More Pomegranate with a Little Steak Mixed In (Bento #42)

I'm so excited about this post and its accompanying bento, I'm nearly giddy! Tonight for dinner, I decided to try out the Pomegranate and Pine Nut Pilaf Recipe I found while searching for things to do with the original pomegranate I had purchased. I used the last of that pomegranate for the chicken recipe in the last post. However, this pilaf recipe called to my taste buds and required the purchase of another pomegranate. So here was tonight's supper:



The leftovers have become tomorrow's bento. Not only do I have one smokin' rice pilaf (that stuff is TASTY!!), but this bento also came out really well I think. Wheee! I think I'm finally getting the hang of this somewhat.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
Leftover sirloin steak with pomegranate pilaf
Steamed carrots and green beans
1/2 a hard boiled egg
1/2 a blueberry muffin

The blueberry muffin and the hard boiled egg I cut in half to fit into the bento. What did I do with the other half you ask? Well, the muffin I was forced to eat. The egg went to two very grateful dogs that live in my house and clean my kitchen floors.

I hope this post made you hungry!! It certainly made me hungry again. I think I need a blueberry muffin.

More Pomegranate Chicken (Bento #41)

Wow! This is my 50th post and my 41st bento. I'm so pleased that I've stuck with this for a whole 2 months. YAY!

Today's lunch is the last of the pomegranate chicken I cooked night before last. Lunch includes:
Pomegranate chicken, sweet potato, and boiled egg
Cucumber, carrots with dressing for dipping
Golden raisins
Various bits of chocolate.

Pomegranate Chicken & Psuedo Sushi (Bento #40)

Tonight's cooking brings more experimentation and fun! As you already know, dear reader, the word this week is pomegranate. The pomegranate I purchased and seeded this week was too much fruit for just me. Tonight, I decided to take the remaining seeds and try out the sauce from a recipe called Pomegranate & Balsamic Glazed Cornish Hen, found at http://www.recipezaar.com/.

I juiced the pomegranate seeds by hand through a cheesecloth (fun!). Since I didn't have any balsamic vinegar on hand, I used a light balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing. This worked out well in my opinion. The sauce had a nice sweet flavor from the pomegranate, but I wasn't overwhelmed by the balsamic taste (which is why I don't often use balsamic salad dressing). The only thing I was unable to accomplish was to get the sauce to thicken and become syrupy. I think the reason for this is I didn't use enough honey; I ran out. All in all though, it made a wonderful sauce to baste the chicken breasts with and made for a very tasty dinner.

For tomorrow's bento, I also decided to try my hand at making a psuedo-sushi roll. I cooked some sushi rice and spread it out on a tumeric colored Sushi Party! soy wrapper. The rice was then sprinkled lightly with sea salt and liberally with toasted sesame seeds. Thinnish slices of carrots, cucumber, and radishes were added to the middle and then it was rolled up. I don't own a sushi mat, so I used my silicone baking mat to help me get the roll into shape. However, I think a bamboo mat might be necessary to get the thing to stay together. I didn't cut the wrap into sushi rolls because I could tell it would fall apart.

Here's a quick picture of what the inside of the sushi roll looks like. I cut one end to get a good picture. Then, I had to eat the portion I cut off. It is quite tasty indeed!



Tomorrow's bento includes:
Psuedo-sushi roll containing cucumber, carrots, & radishes
Wavy cucumber slices with french dressing in container for dipping
Pomegranate & Balsamic baked chicken breasts with wavy chip steamed sweet potatos
Pocky and chocolate "burger candy"

BTW, can you tell I purchased a wavy vegetable cutter. So much fun!


I included a picture of my lunch all wrapped up and ready to go. I'm excited because I now have matching bento/belt sets. Wheeeee!

Chicken Soup - Sort Of (Bento #39)

Tonight, I made some chicken soup. Since I'm not much on something with alot of broth, I used very little broth and let the noodles and veggies suck up most of the juice. So this is chicken soup - sort of.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
Pseudo chicken soup
Cornbread muffin
Pomegranate seeds, black bean & sweet potatos, and hard boiled egg.
Pocky & Hello Panda pillows for dessert

The Word is Pomegranate (Bento #38)

When I started this bento adventure 2 months ago, I made myselfa promise. That in order to keep this from getting boring quick with my limited culinary palette, I would either find a new food to eat or a new recipe to eat at least 2x per month. November has started out as a great month for this. Last week was black beans and discovering I liked them.

Tonight at the grocery store, I found pomegranates. I've never eaten one before; however, I've seen them mentioned recently on the Adventures in Bentomaking blog (see link to left). After finding a great Youtube video that shows how to easily peel a pomegranate, I peeled and tried my first one today. This is a deliciously tangy and sweet fruit. I can't believe I've missed out on it for so long.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
2 mini hamburgers with steamed carrots & green beans
Cucumber slices, tangerine, and pomegranate seeds.
The stop of the bento box has ketchup packets for the hamburger and 4 Pocky for dessert!
(I had to take out the Hello Panda treats. It was too much for the top of the box!