All in Good Food

This was my lunch for today. Something very simple but different from what I have been having lately. Ingredients are chicken breast, bacon, broccoli, walnuts and couscous. I also mixed in soy sauce and a little miso paste for flavor. Also in the bento I made a mix of Fuji apple chunks, raspberries and pecans. Quick, easy and tasty.

Not only does this work well as a hot meal…..


But it also works well at room temperature in a bento…..


I’ll take you through the step by step on how I made this in a later post.

Thanks for stopping by.

Itadaki masu

Hi everyone long time no see. I’m sorry to have been away for so long. You see I work for a very popular museum in the retail department. I began working there the summer of 2010. Within 3 months of being hired I was being trained to run one of the small stores within the complex. That training set me up for my bigger elevation in 2011 when I was given the responsibility of running a specified store to accompany the traveling exhibit on display at the museum. After that I was asked to do the same for the next traveling exhibit that arrived. You may ask well why are you tell us all of this, well this is the reason I was not blogging for so long. Sometimes life gets busier than expected and some things have to be sacrificed for the time.

Needless to say I am trying to get back into the swing of things and get back to blogging. I did continue to make bentos for my lunches every day although I just did not have the time in the mornings to always take pictures of them. The ones I did I will post up soon in my next blog post. With that said I want to let you know there are some exciting changes that are coming in my life that is going to give me the opportunity to explore more with my cooking and food exploration but I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet.

I want to thank all the people who continued to follow my blog even when there was no new content for them to read, but I am back now and hope to have more for you in the near future. Please stay with me and thanks for your support.

Rice with shredded carrots, mini turkey burgers, tamagoyaki, grapes.

So until my next bento, Itadaki masu!

Sometimes I feel you have to go back to the beginning to regain what you feel you lost. Lately my friend rice has not been coming out right and I could not figure out why. Then I realized to began to suffer the fatal flaw that happens to some cooks and that is complacency. Most of the time when I cook I don’t measure I cook by taste but there are times when measuring is needed and/or required to get the taste right every time. So what I had been doing was not measuring when I cooked my rice I would just eyeball the amount of rice and the water that went into my rice cooker. Well this past week I went back to my old ways and measured out my rice and my water and the result was my perfect fried rice.

Being a free spirit when cooking is good at times but when it comes to basics keep it by the book so to speak.

Here is my bento from Friday. Fried rice, sautéed broccoli with cheese sauce, and turkey patties. Can’t get more basic than that.

This was lunch from Friday. Although it was very tasty I over cooked the egg noodles. I don’t seem to have a lot of progress with egg noodles. It’s always a hit or miss thing for me. Sometimes they come out perfect then others they are soggy and taste like paste. Oh well I’ll keep trying at it.

Ok let’s begin with the bottom part because that has the meal where as the top part has dessert/snack. The bottom part has salisbury steak that has been chopped into smaller pieces, the egg noodles mentioned above with brown gravy and sautéed broccoli.

Now the top part is filled with a bunch of grapes and a Rice Krispies Treats® that I cut in half and spread peanut butter on it. I then cut it in small bights. I think peanut butter on Rice Krispies Treats® is my now obsession but I will try Nutella next.

So until my next bento, Itadaki masu!

Now I am always up for a good giveaway and this one is a great one for any of my fellow bentoist out there. As I was going through the list of blogs I follow I came across the new post from Emily at Bentobloggy. She is having a giveaway of a wonderful bento set from AllThingsForSale.com. When she talked about the selection being great and the prices being very reasonable she wasn’t kidding. I went over there to check them out myself and have already made a mental list of things I want to buy. It is nice that they are here in the states and that your items don’t take forever to get to you. I have already bookmarked them myself under my bento accessories.

So if you are interested in entering this give away head over to Bentobloggy and while you are there check out her bentos I think you’ll like them.

I had to work yesterday and the weather was not the greatest here in Michigan. No we don’t have any snow yet but it was cold so I wanted a bento that was very filling. I meant to post this bento when I got home from work yesterday but was just too tired. I’ve been living in Michigan all my life but the cold air still wipes me out.

This was yesterday’s lunch and I must say it was very delicious and filling. It is made up of 3 small yaki onigiri. I think I love yaki onigiri better than regular onigiri but I have been experimenting with different flavors so maybe I can come up with some that I can make my go to flavors. Growing up I always put salt, pepper and a lot of butter on my rice so plain non-seasoned rice or rice only season with salt does not appeal to me. I know that may seem like a very American attitude but I do try foods from all over and then adapt them to my own palate. I feel food is not stagnate it is ever changing and that should be ok. We should always remember traditional recipes or ways of cooking but we also have to remember that people’s tastes are diverse and should be respected. Ok I just ran off on a tangent I do apologize.

Now back to the bento. I also had french cut green beans that were cooked in soy sauce. I first placed them in the microwave with a little soy sauce poured over them then I grilled them on my griddle with a small amount of butter. I was hoping I could come close to the taste I get when I sauté my broccoli but didn’t work this time. Next time I’ll try it in a skillet. I included a bunch of red grapes and that is what is in the top part of the bento.

In the bottom part I have tamagoyaki made with dill and cheese. I am going to have to invest in a real tamagoyaki pan. Right now I make it on my griddle and it seems to come out fine but to be honest I have never eaten one made with an authentic pan in the traditional way. So a tamagoyaki pan goes on my wish list. Lastly I added cut up salisbury steak left over from dinner the night before and there we are.

So until my next bento, Itadaki masu!

Here is another simple bento I had for my lunch yesterday. I took a steak filet and sliced it into thin slices and then I cut the slices into bit sized pieces and grilled them on my griddle. I cooked the egg noodles in brown gravy that was left over from the Salisbury steak we had for dinner Thursday night. I just added a little water and added the noodles and let them cook till they were soft. I then topped it with two small pieces of bacon that had been wrapped around the steak filet that I cooked along side of the steak. I also had butter sauté broccoli. I love my broccoli this way because I love the roasted taste.

So until my next bento, Itadaki masu!

This was the simple bento I had for lunch yesterday.

Here are a few bentos I managed to take a picture of after my computer crashed. Just thought I’d share them with you.


Bento #18

Bento #19

As I was trying to decide what my next post would be I looked up and realized that as of November 10th it will be 1 year since I began this blog. Wow how time flies. When I first began I wasn’t quite sure where to start, what to write about, or what was my culinary passion. I have to admit I floundered for a bit until I found a niche which was posting the bentos I had been already creating. But I thought to myself I don’t want to stop there so I began to post my experimental dishes and creations and that felt good.

Cooking I have found has been an evolution of sorts. As I learned more about food and ingredients I became a better cook. When I was younger I dabbled a bit in cooking but other than pastry or dessert dishes I never pursued it seriously. Well now my time has come. No I don’t want to be the “Next Food Network Star” or work in a 3 or 4 star restaurant but I do want to cook the best food I can for me and my family.

I think when I am passionate about something I get very focused and intense about it. That is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not. Cooking requires you to be very focused but flexible at the same time and the key to good cooking is finding that balance. So in this new year I have decided to pick 4 key things and focus my efforts on them.

And they are first of all making balanced bentos. I have been creating bentos for about 3 years now and the process has helped me immensely in understanding portion control and balance in my meals. I have struggled a bit but with struggle comes progress. It also helps to have a strong bento community that I am involved with. I have learned about different foods, recipes, techniques (for aesthetics purposes) which is one of the keys to the appeal of bentos. I must also say this community is very supportive and helpful which is great.

My next endeavor is in baking. As a young girl I wanted to be a pastry chef and make all those wonderful delights that most everyone loves, but I think I let fear stop me from pursuing that path but no more. At this point in my life I am not sure if I am up to going to a formal school to become a patisserie but this is the information age and I think I am good at understanding information that I find in books, TV shows and the internet. Don’t get me wrong I do want to go study under some good teachers but I feel that a more intimate and personal setting is for me. I have fallen in love with the Cooking Channel show Rachel Allen Bake. When I watch her I understand what she is telling me. Eventually I want to sign up for her cooking school and keep going from there.

This new year of my blog I am also starting a 365 project. I decided I want to learn more about herbs so I am going to take in the next year and work on my 365 Herb Project. I will also be studying spices and their uses as well. As I want to give this project its fair turn I will wait to explain what I am doing in its own post.

Lastly I will be focusing on my time management. Yes I know that this may not seem to be directly related to cooking but I assure you it is. Without time management foods can burn or not be cooked enough, pastries and desserts can become disasters and over all chaos in the kitchen will ensue. Ok that last bit was a bit over dramatic but as we all know we can never get time back once it is gone so we must use it wisely.

Well that is the update to what is going on here at All in Good Food. As many of you know I had not been posting for sometime because my lovely computer decided it wanted to crash on me. So now that I finally have my new one I will take this opportunity to start a new. New year (blog year), new me. With the understanding I have gained from blogging and cooking I hope to have new and exciting posts for all of you to read. So here’s to a new year.

乾杯 (Kanpai)

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!

While I was on my short break from blogging I did continue to make bentos on a daily basis. Some worth photographing and sharing and some that were not. Here is one of those I thought was worth sharing. The bento box I used for this one is one of my favorites. It is in the shape of a fan and I was lucky to find it for next to nothing on eBay an few years ago. I’ve been dying to use it and this time I had my chance.

Ok I have been out of the bento loop to a few weeks but I am now back with my entry for the j-Cation Virtual Bento Box Battle with my Maneki Neko or Beckoning Cat. I have to admit this was a definite challenge for me because I usually don’t do character bentos. I think I needed to accomplish this one to get myself back on track.

This bento is filled with tamagoyaki with nori, mini turkey burgers seasoned with a packet of vegetable dip mix, sautéed broccoli and apple cinnamon flower tarts with craisins. The cat consists of plain white rice for the body, red bell peppers for inside the ear, collar, mouth and on the paw. I used nori on the paw and for the inner eye and fried egg for the outer eye. Angel hair spaghetti was used for the whiskers and a pink edible flower petal for the nose. The collar is decorated with sour cream dot flowers.

From my reading the Maneki Neko are sometimes shown holding a gold coin called a koban which was used during the Edo period in Japan. The koban is supposed to be worth one ryō but because as in any society early monitary units could very. The one I made although not gold has the value of two million ryō as depicted in the kanji written on it. The coin was made of a tortilla cut into an oval. Then I wrote the kanji (千万両) or two million on it using food coloring and a tooth pick which reads . I have to admit that is came out better than expected. I did use Google translator to make sure what the kanji said.

Well there you go. I hope to have another bento posted soon.

Until next time Itadaki masu!

Ok call me crazy but last week I was craving oatmeal raisin walnut cookies and banana nut bread at the same time. So I decided to combine the two into one recipe. For this recipe I went to my tried and true Oatmeal Cookie Jiffy Mix. As you may know from my other oatmeal cookie recipe this mix lends itself to a variety of experimental cookies. You will get roughly 18-20 cookies out of this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 box Oatmeal Cookie Jiffy Mix
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 very ripe medium banana mashed to a baby food consistency
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (can increase if desired)

Directions

Empty box of mix into large bowl, add egg, butter, mashed banana, and chopped nuts and mix well.

Let mix stand for 10 minutes to stiffen.

Drop 1 teaspoon of mix on cookie sheet about an inch apart for expansion.

Bake at 380° for 10-12 minutes. (experiment with your oven) Normally I would cook them at 350° but I increased the temperature due to the added moisture of the banana.

Remove from oven and place on cooling rack (if you can stand to let them cool).

There you go, you are done. Enjoy. Next time I will be trying out the recipe with an oatmeal cookie recipe recommended to me by another blogger. This does not mean that I won’t continue to keep my Jiffy Mixes in my pantry. I am rebuilding my recipe book because I won’t always be in a place where the mix is readily available to me.

So until next post Itadaki masu!