Something new in my bento today in the form of smoked chicken - tasty. I also had some salad (dressing in the chick), the last of the yummy dip,some breadsticks, some grapes & an apple, some chocolate pudding & a chocolate bar. Some of it will be my afternoon snack. I'll def be getting the smoked chicken again - but I didn't need quite so much.
This is my first go at onigiri, and I used the instructions from just hungry http://www.justhungry.com/2007/01/onigiri_omusubi_revisited_an_e.html - they each have a stuffed olive at the centre. The hard boiled egg halves are sprinkled with togarashi seasoning and the panda has more of that yummy dip in. The chick has lemon & mustard seed dressing in for the salad & I have some paprika corn chips for the dip. Grapes & an apple are my healthy bits and a chocolate pudding and muffin are my naughty bits.
Well I said I was going to glam up my bentos and I reckon today I have. Very tasty with a nice variety of flavours. In the bento box I have left over bacon wrapped faggots from last nights dinner (not uber glam but you can't disagree with double pork), some chargrilled Mediterranean veg (from the deli), some French breakfast (?) radishes & some carrot & pumpkin dip (in the panda). The dip is from waitrose & is MUCH nicer than it sounds. It's not often you find a nice gf & df dip. I also have some stuffed olives, some breadsticks (gluten free of course) an apple (which I didn't eat of course) and a chocolate bar. All of frys 'cream' bars are dairy free - my favourite is the orange though I have a soft spot for the mint too!
I make tastier looking lunches at home than I do bentos - I need to up my game!
Got some yummy things coming in my ocado order (hopefully, they're not very reliable) Sunday so hopefully that'll mean better bento's next week!
Bit of a poor effort today - my bento's need a glam injection! I over cooked the rice so it was a bit of a mush - overdid the water in the rice cooker in my sleepy haze I think! I have a coop chilli beef burger (bit disappointing) and some left over belly pork from last night's dinner (not disappointing -pork rarely is). On the healthy side I had some grapes too which I'd eaten by the time I'd taken this pic! The pumpkin seeds I keep putting in but not eating! The apple I didn't eat of course - the chocolate pudding pot I did! There's mayo in the little pig for me to dip the burger bits in.
Or is it just my tea? I'm on a late shift again today :-(.
I didn't have a tub big enough again for my chicken, bacon & avocado salad (well I did but it was in the freezer full of ice nohm - see here http://clairesspecialkitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/chocolate-cupboard-stuff-ice-nohm.html?m=1) so I made up the salad in a plastic bowl keeping the salad dressing (in the pig) and croutons seperate so everything stayed as it should be and cling filmed it. I've also got a vanilla pudding, soy sauce roasted pumpkin seeds, some Sharon fruit & some dark chocolate Brazil nuts. There is of course an apple in my bag but I think we all know I won't eat it!
I didn't have a tub big enough to put the whole salad in so I transported it in its constituent parts and constructed it in situe. The salad was chicken, bacon & avocado and had a lemon & mustard seed salad dressing and some gluten free croutons. The snacks you can see for yourselves! I gave my colleague a bit of the avocado to try coz she'd never had it. She's in her forties but clearly grew up in 1950 or something! I poached the chicken but wasn't very impressed; think I'll stick to baking it.
http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/?m=0
A lunch blog blogging about a lunch blog seems like inception style blogging but this has been my favourite blog for a while.
In case you're not one of the TWO MILLION hits which include celeb chefs Jamie Oliver & Nick Nairn, "Veg" rates her school lunch everyday whilst raising money for http://www.marysmeals.org.uk/ who raise money for the hungry world wide. People all over the world have been sharing their school lunches with her too. Something that should be applauded right? Well not according to Argyll & Bute council who have banned her from taking pics of her school lunches! If they're so ashamed of their school lunches they should do something about them not silence a brilliant little girl who has been using her popularity to do some good.
Argyll and Bute council are on twitter by the way @argyllandbute, just saying...
Sensibly (and uncharacteristically) I got everything out & took a pic before I started eating! The noodle salad was a bit 'what's left in the fridge' and had left over belly pork, smoked duck, cucumber, red pepper & fennel in. The little chick pot has some extra ginger & sesame dressing in incase the noodles soaked it all up. There is also a hard boiled egg with some mayo (in the little pig), some mango, a chocolate pudding pot, a chocolate & date flapjack, some sweet & salty popcorn and some gluten free pretzels. Oh and an apple. I admittedly rarely eat the apple but putting it in makes me feel healthier!
I have lots of snacks coz I don't finish til ten and snacks are needed on the evening shift!
I can't keep thinking up titles so I'm just gonna date them!
Today's is rather good I think with smoked duck (from ocado) nigiri*, tamagoyaki (which I burnt a bit - the recipe I use is here at just hungry; http://www.justhungry.com/tamagoyaki), a selection of crunchy veg (cucumber, radish & red pepper) with some dill pickles, a chocolate pudding pot and some sweet & salty popcorn. Oh and an apple. Rather a feast! It is raining a LOT here and I'm glad I work inside, and can sit at a desk feasting.
*i have a wee plastic mould for making nigiri & one for maki - they don't take much skill if I'm honest. I'll try to remember to take pics when I'm making it. You can get them off eBay for a few quid & they make sushi easy!
This isn't a bento. I mean it's lunch in a box but it's not a bento. It's a salad in a box I bought from a sandwich shop in the high street & it wasn't very good. It was chicken, bacon & avocado apparently but was actually very salty mashed chicken in mayo with two bits of bacon & no sign of avocado. I also had an allergic reaction to it - god knows what to. But I digress - I am attempting to learn how to eat with chopsticks (i know, at my age?) so I ate it with my training chopsticks. Not sure they are teaching me anything but I've given myself a gold star anyway.
Fitting that the first bento on this blog is in a brand new bento box!
When the box first came (courtesy of eBay, with a free cold bag) I thought it would be too small for my appetite but even today's badly packed (and rather end-of-the-week) bento was enough for lunch.
In the little pot are some cherry tomatoes & radishes then in the two layers of the bento box are sushi rice (with sushi vinegar), Hawaiian teriyaki chicken, hard boiled egg & some cornichons. Not my most creative bento but it's Friday so a using-things-up day. There's also a pot of vanilla pudding there (ecomil - made from almonds!). Oh I had a sneaky little flapjack for later too.
Claire's Special Kitchen was getting a bit bogged down in bentos instead of recipes so bento's will now be blogged here. Blogger won't let me move the old ones but you can pop over there to check out them out.here are some pics of some old ones to give you a taster (my phones always full of old pics).
