Javapot tagged me with the topic "Bento leftovers, what to do with them?". Well, I try to utilize everything in some way. Luckily I have a few "garbage disposals" besides myself, namely Sean and our bunnies (Caramel, Chloe, and Buddy). Sean likes to watch me make bentos or watch me cook because he likes to sample as well as eat whatever scraps (like cheese, fruit, kamaboko, egg, and the list goes on). Our bunnies are the fruit and veggie scrap disposal and because there are three of them, they eat a lot! They also take care of a lot of our cuttings in the yard too. :)
At the beginning of summer Paige and I started an herb and cherry tomato garden. The herbs include two types of basil, two types of oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, and shiso. By growing my own herbs, it won't go to waste if I don't use it right away. I just pick what I need to use for my bentos or for cooking.
Bread- with leftover bread, like the crusts, I store them in the freezer until I need to use them. I mostly use them for things like meat loaf, hamburgers, or meatballs. You can also find the pasta with meatballs recipe here. I also sometimes pulse them in a food processor and use them for breadcrumbs.
Cheese- I use the leftover cheese in grilled sandwiches and omelets.
Meats or kamaboko- I use them in omeletes as well as fried rice.
Coffee grinds- I know this is not a bento leftover, but I drink coffee every morning and I sprinkle the grinds on our lawn or leafy shrubs because it makes everything nice and green. However, don't sprinkle on flowering plants because they won't flower.
I am tagging Sherimiya from Happy Little Bento.
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Have fun :)
Tagged:
1. javapot
2. susanyuen
3. Sherimiya
Stuffing a musubi is a fun way to change up your bento and the choices are endless. You could stuff it with things like ume, salted salmon, seasoned kombu, fried chicken, fried shrimp, and so much more. Stuffing your musubi will not only give it texture, but tons of flavor as well. Today I stuffed Paige's musubis with thinly sliced Korean barbecued beef and decorated it with precut nori flowers. The rest of her bento included vegetable gyoza, a few grapes, and veggies.
Happy Aloha Friday everyone! We had a bunch of left over rice, so I decided to make Paige fried rice today with the homemade bacon that she loves. For the fried rice I used homemade bacon, carrots cut very small, thinly sliced green onions and seasoned it with a little bit of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and pepper. It didn't really need too much since bacon has a lot of flavor. I cut out small hearts from the egg sheet that I used for 
Paige requested chicken karaage today, so I made that along with a tamago heart, veggie gyoza, and a few vegetables to fill up her bento. I packed her rice on the top level of the two tiered bento box and decorated it with takuwan (Japanese pickled daikon) flowers and a little girl made from bologna and egg.
Paige's lunch today consists of chicken karaage, tamago, broccoli sauteed with homemade bacon, and hot rice stored in the Totoro thermal container. I decorated her bento with smiley maple leaves cut from kamaboko and colored with Color Mist.
Happy Halloween everyone! The Yuens had to spend the evening in tonight because both Paige and Sean are sick. :( We had fun dressing up anyway and did other festive Halloween activities. We made a haunted house, played a few tricks, and turned our angel hair pasta into a gruesome dinner of worms and crazy eye balls with meat sauce. We also had Caesar salad with parmesan crisp ghosts. 
