Week 87

This bento is filled with pistachio nuts in the bottom box.
The top box is filled with a very nice omelet.
Like a Spanish tortilla, this is a richly filled thick omelet.
Normally I use 2 to 3 eggs.  Since I only  had 1 egg, this tortilla turned out a bit different.
And actually, I really liked it!
I had already cut all the tomatoes, onions and basil so I decided to use them all.

So next time: less egg. And it tasted more like a cooked salad. Very yummy!

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 86

This bento box was bought in Sogo in Hong Kong (http://www.sogo.com.hk/cwb/index.php?lang=zh) It is quite big but ideal because of the little cups inside the bento.

This bento is filled with leftovers. Cucumber sticks, egg and beans and chicken liver curry.

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 84

YEAH! ... the sun is shining!!

This bento was made with left overs. On top - lamb in a curry crust. Rocket, mint, basil and Romano leaves salad. Steamed carrots and peanut sauce.

The sun FINALLY arrived! Dinner outside! :-)

This cartoon was whattsapped to me by a good friend. 

The mom says: "Calm down - that is what they call the sun..."


*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week83

This week it is time for a mini hamburger - without the traditional bun!

 These are the ingredients that make up the mini burger:
- a slice of a meatball
- two portobello mushrooms (buns)
- red onion slice
- Dutch farmer's cheese
- fried egg

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 82

This week we started the week with a bento made from left over from Indian take out. Yummy butter chicken, lamb madras, lamb vindaloo with rice and naan bread. The box itself is made for tools but it is actually perfect for bento making!

Liz made for Rose a box with smoked chicken breast, tomatoes, endive and two types of tabbouleh salad. It is best to put it all on a plate and eat it like a salad.

  

Rose made for Liz a very similar bento.
Tomatoes on basil leaves.
A roll as shown in the round photograph on the bottom.
Tomatoes: decapitated and filled with cooked broad bean, half a feta cube and a small basil leave.
On the bottom: Smoked chicken breast topped with feta cubes and broad beans.
It is best to just mix it all on a plate and eat it
as a salad.

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 81

This week we had some healthy bentos and some wine. 

This salad bento is made with chicory and roma salad leaves. Topped with smoked ham and feta cheese cubes. Simple, tasty and healthy.

These glasses of wine are SO BENTO!
Liz found them in France.

This vegetarian bento consists of:
left: spicy red curry with vegetarian meat balls and string beans covered with fried onions.
middle: egg noodles fried with kurkuma or kunjit or yellow root and covered with sesame seeds.
right: Chinese style stir fried white cabbage (soy, nam pla or thai fish sauce, something sweet and garlic.) Also covered with sesame seeds.

Nice and light and very tasty.
My colleague Charly came over to ask: "What smells so good?"

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 80

This bento was made with the "repeat the ingredients principle". Core ingredients:
fresh mint leaves, freshly ground coriander seeds, Spanish olive oil (first pressing, extra virgin), freshly opened walnuts, a very ripe mango and a very ripe mandarin (skin and juice).

French beans and walnuts were steamed. Seasoning: freshly ground coriander seeds.
Tomato sauce: Roma tomatoes, mint, coriander, oil, mandarin juice, mango.
Mango sauce: mango, red chili pepper (with seeds), mint, oil, mandarin juice.
Spaghetti (Barilla) cooked, cooled and stir fried with garlic, nam pla (Thai fish sauce), mint.
Steamed white fish (Tilapia from Ecuador), mango, coriander and grated peel of a mandarin, mint.

Holland has a new king! Our queen Beatrix abdicated April 30th 2013.

We celebrated this event far away from our busy city, in Drenthe. The scenery is stunning and hiking is amazing in that area.

     

Also amazing in that area is the amount of free range chicken farms! So good to see!

These farms put "eggs for sale" alongside the road. We bought some fresh eggs.





Back in the city we did a taste test. Biological free range eggs from the supermarket or the ones we bought alongside the road. Compliments to the supermarkets! They both tasted great!

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 79

This "bento" on a pick-nick table was inspired by - finally arrived - the nice weather.
Not much cooking or putting together, mostly enjoying.

This bento does not look very appetizing in this picture. But it tasted great.

Stir fried white cabbage with Chinese flavorings. Gyros on the side

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 78

 This bento was photographed in two types of light. Which one looks better?

This bento consist of cheese bought on the market (even the lady that sold them didn't know the names. "They taste good? Good! Who cares what they are called?"), Schwarzwälder Schinken or Black Forest ham, Tasty Tom cherry tomatoes and home pickled vegetables.

Vegetables are pickled in different ways, I just experiment with bay leave, juniper berry, mustard seeds, vinegar (all sorts), lemon (all sorts), pepper (all sorts), onion (all sorts), garlic, sugar (all sorts), salt (all sorts), herbs (all sorts) and time. Not thyme, but time, as in months ... in the fridge.

Vegetables used in the pickles: string beans, carrots, radishes, garlic, red onion, onion, cucumber. 

Liz made for Rose some snack mini bentos! <3

(to quote Sheri:  "bento are cute; minis are cute.... but mini bento are irresistibly awesomely superCUTE!!  yeah, I have an obsession." Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherimiya/sets/72157618559419834/)

Arco made a jelly filled with vegetables and egg. How bento?

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 77

Rose made for Liz an spring in a bento box.

Main ingredients used: avocado, mango, romano salad and smoked chicken breast.

On the bottom: guacamole and mango pure.
Guacamole with sour cream, mint, pepper and lemon juice. And avocado off course.
Mango pure with mandarin juice, mint and mango.
Then topped with romano salad leaves, slices of smoked chicken breast and bunnies made of mango and avocado.

And we love nuts, and nuts love us! XD!  Bling!

 

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 76

This bento box has the cutest color. It was found in a shop for fishing gear.

In Holland one has to be creative about finding bento boxes, because most lunch boxes here are either 1) too big or 2) only made for bread. See, the Dutch are big bread and cheese eaters. It is a cliche but it is true. Hence most lunch boxes that can be bought are suited for bread... with cheese.

Ingredients for this bento include chicken filet and Romano salad.
The salad leaves were dressed with a newly discovered (and immediately loved) herb: fresh mint.
The chicken is accompanied by freshly opened walnut pieces.

The chicken breast was cut into cubes and baked with a sauce that would make one feel warm, because the weather in Holland is dreadfully cold right now. The sauce is based on Mexican mole.

A warm feel can also be done with peanut or satay sauce but I wanted to see if the chocolate sauce my brother gave me would also be good to cook with. And it is. :-)

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 75

This two trier bento was made for my friend Simone.

She is vegetarian and I had bought some boiled peanuts. I had NO idea what boiled peanuts were.
I saw a can of them in some "toko" and thought: let's try that! (Curious? Check this link:
http://www.nuts.com/nuts/peanuts/boiled.html)


This bento uses the flavors: carrot, broccoli, orange (or mandarin), egg, tofu, nuts and cheese. 
The different flavors are repeated in different mixtures in the different compounds of the dish.

Peanuts were pealed then mixed with tofu and cooked broccoli stem cut in little cubes.
The mixture was put in a ring. Egg white was poured over it. Then cooked on a low heat with the lid on the pan. The combination is very yummy!

Carrots were roast in the oven. Garlic and spicy red peppers also, but in separate parcels.

Little green "pearls" were cut of the top of the broccoli flower and were put aside. Mandarin parts (!) were peeled (!) and the little compartments ("parcels") of juice and the juice were put aside.

The roasted vegetables were mashed and put through a sieve to create a REALLY smooth mash. Next the nice little pearls and parcels were added. Also the mandarin juice. Finely chopped mint leaves and rock salt were added to really finish the mash.

To fill the bottom trier of the bento box the sponge-like, Spanish omelet with the soft earthy nuts was placed on top of the creamy, fresh, orange mash.

A great combination!

Broccoli parts were steamed (also the cubes that are in the omelet are steamed, to retain color and flavor).

Two types of vegetarian cheese,  walnuts, whole mint leaves and pomegranate seeds.

The left over egg yolks were used to make a mayonnaise. The mayonnaise was flavored with mint, rock salt and mandarin juice.

Other ingredients include: mustard, lemon juice, two types of oil and freshly ground black pepper.






And this is what it looks like on a plate!
(This way the peanuts can be seen).

I loved the combination egg-boiled peanuts with the carrot mash so much, I recreated a lunch for myself the next day.

*** HAVE A  HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 74

This week"s bento consists of spinach ravioli, baked cod topped and a mayonaise-like sauce made with lemon, mint and spicy red peppers.

The cod that was baked on a low heat in real butter was taken out of the pan to rest. Then celery sticks, chili flakes, lemon, good olive oil and lemon juice (the skin was already on the cod) were added to make a sauce.

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***

Week 73

This bento is spring in a box
(while it actually feels like winter outside)
 

This bento is filled with celery sticks.
Then Croatian Ajvar (check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajvar) served in a cute container.
Pickled little onions in the same box on the right top.
On the bottom: hot red pepper - cut in cute sizes - but still hot.
Black sausage (Dutch style) cut into cute leave shapes.
Liver worst (Dutch style) cut into cute leave shapes.
And Goats cheese with fenugreek seeds (also Dutch style) (also cut into cute leave shapes).

This bento is made with leftovers:
Guacamole &
Chicken breast &
Danish carrot and cranberry salad

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY!!! ***

Week 72

It is almost Easter.
With the kids we made Easter bunnies with candy eyes. Some are holding per-boiled eggs.

Don't the candy eyes make bunnies
(and other Easter animals) extra super cute?



Thinking out of the box...
It is not easy when bento becomes second nature.
XD












Two types of dumpling soup. One clear with an egg on top.
One made with broccoli and fish stock. Underneath the dumpling are tiger shrimps.

*** HAVE A HAPPY BENTO DAY !!! ***