Category Archives: bento

Kindergarten bento – Chicken fillet & sautéed spinach (4/Jul/16)

04/07/2016

Menu: Chicken fillet & sautéed spinach, Pumpkin & boiled egg salad, cherry tomato, Nori & rice

Apple mousse & grapes for dessert

 

I had a rough day today with work. But the bento picture brought me smile. Our daughter couldn’t finish today’s main dish, chicken & spinach, but that seems like too small an issue to deal with.

Happy Monday!

kindergarten bento – Fried rice (1/July/16)

01/07/2016

Menu: Fried rice (jako, spring onion & ‘aonori‘ seaweed powder), Pumpkin & sautéed veal slice, Cucumber & edamame salad, Boiled egg, Cherry tomato

Grapes for dessert

  

When there is some leftover rice in the fridge, I tend to make fried rice out of it. Cold leftover rice needs to be reheated prior to being put into a bento box, for good taste and texture. If you don’t heat it up the rice gets crumbly and doesn’t taste so good, hence frying. Today I used leftover jako, semi dried small fish, along with chopped spring onion and aonori, green seaweed powder to give extra flavour.

The pumpkin and veal slice are also leftover from the evening before. I didn’t intend to mix the two, but that was the only way our daughter ate veal for dinner. Hope it’ll work today, too.

Kindergarten bento – Mixed omelet (28/Jun/16)

29/06/2016

Menu: Mixed omelet (sausage, broccoli & cherry tomato), Curry flavored chicken, Sweet potato & cucumber salad, Jako rice, Konbu

Apple mousse for dessert (freshly made but frozen right after. Still frozen in the pic)

 
Omelet (or sort of like Spanish frittata) is not the type of dish we’d typically eat with rice (except for omu-rice), but I ran out of ingredients in the fridge and ended up making it anyway. Actually our girl seemed to have liked it and came back with an empty bento box. Hurray!

Kindergarten bento – Chicken meatballs (26/Jun/16)

27/06/2016

Menu: Chicken meatballs, Corn omelet, Steamed broccoli, Cherry tomato, Rice with yukari furikake

Apple wedges & banana for dessert  
As requested by our little big girl, today’s main dish is meatballs. I used chicken thigh mince, chopped onion, egg, oregano and salt & pepper for the pâté, and soysauce, sake & mirin for the sauce. For bento it’s better to put rather strong seasoning/sauce, since the taste gets blunter when it gets colder, and it is better for preserving the food in the summer heat/humidity. I heard it’s better to put something alkaline in packed lunches for the same reason such as one of the Japanese famous confectionary called umeboshi (highly salty and sour pickled plums), but I just can’t eat them and never served them for our little one… She seems to have the similar taste buds as mine not being able to eat something sour, so it’ll take some effort to have her eat umeboshi…😓

Kindergarten bento – Leftover parade (24/Jun/16)

24/06/2016

Menu: potato with bolognese sauce,  Hijiki, Boiled egg, Spinach & jako (small semi-dried fish) rice, cucumber and cherry tomato 

Watermelon for dessert

 
This morning I prepared our little big girl’s packed lunch, making the most of our leftovers in the fridge. Bolognese sauce from last evening, hijiki from two evenings before (usually it lasts for a good few days given all the seasoning).

I’m sure my mother-in-law in the Netherlands would dismiss this leftover bento immediately with her strong preference to eat up all the food she cooked within the same day: another possible cultural difference in our lifestyle, or maybe just another usual in-law battle 😉

Kindergarten bento – grapes with & without skin (21/Jun/16)

21/06/2016

Menu: Salmon & rice with sesame seeds, Potato/spinach/bacon stir fry, Corn/okura/cucumber salad, steamed broccoli

Grapes with & without skin

 
Our little girl generally doesn’t like eating fruits skins that actually contain the most vitamins. Grapes are no exception, and I kind of spoiled her by peeling the skin off wherever I serve them to her. But today, I mixed in some unpeeled ones as well, hoping she’ll eat them all.

To my surprise, it worked! 🙂