Snowman Bento

We have not really had typical winter weather here in Sonoma County. Today we got a bit of rain, but we rarely have snow. And it has actually been quite warm here for December. So the only winter I can see is the one in my bento box!

In the yellow box: a snowman onigiri (rice balls) with nori dried seaweed features. I used a fun face punch for his facial features. Also in this box: baby carrots, and tamagoyaki omelette. He's resting on some cabbage leaves. In the smaller pink box: quick pickled cabbage with black sesame seeds (recipe from Maki of Just Bento), edamame, and chicken with broccoli stir fry. 

Here are the two boxes with their lids. I got these are Borders (boo hoo, I am sad they closed) from their awesome collection of Paperchase items. 

Happy Monday!

Chicken Stirfry Bento

I do not have a wok, but I wanted to see if I could make a successful stirfry using my awesome ManPans pan. I am happy to say, it worked pretty well. I used chicken, ginger, garlic (from Armstrong Valley Farms), onions, carrots, purple cabbage, green onions, and zucchini in my stirfry, and made a sauce of shoyu, water, toasted sesame oil, mirin, rice vinegar, sriracha, sugar, and cornstarch. I even made my first batch of miso soup! That did not work as well, since I didn't have any dashi broth. I will try again when I do. My hubby LOVES miso soup, mostly because he is wild about tofu. He will kill me if word about his love for tofu gets out, so let's keep this amongst ourselves. ;-)

In this bento: leftover chicken stirfry, rice, Arkansas Black apple slices from Walker Apples, baby carrots, slices of cucumber, and two mini pork buns. I tried steaming the pork buns in my microwave steamer and I think I overdid it. I will have to resort back to the stovetop method. They are tasty though! I picked them up at Asia Mart in Santa Rosa.

Big News! My little brother and his beautiful wife had their first baby yesterday. She's tiny, just 6 pounds 2 ounces, and her name is Molly Ruby. I can't wait to head to Seattle at the end of this month to meet her. You can call me "Auntie M" from now on. :-) I'll have to come up with a fun bento to celebrate her birth!