Birthday Bento

Today is my dad's birthday. Since I'm a broke student and I suck at buying gifts for people anyway, I decided a couple months ago that I would make my dad a bento lunch for his birthday. However, he went out for lunch today with my mom, so I told him I would make him lunch for tomorrow. He's at my sister's dance recital right now, so I took advantage of his absence by putting together this bento lunch ^.^

I'm actually quite pleased. In my original sketches, I had gyoza and lumpia and fried rice included in the bento box, but we don't have gyoza or lumpia and I don't have all the ingredients needed to make fried rice on me...

I'm so bad at planning for things.

Nevertheless, I hope he likes it ^.^ Happy birthday dad!

How to Make Fruit Blast Popsicles

My marketing class' most recent assignment involves coming up with some sort of healthy food recipe and setting up a booth to conduct a taste test plus a survey for primary research. I was inspired by a recipe I saw on Pinterest to do fruity popsicles because they're hella easy to make, but I changed the recipe a bit because
1) the recipe I was reading was sometimes kinda complicated and some bits seemed unnecessary
2) the recipe didn't make enough servings for the 3 classes coming in to sample the product.

My partner and I decided to put step-by-step instructions (in picture form) of the recipe on our poster, so I decided I might as well upload the pictures onto this blog as well.

Note: This recipe creates SAMPLE-SIZED fruit blast popsicles. If you want to make larger ones, just repeat the same steps, except pour the blended fruit into larger popsicle containers. 

First I gathered some ingredients and materials.

I had NO CLUE how much of what fruit I needed, so I just took a handful of each fruit and blended it (one at a time). If I had leftover fruit, I just drank it since it was pretty much a smoothie. 

I ended up using one kiwi, a handful of strawberries, and a handful of mango chunks. The tray I used is from Dollarama and it has rubber cups, so you can easily pop out whatever it is you're freezing :) I also used toothpicks, a blender, and a spoon. 

I blended about a handful of mango chunks in my (shitty) blender and spooned the smoothie-like mixture into the ice cube tray. 

Then I put the tray into the freezer for half an hour.

 I then blended about a handful of strawberries. Oh yeah, I should mention that it's kind of weird blending PURE strawberries and PURE mango, so I added water to the blender so that the fruit would blend together a lot more smoothly. I think I put in too much water though for the strawberries, because when I drank it afterwards, it tasted more like a juice than a smoothie.

This was also the phase that I added the toothpicks. Because the mango mixture wasn't completely frozen (it had only been in the freezer for half an hour, after all), the toothpicks were able to sink all the way to the bottom and not fall over. The mango mixture was hard enough to hold the toothpicks in, but soft enough to let the sticks sink through.

After another half hour, I filled the rest of the tray with blended kiwi. I then lightly showered a bit of water over top to fill in any gaps in the fruit.

And this is how one of them turned out! I haven't popped the rest out of the tray yet. Disclaimer time! The background was kinda meh so I decided to photoshop this tropical background in. Not sure who the image belongs to, but I got it off Google Images a while ago if that helps (it probably doesn't). My point is I don't own the image. Nor do I claim the rights to it. 

I wish I had put more strawberry in this one. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough room for kiwi. 

How does the popsicle taste? Well. Exactly as one would expect, in my opinion. Like mango, kiwi, and a hint of strawberry. A bigger version would be perfect for the approaching summer months!

The taste-test event is on Friday, so I'll see if I can take pictures to put onto this blog then. Also, I meant to make another hiatus post, but I forgot to. Basically, the reason I haven't been updating this blog lately is because I haven't been making bento, and I haven't been making bento because I'm on a small diet right now. But I'll probably be updating a lot in the summer, especially since I'll be in Japan and I expect to do a lot of bento shopping then ^.^ 

American Bento

This week, I planned on bringing a bento to lunch every day at school.

But I only brought one on Wednesday.

I've honestly been so busy and so stressed out lately, I have no idea how I even managed to get a bento prepped the night before. My main source of stress is generally school, but recently the company  has been the big thing that's getting to me. My eye even started twitching! Well, it feels like it's twitching. But when I look in the mirror, it's not. It's sort of like a fluttering in the eye...my dad said he had something like it before and his optometrist told him it was stress-related.

Anyway, this week's (only) bento was an Americanish one. According to Josh it doesn't count as "real bento," though. Fine. Whatever. I'll do better next week, JOSH. On the topic of Josh, there is also another person in my company who likes bento. Well, I don't think she's ever made one before, but she has a rilakuma bento box. She (Evelyn) told us that she's always wanted to bento, but doesn't know how or something. SO NOW WE CAN ALL BE A "BENTO SQUAD" (according to Josh) ONCE THIS COMPANY IS DONE. (Like actually, it's taken up all of our lunch breaks and weekends, this is insane. I don't even know if I'll be able to do Bento again next week...

However, I would like to make a big thank you to everyone who reads this blog :) I would make bentos regardless of this bentowithbenefits, but you guys motivate me to actually get off the couch and post and try to make better lunches c: Thanks for your support ^.^

Weekly Bento Recap 1

Monday: Salmon Monday

This is the third week I've had salmon in my bento box on a Monday. I am considering dubbing Mondays "Salmon Mondays."

Bottom tier: Lebanese rice. In one of my last posts, I mentioned that I wouldn't be posting again until Wednesday. Well, I ended up posting a couple days later, on the Sunday. I've been dying to make this Lebanese rice recipe I found on Pinterest for a while now, and decided I would bring it to school as part of my Bento lunch. I also ended up writing a recipe review of it ^.^  

Upper Tier: Consists of leftover grilled salmon, strawberries, broccoli and pork shao mai (dumplings). In the past, I've only brought one little slice thingy of salmon, but I found I was still hungry afterwards. So this time, I've packed two into the container. (Well, technically, the salmon is one whole slice, because I have to cut it in half anyway to fit into Chin Po)

I very much enjoyed this Bento. Would definitely make again. 

Tuesday: American Bento

I've mentioned this before, but lately I've been wanting to get another box. I love my panda bento--IT'S SO CUTE <3 BUT trying to fit things into a nice neat circle gets really old really fast. I've kind of wanted some variety. While I was tearing my house apart, looking for my silicone baking cups because someone had moved them (-_-) , I stumbled across one of my mom's (many) tupperwares. And guess what. IT WAS DIVIDED INTO BENTO PORTIONS. There was the 4 parts carb, 2 parts protein, and then the 1 part for fruits and veggies respectively. 

I was at Dollarama the other day, and I saw a bunch of toothpicks for sale with little images attached to the ends. I've always wanted to get those toothpicks with the little plastic panda heads on the end ^.^ But the paper chicks and eggs were also cute (also in the spirit of Easter), so I decided to get them. 

(Left to right): Flower ham  (without the radish), 2 hotdogs (cut to fit), 2 buns, broccoli, and strawberries.

This should have been better than it was. Like, theoretically, this meal is delicious. I love hotdogs; I love strawberries. I can tolerate broccoli. But you know how sometimes people who you're eating with/certain situations can spoil a meal? Yeah. That happened. Also, I thought I was okay with broccoli since I ate it on Monday and was perfectly fine with it, but I didn't finish them all on Tuesday. Maybe because of the vaguely-aforementioned lunch circumstance? The pink container contains ketchup (I packed a knife to spreed onto the hotdogs), and the green container contains cheese for the broccoli (which melted in the caf microwave to the point of not even existing anymore). 

Wednesday: "Soup" Dawg (haha im so funny) 

This is what I had for lunch today. It's also my last bento for the week. There's no school on Friday, and I typically go out for lunch every Thursday (or hit the caf). 

Lower tier: Pancit! It's a Filipino dish my mom makes once in a while. I don't think this is a good picture of pancit because it's supposed to have canton noodles (She forgot to put them in) and have a bucket load of vegetables and shrimp I won't eat, and waaaay more chicken. But when I was scooping this into the container, I was trying my hardest to avoid all the vegetables (while also trying to get carrots and parsnips, because those are okay and add texture) and as a result got mostly noodles. Just Pinterest pancit and a lot more images (of better quality) will pop up ^.^

Upper tier: M&M Meat Shop's spicy breaded chicken breast cut into two. Strawberries, and one shao mai. 

Soup: Lipton noodle soup. I made it for the first time the night before, but I think I put too much water in. My mom makes it better than I do. The soup wasn't as good as I thought it would be and as a result, it made an awesome meal (because the two tiers were DELICIOUS) kind of okay. It also didn't help that my friend spilled some of the soup onto her new (white) shoes. I didn't end up finishing it. If I were to bring soup again, it would probably be wedding soup (brought it last week and I only have good things to say about it). I would post a picture, but the lighting is really bad and it doesn't look very appetizing haha. Maybe next time.

Thanks so much for reading this post! Next week, I'll also only be posting three bento lunches (since Monday is a holiday and Thursdays are not bento days). Also, remember that person from my company in marketing class who I mentioned two posts ago and is considering getting into Bento? Well, yesterday he bought a Bento box off ebay! I'm so happy! My dream of having a bento buddy might become a thing ^.^

Lebanese Rice Recipe Review

This is the Lebanese rice recipe I used. 

Bento With Benefits Returns

Hey guys!

I'm so sorry I haven't been updating lately.

Although, despite not updating this blog, I have still been making Bento. Well, occasionally. For a couple more days after my last post, I was hard-core dedicated to this whole Bento thing. And then afterwards, I kind of had a mini falling out with myself and making these kinds of lunches. But then for all of last week, I've been totally all over this ^.^

When life is out of control, there is satisfaction in being on top of your lunch. I was thinking of just continuing with making my lunch and not posting pictures onto this blog or anything, but a couple of people have told me that I should start updating my blog again and have been really encouraging about it. So I've decided to get back into the swing of things! Also, blogging is a lot of fun. However, instead of posting new pictures every day, I'll most likely only post at the end of the week (due to general school busyness).

When I say busyness, I mean super busyness. On top of school that's already jam-packed with Lit summatives, overdue marketing assignments, Math homework, and trying to squeeze in time for my own hobbies, I've started a REAL company at school. It's super fun! But also super stressful. There are 12 employees and it is honestly a full-time job. Great experience, but it's time-sucking. HOWEVER I have gotten to meet tons of new and awesome people! One person I would like to highlight is someone named Josh who might be getting into bento blogging soon. That would make me so happy! We would be like bento-blog buddies, as cheesy as that sounds :D

Anyway. This post feels kind of naked without pictures, so here is a picture I took a while ago (like when I first started blogging) but never posted.

Lower Tier

 Puto/Filipino rice cakes. I had to cut them in half though to get them all to fit. Chin Po is a really small bento box :/ I wonder if they're all like this? I'll most likely be getting a new box some time in April, so hopefully I'll find out then :)

Upper Tier

Once again, there are four components in this tier. Spinach, red grapes, perogies (I forget what kind) and lumpia. Honestly, I made this lunch so long ago, I can't remember enough to comment on anything. 

So yes, I'm super excited to start updating this blog again. Bento is honestly so much fun and there's such a sense-of-accomplishment you get when you finish making your lunches. If you've ever thought about making bento but are not 100% sure if you're down with trying it out, my advice to you is to DO IT!!! :)

The Wonderful Misadventures of an Almost-Hinomaru Bento

I was looking forward to eating this bento lunch today, but I was disappointed with the results. But before I go into that, a brief overview of what was in each tier:

Lower Tier

 Our family had some left over Filipino rice cakes (called puto), so I had the vision of going hinomaru style and making the bottom tier look like the Japanese flag (hinomaru is the name of the Japanese flag). Unfortunately, there were no red putos, so I chose to use purple. Out of blue, yellow, and white, purple was the closest colour to red. I was debating whether or not to add soy sauce to the rice, but I figured naw. I didn't want the soy sauce getting on the puto by accident because that would make it taste...well, gross. It's supposed to be sweet and delicious, not...soy-saucy ew. I don't have any of those mini sauce bottles a lot of bento users seemed to have so yeah, soy sauce was definitely out of the question. 

When I opened my lunch, my friend told me that the purple rice cake looked like a scoop of ice cream in the middle of the rice. I kind of have to agree, to be honest. I don't think it looks very appetizing in the picture, and in real life, I don't think purple-dyed foods look very appetizing in general. But puto is absolutely DELICIOUS! Man, I haven't had these babies since the last time I was in the Philippines back in 2009. In fact, I had completely forgotten all about them until a family friend came over and delivered a bunch. Bless her.

Upper Tier

There are four components in the top tier: One strawberry (maaan I so thought I'd be able to fit more!), a couple grapes inside a green silicone baking cup (not a total fan of the shade, I forget why I chose green, to be honest), hotdog eggrolls (which are freaking delicious. The reason I added the strawberry is because the colours red and yellow...well, they look so good together), and some unknown thing. My sister calls it a stove-topper. ...I asked her why she calls it that, and she said she doesn't know why. Go figure. All I know is that it comes from the oriental party pack from M&M and is freaking GREAT. Like, I wish I had packed more--but we only had one left. Cries. Also, I was running out of space. Anyway, that's why if you read the tags at the bottom of this post, you may notice ??? among the other list of foods from this particular bento lunch. Well, the question marks are supposed to represent the mysterious "stove-topper." 

General Thoughts 

Okay. So as I already mentioned, this meal was not on-par. The fruits were great. The "stove-topper" was awesome. The hotdog eggrolls were on-point. So pretty much everything in the top tier was wonderful. The problem was with the bottom tier. 

The first problem was that the puto got squished. I hadn't dug a deep enough hole in the middle of the rice, so it was sticking out a lot when I put the top tier over it. Fine. Whatever. I can deal with squished rice cake. The problem begins when you try to dig the rice cake out at school and you end up getting bits of purple puto everywhere! Okay, well...not everywhere. The shredded bits were kind of confined to one portion of the box. But more on that in a sec.

I always eat steamed rice with soy sauce. Except, the thing is, I never realized that before. I assumed that I would enjoy plain white rice simply because...well, rice is rice. Rice is life. I've grown up eating it with soy sauce peppered here and there, and I guess I never realized how much of an impact soy sauce has really had on my life. So in short, today I learned that I HATE plain white rice. 

My friend noticed (different friend than the one previously mentioned) my discomfort and she stated that she also hates white rice by itself and made the lovely suggestion that I should mix my hotdog eggrolls in with the rice. I was kind of looking forward to eating the rolls by themselves, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. Anyway, once I combined the two foods, it tasted GREAT. 

But just when I thought that I was safe...my taste buds were greeted by something horrid. Okay, so picture this: Chewing rice, hotdogs wrapped in egg and cheese, everything's going fine. You know the general flavour in your mouth, right? Okay. Good. Now add SWEET RICEY CAKE FLAVOUR. NO. THAT FLAVOUR SHOULD NOT BE THERE. THAT NEEDS TO STAY THE FUCK OUT. YOU CANNOT MIX DESSERT WITH MEAL. NO. 

Okay, I know it might seem like I'm over-reacting but like...I don't know...

 Food is quite essential to my happiness (and overall health and bodily functions). 

Will I be making this bento again? The top tier for sure. But the bottom tier? Not. A. Chance. It would have to be modified. First, I would dig a deeper hole so the rice cake doesn't get squished as much. Then I would buy a little bottle for sauces (and fill it with soy sauce) and pack it with my bento lunch. And finally, if I were to pack this with puto again, I would confine the rice cake to a silicon baking cup so that it will be easier to remove from the rice SO THAT LITTLE PURPLE BITS DON'T GO AROUND IMPREGNATING THE RICE WITH THEIR FLAVOUR, AS IF THEY'RE ATTEMPTING TO BUILD NEW COLONIES OR SOMETHING. Oh, and if circumstances were really ideal, I would use a red rice cake instead of a purple one ^.^