Innie or Outie

This is basically the same meal as Bento#7, but uses a fried chicken cutlet instead of a pork cutlet.

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This convenience store version of the Japanese bento consisted of rice with grated bonito flakes, potato salad, deep-fried white fish with tartar sauce, curried potato croquette, spaghetti, nori (dried seaweed sheet), sausage, pickled veggie, and a fried pancake roll with sauce.

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There are so many choices in the bento box market on island. Here is another convenience store version. This one had rice, two types of seaweed, scrambled egg, pork, string beans, pickled ginger, rice, and mountain vegtables.

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Unlike its very popular cousin, this Japanese Peep is not made of marshmallows:

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Instead, this little birdie is a sweet pastry with a chestnut paste filling.

Here is one use for the Crockpot Paella leftovers, Crockpot Paella Croquette Dinner:

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Simply form the paella into balls, roll in flour, dip in raw beaten egg, cover with panko, and freeze until needed. Partially defrost prior to deep frying.

Placed on a bed of blanched cabbage and apple strips with crushed walnuts added and tossed in a cinnamon-orange sauce, the croquettes are topped with a honey/mustard-toasted almond/mint sauce then garnished with fresh parsley. To complete the meal, I served a Japanese style clear broth with leeks, seaweed, shrimp, and scallions.

Hubby’s really getting into this means of creative expression. Here’s his latest endeavor, Papa’s Cabbage Roll Dinner:

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The cabbage rolls are stuffed with herb sausage in tomato garlic sauce and topped with a béchamel sauce. As a side dish, hubby used boiled potatoes and carrots drizzled with a basil-garlic-balsamic sauce.

Here's another leftover idea for the Couscous Skillet Paella with beans, 3 Sauce Couscous Paella Wraps:

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The mini-wraps consisted of blanched cabbage leaves or halved tortillas, filled with paella, and topped with one of the three sauces: creamy guacamole, honey-mustard, or creamy lemon with mint and toasted almonds. I served this with bacon-potato soup garnished with freshly snipped parsley.

If you've ever clicked on one of the pics on this site, then you already know about Flickr. I recently added two new groups to the site that allow for pools of foodies with similar foodies. One, Leftover ReCreations, is about the recreations of leftover food into new edibles. The other group, Hubby Made This is for pics (food and other) of those creative projects of those ever so lovable men in our lives that help brighten up the day. If you get a chance, check the sites out.

Here's another convenience store bento. This one had tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet), luncheon pork, potato croquette, hamburger, carrots, daikon, mackerel, rice, and root vegetable noodles.

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Crockpot Paella Gone Wrong

We’ve all had an occasion when, even with the best of intentions, the dish just goes horribly wrong. A car breaks down, traffic is outrageous and unrelenting, a late last minute meeting at the office, or whatever – you get stuck far away from the cooking crockpot meal. Well this is one of those dishes when I couldn’t get to it in time and the crockpot just kept steaming the rice until I ended up with a Crockpot Paella Mushy Mess:

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But that doesn’t mean it can’t be saved, Baked Crockpot Paella:

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Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place the mushy mess in a small paella pan (or pie dish) and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the paella from the oven and using a fork turn the mixture. Return to the oven and bake for 15 more minutes.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with approximately ½ cup crushed tortilla chips for added texture, ½ teaspoon capers, and freshly snipped parsley.

Serve with a salad of fresh crunchy salad greens and veggies (such as radishes) dressed with a vinaigrette.