First, brand new bento

This bento was actually made last week, but I hadn't had the time to post it. This is my first bento that I got during my shopping euporia last week. This bento is really adorably cute! I guess the character's name is Cherry Rabbit and on the top it says, "I never want to lose the innocence of my heart."Inside the bento is filled with leftovers, on the right-hand side is chicken katsu, on the top left-side is orange chicken and underneath that is sauteed onions and peppers; directly under that is fried rice. The two little wrapped items is orange flavored marshmallow and the drink is Mogu Mogu strawberry drink with bits of nata de coco.

Shopping Euphoria

Whoa what a day!!! We were out of the house before 5 am this morning and we just got back home alittle after 8pm tonight. We had brekkie at Chowking and shortly after we headed toward Kearney Mesa 99 Ranch Market to browse around and see what they had. Needless to say, of course we bought and found many things to purchase. After our little adventure at 99 Ranch Market we headed towards the 163 freeway to the other more Japanese oriented grocery store in search for possible bento boxes and accessories. I actually found a few things, but didn't go mad crazy buying things, but more than likely will be back again in the near future. We headed back towards Mira Mesa and to kill alittle time, we took a detour stop at the park near my old elementary school, Mason Elementary. After some playtime, we had lunch at L andL Hawaiian Barbecue. Hubs had their Loco Moco and I tried thier Spam musubi, kiddos had fries and we shared some Chicken Katsu then we walked directly across to Edelweiss Bakery and purchased a few sweets. Our last final destination before heading out of Mira Mesa was Goldilocks. The traffic heading back North was horrible as to be expected. Now we're finally back home from our mini culinary getaway adventure. Today was another very good and successful day for foodie shopping. :)

Fried Brown Rice & Garlicky Meatballs

Forgot to post yesterday. Fried brown rice and garlicky meatballs.

Fried Tofu Noodle Soup

This is my own version of wannabe bento that I made for my husband. The Gladware container was bigger than I hoped for, but I don't think my hubs seemed to mind. This fried tofu soup is very similar to the pork ramen soup. This soup has chopped baby bok choy, bite size cuts of fried tofu, mini chunks of pork breakfast sausage, sliced baby carrots, finely chopped brown onions and garnished with chopped green onions. According to hubs the soup is so filling that he ate only half and is saving the rest for the following days lunch. He also said he got a few ooohs and awes as to his lunch; some very curious as to the wonderful, fragrant aroma and the colorful array of vegetables. Quick, simple and easy lunch. What more could you ask for?

Pork Ramen Soup

This is still all very new to me, but this is my first attempt in making something visually tempting not only to the eyes, but the taste buds. Ok well not really the first time in cooking per se, but a first in actually trying to capture it for the camera. This soup consisted of ramen noodles cooked first only in water. After the ramen noodles were halfway cooked, I took them out and placed them in the bowl. The broth was made from chicken broth, finely chopped brown onions, sliced baby carrots, chopped Napa cabbage, 2-3 breakfast pork sausages cut up into mini bite sized pieces. I cooked all those ingredient together and let it come to a boil. Then I poured the broth and vegetable right on top of the ramen noodles and garnished with chopped green onions. So ta-dah that was lunch for today! It was perfect considering that we've all been sick here the past week and still trying to get better. Soup is perfectly soothing for the soul in deed!

It's inevitable

We're all bound to have lunch at some point in the day. If it's not lunch of some kind, a snack will have to do in order to tide us over til the next meal. So whether it's just a snack or a full blown meal like bento or baon(pronounced baa'on or bah'on) we are all packing something. Bento is derived from Japan; while baon is from the Philippines. Bento is more widely known & popular and seems to be coming along to mainstream than baon, but both have similarities. Basically bento and baon is all about bringing provisions with you to sustain you whether it's something you pack for your daily lunch at work or picnics, dinner, etc... You pack and bring your bento or baon with you to make sure that you have something to eat. So what are you packing?