Tag Archives: komatsuna

Kindergarten bento – How many ingredients comparison (29/May, 30/May, 31/May, 1/Jun,4/Jun, 5/Jun)

20/06/2018

29/May – 11 ingredients

Simmered cod, rice, edamame, egg with corns, spinach in sesame sauce, cucumber, carrot, apple, banana

30/May – 11 ingredients

Fried chicken (with corn flower), green beans, broccoli, cherry tomato, goma konbu (sesame & kelp), rice, furikake sprinkle (counted as one), apple, strawberry

31/May – 12 ingredients

Bread (count as one), ham, cucumber, scrambled egg, cheese, Dutch appelstroop, peanut butter, blueberry jam, green beans, apple mousse, mashed potato, cinnamon

1/Jun – 10 ingredients

Chicken soboro, chopped komstsuna, rice, sesame, tomato omelet, broccoli, cucumber with bonito flakes, watermelon

4/Jun – 11 ingredients

Nikudon (pork slices, sliced cabbage, rice), broccoli, cherry tomato, tofu omelet (tofu, egg, ao-nori (seaweed) powder), cherry tomato, apple, banana

5/Jun – 11 ingredients

Tortillas (counted as one), ham, cucumber, cheese, Dutch appelstroop, strawberry jam, banana with Nutella (secret, as it’s not allowed at her school), boiled egg, broccoli, watermelon

Wow, I am quite consistent, with mostly 11 ingredients used every day.

Kindergarten bento – Leftovers (10/May/18)

10/05/2018

Last night for dinner, I cooked beef steak with pan-fried potatoes, carrot & chicken filet soup, stir-fried komatsuna & corns, and boiled broccoli.

The leftover ingredients have been transformed into the bento for my daughter today.

Menu:

  • Rice mixed with boiled chicken filet (from the soup) & green furikake sprinkle (with goma-konbu on the side)
  • Potato salad (from the pan-fried potatoes) with boiled carrot (from the soup)
  • Corn omelet
  • Boiled broccoli
  • Stir-fried komatsuna

Although I was quite happy with the makeover, my daughter claimed yet again that the chicken (well she thought it was fish) was too dry.

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Kindergarten bento – Komatsuna omelet (8/May/18)

10/05/2018

Just so my 5-year-old daughter eats more green, I sometimes put chopped spinach or komatsuna greens in omelet. She usually eats it all, but I was a bit unsure about this time since I might have added too much komatsuna.

When she came home, as expected, there was a few strings of komatsuna left. I just wanted to tease her a bit and asked her why she didn’t finish it all. She frowned at my interrogation, and whether trying to avoid getting into trouble or not, she said, “I don’t like this omelet with spicy green, but I always eat it because you made it with love”.

She left me there speechless.

 

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Kindergarten bento – Where happiness lies (16/Apr/18)

17/04/2018

What makes me happy about making bento is making my daughter happy. This morning she came up to the kitchen counter, stretched herself up and looked over at what was prepared for her for the day, and said “Wow!” with a huge smile on her face in the most genuine manner.

This – is worth more than anything.

Kindergarten bento – Komatsuna (19/Oct/17)

24/10/2017

Komatsuna.  

It looks like spinach, but tastes more like a mixture of garlic chives and Chinese cabbage. It makes a great side dish when simply sautéed with either olive oil or sesame oil, with a pinch of salt & pepper. 

Today I cooked fried rice with chopped Komatsuna along with jako, dried baby sardine. Just stir fry chopped spring onion with a table spoon of sesame oil, add chopped Komatsuna, then rice, and sprinkle a little bit of salt, pepper and konbu dashi powder (or konbu tea powder) to taste. In order to avoid making the fried rice soggy, make sure to stir fry Komatsuna well. Sprinkle some sesame at the end.

Menu: Komatsuna fried rice, Sausage, Boiled green beans, Cucumber sticks, Cherry tomato & broccoli omelet 

Apple bunnies for dessert

Kindergarten bento – Komatsuna rice (12/Dec/16)

12/12/2016

Menu: Komatsuna (boiled, chopped) mixed in rice with sesame sprinkle, Grilled salmon marinated in saikyo-miso, Omelet with ao-mori powder, Cherry tomato

Mandarin mikan for dessert


I heard somewhere that komatsuna can be even more nutritious than spinach. Our daughter always eats it if it’s mixed with something else, so today I mixed it in freshly cooked rice. Sesame sprinkle on top.

Kindergarten bento – New bento box (22/Nov/16)

22/11/2016

Our daughter turned 4 today. As part of her birthday celebration I used a new bento box this morning.  The picture on the lid of the other bento box got washed off half way and was looking ugly, so we replaced it with the one with no picture on the lid from the beginning. Since she still cannot really read, I just put a post-it note cut out in heart shape with the number “4” in gold on it. Hope she’ll get the message☺️

Menu: Grilled Menuki fish marinated in saikyo-miso, Komatsuna omelet, Boiled green beans, Cherry tomato, Rice with black sesame

Kaki (persimmon) for dessert