sure you know what I am talking about. The diameter of the bento box is just around 8 cm. The bento box is filled with Fried Wild Rice with Seafood and XO sauce, blanched green beans, 2 Chick-eggs, 2 surimi/ham rolls, red currant and a broccoli.

Rilakkuma is another San-X character which I like. He enjoys relaxing, sleeping, watching TV, listening to music and soaking in hot springs. His favourite foods are dango, pancakes, omurice and custard pudding. Most of San-X characters seem to be very lazy...;)!

I got the idea to make this bear after I saw it in this Japanese bento site. This Japanese mama makes really adorable bentos and I love browsing through her site! In the box are Rilakkuma onigiri browned with soy sauce and filled with salt and pepper salted egg squid. He is supposed to look like that he's eating a hamburger (which is actually a meat patty filled with imitation crab, cheese and lettuce). His ears are two fried vegetable balls which I bought from an Asian market. The rest are: 3 cocktail shrimps, 2 orange mini sweet peppers, green beans/Leberkäse (a type of German meatloaf usually sliced thinly when served) rolls, 2 slices of kiwi, grapes, a strawberry, red currant and three sandwiches (actually 1.5 sandwiches, since I cut each sandwich into halves).

Liver Pate Sandwich

• 2 slices bread
• 2 slices of Flemish liver pate
• 2-3 tomato slices
• Lettuce
• A slice of Cheddar cheese
• 2 slices of Serrano smoked ham

Paprika Chicken Sandwich

• 2 slices bread
• 3-4 paprika Chicken slices
• 2-3 tomato slices
• Lettuce
• A slice of Cheddar cheese
• 2 slices of Serrano smoked ham

Happy Weekend, everyone, even though it's almost over again here unfortunately...! But well, soon I'll have Easter holiday and I desperately need it, especially because I just caught a cold and I really don't feel like going to work! Oh well, one week to go!

I had always wanted to make something with wild rice, but never did so until today. I was curious with its texture and taste. Unfortunately I think the wild rice being sold in German supermarkets are not pure wild rice but a mixture of long-grain rice and wild rice. This mixture does nevertheless make nice colour-combo.

I have been bentoing too much the last few weeks, that's why today I decided to make a normal meal, it did save me time in the kitchen too :).

I bought a jar of XO sauce a few months ago but it was mainly left in the fridge because I didn't really know what to do with it. I can be an impulsive buyer, that's why I have a lot of things in the fridge which finally go bad. This doesn't impress my husband at all because he is by nature a very organised person - I am the messy one at home, haha ;). This fried wild rice recipe was actually made mainly to clean up my fridge. It was nevertheless very very tasty and is worth a try!

Ingredients - serves 3 - 4

• 2 cups cooked wild rice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 Spanish onion, sliced
  
• 3 seeded bird's eye chillies, sliced thinly
  
• 100 grams shrimps
• 100 grams cuttlefish
  
• 4-5 fish balls, sliced thinly
• 1 Chinese sausage, sliced thinly
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons XO sauce
  
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 cup green onions, sliced thinly

Instructions

• Heat up your wok to high. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil.
  
• Add minced garlic, chilli slices, Chinese sausage, fish balls, cuttlefish and shrimps and fry until the garlic and seafood are slightly charred.
  
• Add Spanish onion and fish sauce. Stir fry for 1 minute.
• Quickly add the wild rice, XO sauce and oyster sauce. Stir fry for another 1 minute.
• Add green onions before serving and mix well.
• Serve your fried wild rice with scrambled egg, vegetables and fruit of your choice.
  

The peppers and cucumbers look quite big in this photo, but actually they're mini peppers and cucumbers, just about 8 cm long! I bought them because I thought they would look good in bento boxes ;).

By the way, I would also like to say thank you to Krisi for giving me the Golden Bento-Blog Award below :D). She is a student in Germany who loves Japan, cooking and dogs. Her aim is to collect as many bento blogs as possible in her site, so that it would be easier for her and other people to visit bento related blogs. Ganz herzlichen Dank, Krisi :D)!!

Another picnic bento...:)! I don't know why, but I just love making picnic-style bento. I suppose it's because I can very easily fill in the basket / picnic bento box with many types of food. I have actually received the 3 bento boxes which I ordered online some time ago, two Kokeshi bento boxes and one Meiji bento box. To be honest, I didn't expect the bento boxes to be that small ;). I mean each of the Kokeshi bento boxes contain three small food containers, which all in all would provide you with more than enough food, the problem is each of the containers is so small, it's so hard to fill it in nicely. This is one reason why I have not used any of the bento boxes yet. Next time I would buy square or rectangular-shapes bento boxes. These two shapes would be easier to work with, I suppose...!

The bento boxes look very cute though... - The main reason why I bought them...;).

The picnic bento today is filled with two different types of sandwich: Serrano smoked ham, cheese, spicy mayonnaise and lettuce sandwich and Paprika chicken breast, cheese, mayonnaise and blanched green beans sandwich. The sandwich looks rather messy, because I tried to use the Panda sandwich cutter (see my bento boxes/bento accessories picture above), but the bread always split apart in the middle, even though I didn't put much filling inside - maybe because my bread is too old?? It's one week old and probably not as soft as it should be and thus tears easily...?

Besides sandwich, we also had baked Chicken Cordon Bleu, Cordon Bleu Kimbap, tamagoyaki, penguin-shaped onigiri, green beans/carrots/ham rolls, salami rose, mini ice-cream cone cake pop, broccoli, flower carrots, strawberries, grapes, red currant and flower sausages.

That's it for today...! Have a lovely evening, everyone - at least, in Europe :). Not happy that tomorrow is Monday again... :(

Mini ice-cream cone cake pops, how cute is that...?? I knew I had to make these beautiful little morsels after I saw the picture in Bakerella's Cake Pops book. I am still very clumsy at working with melted chocolate, dear me, the mess...! But I guess it's worth it as I love the results, even though Bakerella's are way much prettier...! I guess I simply need to practise more :-).

Bakerella's cake pop recipe always involves a type of cake (she likes using cake mix) and frosting: vanilla, cream cheese, chocolate, well, you name it yourself. But because I am normally quite lazy to bake cakes myself at home, since my husband and I are not much of a cake eater, I like using Oreo cookies to make cake pops. You only need to grind the cookies in a food processor then add cream cheese, form it into little balls and then dip them into melted chocolate. And ta-dah...cake pops are ready :). This time, because I forgot to buy cream cheese, I used milk to make the cake pop dough and it worked very well...!

Ingredients - makes 12

• 352 grams OREO cookies
  
• Milk
  
• White chocolate, melted (add red food colouring to make pretty pink colour)
• Dark chocolate, melted
  
• Ice cream cone
• Coloured sprinkles
• Red smarties
  

Instructions

• Place Oreo cookies in a food processor and grind to fine crumbs.
• Add milk a little at a time to the Oreo cookie crumbs. The consistency is right when the dough is pliable and not too dry nor too sticky. When it's too dry, add more milk, when it's too sticky, you have to add more Oreo cookie crumbs.
• Shape the dough into little balls.
• One at a time, cover an Oreo ball with pink melted chocolate.
• Insert a toothpick into the ball to lift it out.
• Transfer the coated Oreo ball to the prepared ice cream cone.
• Decorate with coloured sprinkles, melted dark chocolate and red smarties.
  

Oreo balls before being coated with melted chocolate.

These mini ice-cream cone cake pops are great for tea time too :D)!!

I made Empress Rice or Com Hoang Hau in Vietnamese (please excuse the missing accents!) today. I had always wanted to make it ever since I saw it in my Vietnamese cookbook Quick and Easy Vietnamese Home Cooking for Everyone by Andre Nguyen and Yukiko Moriyama. It looks gorgeous, festive and delicious too! Unfortunately the bento pictures here don't really show how pretty the rice actually looks, because it's covered by fruit, vegetables and so on...! My husband especially found the rice really yummy and aromatic, I guess a real change from the usual fried rice. It's not very complicated to make either.

The rice uses coconut juice and vanilla leaves, which I think really accentuate the beautiful aroma of the rice.

Ingredients - serves 2
Adapted from Quick and Easy Vietnamese Home Cooking for Everyone

• 1 cup jasmine rice, rinsed and drained
• 10 cm Asian vanilla leaves
• 2 cups coconut juice (not coconut milk...!)
• 1/2 cup Chinese sausage, diced
• 1/2 cup Vietnamese ham, diced
• 1/2 cup chicken fillet, diced
• 60 g long beans, sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 2 salted eggs (use only chopped yolks)
• 2 thin omelets
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon sliced chili, seeded
• 5 - 6 quail eggs, hard boiled
• 1/2 teaspoon each, sugar, salt, pepper, soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon oil for stir-frying

Instructions

• Cook rice with vanilla leaves and coconut juice in a rice cooker.
• In a non-stick skillet, make 2 thin omelets and shred finely. Cut up all the remaining ingredients, except for quail eggs.
• Heat oil in a wok and stir fry all ingredients except quail eggs. Season with sugar, salt, pepper and soy sauce.
• Place hard boiled quail eggs in a rice bowl.
• Press down the meat mixture to line the bowl. Add cooked rice and press hard. Turn over to unmold.

Note: I didn't add the quail eggs to the rice, as it's actually meant to be, because I wanted to make some cute characters with them.

Filling: Vietnamese Empress Rice, slices of mango, grapes, blueberries, red currant, strawberries, tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelet), flower sausages, cherry tomato, broccoli, hard-boiled bear, chick and piggy quail eggs.