Thrifting and Bento Stuff

I have been bento-crazed lately (even if I can't go to any bento store to buy supplies) so here is another bento post for you. Bringing lunch to work has been saving me a lot of money and I have been learning a lot. I have learned that:

•   my rice will be edible even after few hours in my lunchbox if I sprinkle some salt before putting in the hot rice
• a peeled and sliced apple will not turn brown if you dip it into a salty water (not too salty though) and the apple will not be salty. 
• a bento box or lunch box athough looking small can be deceiving. I was surprised when I started reading more about bento that the boxes have different capacity. I know, it is no brainer but I though just being visual will enable you to know how much you eat. My ever loyal (G's lunch box, actually) lock*lock is surprisingly 800ml! if you are on a diet, you should watch your lunch box capacity because you tend to packed them full to avoid juggling the food around.
• Sandwiches in bento are prepared/stashed like below for some reason, not just on space reason: your bread will not be soggy.

photo source: kitchen cow

•  food that should be served hot, should be maintained in that temperature. Same rule applies to cold foods like sandwiches, yogurt, etc.

Going back to thrifting, I  am happy to show you my latest purchase:

mini cooler brick! they are on sale. 2 pcs for half a dollar.

Lock & Lock insulated bag for half the price: P225.00 

Not bad for two dollars! 

What did you buy lately?

Japanese Curry In Few Minutes

This is not my first time to cook Japanese Curry. I have been a fan of this curry since I found the recipe at my favorite local bento blogger, kaoko . And I am such a bad blogger that I forgot to take a photo of my cooked pork curry. But I did not forgot the ingredients:

The star of the post. What you see in the box is how the cooked curry will look.

S&B Golden Curry No.3

You will need at least a half kilo of pork (not pictured), potatoes, carrots and onion. I used three potatoes although the recipe calls for one potato only, one carrots and one small onion. Diced the three ingredients.
Saute the onion and add the pork until brown. Add the potatoes and carrots and six cups of water. Make sure that everything is covered by the liquid. Let simmer until pork and vegetables are cooked.

potatoes, carrots and onion

 Add one pack of curry. You can dissolve the curry first by adding some liquid from the pot in a bowl and mixing the curry to avoid undissolved curry. Simmer until it thickens.

another photo of potatoes, carrots and onion together with one pack of S&B golden curry

Serve with rice or put in a bento box with rice and fruit (i prefer banana) and you are on your way.

DIY Obsessions

With our homeownership still on hold (we are paying for the lot first, plus we are considering the expenses of having a new baby) it still did not stop me from looking for DIYs and other interior designs that comes up in the web. Below is another inspiration that I want in our house someday (for G's plan, someday is two years from now):

I love it! White subway tiles, window on sink, closed cupboard (we are currently living in a state of clutter visible to everyone with our mixed open/close cupboard system), a pantry on the side and stainless steel counter! Husband and I have been talking about considering stainless steel (or SS) counters that are sold to restaurants (we always passes by a shop that sells/displays ready to install SS counters) because we believe that hygiene-wise, they are the best option. You have to believe me about the hygiene part because the hubs works in a food company and I worked for one before too!

Above is their less-empty photo. By the way, the owner of this photo did their kitchen DIY. I am not sure if we can do that (labor is less expensive than buying our own materials and equipment to do DIY) but you might be interested to know how they did it on their own.

Are you DIY'ng something lately? Have a great week. I am still resting because I am still coughing badly. I will probably be going back to work tomorrow once I feel a whole lot better.

photo credits: The Home Project

Lock & Lock Bento: Leftover Bento Madness

Entering my third trimester, with workload still as difficult as before I have to resort to food for some energy. I have been bringing bento to work than ever. They are not as pretty as the previous one, more on the practical side. I have encountered some bento safety issues lately and manages to find solution through google and other bloggers.

I have been using G's Lock&Lock because its available and most of my bento boxes are small (or so i think!).


Pink Salmon and Scrambled Egg Bento

This bento is a speedy bento. The Pink Salmon is a canned-store bought one which I nuked for few minutes while the egg is a easy-peasy scrambled egg. I added a tiny ripe tomato for my vegetable and a dash color on a blue penguin food pick.It goes well with my bento staple: rice. 

 

Tuna Soboro with ginger - ground pork with potatoes -cucumber - rice bento:

The tuna soboro is an experiment (found the recipe from justbento) and still quite tasty after being stocked in the refrigerator for two days. It's a little bit too tasty for my pregnant-affected taste buds though so I might adjust the seasoning next time. The ground pork is a sauted port with potato and a dinner leftover. The cute ms. monkey container (she used to be mrs. monkey but the hubs lost her partner, mr. monkey few years ago.sad ) have mayonnaise for my cucumber. It was a delicious lunch and I think its a hearty lunch. Too big actually for me and the little one in my belly.

What's in your lunch box? I have been reading a 9 year old blogger's account of her daily school  lunch lately and I wish we have lunch like that here in the office.