Today’s menu:
Tricolor Donburi (“soboro” chicken crumble/scrambled egg/green beans)
Miso soup (with cabbage, carrot, spring onion & potato)
Pumpkin in dashi broth
Okra/cucumber/Wakame seaweed in vinegar sauce
Click here for chicken soboro recipe
Gulp! Someone is missing out something delicious tonight.
Simmered sword fish (here is the recipe), Tomato omelet, Grilled pumpkin, Boiled broccoli
Nashi pear & Kiwi for dessert 
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I’ve been told a few times what colourful bento I make. Looking at other people’s arty and beautiful bento images via Instagram or Pinterest, they may be right, the bento I make are quite lively and bright compared to theirs.
But it’s almost automatic for me. For me the colour palette in my daughter’s bento is totally normal. It’s how my mum used to make bento for me. And it always consists of three main colours: red, green and yellow. Maybe it’s time for me to explore a bit more, incorporating ingredients with more complex or subtle colours, so that I can potentially teach my daughter about the world of Wabi Sabi (and I have to learn it first).
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Monday morning after a busy, eventful weekend.
There’s nothing else more useful than the frozen “torisoboro“, the chicken crumble, to prepare a quick bento for your little one.
For recipe, click here.
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Here is the list of ingredients in the bento today, not including the seasonings such as salt, soy sauce, etc.
11 ingredients in total, with a good variety of veggies. Protein from chicken, egg and broad beans, carbo from rice, and vitamins from fruits. Iron from broccoli. I guess it’s not too bad from a nutrition point of view.
In Japan, it is said that “toshi-no-se,” the year-end, is bound to be busy, as everyone starts acting somehow anxious to finish off things prior to the fresh start of the new year. As mentioned before, the new year is a big deal in this country, and we do everything to make sure the new year to be quiet and special.
This year was no exception for me also, and I was running around like a headless chicken without any time to stop and take a big breath… until we left for our Christmas holidays in the Netherlands to visit my husband’s family. Hesitantly we dropped unfinished errands, hurriedly packed our suitcases, left beautiful & sunny Tokyo, and arrived in the equally beautiful, but quite dark Netherlands yesterday. It is Christmas Eve here in the Netherlands, and things already seemed to have slowed down, and people are starting to relax for the festivity to begin. The sense of rush I was feeling in Japan is nowhere to be seen here. It’s an interesting realisation what a huge difference there is depending on which culture you’re in.
Looking back at the bento photos I didn’t have a chance to upload before our departure, I can vaguely remember how I managed all these bento making during my busy schedule. It’ll resume in the new year, but for now I’m relieved that I won’t have to do it for the next two weeks.
Happy Holidays!
15/Dec/17 – Grilled cod in saikyo-miso
18/Dec/17 – Simmered sword fish
19/Dec/17 – Nikudon-don
20/Dec/17 – Macaroni genovese 
22/Dec/17 – Chicken soboro 
Last night I realised there was a pack of frozen sword fish filets in the freezer that I stored a couple of weeks ago. I decided to use it for my daughter’s bento in the morning, so I moved it to the fridge drawer so that it’ll get defrosted overnight.
In the morning I simmered the filets in the leftover noodle dip sauce (I added sugar to thicken it).
My freezer is getting empty. I’d better drag my husband out to visit a supermarket in the weekend!
Menu: Simmered sword fish, Simmered pumpkin, Spinach omelet, Steamed broccoli, Steamed carrot, Rice
Apple mousse & raisins with a sprinkle of cinnamon for dessert
Lately, I’ve been getting a lot more translation assignments. It’s a client driven business, so it’s highly due date sensitive. Because of that, I couldn’t post any of the bento pics last week, working my head off to meet the deadline.
I work freelance from home, primarily because I want to be flexible enough to have ample time with my daughter. She’s the only child, and I don’t want to miss a thing and don’t want to regret at a later stage of my life that I should’ve spent more time with her when it’s too late.
Having said that, I also think having a career is very important for one’s life. It is a great part of who you are, and gives you confidence as well as an independent mindset. Doing freelance was the choice I made, so that I can manage to have both.
The downside is I don’t get paid so well. The rate of freelance translation projects is not something you can brag about. But I take pride in doing this job. I hope one day my little girl will look back at this period of her life and remember her happy time she spent with her mummy, who always gazes at her computer, typing and mumbling something weird.
Tuesday 7/Nov – Bi-color bento with grilled salmon flake & scrambled egg
Wednesday 8/Nov – Onigiri for 2 (the school closed before lunch and it was raining outside, so we had a indoor picnic on the living room floor at our apartment)
Thursday 9/Nov – “Omuraisu” Omelet rice bento
Friday 10/Nov – Grilled Spanish mackerel bento
Menu: Grilled cod marinated in saikyo-miso, Boiled egg, Steamed pumpkin, Cucumber & Steamed cabbage salad, Goma-konbu
Kiwi & banana for dessert
SMALL TOKYO KITCHEN 