SM Beef and Bento #3: Burger steak, penne bolognese, with rice and veggies

The bolognese sauce was the winner in this batch. Its easier to make pasta in large batches and just freeze the extra for the rest of the month. I added a tea spoon of herbs de provence to it and it was amazing! I got my herbs de provence from Healthy Options in Shang ri-la mall. Its a bit pricey since its organic but i think its worth it, P550 (about $12) for a bottle that lasted me a year. The also have pre-ground black pepper, its in an orange bottle and its very good too! its only P220 (about $5-6) but organic produce makes so much of a difference in flavor and health benefits.

I packed in a lot more treats than i usually do since i wanted to try a couple of new products. The meat i used is ground beef from SM super market, whil i was cooking flys were attracted to food near the meat but not the meat itself. This was not something i liked, since it probably means that the meat is GMO or genetically modified. GM foods have been linked to organ failures and a whole other pleathora of health issues so suffice to say i wont be getting ground beef from SM anymore. Dont get me wrong, they have some good products and are afford-ably priced. But affordable now, can be a long term stay in the hospital much later on in life.

Compartment a:

Plain rice, Soy rice and strawberry rice with carrots and ham. a strawberry and soy and mayo containers.

Compartment b:

Mini-Hamburger steaks

Penne bolognese

cauliflower, snow peas, carrots

mini- cupcake

a piece of candy

Bento #2: tonkatsu with vegetable rice and soup

For this bento:

My goal here was to make a nutritious meal for my guy and bentos cheer him up a lot. I tried to sneak in as many veggies as i can by adding string beans, and i used the water broccoli was blanched in to cook the rice. Traditionally for man-bentos you put the rice in the larger compartment. Here i used the smaller compartment for rice, so it has less calories. For a little treat, i added a shortbread pie i got from choto shop on sale! it was only 10 pesos! thats about $.20. It was really tasty and i wish i bought more now.

I got the tonkatsu from the SM Mega Mall supermarket, it was about 10 pesos per tonkatsu. I was quite disappointed with this buy. The breading didn't have enough seasoning (pepper in particular) and the meat is so thin! I have six left in the freezer and i really don't want to touch them.

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Bento break down:

Compartment a:

Brown and red rice with broccoli, broad beans, and salmon furikake.

Compartment b:

Tonkatsu strips

Boiled egg

Spaghetti with Japanese mayo and cherry tomato

Cauliflower and bell peppers.

Soup bowl:

nilagang baka (boiled beef with saba bananas, cabbage and potatoes)

Bento #1: broccoli rice,tuna soboro, chicken curry, egg salad, Green tea furikake, Brocolli and red peppers

Bento 1:

• Mixed broccoli rice (3 parts Japanese rice, 1 part brown rice)
• Chicken curry with carrots.
• Tuna soboro.
• Nori, ham and cheese decoration.

Bento2:

• Broccoli "water sautéed" with garlic and red bell pepper
• Cherry tomato
• Egg salad
• Apple bits
• Green Tea Furikake (the bottle with a yellow cap)
• Soy sauce (the bottle with a pink cap)
• Chili paste (in a monkey case)
• Japanese mayo (in a monkey case)

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This is my second attempt at a kawaii bento. My guy liked it -he said the egg went well with everything and he felt really healthy and energized after. I think there is still something missing though.

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Credits:

Tuna soboro and furikake recipes are from Maki of justbento.com

She has alot of good resources there for any aspiring bento maker. She doesn't focus on chyraben or kawaii bento, but has alot of recipes, health facts, and bento making information.

Go have a look: http://justbento.com/

Food picks, Silicone cups, Bottles, bentos: bought from Saizen (Robinsons Galleria and Trinoma)

Bento

A recent thing that i have discovered and found interesting is making bentos. I do this mostly to cheer up my boy friend who has been very stressed lately. He lived in japan a few years back and has many good memories from his stay. He says it makes him feel special and that its always nice to know that someone cared to put a lunch together for him.

I don't have any photos at the moment, i don't feel like they are photo-worthy yet, but i will post them eventually.

The past couple of weeks i have gone on shopping excursions to find the tools of the trade. that is: picks, silicone cups, bento boxes, chopsticks, cookie cutters, egg molds etc. There are still a few things im on the look out for (namely the facial expression nori cutters and a certain set of cookie cutters).

I got most of what I needed from Saizen. Its the *real* daiso here in the Philippines. Another company took the name Daiso before the actual Daiso (as known in Japan). Its hard to get alot of things here, so I'm so glad that bent making materials aren't hard to gather here.

Many of the things i saw on ebay and bento retailers online are priced from .99USD to 12USD. Everything in Saizen is priced at 85 pesos, (roughly 2 USD). So sometimes its a bargain, other times its not. Another place you can go to look are Daiso and Japan home center - they also have friendly prices (66 for 1 item, 66 for buy one take one, 88 for one item or 88 for 2, the 88 for 2 is a bit tricky though because the item is actually tagged at 44 for one).

Saizen : bento accesories (picks, bottles, may containers, silicone cups, silicone molds for cakes and divider cups, a few nori punchers and cookie cutters) the only thing they dont have are certain cookie cutters and nori punchers. They also have different Japan imports like cosmetics, table ware, gardening supplies, art supplies, some clothing accesories,

Robinsons galeria, 3rd floor.

Trinoma, ground floor inside true value.

Daiso - toiletries, some kitchen ware, hardware, some DIY things,

St. Francis square - ground level

Alabang Zapote wing, Alabang Town Center

Japan home center - japanese table ware, nice place mats, some kitchen supplies, some toys, and toiletries

Market market

Robinsons Galeria 3rd floor before sai zen

I hope that helped, if i dont post for a good long while after this thats becaouse my net is a bit wonky =O