This is a very easy to make tamagoyaki (Japanese style omelette) that is chock full of spinach. Even spinach doubters may like this, since the egg, onion and garlic neutralize the iron-rich quality which some people have problems with. It is basically a whole load of spinach that is held together with egg. It does not use the rolling/folding technique used for plain tamagoyaki or the one-egg version, so you may find it a lot easier to make. Recipe: Spinach Tamagoyaki (Spinach stuffed omelette) Prep time: 5 min :: Cook time: 10 min :: Total time: 15 min Yield: 3-4 portions Calories per serving: 130-190 Ingredients: 500g / about 1 lb 2 oz (1 large bunch fresh spinach , washed, OR

200g / about 6.5 oz (2/3rd of a box) frozen leaf spinach

1 small onion

1/2 garlic clove

5 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

black pepper

1 teaspoon soy sauce

pinch sugar

1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil , divided Directions: If you are using fresh spinach, make sure all the dirt has been washed off. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and when the water is boiling hard put in the spinach. Cook for 1-3 minutes (baby leaves should only require a minute; mature leaves will take a couple of minutes longer) then drain. Rinse in cold water until the leaves are cool. Take handfuls of the leaves and squeeze them out very well. Cut up the squeeze out spinach roughly into chunks. If there's any moisture left around them, squeeze out well again If you're using frozen spinach, defrost and squeeze out any excess moisture very well. Finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat up a large frying pan with 1/2 tablespoon oil. Sauté the onion until translucent, then add the garlic and sauté until it's just turning a very light brown. Add the spinach and sauté for a couple of minutes. Season with salt and black pepper. Remove the spinach from the pan. Beat the eggs with soy sauce, black pepper and pinch of sugar. Put the rest of the oil in the pan and spread it around the surface. Turn the heat up to high. Pour in a bit more than 1/2 of the egg mixture, and let it cook until the bottom is just starting to firm up. Spread the cooked spinach mixture on top, and add the rest of the egg mixture; stir a little bit so that it penetrates into the spinach. When the bottom has firmed up, carefully flip the omelette over - you may need two spatulas for this. Lower the heat, and cook for another 2-3 minutes until the other side is cooked. Let cool completely, cut into bite size portions and pack into your bento. Leftovers can be stores in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, or frozen (packedin individual portion sizes) for up to a month. (Below is just for search engines.) By Makiko Itoh Published: April 04, 2013 Type: eggs, japanese, vegetarian, protein, bento

A bit of reality!

When you flip the omelette over, it will most likely turn up looking like this - in a couple of pieces:

But not to worry - you can cut it up into neat little pieces as in the first picture, and no one will know the difference (unless you show it to thousands of blog readers ^_^). Hide the raggety bits underneath the neat pieces, or just pop them in your mouth - it will still taste great.

(For more bento reality, check out the Facebook page where I've been revealing some pre-JustBento butt-ugly bentos! It's all good though taste and nutrition are more important than looks, right?)