Bento #18

Today's Bento: Curry (made with turkey and carrots) with Rice!

Valuable professional lesson from Family Law today:
When a clients says, “I’m going to commit a crime, will you help me", say “No. And don’t tell me anything, otherwise I’d have to tell the court.”

More Steak! Bring it to us FRESH!

Pan fried steak with broccoli and mushrooms! As you can probably tell, I enjoy my dinner with a large chunk of meat...hard to think I was a vegetarian just over two years ago...

Shumai and Dumplings

Shumai (Shao Mai, 烧卖)

All are stuffed with ground turkey, collard greens and mushrooms.

Dumplings!

Benton #17

Property practice exam today *sad face*

Today's Bento includes:

• Stir fry veggies
• Unexpected-spaghetti-that-was-in-the-stirfry-frozen-veggie-packet-but-I-cooked-it-anyway-oh-well
• Stegosaurus cheese sanmmich

Veggie Congee with Fermented Bean Curd

Finally find some fermented bean curd! I don't think it's very healthy but it certainly spices up congee very nicely.

Steak and Veggies

Cube Steak With Veggies Sauteed in Garlic Sauce

The steak was delicious and the veggies were very pretty...I think the only reason I still try to incorporate vegetable and not just live off of meat is that I'm dreadfully afraid of gout...

Bacon Biscuit

A certain someone and I ate an entire pound of bacon this morning...oops...I have a strange suspicion that I'd actually lose weight if I just eat fast food every meal...

Bacon Biscuit Recipe:

You'll need:

• 1 lb of bacon
• 2 cups of Bisquick mix (or 2 cups of all purpose flour with 4 tsp of baking soda)
• 1 cup of milk
• Muffin Pan

Directions to Deliciousness:

• Mix the milk and Bisquick until smooth then let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 min
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Microwave the bacon for 2 min
• Line each muffin slot with bacon (I put some on the bottom too to prevent the biscuit from sticking)
• Pour in the batter
• Bake at 350 for about 15 min (or until the top turns golden)
• Pop them out once they are slightly cooled and you are done!

Dinner 04.16.12

"So you put the emPHAsis on that syLAble?" - Constitution Law prof....

Tonight's dinner is steamed tofu, enoki mushrooms and crab meat!

Valentine's Day Present!

You know, I'm alright with commercialism, especially when it's from that special someone...

Blue Topaz (my birth stone) and sterling silver, I'm never going to take it off..eeeeeeeee!

Dinner 02.14.12

Argh! I forgot to bring lunch again...was so hungry in criminal law class and then got called on while I was fluttering in my own little world...

Tonight, we have:

• Sushi
• Pickled Daikon
• Imitation Crab Meat
• Pan-fried pork  (mmm fried pork...)
• and Soy sauce

 It seems like Lady is enjoying her new tree :)

Beton #16 Happy Valentine's Day Y'all

Just some fried rice with veggies, crab meat and a little bit of sushi nori!

Oh, no special bento for Valentine's Day?

 Well, I was preoccupied by more important things...like assembling my 6 ft tall cat trees! Why did I get two? Well, sometimes crazy cat ladies just do crazy things like getting cat trees that'll really stretch her budget for the next couple months...which leads to my next point - don't be surprised to see a lot of fried rice and bread in the future posts...

This one has a "cave" and  "hammock"! I think Mona really likes it and will spend many hours in this tree just to sprawl out lazily and bask in the sun...

Lady rolls around a lot in her sleep and tends to fall off of high places but that hasn't stopped her from just falling asleep anywhere...

Pork Katsu and Steamed Bread

Today's Lunch (I promise I'll get back to bento-ing soon!) includes

• Pork Katsu
• Mango Chili Sauce
• Japanese Mayonnaise
• Spinach
• Brown Rice

I also made some Chinese Steamed Bread (馒头, man-tou) they are so soft and fluffy...and I just ate way too much of it so I'm going to go take a nap now...

Stuffed Cabbage

Well, I usually hate cabbage but steamed cabbage with Japanese Mayonnaise stuff with marinaded tofu isn't all that bad... The picture shows the fillings on the side.

For this delicious vegan (yes, Japanese Mayo is made of soy) recipe you will need:

• Cabbage leaves (it took about half a cabbage for me to harness five whole cabbage leaves...hope you have have gentler man-hands)
• 1/2 block of tofu
• Vermicelli - I try to do tofu to vermicelli on a 2 to 1 ratio since tofu soaks in the marinate a lot better
• Soy Sauce and rice vinegar - amount depends on how much you like soy sauce, or substitute marinara sauce if you want it with a more Western flavor 
• Salt and granulated chicken stock to taste
• Japanese Mayo

Here are the steps to this delicious and guilt-free (though it depends on how much you eat and how sorry you feel for the cows...) meal:

1. Blanch the cabbage leaves in boiling water for about a minute or until it becomes soft then drain and cool
2. While the cabbage leaves are busy being cool, dice the tofu and vermicelli  into fine pieces
3. Remove the diced stuffing into a ziplock bag and add your preferred marinade sauce (soy sauce or marinara)
4. Add salt and granulated chicken stock (I know it's "to taste" but it will come out tasting like soggy cardboard with no salt or chicken stock at all)
5. Shake bag vigorously (or mush the contents around because we all secretly miss playing with play dough all day) until all the tofu pieces are the same color
6. Open up a cabbage leaf, throw a bit of stuffing and roll it up like a burrito (also calls for a little delicate touch as wet cabbage is even easier to tear than dry cabbage)
7. Once all the cabbages are stuffed, you can either put it on the steamer for 20 minutes or cover with plastic wrap (make sure it's completely sealed!) and microwave for about 5 minutes.
8. Squeeze some Japanese Mayo on top and you are don!

Tip: Boiling water is hot, thought you should know. . . .

Dinner 02.09.12

Here's my dinner...

Gyoza
Crab Meat
Heart Shapped Tofu

Tired...sleep..now...

Bento #15

Prop. 8 was declared unconstitutional by the 9th circuit today! A lot of excitement went out during constitution law class as a result. We promptly received a smack on the wrist about muti-tasking (surfing the web) during class...

Today's bento includes:
Gyoza (steamed not fried, sorry)
Imitation crab meat
Shanghai Bok Choy (under the gyoza)

4 hours of property homework later, I still have no idea where to put that goddamn comma...

Bento #14

Procrastinating on my paper again...but didn't feel like making anything elaborates so here it is...

Today's Bento Includes:
Pickled Daikon
Sushi (Japanese mayonnaise, pink rice, spinach and crab meat)

Bento #13

I was going to work on my brief today...but it's now around 8:40 pm and I have one sentence. It's not even a good sentence.

Today's Bento includes:

• Inarizushi (fried tofu stuffed with rice)
• Grilled Fish
• Pickled Daikon
• Imitation Crab Meat
• Steamed Broccoli

Ochazuke and Onigiri!

Ochazuke (お茶漬け) is a light Japanese dish made with green tea (of course I super-sized it with fried pork).


This Ochazuke is made with:

• Pan Fired Pork (chop up pork, heat out oil and let it fry)
• Blanched Enoki Muschrooms and Shanghai Bok Choy (ran out of bean sprouts)
• Brown Rice

The recipe is super simple. Start with some rice in a bowl, add toppings (pickled daikon and shredded nori work great too) and pour freshly brewed green tea over it. Remember to let it cool for a little bit before enjoying...

I also made some onigiri stuffed with artificial crab meat for lunch. Horray for pink rice!

Steamed Breakfast & No-So-Tortious Bunny

"...Courts don't follow logical arguments like that you know." - Constitution Law Professor on South Dakota v. Dole.

On to more fun with my steamer (but maybe I should be studying instead)! 

Today's breakfast includes:

• Tofu
• Shanghai Bok Choy
• Pickled Daikon
• Dried Fish with Sesame
• Spicy Mango Sauce

The only preparation needed for this breakfast was chopping everything to desired shapes and put it on the boiler/steamer. I also put a lot of granulated chicken stock and soy sauce in there for the flavor.
I also attempted to make bunny-shaped bread last night...unfortunately this was the only one from the litter that somewhat resembled a bunny sleeping on its side (if you appreciate modern art)...

Chinese Steamed Bread

My criminal law professor has been talking about a metaphorical bag that we can pull defenses out of. Every time he does, I think "Where is this bag? What does it look like? Maybe it's pink and taste like fruit! Can I have the bag? I'd very much like to have this bag for the finals...Oh! I bet I can fit fifty cats into it!...Oh, wait, what's he talking about now?"

Anyway...

My first batch of steamed bread (mantou,馒头) came out pretty well. They were soft and fluffy and in my tummy before they cooled! I tried to make a heart-shaped batch but rushed the steaming process so the yeast were killed (oh my poor minions!) before the dough could rise. Oops.

Wanton Soup!

I'm a bit under the weather (had to take today off), so here's some homemade wonton soup instead of a bento. I used vegetable wonton skins (that counts as eating veggies right?!), the fillings are marinaded tofu and bean sprouts. It's garnished with Shanghai bok choy and served with chicken broth, soy sauce, sesame oil and a little bit of rice vinegar.

A while back, I ordered some wonton soup from a Chinese restaurant in Atalanta. Much to my chagrin, the "wonton" didn't have any filling! No meat, not shrimp, no tofu, not even veggies...just folded dumpling skins (it wasn't even wonton skin) flapping in bland chicken broth! It was what my parents would call "losing Chinese people's face". 

Here's a picture of my freshly made wonton! They freeze very well, so I made a large batch and stocked up on them.