The Bandai Futomaki Maker has arrived, and as expected it’s kind of fun, kind of a pain in the ass, and going to feature quite the learning curve, but it was a start. We made the “it’s almost a heart” sushi (the purple in the picture) and figured out how to make it actually a heart, but I only made enough rice for dinner. This will require rice for experimentation.

I did, however, discover the sheer awesomeness that is colored sushi, featuring rice tinted with McCormick Neon Food Coloring. HOLY CRAP IT’S AWESOME. I learned that by putting the colors half & half (I had  a little more green than purple left) you get a sort-of-but-not-really-a-yinyang shape, and that purple and green sushi might be the coolest thing ever.

QUICK TIP: If you’re planning on making a sushi dinner on a work day, make your rice before you leave for work. It’ll be JUST FINE in your rice cooker all day and when you get home you’ll have already cooled rice ready for mixing.

Want my sushi recipe? Check it out here. I shall reserve judgment on the Futomaki maker for when I actually get some time to play with it properly.

My lunch tomorrow is going to be so badass… In reality it’s at least a lunch-and-a-half, but still…

So the Bento Lunch thing hasn’t gotten old yet. Monday’s lunch is in my new little 4-compartment case that I picked up at Mitsuwa for $3.99, and I LOVE this thing. Bento is a super fun way to make a nice light lunch with lots of variety and a surprising amount of food.

Red Compartment: Dried Mangoes, 100-calorie pack of Grasshopper cookies, cranberry nut clusters

Green Compartment: Apricot & Grapes

Gold Compartment: Sugar-free strawberry-banana Jell-O with a sliced strawberry

Purple Compartment: Sharp cheddar cheese cubes, sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes

I’ll be enjoying this with a Dannon Frusion yogurt “smoothie”.

Rotisserie chicken is probably my husband’s favorite thing that I make. It’s also fun because it always looks terribly impressive to the people at work when I bring in a tasty 1/4 chicken meal for lunch and they ask “Where’d you get that?” They ask even though they know better, that I make my own meals most of the time. Perhaps because they hope one day I’ll say “nah, I ordered in last night.” I do love my leftovers.

The irony is that while it looks mighty impressive, it’s one of the simplest meals I make. Seriously, I Set It And Forget It. That’s right, I have a Showtime Rotisserie. And boy, do I love it so. I only use it about once a month or so because there’s just so much stuff I love to make, but it’s always a hit and it’s seriously easy. I got mine for a steal off Ebay; check Craigslist too.

If you have a rotisserie, I can’t recommend Stretch Silicone Cooking Bands enough. Wrap the chicken, roast, etc., and these babies come off easily AND can be cleaned and reused over and over. They’re easily of the best $6 investments I’ve made for  my kitchen.

I flavored this chicken with Penzey’s Galena Street rub and, quite literally just set it and forgot it. I steamed carrots on the top and served it up with some broccoli cheese rice for a super easy yet very impressive meal.

This morning my husband ad I had very different ideas about what sounded good in our breakfast scrambles, so I decided to make two.

Mine, the one on the left, was featured egg whites, mushrooms, onions, ham and green peppers with Laughing Cow French Onion cream cheese melted in. My husband’s scramble is made with whole eggs, onion, green pepper, broccoli, ham and cheddar.

As usual, I sauté the vegetables separately to get the most flavor and spice the eggs with white pepper and Penzey’s Parisien Herbs. Multigrain toast with some Stover’s Cranberry/Raspberry Jam from the Oak Park Farmer’s Market rounded out my meal; his is spread with McCutcheon’s Pear Butter.

Add some carrot-banana nectar for him and some orange-pineapple juice for me in our new Star Trek glasses from Burger King and it was an awesome breakfast. Nothing terribly exciting, but maybe you’ll get some ideas for your breakfast.