Two Steak Bento
I woke up this morning feeling ambitious, so I started to cook one of the last two gigantor top sirloin steaks that Mr. Pikko bought for me at Costco last weekend. The pack cost $15 and the steaks were so huge that I could make two meals out of each one, which meant that I could have steak for basically 2 bucks a meal. Anyway, I made two bento, one for me and one for Mr. Pikko. With all the veggies and stuff, I’d say they came out to costing around $3 each. That’s a pretty awesome price for a steak lunch!
This one is Mr. Pikko’s. If you’re wondering why the noodles look so unruly and out of place, it’s because I put them in mine and decided that I should try putting some in his as well. Bad idea, it looks like a hairball! Since I’m still watching my carb intake (reserved for fruits and such), I didn’t cook rice. Plus, the corn counts in that area. To flavor the steak I used something I got from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, Emeril’s Steak Rub
I asked Mr. Pikko for his feedback on the taste of the product and being a man eating steak, he simply said, “I liked it. Tasty.” For me, I felt like I probably didn’t use enough of it. I also used salt. I’ll try it again with the last steak and this time I’ll add a lot more and let it sit for longer. I pan fried the steak on low-medium heat in a cast iron skillet. I cut half a corn cob in half so that it would fit nicely in the box, then tucked broccoli into the sides and started layering it out towards the middle.
Using tongs, I placed the sliced steak in a nice pattern and then topped with more broccoli. The tomato slices were for color and in the corner there’s some sliced takuan. The three green grapes are his “dessert”. It was rather funny when I bought these. They were on sale for 99c a pound and when I got to the register, the lady looks at it funny and says, “Are these red globe grapes?” If you could capture “…” in a look, that’s the face I made back at her. Eventually I found out that what she meant was the produce people were bagging the grapes in the wrong bag. Still, her saying that with a bag of green grapes in her hand just boggled my mind.
This is my bento, which has the same things in it except no takuan or grapes and half a boiled egg for added protein. I sliced the corn for this one to layer them nicely. They’re quite fun to eat this way! And now that I’m done talking about food, I’ll get to some wonders of parenthood.
I am going to have to look into what it would take to change Buddy’s last name from Watanabe to McPeester. This little twerp of mine, although so cute about it, peed in the bed AGAIN. Last week he did it four times, three times on OUR bed. We still have Pull-Ups in the house, but mention them to him and suddenly he’s on the floor sobbing, “NOOOO!” as if I’ve just told him that gummy bears have permanently gone out of production.
He’s very sneaky about morning bed wetting. Twice so far I’ve gone to the bathroom to find him standing in his room with a weird guilty smile on his face and he’ll be wearing underwear he wasn’t wearing the night before. When I ask where the other one is, he’ll point to the bathroom and say that it got wet. Wonderful. They have this wrap-around-zipper sheet that’s a mega pain in the ass to wash and put back on, too.
Baby Girl is still getting by with school lunch, though when I was reading her a book last night and the kids in it were holding home lunches, I made a point to tell her that home lunch is good. Her response, “That’s just a sandwich. You can make me a sandwich.” Well. I feel so honored! Anyway, I’m taking that as a green light. I’ll be packing some disgustingly cute sammie for her to take to school and I’m NOT showing it to her before school either! Wish me luck in this battle. I will win her over yet!