Chicken Apple Sliders

7 Mar

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I have a bunch of bento photos ready to upload, but just haven’t had a chance. Sorry for the delay and blog posting absence.

This bento was inspired by a recipe from Jolene’s “What’s Cooking Chicago” blog. I was looking for easy freezer friendly recipes and found a few, but just made them this week without preparing them for the freezer.

This bento has a chicken and apple cheese burger. You can’t really see it as it’s hidden in the bun. But quite frankly, it’s kinda bland looking that I don’t think it would look as appetizing in a picture. The happy mochi was made by Ms. Little Bubbles and in celebration of Girl’s Day. It was so super easy to make! I think 10 minutes total in the microwave!

I hope everyone is doing well and I hope to get back into bento making once work slows down.

Happy March everyone! Be happy!!!!

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Tuna Casserole Bento

23 Feb

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This past Sunday I channeled my super mom gene and prepared three dinner meals in anticipation of a busy week. The second meal in the batch was a tuna casserole. When I made it on Sunday, it was creamy and smelled so delicious! But then I put it in the refrigerator with a plan on warming it up the next day. Sadly the noodles soaked up all the creaminess. However, I still had the kids eat it and made a bento out of it.

This bento was a fast and dirty one. I accidentally woke up late, and had to throw this bento together. I tried to cover all my food groups, but probably went heavy on the starch and fruits. 🙂 that’s okay, Ms. Little Bubbles ate most if it!

Happy Valentines Day Cards

18 Feb

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I know these aren’t bento related but I wanted to share my daughter’s valentines day cards for her friends. We had a busy weekend planned last week, but carved out an hour for her to make these cards. For the most part, she traced and cut the cards herself. But she absolutely wrote each one herself. I’m not sure if she 100% got what it means (write vs right) but she was so excited to share them with her friends. Personally, I’m happy we found a way to give a Valentines without candy.

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Another Hello Kitty Bento

14 Feb

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Wow, I know, it’s been awhile since I posted a bento.  I’ve been making bentos and have been taking photos of them, but haven’t been able to get to the posting part.  😦  I’m sorry!  As a working mom, life gets crazy.  My “busy” period at work is January – February.  It coincides with flu season too, so it always makes for an interesting time of the year.  A few weeks ago, I caught a bug that knocked me out!  Man, my bones hurt.  But thankfully that flu is done and I’m back to normal, just in time for busy, busy days.

This bento was made last week, or the week before (I’m sorry, I can’t remember).  I swore that I would make a fast bento, but it looked so sad and I felt bad that I wasn’t making “cute” bentos for Ms. Little Bubbles.  So I threw in a Hello Kitty.

Again, a fast and speedy bento.  I hope to catch up with the photos I have on my phone and I have a few recipes that I want to share too.  🙂

Take care everyone and Happy Valentine’s Day.  May your day and YEAR be blessed with love.

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“HaHaHa” Onigiri and Shoyu Hot Dogs

12 Jan

Happy Hot Dogs

Looking at this bento I get really happy.  I honestly think it’s just because of the fabric I used for the picture.  The bento is pretty simple – shoyu hot dogs, happy onigiri’s, carrots, beans and cantaloupe.  Nothing fancy, and pretty easy to make in the morning.  But the happy fabric, just makes you smile.  LOL.  The fabric is actually an apron that my aunt made for me.  She made Ms. Little Bubbles and Ms. Little Bubbles’ doll matching aprons too.  We have a complete family of aprons.  Soooo cute!

To make the hot dogs, I quickly tossed them in a pan with a splash of shoyu (soy sauce) and mirin (sweet cooking rice wine). Super simple and super easy.

Contents:  shoyu sugar hot dogs, happy onigiri’s, carrots, beans and cantaloupe

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Chicken Parmesan MEATLOAF! Oh… so… good!

11 Jan

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf

Okay, you might just think I’m crazy, but this is what we had for dinner last night and it was so good.  I found this recipe on “What’s Cooking Chicago” blog.  I had to think twice about this recipe, but it was really good.  You have to check out Joelen’s blog and this wonderful recipe.  Honestly, it’s delicious.  I added homemade mashed sweet potato and I can’t tell you how much my family loved this dinner.  Even my Little Sweet Pea loved it.  🙂

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf (Recipe by What’s Cookin’ Chicago)

  • 1 lb ground chicken (ground turkey can be substituted)
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 1 small onion, grated
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup pasta sauce (homemade or store bought)
  • 1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese blend
  • minced parsley for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a loaf pan with cooking spray, set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the ground chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, thyme, oregano, basil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese. To not over handle the mixture otherwise it will get tough. Place the mixture in the greased loaf pan and form into a loaf. Top the meatloaf with pasta sauce.

Place filled loaf pan on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and sprinkle the top with the remaining shredded cheese. Place the meatloaf back in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted.

Remove the meatloaf from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving/slicing. Garnish with parsley if desired.

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Soup Bento Bowl Box with Nishime

4 Jan

Nishime Bento

Happy New Year Everyone!  Wow, I can’t even believe it’s 2012.  My goodness…. my mom use to say that as an adult, time flies and she is right.  My daughter will say time takes forever, but seeing how fast she has grown up makes me sad.  She will no longer be Ms. “Little” Bubbles in a few years.

As we do every year, my husband made nishime for the new year.  Growing up, this was a dish my grandma made and although I’m 100% positive that it was delicious, I didn’t eat it.  (Everything my Grandma made was GOOD!)  As a kid, I didn’t like Japanese food.  Kinda strange, considering it is my favorite type of food now.  In fact, in 2nd grade, my mom took me on a two week trip to Japan and I didn’t eat during the entire trip because they didn’t serve cheese burgers!  I think my mom says I only ate rice for two weeks.  However, I do remember that when we drove into Tokyo, the tour bus passed by McDonald’s and every person on the bus tried to remember where the McDonald’s was and immediately rushed to it during our stop. I distinctly remember eating a lot of cheese burgers that night.

Times have changed and I definitely love Japanese food now, especially nishime. For Ms. Little Bubbles bento, I packed her red bean rice and nishime. Although, you cannot see the nishime as it is behind the green divider and apples. However, the highlight of this lunch is not the nishime (surprisingly!).  Rather, it is the container.  It is supposed to be a soup container, but I think it works without soup too.  Don’t you think it is just the cutest?  Mr. LoveInABento got us matching soup bento boxes.  🙂

Soup Bento Boxes

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Cereal Almond Snack Recipe (sinfully delicious!)

22 Dec

Cereal "Almond" Snack

With Ms. Little Bubbles on winter break, I’m taking a break from bento making and have shifted focus to simple and easy baking.  🙂  Ms. Little Bubbles has a few friends in the neighborhood and I wanted to make them a tasty treat.  My sister-in-law raved about the “Cereal Almond Snack” that our aunt made for her.  Unfortunately, I’m allergic to almonds and my version turned into “Cereal, Cereal and More Cereal Snack”.  It’s a nice change up from the typical Chex Mix cereal snack.  Here’s my version of cereal snack goodness (and it’s addictively good!)

Cereal (Almond) Snack

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Cherrios Cereal
  • 2 cup Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal
  • 2 cups Rice Krispie Cereal (I added this to the original recipe)
  • 2 cups oats
  • 1 cup sliced almonds (I took this out due to my allergy)
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup real maple or maple-flavored syrup

Directions

  • Heat oven to 300 F. Line one large (17×14 inch) cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, mix all the cereal, oats and almonds together. Set aside.
  • In a 1-quart saucepan, heat butter, brown sugar and syrup over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted.  Pour over the cereal mixture and stir until well coated.  Spread the mixture evenly on the foil lined cookie sheet with a rubber spatula until it’s about 1/2 inch thick.
  • Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the almonds are golden brown.  Cool completely (about 15 minutes).  Break into pieces with fingers and store tightly in a covered container.

Simple Gifts for the Neighborhood Kids

 

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Furikake Salmon Recipe as a Holiday Gift

19 Dec

Furikake Gifts

Every year I try to find a nice simple gift for my co-workers. This year I decided to give a bottle of furikake along with a salmon furikake recipe.  As I handed out the gifts, I realized that I worked with many people that didn’t know what furikake was and I had to explain the beauty of this little bottle.  And then I realized I didn’t really know how to explain what was in furikake, and why it’s a staple in my house.  LOL.  By the end, I was calling it “Japanese Seasoning”.  Which, I suppose, isn’t that wrong.

Below is the recipe I gave with the bottles of furikake:

Salmon Furikake Recipe

BTW, I think I took ALL the bottles of fuikake from the store.  LOL.  On a completely random note, at my work holiday party, my boss wanted to do something different and hired a paella caterer to come on location to make a paella for ~200 people.  About 45 minutes into making the paella, IT FELL OVER!!!!  With no back up paella maker/food, we ended up with pizza!  🙂

Spam Musubi Bento

17 Dec

Spam Musubi

On Wednesday, Ms. Little Bubbles went on a field trip with her class to see a Christmas play.  As parents, we are instructed to send our children to school with brown bag lunches (meaning, it can easily be thrown away after the kids eat their lunches).  In the past, I’ve put her lunch in plastic take out containers and put it in a brown paper bag.  But, for some reason the containers still came home.  :-/  So, this time I thought I’d make her a simple spam musubi with eggs and use an onigiri wrapper to jazz it up.  The onigiri wrapper is cute because it features an animal, and comes with cute animal ears.  🙂

Contents: Spam musubi (the bag also included applesauce and crackers, but I didn’t take a picture of that.)

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