Freezing Cornbread Muffins

I wake up at around 6 and have to get to work at 7 so I try to get my lunch packed up the night before. But sometimes, I forget or I'm very tired so I don't have a lunch. Which is very bad. Because I end up buying something in the break room which means my lunch consists of: a hot pocket/burrito, a granola bar, and some fruit snacks. Not the best. It makes me pretty mad at myself because I have to spend money and I don't feel as good or full for the lack of good food. So (enough with the rambling back story :P) Any way that I can get lunch together faster is great. I get so much inspiration from Biggie at Lunch in a box.

I love cornbread. So I made 3 dozen mini cornbread muffins-from a mix, this week. Then I wrapped them in plastic wrap (To prevent freezer burning) and into a Lock and lock container in the freezer they went. You can't really read it. But I have a piece of tape stating: "Cornbread muffins 9/22/08" This is because things need to be marked in our freezer or people ask you repeatedly what it is. Also, dates are a good idea so it gets eaten up. These should last for a few months though, and I'm sure they'll be eaten by then.

Here's more of the inside. You'll also notice the divider in there. 12 of the muffins have cheese in them so that let's me know which is which.

Freezer foods are a great way to make a fast lunch. I usually have edamame(Soy beans), Gyoza(potstickers), An pan(Red bean paste buns. Yum!), and rice, fried tofu in the freezer. Because I have a microwave steamer-which I picked up at Ross for $3, it's easy to throw a handful of beans or some dumplings in it while I'm getting things together to go. Only takes about a minute to cook. Or I pack the dumplings in the steamer and take it to work to cook it. Then it's nice and hot at lunch time.


Real bento post coming tomorrow!

Lynnwood Daiso and Enchanted boxes

We were down at the Alderwood mall yesterday so we stopped at the Daiso there(of course!). It was bigger then the Federal way store and lots of fun to look around. They had a ton of boxes


I grabbed mini chopsticks, some sauce bottles and veggie cutters. But the best thing I got yesterday was at the Disney store.







Duh duh duh duuuuuuuh! I <3 Enchanted! And these boxes were in a pack for $5.50 or three things from the shelf for $12.00. I was tempted to buy the cars boxes too, but decided against it. I'm disappointed that they don't close very well but I can use them for dry sidcars. I'm happy anyway. :P

The Holiday Approacheth

Since we'll have to cook so much food tomorrow and Thursday I got a head start on my sushi tray tonight. And you know what that means: More pictures! :D

I don't have a musubi press, but I found a really easy way to make spam musubi without one. First I cut the spam block in half and then cut it into strips. I put those in the marinade while I shaped the rice:


After that I took the marinaded spam and fried it on med heat for a few minutes. It doesn't take long:


Then simply assembled them:


And bagged them up with the inarizushi I also made:


All of this probably took me 1 1/2-2 hours.(I ended up with about 40 musubi and 20 inarizushi) And we still have to make Thanksgiving dinner. Blech. I'm sick of cooking. But I still made Josh a lunch because I am a nice sister. :P

Bento #30 (Josh's)


Mixed greens with cranberries and almonds, leftover inarizushi rice, dried apples and apricots with a bottle of salad dressing, carrot sticks, grape tomatos and a baby banana.

I put an antibacterial sheet over the rice because it has a tendincy to "hop" into other parts of the container.

Obento, starting out.

I'm just starting out on this, so I thought I'd put up a post with some info on Obento (Or bento, as it's more commonly called.), boxes, resources and other sites.

What is Bento?
For all difficult answers we turn to the internet! Check out this page on Wikipedia. It has lots of information on the origin and practice of the Bento box. This site also has tons of information about Bento and is also a blog about it. I really love this site.

Why are you making Bento?
Because it's such a great idea and I love good food for lunch on the go.

Ok, my answers plus those sites should answer any questions. On to the Bento-ing!