Don't forget to drizzle the ebi fry with mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce, these two condiments really bring out the beautiful flavour of the fried shrimps...!
Don't forget to drizzle the ebi fry with mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce, these two condiments really bring out the beautiful flavour of the fried shrimps...!
I am in love with my new bento box. I thought that it would be impossible to buy this pretty wooden box in Germany, but I managed to get it from Amazon.de.
This bento is super simple: I had fried rice with petai beans and shrimps (I used brown rice this time though), spicy Korean style bean sprouts, two cherry tomatoes, a piece of radish and store-bought Shibazuke (Japanese red pickled cucumber).
If you want to try the Korean style bean sprouts, you only need to boil the bean sprouts, drain and then sprinkle with sesame oil, soy sauce and Korean red pepper flakes to taste. Easy and delicious!
Another lunch for my low-carb bento series: creamy caesar salad with chicken schnitzel coated with almond meal. Almond meal is a great alternative to the usual flour and breadcrumbs coating. It even tastes really good! The only drawback is, it can be quite crumbly, so you have to be careful when you pan-fry the schnitzel.
Almond Chicken Schnitzel
2 Servings
Almond Chicken Schnitzel
2 Servings
- 2 chicken breast fillets, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
- almond meal
- oil for pan-frying
Mix the chicken with egg and oyster sauce. Coat the chicken pieces with almond meal. Pan-fry until both sides are golden brown. Set aside and keep warm in the oven.
Easy Caesar Salad
2 Servings
- 2 heads of romaine lettuce
- 5 cherry tomatoes
- 1 hard boiled egg, sliced
- Caesar Salad dressing
- coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
- grated parmesan cheese, to taste
- chopped green onions for garnish
Another try to do a low-carb diet...;). I did try it last year but it didn't last very long, I hope this year I can be more disciplined. One reason why I want to try this diet again is because I have noticed that I have been eating too much carb lately. I crave carb and I think I am even addicted to it, which I don't think is very good. This doesn't mean that I am planning to cut out carb completely from my life, since I don't want to go to another extreme. I will still eat it, but in much smaller portions. I will still eat out from time to time and enjoy my carb during these occasions, but I will try to eat low-carb meals at home. This means you will also see more low-carb bentos in my blog, just like this bento here. I will nevertheless try to make one or two cute bentos in a month, because making pretty, cute bentos is my hobby, which I don't intend to abandon in the near future :).
Soy Sauce Duck
Soy Sauce Duck
- 1 duck breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 medium red onion, sliced
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- sweetener, to taste (optional)
- black pepper, to taste
- 1 Tbsp chopped green onion
Pan-fry the duck for 1 minute with olive oil. Add the onion and stir until it's slightly brown. Add soy sauce, sweetener and black pepper. Cook for another minute. Garnish with green onions.
Creamy Rocket Salad
- 50 g mixed salad greens
- 50 g rocket
- 2 medium tomatoes, sliced
- 8 - 10 mini mozzarella balls
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp chicken powder
- 100 ml cream
- 1 tsp dried marjoram
- 1 Tbsp chopped red onion
- 1/2 tsp sweetener (optional)
- black pepper, to taste
Combine all the salad ingredients. Topped with the soy sauce duck and soy sauce egg for garnish.
SOMEBODY STOLE MY BLOG CONTENTS
Today, by chance I found a blog which copied and pasted my 'Bento - Charaben' section to his/her blog without my permission. I have seen my blogger friends getting furious because other people stole their blog contents. I thought that I was lucky that something like this never happened to me. Apparently this was just wishful thinking. There are so many irresponsible people out who don't even understand one of the most basic ethical codes. I have reported his/her blog to Google and I hope that this blog would be deleted soon. When you check this link out, you will notice that the rest of the blog entries are also stolen from other blogs: http://freecookingposts.blogspot.de/search/label/Bento%20-%20Charaben !!
On a lighter note, let me end this post with a HAPPY EASTER :)!
Everyone seems to be crazy about Angry Birds... and I never understood it...I always thought, what's so cool about them? They don't even look that great. But hey, some weeks ago I saw my husband playing Angry Birds with his Ipad and I said, "Those are the crazy, stupid birds I have seen everywhere I go...!" ;). From that day on, I have been playing Angry Birds on my Ipad too and now I find them quite cool - and so, the Angry Birds bento...:).
The idea to use Babybel cheese to make the red Angry Birds is stolen from this website :). It was however my own idea to use cucumber to make the green pig, but I think I have to work on making the pig look more presentable...
The black bento box contains pan-fried chicken karaage, tamagoyaki, cherry tomatoes and carrot pickles. The two yellow flowers are made out of cheese.
Have you watched the beautiful animation My Neighbour Totoro? My blogging friend, Nami from Just One Cookbook adores Totoro and she recommended me to watch the film. I finally did a few months ago and Nami was totally right, Totoro is a great film and the animation is super!
I hope this Totoro bento will put a smile to all Totoro fans out there...:)!
The Totoro sushi is pretty simple to make. The white part is normal sushi rice and the grey part is rice coloured with toasted ground black sesame seeds. The whiskers are soba noodles and the eyes and nose are made out of nori and cheese.
I hope this Totoro bento will put a smile to all Totoro fans out there...:)!
The Totoro sushi is pretty simple to make. The white part is normal sushi rice and the grey part is rice coloured with toasted ground black sesame seeds. The whiskers are soba noodles and the eyes and nose are made out of nori and cheese.
The sides include fried breaded shrimps, cherry tomatoes, tamagoyaki and pan fried mini pork cutlets coated with almond meal.
And no, those are no real cupcakes ;). They're cupcake shaped salt and pepper shakers, aren't they sweet :)?
Have you missed seeing my traditional bento :)? I know that charaben is not for everyone and it is certainly not really meant for grown ups (well, I guess for special occasion it's fine...), but most of the time the child in me needs to satisfy the urge to create something cute, thus the crazy amount of charabens in my blog. I do nevertheless also like to make traditional and more adult-oriented bentos. In fact, most of the bento boxes I own are very elegant and traditional-looking rather than cute, I just like to fill these boxes with cute and pretty things :D).
As you can see, the bento box contains quite various side dishes. The highlight of this bento box is Spaghetti with Mussels and Shrimps seasoned with XO sauce (the recipe is coming soon). I also made tamagoyaki filled with Habanero chili peppers, which I think turned out quite pretty! The sides include kimchi, carrot and cucumber pickles and creamy crab/cabbage salad.
As you can see, the bento box contains quite various side dishes. The highlight of this bento box is Spaghetti with Mussels and Shrimps seasoned with XO sauce (the recipe is coming soon). I also made tamagoyaki filled with Habanero chili peppers, which I think turned out quite pretty! The sides include kimchi, carrot and cucumber pickles and creamy crab/cabbage salad.
And it's almost Easter.... I have to get some ideas for cute Easter-themed bentos :)!!
I received a set of nori punches from CasaBento a few days ago. I had been wanting to have these punches for a long time, but they were always somehow out of stock. I guess these punches must be very popular.
Source: Casa Bento
These nori punches would save you plenty of time when you want to make a cute bento but you don't really have much time to spare.
Source: Casa Bento
These nori punches would save you plenty of time when you want to make a cute bento but you don't really have much time to spare.
I needed less than ten minutes to make the two panda onigiris. For each panda onigiri I used 1.5 tablespoons of steamed rice which I formed into an oval shape with a plastic wrap. The three mini puppies (?) are made out of mini mozzarella balls and I used a quail egg punch to decorate their faces.
Creamy Crab and Cabbage Salad
- 50 grams shredded cabbage
- 50 grams imitation crab, sliced thinly
- 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons wasabi (or more if you like it spicy)
- 2 tablespoons (whole grain) Dijon mustard
Mix everything together and serve! Very yummy :)!!
I originally planned to make a little girl in puppy suit, but then I thought that the suit looked somehow more like a seal. Since I don't make seals for my charaben that often, in the end I just left the suit as it was and didn't try to make it look more like a puppy.
I had korokke (Japanese style potato and meat croquettes), chicken karaage, cucumber and carrot pickles, egg salad with mayo/wasabi, Dijon mustard dressing, half an egg which I made into a chick dressed in seal suit, Elmo cherry tomato, radish and ham flowers.
The little girl itself is made out of rice which I seasoned with soy sauce and the seal suit is plain white rice. The facial features are as usual made out of nori, cheese and deli meat. If you're curious what the whiskers of the seal are made out of, they're soba (buckwheat) noodles. The seal's tounge is umeboshi (pickled plum), which tastes great with rice.
The little girl itself is made out of rice which I seasoned with soy sauce and the seal suit is plain white rice. The facial features are as usual made out of nori, cheese and deli meat. If you're curious what the whiskers of the seal are made out of, they're soba (buckwheat) noodles. The seal's tounge is umeboshi (pickled plum), which tastes great with rice.
I got the idea to make these cheese panda stamps out of the blue. I was looking at my collection of bento cutters, then I noticed that if I combined my bear cutter and bunny cutter together, I would be able to make a standing bear/panda. Do look at the tutorial below, it's pretty simple. Click the picture to make it bigger, in case that you can't read the instructions.
TUTORIAL
The panda stamps are lying on top of rice which I steamed with chopped carrots and dashi stock. The other box contains two fried panko shrimps, tamagoyaki filled with green onions and imitation crab, salad, mac n cheese and a few pieces of strawberries.
This is a quick and simply lunch with steamed rice topped with mini pan-fried tonkatsu which is drizzled with tonkatsu sauce - I know, I should practise drizzling the sauce better ;).
The two smiling cherry tomatoes are the only cute effect in this bento. If you want to recreate these smiling tomatoes at home, you could have a look at my Elmo tutorial - it's basically the same thing...
Some of the side dishes include tamagoyaki (filled with imitation crab and green onions), a piece of radish with a new carving design (I was getting bored with the usual 'star' design :)), a small portion of crab salad with mayo/wasabi dressing, half a boiled egg and a few bite-sized pieces of kiwi and strawberries.
Some of the side dishes include tamagoyaki (filled with imitation crab and green onions), a piece of radish with a new carving design (I was getting bored with the usual 'star' design :)), a small portion of crab salad with mayo/wasabi dressing, half a boiled egg and a few bite-sized pieces of kiwi and strawberries.
Today is slightly colder and windier than the last few days but I can see and feel that spring is definitely on its way. I am so glad that it doesn't get dark so soon as it used to be some weeks ago, it means a lot to me that I still can enjoy the sunlight when I am home from work :).
Today's character is Snoopy which I am sure most of you are familiar with. How old is Snoopy already? I seem to have known him as long as I can remember...! Oh, I just checked it out, he's from the 1950s, no wonder...;)!
I have to say that Snoopy is one of the easiest characters I have made so far. The three little Snoopies which are made out of goat cheese were cut out manually with a kitchen knife but the facial details were punched out with a nori puncher. They are sitting on top of a slice of German Pumpernickel bread.
The two bigger Snoppies are rice balls (onigiri) which I shaped by hands with a plastic wrap. For these two Snoopies, I had to cut out the facial details manually, since I only have mini nori punchers which are mainly used for decorating quail eggs.
The side dishes include two pieces of chicken nuggets, boiled egg, cherry tomato, a piece of radish and and a piece of strawberry.
I have to say that Snoopy is one of the easiest characters I have made so far. The three little Snoopies which are made out of goat cheese were cut out manually with a kitchen knife but the facial details were punched out with a nori puncher. They are sitting on top of a slice of German Pumpernickel bread.
The two bigger Snoppies are rice balls (onigiri) which I shaped by hands with a plastic wrap. For these two Snoopies, I had to cut out the facial details manually, since I only have mini nori punchers which are mainly used for decorating quail eggs.
The side dishes include two pieces of chicken nuggets, boiled egg, cherry tomato, a piece of radish and and a piece of strawberry.
