knicnax

This bento is just a repeat of a previous bento, with just the addition of the Sho-Yu Tamago. This is actually the last bento I made for lunch as a technical consultant for my 2nd job. I didn't want to burn myself out on my last day of work so I made an easy bento. Plus, I really wanted to try that vegan cream cheese recipe that I've been reading about. Bento Menu: Nissin Instant Yakisoba Sho-Yu Tamago Vegetarian Creamcheese filled Bell Pepper (failed). The Yakisoba is easy enough, my recipe to kick the flavor up a notch can be found here . Sho-Yu Tamago or Soy Sauce is really easy to make. Took me about 3 minutes to give the egg that brown color. More or less 10 if you include boiling the egg and shelling it. It's best done the night before. I got the Sho-Yu Tamago idea from Just Bento, so head on over there to check out how it's made

Today's bento is especially scrumptous! I guess Ive broken my blah bento streak! It's also great news for me, cause I created a bento for bubu (my sister) as well. Today's Menu: Plain, unsalted onigiri Pandan Chicken Caramelized eggplant Today's carb is just plain rice. I just molded the rice using the onigiri mold I bought last week. The brown sauce you see on the rice are the drippings of the caramelized onions The pandan chicken is again, bought from SM Supermarket. I have no idea how to cook it, but what I did was I fried it while still wrapped in pandan. The caramelized eggplant is a stroke of genius for me. Last night, I had no idea what to do with the eggplants. Before sleeping, I had a eureka moment. I told my self I'll make a rub for my eggplants. I dozed off as I was listing the ingredients for the rub in my head. Ingredients 2 medium sized eggplants sliced Sugar Garlic powder/ground fresh garlic Salt Paprika Turmeric Pro...

Today's bento took me about 7 minutes to make, 10 minutes tops. Quite a record actually. I wasn't able to get up early to make a bento. I also had no idea what to make for today's bento, so everything was out of whim and very simple, the concept just even popped out of my head. Not planned at all. Today's Bento Menu: Cheese Stuffed Onigiri Century Tuna Octodogs (fail) Various shabu shabu meats Chopped Green Olive Tamagoyaki My cheese stuffed onigiri is just actually plain rice with bits of cheese inside. Didn't have the time to sear the rice, let alone flavor it. I was so lacking in time. My proteins for today aren't really healthy, unless you consider the fact that the octodogs are made out of tuna hot dogs. The shabu shabu meats are left overs fro last night's shabu shabu dinner. They were already cut in half last night to minimize cooking time. I can't remember which is which for the shabu shabu meats, since we buy them by pac...

Day 3's bento was a bit bleak! I just pulled it together haphazardly. I had no idea what to match with my pesto torikatsu, and I didn't want to repeat any of my bento food items yet. I was excited to make this bento for one thing, I bought my first set of rice molds! Well, it's actually just one shape - a triangle, but I'm pretty glad I now have a mold for my bento :) Day 3's Menu, like I said, was put together haphazardly, but the blend of flavors were still considered. Actually taste-wise, my previous bentos were much more yummier. Only the salad in this bento had this oomph factor. Day 3's Bento Menu: Plain Onigiri with Bell Pepper garnish Pesto Torikatsu Summer Cool Down Salad My plain Onigiri was just freshly cooked rice, then I added about 1-2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar to give it a little flavor. I then molded it in my newly bought onigiri molds. I let the rice set for a few minutes and then seared it in a pan with very little oil. Aft...

Okay. So I had a hard time in planning out this bento, mainly because of budget constraints, and also because I had a different bento in mind yesterday afternoon, and I found out later that I lack most of the ingredients needed for the bento I wanted to make for today. I guess that bento'll be for another day. Anyway, my bento today took me, more or less, 45 minutes to make. It's a really long time to make a bento this simple, but hey, I'm new to cooking and I'm new to bento-making. I spent roughly about 25 pesos for this bento. The total cost of this bento (if all ingredients were taken account for) would be 35-40 pesos. Depending on the quality of products that you would use. Take note that this cost is for 2 bentos already. Today's Bento Menu: Pork Meatballs Luncheon Meat Cheese-stuffed Bell Pepper Spicy Chicken Yakisoba I got the pork meatballs already flavored in SM Supermarket at 5 pesos per ball.  I placed 2 balls per bento. The ...

I was scheming all day yesterday about how to make my SDEHBF feel special on his birth month. I don't know about you, but I love getting the royal treatment on my birth month, and he sure did make me feel special last year. I want to return the favor this time around. Since he's so into anime and manga, I thought, why not make him a bento box? I was prowling the Internet for ideas on bento making. So here's my first ever attempt of a bento: Today's Menu Butter-Ketchup Gohan / Rice Parmesan Torikatsu Blanched Broccoli with cheese sauce Vegetable saltine crackers for dividers Strips of quickmelt cheese over the gohan I got the gohan/rice recipe from lunchinabox.net . It was supposed to be an onigiri or a fried rice ball but I had too much butter on my rice mixture that I wasn't able to form strong balls of rice. My Paremesan Torikatsu was bought from SM Supermarket, pre-made, so all I had to do was fry it. Talk about speedy bentos! I had a bad...

Bossa Nova, yellow lights, a relaxed atmoshphere, alone, and a long time to kill are all ingredients for a reflection. This time, the idea of love and being inlove is running in circles inside my head. I've memorized this line I thought of already, what with the countless times I thought about this? "Love starts when being inlove ends". Of course, that statement doesn't hold true all the time. This statement is not actually meant to be a definition of love but it's the challenge of love. This is how you know if you truly love the person. It's easier to forgive, to put yourself aside, to change yourself when you're in love. Naturally! You're so high with "love chemicals" that you're to numb to even care how much it would normally hurt, or be a bother. It's wonderful how the body works, but once you mind catches up with your body, when you start crashing down from your high, that's when loving starts. That's when things are sta...

I love being a church worker. I've been with our Church's Parish Youth Ministry for years now, and I've enjoyed the roller coaster ride it have been giving me these past few years. I'm not getting any younger though, and as much as I want to stay in the ministry, I can't, well not for very long. I have to venture out and serve God in a different ministry. Something with a more specific goal (aside from evangelizing). When I was in High School, I wanted to be part of the Lector-Commentator Ministry. I love to read and I'm not afraid of speaking in front of many people, so it was a really good fit for me. My mum joined in and I found out that it's a very difficult ministry to join in. It'll be very difficult to balance my work, family, love and social life if I join in. Also, I wanted an approach where people really listen. LCM don't always achieve that. No matter how great they read, there will really be people who are mentally absent and just answe...

Last Saturday was our annual company outing. This year, we went to Splash Island and had a "splasing good time". Through the course of the day (until midnight), I learned and remembered a lot of valuable lessons. Here are some of them: 1. No matter how tired you are, you'll still enjoy and tire yourself even more when you're with friends. 2. Friends are there to coach you and help you conquer your fear (even though they don't phrase it properly) 3. Friends will always, always give a helping hand, especially in dire need. 4. No matter how much you hate the guts of your friend, you still can't find it in your heart to tell on him 5. There are levels in friendship. Our goal should be to be at the top level. 6. You can do anything if you can face the consequences 7. What's worse than doing something wrong? Seeing someone who's doing something wrong and not correcting it. 8. The stupidest and simplest of things can give us utmost happiness. 9. Thi...

Last weekend I attended our Church's annual Basic Bible Seminar 1. I really wanted to attend it this year but it was announced on such a short notice. My schedule was full-up that I thought I won't be able to attend. The first day (night) of BBS1, I was supposed to have dinner with SDEHBF. He just arrived in manila after a week-long vacation in his province in Bicol. We were really looking forward to the dinner date. On the same night, my office friends planned a videoke party at a nearby bar. We were celebrating a lot of stuff, plus we had to spend the 2000 peso winnings we earned in last year's Christmas party. I had 2 dates already conflicting for the night, but I already worked out a plan to go with my friends first while waiting for SDEHBF's work shift to end, and then meet with him for a late dinner. But after all the planning that I did, I ended up doing neither and just attended the BBS 1 seminar. I just asked SDEHBF to pick me up at the Shrine at 10 pm so we ...

This may be a late post but I just can't take it anymore. I am not a devotee nor an advocate of the Black Nazarene but sheesh, why don't the others just keep their ideas to themselves or to their groups? A lot of people have been quoting the Bible about idolatry and fanaticism, how the Catholics have gone overboard with their devotion. How the Catholics pray and worship idols, like the saints and even *gasp* the Black Nazarene. News Flash everyone, the Black Nazarene represents Jesus. JESUS CHRIST our SAVIOR.The devotees and what you call the "fanatics" worship JESUS. What's wrong with worshiping God? The Black Nazarene is merely a symbol of faith, a representation of Jesus at one point in his life. Is worth the trouble? Is it worth dying for? I haven't been to any of these public displays of affection to the image of the Black Nazarene, or of any saint for that matter, but I believe, if you truly love someone, anything is worth doing. They believe in...

With what's happening with me and my family, God, prayer and support from family & friends keep our wits together. With nothing to do in the hospital but to eat, sleep, watch tv and play games on the computer, I have had a lot time to think, reflect and be thankful, that despite the fact that we're going through this again because one of the graft's in papa's heart bypass wasn't properly done. An "honest mistake" papa's cardiologist said. "We can't really blame the surgeon". Yeah, okay. Can't blame the surgeon about it, but we don't have deep pockets like them. I could rant on and on and on about how unfair it is but that won't take me anywhere. Instead I tried channeling this frustration into something positive. I know that we should be thankful about this, because like last year, what we're doing is preventive. We're preventing the incident that one day, papa'll just collapse because of a heart attack. We...

I think that we (myself included) overrate the new year. What's the deal anyway? Aren't we supposed to celebrate everyday as a new year? If you look at it, today, January 2, 2012 is a new year cause it's 1 year after January 2, 2011. Just a thought. And what's the deal with new year resolutions? I haven't made one for years. Do you really have to wait for the new year to be a better person? I love festivities and parties; Games and food. I love that it's another holiday to celebrate. I don't mind the noise but I sure do mind the smoke. The smoke filled with gunpowder and other chemicals that make everything go BOOM and hazy. Maybe I'm irritable cause I am feeling that my lungs are so weak from all the allergies that I got this new year. So were you able to complete your circle fruit basket and buy the various white thingies (salt, rice, etc). Were you able to waist about  hours of your life waiting for the colored candles to burn out? Did you wear...