Miso Soup Bento

Hi bento pals! Today I tried out a trick that I first discovered through notabrownbag's website. It's portable miso soup! You can buy powdered miso soup packets, and I think I may even have one hiding in one of my desk drawers, but there is nothing like fresh miso paste and delicious cubes of tofu. Today even turned out kind of chilly with a few drizzles, so it's a perfect day for miso soup.

In this bento: steamed white corn, cucumber slices, cherries, my portable miso soup, and breaded pork cutlets leftover from last night's dinner. Portable miso soup is super easy: in the silicone cupcake liner I have a ball of miso paste mixed with a pinch of dashi granules, topped with cubes of tofu and sliced scallions. Dump the all of those ingredients into a bowl and top with hot water. Et voila: Miso Soup!

Note: I have tried making miso soup without dashi, and it just is kind of flat tasting. I found dashi granules at Asia Mart on Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa. It's totally worth it if you are making miso soup at home.

Cinco de Mayo Bento

Hola! Happy Cinco de Mayo! I got a bunch of chicken drumsticks from our local hispanic grocery store yesterday (Lola's--I love this place for really great deals!), and simmered them in spices and chili powder, then baked them in a salsa with lots of green onion. They turned out great, and made this bento very flavorful.

In this bento: quesadilla with refried beans, white cheddar cheese, and chicken meat. Also radishes, green onion, navel orange segments, a baby carrot, a dried mission fig, lime flavored cabbage slaw, and walnuts from the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market. Just for fun, here is the bento I made on Cinco de Mayo last year:

This one had tortillas from La Tortilla Factory, a great company in Sonoma County. I think this one was pretty cute, and I remember that it tasted good. :) Are you doing anything fun to celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Any special meal planned for today?

And remember, you still have time to enter my 1 Year Blogiversary contest, good luck!