All in Good Food

Ok now it’s time for lunch. Again I kept it simple. I decided to try out the bamboo steamer I purchased from j-list and it worked out perfect. As you can see I made matching bentos for my daughter and I. These bentos were as purchased from j-list. They are not expensive and not as sturdy as my others but they work.

Now for the contents of the bentos. Both bentos are exactly the same. The main part contains steamed broccoli and steamed onigiri wrapped with chicken. I had rice left over from this morning so I made more onigiri but I wanted something different so I wrapped them in thin slices of chicken and steamed them, then I brushed on a little soy sauce.

The second compartment contains a wedge of laughing cow cheese, red and white grapes and homemade wheat crackers. No I have not found a recipe for making homemade wheat crackers yet but I was able to do the next best thing in a pinch. I had some whole wheat flatbread wraps in my fridge. Using my medium size square cutter I cut out squares from it. I placed them on my griddle with no oil or butter just dry and let them toast until crisp. Then I brushed on a little butter lightly salted them and there you go.

This lunch was very filling and tasted wonderful.

So until the next bento, Itadaki masu!

Hi everyone I thought I would change things up a bit and do another breakfast bento. As we all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day so I wanted to share this one with you. As you all know I like to keep thing very simple in my bentos and this one is no exception. For this one I pulled out one of my sandwich boxes as I did with my breakfast bento before. I feel you don’t need a lot for breakfast just the right foods will do. I like to have high protein foods in my breakfast to help wake up my brain. So here we go.

This bento consists of simple grilled chicken that has been lightly seasoned with pepper and seasoning salt, red grapes, trail mix and mini yaki onigiri (my way).

You may be asking what I mean by yaki onigiri my way. Well I took my rice and mixed in a little butter (the way I have eaten since I was a kid), a little soy sauce and pepper. Then I micro scramble two eggs and mixed it in. Then I shaped them with my cookie cutters (these are the only cutters I have in my bento stash), place them on the griddle. I fried them on the top flipped them and fried the bottom. Then I brushed on a little soy sauce and flipped them again then brushed on a little soy sauce on the other side. Let it grill for about 1 minute then removed them.

These yaki onigiri are bite size and I love them. They are the perfect size for my smaller bentos. I also have larger cutters that I use for my larger bentos.

This bento was a great pick me up this morning.

So until my next bento, Itadaki masu!

I love bacon I have to say that up front. Anytime I can find a chance to use bacon in a recipe is alright with me. Well I remembered watching Paula Dean one time make some appetizers that were chicken wrapped in bacon then rolled in brown sugar and it sounded so delicious I have been dying to try it. But alas I did not have any brown sugar on hand. However I remembered I had a packet of sweet n`sour sauce in my freezer that I had not used and the light bulb came on. Here’s what I did.


Grilled Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Sweet n` Sour Sauce

I cut my chicken into small bites. You can use chicken breast, tenders or thighs but in this recipe I had tenders on hand. I then cut my strips of bacon into four parts. I wrapped the bacon around the chicken bite and placed it on my grill. I grilled it until the chicken was cooked. Although the bacon is not crispy at this point it is cooked. I found that if you try to cook these bites until the bacon is crispy your chicken will be over cooked. Once the chicken bites were cooked I put them in a bowl with the sweet n` sour sauce and thoroughly covered the bites. It was that simple. I am still searching for a recipe for sweet n` sour sauce I can make myself.

Fried Rice Cakes

Along with the chicken I made fried rice cakes. I took a bowl of rice and mixed in some soy sauce to taste. There was no measuring here. That is it.

Now for the cooking. I cooked them on my griddle with a little bit of butter until they were brown. The way I got the square shape (before I cut in half to make the triangles, was by using my largest square cutter. I put the cutter on the griddle (after spraying it with cooking spray-butter flavor of course) and I packed the rice into it to the edge. I let it cook until it was golden brown on the first side and firm enough to flip. Then I flipped it to the other side and removed the mold. Let it cook until golden brown.

Remove from griddle and let it sit and cool for about 5 minutes and with a sharp knife (It has to be a really sharp knife so that when you cut it the rice cake does not get crushed or fall apart) cut it from corner to corner. That is also the reason why you let is cool before you cut it. I took some of the extra sweet n` sour sauce and put it on the rice cakes and there you go.

See tomorrows post where I put these two in a bento.

Itadaki masu!