Bentos # 50 & 51 : Super light coleslaw & shrimps

• Coleslaw in smaller tier
• Shrimp salad in larger tier
• Thousand Island dressing in HK container

Yesterday’s bentos weren’t quite what I had imagined. I had purchased shrimps, lettuce and an avocado and thought I’d make a nice filling shrimp salad. Except the avocado kept staying hard and unripe… so in the morning rush we simply ended up with just shrimps and lettuce. Quite boring and not very filling. I’m always concerned with how filling my meals are ’cause I want to avoid snacking between meals.

Anyways, the coleslaw made up for it. Kamma from my class shared a neat and light recipe for coleslaw. It’s pretty easy so I’m passing it on to you.

Kamma’s Super Light Coleslaw

• Quarter of a green cabbage
• Couple of carrots
• Large dollop of greek low-fat yoghurt
• Splash of Dijon mustard
• Optional: Splash of white wine vinegar

How to

1. Chop up the cabbage. I guess a food processor can do it easily and quickly but using a knife is just as good. Make sure it’s finely chopped but not “cabbage paste”. You want it to still have a bite.
2. Peel and grate the carrots as finely as you prefer. I like to do a fine grate since the cabbage will have enough chew in them.
3. Add the yoghurt and mustard. You don’t have to mix it beforehand since you’ll be mixing it in with the veggies quite well. Everything needs to be evenly coated and have an even taste.
4. Optional: I like my salads (any kind of salad) a bit bitter so I add vinegar to the mix. If you like it sweeter, leave this out.

I’ve always considered coleslaw a bit of a greasy “non-salad” salad. Especially storebought coleslaw may have tons of mayo and sugar in it but I promise you: This tastes just as well if not better! And you can have seconds without the guilt.

Another happy update: I’ve ordered my birthday gift from my parents online. A digital camera! It’s either gonna be delivered today or tomorrow, but looking at the clock I’m guessing tomorrow. I’m sad to say that I don’t know how many bentos I’ll be making in the next weeks and months but at least I’ll be ready to snap some pictures. I WILL however surely be updating my new blog Beatie says with all other types of projects.

Bento # 19 & 20 : Natural mood elevators

Bento # 19

• Front: Sliced banana, sliced canned peach and thawed raspberries
• Pink side dish container: Raspberry yogurt
• Mashed potatoes with parsley
• Millionbøf
• Lid: Sliced raspberry roll
• Apple juice

Bento # 20

• Muesli with dried strawberries
• Thawed rasperries
• Sliced canned peach
• Pink grape fruit bits
• Lid: Walnuts
• Hello Kitty container: Raspberry yogurt

I only did one tier for this one as I was outta time and outta “pack-in-a-hurry” foods.

So, school is rocking on steady and I’m keeping up pretty well. I’m loving my bentos and yesterday another girl from my class just ordered her first bento box on eBay. Cool, huh! I myself began to feel the eBay itch so I ordered some stuff:

• 2-tier pink Putifresh Apple square box
• 2-tier yellow Putifresh Banana snap box
• 2 condiment cases with happy veggies on ‘em
• a pack of Animal food picks
• a gift for my little sister: 1-tier pink Putifresh Apple snap box

I decided to get my sister a box even though she doesn’t have a lot of time for cooking stuff. She’s busy as a bee – working and studying. I’m so proud. ^_^ I’m thinking a single-tier box won’t be too overwhelming or even embarrassing for a non-bento-making person. Still, Putifresh is quite “bento” and there’s a bit of Engrish on it I know she’ll appreciate.

I think I’ll offer her the choice between the single-tier box and the Banana box in case she actually wants to do a proper bento.

*sending lots of love to sis!*

Oh and I wanna give you the recipe for “millionbøf”. Directly translated it’s “million beef”, heh. The reason for its name is the look: The many little dots of ground, fried beef in a sea of brown sauce. It is usually made quite fluid – though in my picture it’s straight outta the fridge and therefor a bit firmer.

Ingredients

• Onion
• 500 grams of ground beef
• Can of tomatoes
• ½ litre of milk
• Flour for thickening
• Salt and pepper for taste
• Brown food coloring (I don’t know English term, sorry! ;_;)

• Optional: Beef stock for taste

How to

1. Finely chop the onion and fry it in a pan with some oil/butter/margerine/whatever-you-prefer.
2. When the onion is soft and clear, add the ground beef.
3. The beef should be thoroughly browned before you add the tomatoes. If you’re using very lean beef it might be neccesary to add more oil/butter/whatever during the browning.
4. Mush the tomatoes in there. This sauce is supposed to be quite smooth and not with a lot of big tomato chunks. Part of the charm is the fact that this dish hardly looks edible in some cases.
5. Now, pour in the milk and get ready to reconsider this whole meal. Looks gross, doesn’t it? Perfect!
6. You want it boiling for some time. The longer it’s on the stove, the better it gets (as it usually is with ground-beef dishes). You can choose to add some beef stock any time here to make it taste like it’s been simmering all day. I let it boil 20 mins.
7. Water up some flour and whisk it in. Thicken it like this to your liking.
8. Last, but certainly not least, add the brown food color. It’s typically made very dark. Chocolate dark.

Danes have a dangerous and unhealthy love of brown sauce. This, for me, is the mother of brown sauce. I’ll eat it with pasta, mashed potatoes or nothing at all! Gimme gimme brown sauce!! *drool*

Bento # 17 : A few of my favourite things

• In the lid: Walnuts
• Leftover take-out chicken
• Corn, sprout and kidney bean salad
• Vinaigrette dressing in the piggie bottle
• Risengrød / Danish rice porridge with marzipan heart
• In the Hello Kitty container: Cinnamon sugar
• Apple juice box

This was one GOOD bento. The people eating lunch at my table looked awfully jealous and commented on the nice smells coming from my corner.

The chicken was fantastic – even cold. The salad was very fresh and the walnuts were great to snack on. I also decided to make a batch of rice porridge which is a Danish christmas classic and is usually only served at that time of year. In my opinion it’s too good to miss out on the rest of the year so I’m giving the term “seasonal food” a kick in the butt…

Here’s how it’s made:

Ingredients

• 1 cup or 2 dl of water
• 200 gr. of pudding rice
• 1 and 1/4 litres of milk

How to

1. Put water and rice in a large pot
2. Turn up the heat and let it boil for a minute or two
3. Remember to stir every now and then, or some of the rice might get stuck to the bottom
4. Now add the milk all at once. You’re probably thinking “Yikes, that’s too much milk” but it’s actually just the right amount
5. Have it boil and then put the lid on the pot
6. Now it’s supposed to boil on low heat for 40-50 minutes, depending on how thick you want it
7. Again, remember to stir occasionally
8. When it’s done Danes usually serve it hot in a soup plate and put a small dollop of butter in the middle for melting. Also a mix of cinnamon and sugar is drizzled generously on top.

Me, I like to add multiple dollops of butter. Yum! It’s also good cold although I did reheat the bit in my bento. The marzipan wasn’t at all weird in that combination though it’s hardly tradition. I just thought it looked cute.

Oh, and a note on the milk: Use whole milk for this recipe. Skimmed is too watery to make a decent, filling risengrød. And here’s a picture of how risengrød normally looks when served at christmas.

Bento # 6 : Chef’s surprise

Today’s bento from the top:

• ABC Strawberry pudding with spoon
• Organic salty pretzels
• Pickled pear and peach bites
• Fried curry rice with onions & chicken
• Happy chef and spooky chef (radish body and hat)
• Apple juice

I feel a bit silly making a bento when I’m not actually going anywhere – and I’ll be eating it minutes later. Just couldn’t help myself. I decided to try a bit of veggie carving and it went pretty well considering I had a giant fridge poking my back the entire time.

The fried curry rice is a variation on a typical Danish dish chicken in curry. It’s like a Danish take on Asian food and it’s very basic. Here’s the recipe (without measurements… you can’t really go wrong):

Ingredients

• Rice
• 1/4 Vegetable buillon cube
• Butter
• Chopped onion
• Curry powder
• Bite-size chicken
• Milk

How to

1. Cook the rice like usual. I like to add the buillon to give it a bit of flavour.
2. Melt some butter on medium heat and fry the onion until it’s soft and see-through. I like to use butter for frying onions and spices instead of oil. Can’t explain why. >_< It’s just bubbly and nice.
3. Add as much curry as you like and keep stirring. By frying the curry you bring out the flavour.
4. As it cooks up you might wanna add more butter. It tends to get dry.
5. Add the chicken and stir every now and then until it’s cooked all the way through.
6. Pour in a bit of milk to make the dish more liquid. It softens the curry flavour so make sure you add enough at the beginning. Adding more later won’t hurt but you’ll need quite a bit more to get the same result.
7. Your rice should be done so you wanna add some of that to the pot. Mix well and you’re done.
8. Enjoy!

It tastes pretty well but looks kinda dull. You can add spring onions – or moody raddish chefs!

Tortellini in milk sauce

I have the summer off, I’m going nowhere, I have no reason to make bentos! ;_; Revenge is sweet, though. I decided to make one of my favourite pasta dishes: Tortellini in milk sauce.

Ingredients

• around 100 grams tortellini with meat filling
• pinch of salt
• ½ vegetable buillon cube
• 2 dl milk
• 1 dl cream
• 1/4 dl flour
• pinch of black ground pepper

How to

1. Cook the tortellini in lots of water and add quite a bit of salt. The salty water will help keep the tortellini firm and you don’t have to add salt to the sauce later on. Two birds – one stone. Once it’s done, drain and set aside.
2. Pour 2 dl water in another pot and add the buillon to make a nice vegetable stock.
3. Turn up the heat until it boils and add the milk and cream.
4. Mix the flour with water so it becomes a thin, smooth liquid.
5. When the sauce is boiling again, add the flour mix while whisking to thicken the sauce. In a matter of minutes your sauce will have the right consistency and you can add the pepper.
6. Turn down the heat and carefully put the tortellinis in the sauce. Make sure every tortellini is covered in sauce.
7. It’s done! Now you can serve it with your favorite veggies. Maybe even add a little grated cheese either during the cooking process or afterwards to top it off. Enjoy.

I had this for lunch. It’s not exactly a bento but I made it nice for my blog. ^^ It’s:

• Tortellini in milk sauce
• Steamed green beans
• Cherry jelly bunny (he’s looking at the greens! Quick – eat him!)

Getting a new fridge on Monday. Finally we got an apointment with the supplier who’s been busy. I can’t wait.

Bento # 5 : Double pork pasta with favourite snacks

This is MY kind of bento. These are all things I love:

• Blushing apple bites
• Organic salty pretzels
• Green banana flavoured jelly from butterfly mold with gold/silver sprinkles
• Double pork pasta
• Grated cheese in Hello Kitty container
• Tamek Sour Cherry Nectar

Yesterday I went to a great little market near the train station which I’ve been serously neglecting even though it’s a real treasure chest of exotic snacks, canned foods, spices, chutneys, jellies, puddings, canned drinks, etc. It’s owned by these middle-eastern types and there’s always this cute little boy working the register. ^_^ Oh, and they have an intimidating fresh meat section that I need to explore once I get the courage.

Well, I bought 3 packs of jelly powder. I took a picture of them ’cause I like the boxes. They were 7 DKR each which is a bit over $1. I also bought the Tamek cherry drinks which has no fizz and makes ‘em perfect for taking with you. I didn’t have bags or transportation so I didn’t get to buy a whole lot but I’ll definitely return soon.

Here’s what I put in the double pork pasta:

• Organic durum wheat pasta
• Tiny macaronies
• Can of diced tomatoes
• Can of tomato puré paste
• Couple slices of ham, meant for sandwiches
• Bacon
• Grated cheese

How to

1. Cook and drain all the pastas. Use any kind you like. Lotsa different types = extra pretty.
2. Cut the ham into bits.
3. Start frying the bacon. When it’s dark and crisp, leave it on a paper towel to absorb fat.
4. Put pastas, tomatoes, puré and ham in a pot and heat on medium. Make sure the pasta is covered in sauce.
5. Add a little grated cheese to the pot to make it sticky.
6. Cut the bacon into bits for sprinkling.
7. Either
   a. serve on a plate. Sprinkle cheese and bacon. Yum!
   b. put a dollop into a bento box. Sprinkle with bacon and put cheese on the side and add just before reheating.

Sorry for the lack of measuring. I didn’t measure the ingredients and I think it’s actually a pretty fool-proof recipe if you think in two-person-dinner amounts. Even if it doesn’t turn out like this it’s bound to taste nice. It’s cheap, it’s tasty and there’s bacon. What more could you want?

I wouldn’t eat it cold, though. Fortunately I’m always near a microwave. And you could definitely add oregano, maybe basil. I simply forgot to spice it up. >_<

Kanelsnegle / cinnamon rolls

Kanel is Danish for “cinnamon” and snegle is Danish for “snails”. These are my homemade kanelsnegle or simply cinnamon rolls. Here’s what’s in ‘em:

Dough

• 50 grams melted butter
• 1 dl. milk
• 35 grams yeast
• 3.5 dl. flour

Filling

• 30 grams soft butter
• 50 grams brown sugar*
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

How to

1. Mix the melted butter and milk to start up the dough.
2. Make sure the liquid is luke warm not hot before you add the yeast.
3. Blend together and add the flour little by little.
4. Then you roll out the dough on a flour-covered table and make a nice rectangle about 1 cm thick.
5. Make the filling by throwing together all the ingredients.
6. Spread the filling evenly on the dough rectangle.
7. Roll it up on the long side so you get a nice long roll with the cinnamon swirl on both ends.
8. Cut the roll up in 1.5 cm thick slices and put them on a cookie sheet on an oven tray.
9. Let it rise for 15 mins and start the oven at 200°C.
10. Bake for 12 mins.
11. Enjoy!

I thought these would be nice for a bento. They have a distinct look and a nice flavour. I actually got some store-bought ones I wanted to use for bentos but I accidentally ate them all before I had the chance. So it was actually a sense of guilt (and a sense of wanting to eat more!) that inspired this baking session.

*Not sure about the name for that in English. But it’s basically white sugar that’s been covered in molasses.