Innie or Outie

This is a variation of a dish that is more commonly known as a tofu entrée, Papa’s Mabo Nasu:

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The dish consisted of ground chicken, chopped nasubi (eggplant), carrot, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, scallion, oyster sauce, toubanjyan sauce, Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic paste, minced ginger paste, chicken broth granules, and rice with cracked black sesame seeds.

Another of the local convenience store bentos with chicken cutlet, pork cutlet with whole grain mustard, potato croquette, tomato sauce spaghetti, pickled plum, seaweed, pickled veggies, and rice with black sesame seeds.

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Here’s another homemade meal that’s easy and flavorful, Rosemary-Garlic Pork Roast Dinner:

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The meal consisted of a pork roast infused with fresh rosemary leaves and garlic chips; then sprinkled with white pepper and powdered thyme; baked and topped with whole grain mustard; chopped white onion and potatoes sautéed in pork fat with white pepper and red wine vinegar added, then garnished with chopped chives; and sliced red pepper, carrot, zuccini, and pine nuts sautéed in sesame oil.

For more complete directions, check out this first attempt at an original foodie video totally from scratch.

A quick and easy way to add a little extra spice to a supermarket pizza, Papa’s Frozen Pizza Plus Dinner:

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To one frozen pizza, hubby added fresh eggplant slices, chopped Spanish olives, Japanese pizza toast cheese, fresh basil, and grated parmesan cheese. As a side dish he made Papa’s Frozen Pizza Plus Salad:

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The salad consisted of homegrown salad greens and arugula, iceberg lettuce, cucumber slices, red onion slices, halved cherry tomeatoes, and chopped chives topped with a creamy cheese dressing.

Here’s another quick and tasty use of leftovers, Curried-Tuna Roll:

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Simply half a whole grain roll; spoon on some Curried-Tuna Rice; top with crumbled baby cheese, fresh whole basil leaves, and halfed cherry tomatoes; then microwave for 1.5 minutes.

Now that the somen has run its course, I’m experimenting with other pantry items, Curried Tuna-Rice Pocket Meal:

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For the meal, I preheated the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade; formed a stuffing of powdered curry, flaked canned tuna, precooked rice, almond slivers, dried parsley flakes, powdered thyme, chopped black olives, white pepper, and diced red onion; coated one side of a tortillas with egg wash; filled with stuffing; sealed, coated outside of stuffed tortillas with egg wash; placed pockets in greased baking dish and cooked for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, the finger salad dip was made by mixing 1/2 sodium red miso paste, toasted sesame oil, minced garlic, white wine vinegar, toubanjyan sauce, soy sauce, and minced ginger paste; then set aside.

The finger salad was plated; consisting of iceberg lettuce leaves, topped with julienned carrot, cucumber, and red onion; black olives were added and the dip spooned into a lettuce cup bed then topped with grated black sesame seeds. The pockets were plated and the meal served.

This is a supermarket version of traditional local cuisine including tofu, konbu, kamaboko, pork, gobo, konyaku, and a daikon-seaweed mixture.

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A simple, yet tasty, way to use leftover rice, Papa’s 10 Grain-Pork Risotto:

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For this dish, hubby used 10 Grain-Kamaboko Rice, added cream, pizza-toast cheese, sliced pork sausage, and grated parmesan cheese; then garnished with chopped arugula and chives.

To accompany the entrée, a simple a side dish, Papa’s Red & Green Salad:

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The salad consisted of homegrown salad greens and arugula with iceberg lettuce, julienned red onion, quartered cherry tomatoes, sliced red radish, and bacon bits, topped with a creamy cheese dressing.

This is a very traditional style of cuisine bento from a local take-out chain store. Included were okara (soy bean liquid), shibui (Winter gourd), konbu (seaweed), sanma (river fish), konyaku, goya chanpuru, rice, umeboshi, and tofu.

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Well here it is the end of another summer and to celebrate, a final new dish using the last of the twenty-five 70 grams somen packets, Shrimp Noodle Crunch:

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The dish consisted of shrimp and diced red onion sautéed in sesame oil; with blanched mixed veggie (cauliflower, broccoli, and carrot) medley, diced red bell pepper, diced yellow bell pepper, and sliced shitake mushrooms; in a sauce of miso, honey, white wine vinegar, minced garlic paste, minced ginger paste, toubanjyan sauce, soy sauce, chicken broth, black sesame seeds, and corn starch; on a bed of deep-fried somen tossed with julienned red cabbage sautéed in olive oil.