Leftovers can be yummy

One thing I notice when visiting various forums is that A LOT of adults waste food because they refuse to touch leftovers. 

Well, today’s bento is constructed from the FINAL odds and ends in my fridge, and I hope you'll agree that despite being a collection of leftovers, it still looks pretty yummy:

•    Chopped leftover chicken in hoisin sauce
• Chopped leftover tofu puffs in soy
• Leftover pink rice topped with carrot furikake
• Steamed savoy cabbage
• Mushrooms marinated in hoisin sauce

The only things I had to prepare from scratch were the steamed cabbage and the mushrooms. The rest was all ready and waiting. 

To make this totally vegetarian, all you would have to do is leave out the chicken and toss the mushrooms with the tofu.

Party girl bento

Today’s bento only happened because I did all my cooking for the week yesterday afternoon. I made:

• A batch of carrot and sesame furikake
• A batch of my spicy beetroot salad (raw grated beetroot tossed with sesame seeds, chilli flakes, honey and rice vinegar)
• Tamagoyaki for this morning
• Boiled some eggs for later in the week

I also remembered to take a portion of rice out of the freezer and the end result was that despite getting to bed after 3am, I was still able to pack a bento because all I had to do was pan-fry a burger and arrange everything in my box.

Not too shabby, eh?

Quickly, quickly

I woke up late today, so today’s bento isn’t particularly imaginative. In fact, it’s three rather hastily composed columns of leftovers from earlier in the week, and took me a total of two minutes. Spend five and you’d get the columns straight!

L-R:

• Sushi rice
• Stir-fried chard with soy and sesame
• Chick pea stew

This post is useless without photos

I wasn’t organised enough to photograph today’s bento, but it tasted so nice I thought I would document it. 

• As usual, 100g (cooked weight) brown rice
• Pea shoots with ginger: This si so easy and so delicious! I made a few days’ worth by heating 1tsp of olive oil and 1tsp of sesame oil and adding two crushed garlic cloves, half a finely chopped onion and a chunk of ginger, also finely chopped. Once these ingredients had softened, I added a bag of fresh pea shoots and cooked until wilted. The bottom of my bento was 50/50 rice and pea shoots.
• Easy carrot salad: grate carrot, drizzle with soy
• Lazy cucumber salad: slice cucumber, drizzle with rice vinegar. For a really flavoursome experience, you could marinate the cucumber overnight
• For protein: two hard boiled eggs

Quick, easy, lazy, but one of the nicest bentos I’ve ever made. I should be home earlier tonight, so tomorrow’s effort will be a bit more impressive…

Back to bento

I haven't been doing bentos lately as the dark mornings have made it increasingly hard for me to wake up early enough. But I got such lovely things in this week's veg box that I was eager to use them.

Today’s bento is fairly simple – I was pressed for time. Still, I think it looks pretty!

Part 1, easy: brown rice boiled and then doused with rice seasoning

Part 2, easy; boiled egg, sliced in half and decorated with nori pieces

Part 3:  Four of my colourful chard leaves and chopped the stalks. I then softened them in a few tablespoons of water with onion, slices garlic, salt and pepper. This works just as well as frying, but without the fat. At the end, I stirred in a teaspoon of butter – not enough to soften the veg or push up the calories, but enough to add a great flavour.

End result: yummy.