Roast Pork Sushi Bento

Yesterday’s lunch was a success! I ran into a co-worker on the way to the microwave and after he gave me some paperwork, he came back to ask if I’d bought my lunch or made it, because it looked very good. Aww, make my day! The Freska mango, though yellow skinned, was frakin’ green!! I should have taken a pic of my face eating it, I’m sure it was caved in. I ended up eating the cocktail tomato and it tasted better than the first two I’d eaten. Maybe ignoring them in the fridge for a week sweetens them up…

We took a trip to Costco tonight since we needed gas and after going in for just sweet bread and milk, I filled up the wagon with a bunch of healthy things I thought would look nice such as Manoa green leaf lettuce ($3.99 for three huge heads), a box of grape tomatoes ($5.79), Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese ($7.69) because I’m not eating my dairy every day, English cucumbers (3 for $4.49), a whole pack of 6 mangoes that look like yesterday’s Freska mango ($5.49), a huge bag of French green beans ($5.49), and blackberries ($5.99, they were on sale! Woo!). So… now I have an assload of tiny sweet tomatoes which I will no doubt only eat half of, and lots of other veggies and fruits.

MIL’s dinner tonight was pot roasted pork shoulder and the pot looked really oily, so I had to pick out every little piece of fat and as I was eating tried to think of a good way to incorporate this into today’s lunch without being excessive. Since Nexa mentioned sushi yesterday, I thought I’d give that a try for once.

I’ve never made sushi before and I have never eaten pork sushi before. Hopefully, there’s not some super secret good reason why you don’t see pork sushi. Regarding taste, I figure if I would have eaten dinner with rice (I skipped the rice so I could eat it for lunch), the pork, and won bok all together anyway, then what is the difference if it’s rolled up in nori?? Anyway, after a small snafu with unnecessarily cutting the nori sheet in half, I managed to make my first ever sushi roll! It cut pretty easily and I started on the second. Sadly, I ended up with a little extra rice and instead of leaving it out like I should have, I shoveled it all on and ended up with two different sized sushi rolls. Darn it!!

And then to add to my un-neatness so far, my daughter comes into the kitchen asking what I’m doing. When she hears I’m making sushi of course she wants one. I give her one of the skinny ones. She doesn’t eat it after the first two bites of course. Oh well, no biggie. I filled up the space with grape tomatoes. Added in some cucumber salad I saw on another blog along with kim chee, chopped sanbaizuke, and chopped takuan. I put all of these in little lettuce lined foil squares to keep the liquid and shape in.

Next I did the fruit bowl, which was very frustrating. I sliced up half of a minneola that was hiding in the fridge and those damned slices just would not arrange nicely. I added more of the Super-Lemon-like “Freska” from yesterday. Stuck in one of the cheese triangles, a strawberry, and some blackberries.

I can sense doom approaching. It’s only my second bento and already I’m a bit pissy that I’m still using the same containers over and over. This will end up making my fancy new bento pictures monotonous!! Must go find more cheapie boxes to use!! Maybe only walking into a store with a ten dollar bill and no purse will help me control my spending…

Due to the lack of experience with sushi, the discovery that I had no grater for the cucumber slicing, and the stupid minneola slices this lunch took me a whole freakin’ hour to put together. I intend to cut that time at least in half next time!

This meal isn’t very Core unfortunately. The rice is half brown, so counts as 2 points. The cheese is 1 point and the pork another point. A 4 point lunch, which means tomorrow I have to make sure I eat a Core dinner or exercise.

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