So I made it to the gym today. Didn’t go for as long as I wanted but it was either that or miss my 2:30 class which I don’t like doing. I opted for a quick 20 mins on the treadmill at my regular gym instead of an intense hour at 9pm at the school gym I dislike so much. Which I suppose is better than nothing.

Also, I’ve been doing very well food wise the past few days. I need to get more protein in for sure, but blogging on a regular basis has helped me with the junk cravings!

This was my supper between classes. Filled me up nicely, but I was hungry by the time my class was over. (It’s 3 hours long) I need to get the protein/veg/carb ratios down so I don’t feel starved when I get home at 10.

Tomorrow I have the day off from school, I’m going to see my trainer, get my netbook fixed and pick up my eShakti order (woo!) then clean the house and make homemade pasta with Ryan for the Outside the Box challenge. I’ll definitely post pictures.

TTFN

For all the non bento enthusiasts/japanophiles who read this blog I will give a short intro to Furikake. According to Wikipedia:

Furikake (振り掛け / ふりかけ^?) is a dry Japanese condiment^[1] meant to be sprinkled on top of rice. It typically consists of a mixture of dried and ground fish, sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, sugar, salt, and monosodium glutamate. Other flavorful ingredients such as katsuobushi (sometimes indicated on the package as bonito), or okaka (bonito flakes moistened with soy sauce and dried again), salmon, shiso, egg, powdered miso, vegetables, etc. are often added to the mix.

Essentially it’s a bento staple for making plain rice tasty.

A few years ago I was just starting to get into Bento making and decided to buy some of this from the nearby Asian grocery store. I picked the “Teriyaki Bonito” flavor after listening to people rave about bonito flakes and whatnot on the internet thinking I would enjoy it as well. Wrong. Unfortunately it smelled like fish food and tasted even worse and considering I don’t like fish to begin with I’d say it was a bad choice. I have been reluctant to try any other commercial types of Furikake and to be honest the MSG and preservatives that are used in most brands aren’t what I want to be putting in my body.

So today, I decided to make my own! Mind you this was before I saw JustBento’s whole section on homemade versions which I plan on trying out very soon. It turned out very good and made my plain brown rice very tasty, although it could have had a bit more kick. (I like flavors that punch me in the face, you know.) When I told AJ the ingredients he suggested that it was a very western interpretation of the condiment and I agree with him, but oh lordy dried fish is not something I find appealing!.

The ingredients are simple and I didn’t measure them because I never do.

Roasted sesame seeds, Black sesame seeds, ground ginger, garlic power, mustard powder, dried cilantro, paprika, cayenne pepper, sea salt, black pepper.

Basically spices mixed together and sprinkled on rice, I’m sure the variations could be endless.

This is my first time using my new Hello Kitty Wagara box and I quite like it. Way more room than my last one and very sturdy!

Contents and WW Points Values

Right Tier:

Almond Dessert Tofu with craisins, a lemon slice and a heart shaped jello cube (hard to see with all the yellow) - 2 points

Moro/Blood Orange slices - 1 point

Left Tier:

Brown Rice and Veggie Stirfry underneath. - 4 points

Girl with big hair made from an egg sheet, Nori Face, pickled green bean dress - 1 points

Total - 8 points.

Not bad at all.

The phrase “Flat Hair is Sad Hair” is something I used to say to clients all the time when I was hairstyling and its still true now. Listen to the bento ladies!

Over the years, I’ve fallen in love with the idea of bento lunches. They are a cute and most often healthy way to make a normally boring packed lunch fun and entertaining. The problem is it can be very time consuming and as with most things in my life I get really into making them for a few weeks then give up/forget about how much I enjoyed doing it in the beginning. It only took Ryan showing me a random picture on FailBlog to make me realize that all my bento supplies (which I had spent a fair amount of money on) were still packed up in a box from when we renovated our kitchen. In a moment of nostalgia and a sudden need to make deliciously adorable food, I unpacked everything, washed off all the dust and I was ready to go.

My bento skills are pretty inferior to most bloggers out there who make a new creative lunch every day and are much better at taking pictures than I am. But here is my dinner for work tonight, the contents are:

Baby carrots and Cucumber “flowers” (I do not have mad knife skillz) Sesme Shitake dressing and Blood Orange Segments

Ginger roasted pork tenderloin on sesame soy quinoa with cucumber and carrot “flowers” and half a star shaped hard boiled egg.

If you are looking for Bento inspiration check these out:

Cooking Cute

Bento Zen

Bento Lunch LJ Community