I’ve been chef -ing again in the kitchen. I made mini meatloaf again and this time gave it a little twist!
Have a look on my other blog and see what you think!
This ended up as lunch today.
Mug of miso soup, steamed rice with furikake, steamed vetarian gyoza, mini meatloaf.
Here we have a picture (finally!) of our home made sushi. Tonight small sprog and I made some inari sushi and some salmon nigri to top up what was left from last nights batch.
The inari pockets are presented open end up as I prefer them this way instead of the traditional open side down.
Small sprog and I decided to pack a sushi bento for my Mum tonight as a treat. She and I are hoping to lose some weight and I thought if I pack her a bento box, it would help her look at lunch in a more fun way, rather than thinking that she’s restricting her food intake, oh and I also gave her a pair of chopsticks to eat her lunch with hee hee!
We didn’t really have any problems making our sushi, although I will admit the inside out roll was hard to do. It’s very sticky to work with, I don’t know that I would try these again. So we have inari pockets, smoked salmon maki, smoked salmon nigri, teriyaki tuna rolls. Mum also had some cuccumber and red pepper maki rolls as did small sprog.
For the teriyaki tuna rolls I used one small can of tuna which I made sure was well flaked. Mix into this one teaspoon (yes you read that correctly!) of mayonnaise and one teaspoon of teriyaki sauce. Mix the tuna and sauce well until combined then use to fill your sushi as you would normally do.
Enjoy Tuesday everyone!
Well tomorrow I’m off to work with a chicken sandwich bento and fruit. Before I go to work though, I’m filling up on this yummy oatmeal recipe I found:
You can get the full recipe (and lots of other yummy ones too!) from Mr Breakfast
Now I’m not sure exactly how healthy it is, but it is really really tasty and I’m hoping that it will fill me so that I don’t get tempted to snack!
That’s it for tonight as it’s really late and I have my usual silly o clock start on Monday morning 
Ok, well no not really, more of a copycat to be truthful!
Jenn over at Not Exactly Bento inspired me with her mini meatloaf bento.
I had leftover pork sausage meat in my freezer from Christmas, so I thought I’d have a go.
Here’s my version, though I warn you, I’m not a recipe kind of follower, so this recipe is a guesstimate!
1 pack pork sausage meat ( one lb weight)
1oo grammes grated cheddar cheese
1 large onion finely chopped or grated
1 large carrot grated
2 handfuls breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
combine all ingredients in a bowl until well mixed. form into log or patty shapes and place on a grill pan.
Cook at 180 oc or 350 of for approx 30 minutes or until well done.
To freeze, allow to cool completely and freeze wrapped in parchment or waxed paper to prevent freezer burn.
In hindsight (wonderful thing that it is) next time I make these I will cook them in the oven on a flat pan or on my George Foreman grill. Cooking them on a grill pan was healthy, but not easy to remove! They were so soft they kinda sank round the grill rack and cooked! Making them a little bit difficult to remove, however with a little persuasion I was able to coax them off
Bento for Thursday is as follows;
Wheaten soda bread, miso soup sachet, mini meatloaf, roasted broccoli, roasted sprouts and roasted carrots.
I’m taking a mug to work tomorrow as quite frankly the mugs in the building I will be in, leave a lot to be desired!!
Currently the rice cooker is housing some lovely winter mulled wine! Yum yum!
Very easy to do and just gently steaming away on the keep warm function.
1 bottle of red wine
1 bay leaf
2 slices of orange, studded with cloves
sugar to taste
grate of nutmeg
cinnamon stick
Heat together gently until sugar has dissolved. Serve warm and enjoy responsibly!!!
Soup currently in rice/slow cooker now.
Recipe on my non bento blog here:
Results and review posted tomorrow!
Tonight I tried my hand at making baked bread cups. I have noticed a few sets on ebay for making these and thought I have all the bits and bobs so I can try them myself.
So here’s what I did….
Pre-heat the oven to 190C or 400F
For each bread cup I used one slice of bread with the crusts removed.
I then flattened them out with a rolling-pin.
Brushed each side with melted butter and pressed them into a muffin pan.
Trim off the edges and place the bread cups in the oven for 5 minutes to start the crisping process.
While the bread was in the oven I chopped half a hotdog into slices and shredded some cheese.
When the came out of the oven I placed some hot dog slices in the bottom and cracked an egg in.
The bread cups went back in the oven at this point for 15 minutes. (You could cook for less time if you are going to serve the cups straight away and you want a runny yolk!)
After 15 minutes, I dropped the shredded cheese on top of the eggs and put back in the oven to melt the cheese.
When done, I removed the cups to a cooling tray.
I’ve packed the bread cups in my bento box with some cherry tomatoes and a pasta salad, yummy!
Well, I made a bento for Tuesday.
In the cupcake container is My version of a Starbucks Rise and Shine Muffin
Japanese potato salad which has a hard boiled egg chopped in as well. Tomato slices and sandwiches made with sandwich steaks. These are frozen thin steak slices which I buy from a local frozen food chain. You then just bung them under the grill for a few minutes. I’ve added sandwich spread for a bit of bite. Oh and a cheese triangle too :0)
Here’s what we have packed for our bentos tomorrow…
Top is my box with breakfast and lunch.
Cherry tomatoes, bunny egg, pot of QP to dip, onigiris with furikake (shiso& beefsteak plant, the other I think is fish and egg??? I can’t read Japanese and I can’t remember what I ordered from Japan centre!!!))
My version of a Starbucks wakey wakey muffin
Cucumber, Siu Mai
Bottom is small sprogs choice of rolls with dino turkey ham, cherry tomatoes, baby bel and a side car with orange wedges.
I know my bento looks as if it’s huge, but I’d rather pack a wee bit more when I don’t eat early in the morning. It means I’m less likely to fall foul of the nibble monster come 9pm!! (^_^)
Finally I have had a better evening of cooking than I did over the whole weekend, thank goodness! So here we go with pics of my offerings for bento lunches tomorrow, oh and my breakfast too!
Top is my breakfast: Panda pocket cinnamon French toast stuffed with banana and some dried apricots. I also made a sweet tamagoyaki with the leftover cinnamon egg mix, it’s rather nice and I managed the tamagoyaki quite well for once!
Then small sprog lunch of salami dinos, cherry tomatoes with ham and cheese faces, cucumber slice skewer, apple bunny and striped apple wedges, pineapple jelly cup and finally ham and cheese roll ups made from the leftovers from cutting out the faces.
Bottom box is my lunch: inari sushi pockets with shiso furikake and cherry tomatoes, then bang bang chicken with dressing.
I found the bang bang chicken over on the Distracted Gourmet, it’s a really great recipe and I’m looking forward to this for lunch tomorrow :0)
Sprog and I are back on speaking terms, so that’s why no squished sarnies for her lunch tomorrow ;0)
