My Bento Box

I’m off work (again) so that equals no bento.

I’m trying to keep things in perspective and get creative in other areas.

Back to bento soon, promise!

As I mentioned yesterday, here’s my catchup post for the past week. Pretty much each day I have packed hot porridge (oatmeal) in my miffy thermos (another note about that later!)

But on Thursday, I packed some leftover Irish Stew. It was very tasty and very filling. HUbs made a massive pot of this on Tuesday night for tea on Wednesday. There was masses left over, so as well as feeding us for tea and leftovers for lunches, I gave my brother a huge ziplock bag of stew to take home too.

I don’t have an exact recipe as it’s not really an exact science! I’ll do my best to estimate quantities though if you’d like to try it.

The pot we made was in a massive 10 litre pot. This is usually reserved for boiling hams, chickens and making mahoosive batches of soups.

I can tell you that there were 8 carrots and 4 onions for definite as well as 0ne pound of steak pieces. The quantity of potatoes I really haven’t got a clue, it was well, a lot! To that we added 2 beef stock cubes and 2 pints of water. The whole shebang was cooked long and slow, stirring occasionally until the beef was tender and the veggies were well cooked and thick. To make the perfect stew, there should be some bits of potato that dissolve completely. This is what thickens the mixture, the rest should be chunky to add texture. Same goes for the carrots. Onions are cut into chunks, roughly about the same size as the beef cubes. As for seasoning, it’s all down to personal preference, some people like a little bit of salt and pepper, others like a lot of seasoning. We’re kinda in the middle of the road on this as we like to add brown sauce to the stew after it’s served!

You can also make this in a pressure cooker, but you only need a max of 1/2 pint of stock when making it this way. Any more and the pressure cooker will overflow! (trust me I speak from experience on this one!)

You can also make a veggie version of this, omit the meat and use veg stock. It tastes just as good and I have made this loads too. It’s a handy filler for a cold winter night. I suppose you could use a slow cooker as well, though I haven’t tried this method for stew.

Planning for the week ahead, well I’m hoping I have enough leftovers from Sunday lunch tomorrow so that I can make potato cakes. After that we’ll have a root round in the cupboards and the fridge to see what we get!

My rice cooker is due for delivery on Monday, so I’ll play round with it a little before I start to write any reviews. That will give me a chance to get a feel for the machine. I can hardly wait, I’m just like a kid waiting for Christmas!!

Oh yes I mentioned about my Miffy thermos earlier, well I Just discovered that Bento and Co have a new colour way introduced. My original orange one has been replaced by a beige and brown version. It’s so cute, I really want another one. *wahhhhh* Not fair!

If you’d like to go have a look at the new design miffy set you can find it at

Bento And Co

I would like to wish all my bento friends across the miles a very Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s not a holiday we celebrate here in the UK, but I just wanted to wish you all well

I haven’t made bento for the past 2 days. Long days at work and early morning starts mean a very tired me, so I’ve done nothing more exciting than make sandwiches yesterday and today. Don’t get me wrong, they were nice (especially pb&j ones!) but I have missed my bento

I will make a better effort for next week, honest I will!

Today I begin the mammoth task of sorting, tidying and documenting what bento gear I actually have. It really needs an overhaul as it won’t fit in the storage drawers properly. If any more becomes visible I think hubs will have a fit.

Wish me luck on this one!

Sorry, no bento for today or tomorrow. I’m off sick from work and am in no fit shape to do much.

Small sprog has packed herself a ham filled panda sandwich for tomorrow along with 2 apples and a babybel cheese.

Fingers crossed I’m better for work on Monday. I hate feeling like this but unfortunately it’s a reoccurring problem that I’ve had to live with for the past 2 years and one for which I still have to find a solution to.

I unwittingly stumbled upon a bento ingredient that I have noticed on one other blog today. (sorry I can’t remember who it was, but I do remember asking what this particular food was!)

Enter pierogies with cottage cheese!!

I found these in the polish section of my local supermarket. We have quite a large polish community here in Northern Ireland now and as a result the local supermarkets have sections which offer familiar brands to the community, I suppose to make them feel more at home. For us locals, it’s a chance to try new items (in my case I guess a lot of the time as I can’t understand Polish, bit like me looking for Japanese foods in the asian foodstore!) So we’ll see how these babies work next week in bento lunches. Oh and I also picked up some croquettes with meat and another pierogie stuffed with sauerkraut. Spam (with bacon) was also stocked up on for more musubis over the next couple of weeks.

Quick question…….. once I open a can of spam, does anyone know if it can be frozen in slices? I ask as I don’t tend to be able to use a full can in one go and I don’t want to waste any!

Still trying to decide if it’s worth driving to Belfast tomorrow as all I really need is some char siu buns, glutinous rice flour and frozen gyozas. We’ll see if I can talk hubs into taking me out for the day!

How To Make A Fancy Maki-Sushi (Food & Drink: Japanese)

I came across this video today on Video Jug and I just had to share it with you!

The sushi chef is extremely talented and makes beautiful sushi rolls with pictures in the middle. At first I couldn’t work out how his creations would come together, but all is revealed at the end!