mini-burger bento
I couldn't wait for my new bento boxes to arrive in the mail to start trying some new recipes, so here goes! These mini-burgers are from The Just Bento Cookbook. I've had this book for a while but have only tried one recipe. Since I'm getting more serious about bento boxing, this is the first book I turned to.
I altered the recipe a little bit to suit my tastes, and I baked the patties instead of frying them. DH went grocery shopping this time, and I forgot to ask him to buy regular bacon; to him, bacon means thick-cut. I thought baking would yield better results, but the burgers turned out pretty rare (DH has those in his bento). I fried the ones that weren't wrapped in bacon and those turned out great. Also, we are trying to make the switch to brown rice, but I'm not entirely sure I will succeed. We eat whole wheat bread almost exclusively, so I feel like it evens out. Especially since we don't eat rice that often.
After I already planned to make this meal, I realized that I don't have a bento that is a good size for it, but decided to make it work rather than putting it off. DH's bento works fine, but my bento boxes are generally on the smaller side. The ones that are arriving in the mail are bigger, though. Anyway, I was going to have broccoli and cucumber salad with this bento but only had enough room for the salad.
When I went to the Japanese dollar store the other day, I also picked up this microwave steamer. I didn't plan to steam anything in it, but rather to thaw frozen veggies and fruits in it overnight in the fridge. This way, the thawing food doesn't sit in the melting ice. I'll report on how well it works tomorrow.