recipe: peanut sauce

After being entirely unsatisfied with store-bought peanut sauces, I forayed into the realm of the homemade... This is surprisingly simple!



Peanut Sauce

1/2 C hoisin sauce
1/3 C peanut butter (creamy or crunchy, whatever floats your boat)
2 T soy sauce (or ponzu)
1 T rice vinegar
1 T squid sauce
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
sriracha or other hot sauce, to taste

Stir everything together until well blended. 
If you want a thinner sauce, add a couple 
of tablespoons of water. This makes 
about 3/4 C sauce. You can easily double 
it. It's great on stir-fry, veggies, salads... 
you name it!

Oh hai!

Well, well, well... look what showed up in the mail (finally)!

Unfortunately, I had to leave for school before Mr. Bento arrived, so it was another Glad Bento day.

My first attempt at onigiri turned out so-so. I need a better portable furikake shaker so it doesn't end up all over everything like it did today. :P The pears kept pretty well with a squeeze of lime to keep them from browning, so that's good to know.

I'll post more pictures of my new box and ADORABLE shoyu bottles later, along with my recipe for peanut sauce, which I used as a dipping sauce for my carrots and snap peas today.

nom nom nom ^_^

Don't get mad... get GLAD!

DAY 1 of my bento adventures! ^_^

0600. Alarm goes off. Normally I hit the snooze button at least three times but today my bento box might come so I happily (if a little bleary-eyed) stumble into the living room to check the USPS tracking. Lo and behold - PACKAGE IS IN TRANSIT TO DESTINATION! Plan of action: cook rice, prep veggies and make soy sauce eggs whilst impatiently waiting for the mailman to deliver my bento box!

1030. As usual, life is not going according to plan. The mail van has been parked at the end of the block for a good 24 minutes and the mailman has not yet visited my front door. When he finally does, there is NO PACKAGE. I decide to skip my 1100 class in hopes that the box was too big to stuff into his mail bag and he will yet deliver it.

1105. Mail van is gone. No bento box. I am disappointed. But I conjure up Plan B: drive to the post office and see if they can locate the package, which must surely be in the building.

1140. Driving home from the post office sans bento box, I am pissed off. I should have known better than to trust the USPS tracking info! I should have known better than to think my precious bento box would actually arrive without a hitch! I should have - but damn it, I want a bento. I decide to improvise a Plan C:

THE GLAD BENTO!

After all, I've got to eat lunch some way or another. My rice is cooked and seasoned, my gyoza are steamed, I've a jar of freshly made dipping sauce, and a pile of pretty red pepper 'flowers' - and I'm sure I can unearth a bandanna from my stash of random hats and head wear to wrap it all up... even if it is just a plastic container.

Hence icanhasbento no. 1: