Left Over Bentos

So today is another day of left overs, which I am always happy to enjoy. Logician took left overs from tonight (delicious ribs he cooked) and I took some from Saturday (the precooked ham we bought). So here are today's contenders:

Logicians:

Again featuring his onigiri topped with his furikake. I seem to have devised a trick for the onigiri storage issues I faced before and these should be just as good as yesterdays. He has his ribs with a back garden of basil ribbons, topped with a bit of toasted sesame seeds. Then he has a line of snow peas, some bell pepper and his bottle of soy sauce. Again we both have some kimichi (far less for me thank you!) and radishes. His has a nice grouping of carrot match sticks and some cucumbers.

He opted for no egg again as he is "Egged out."

Mine:

I again put my rice all on one side. This seems to allow me more space to layer creatively. From the bottom to the top I have: a layer of ham cut into strips and layered then topped with a bit of mustard; a small collection of snow peas and diced bell pepper; a double row of coined carrots on top of which is a diced egg white. Then in order to use the remaining small bits of ham and egg I placed them in a sort of pattern on top of the rice with some basil ribbons and sesame seeds. I have some cucumbers with my raddishes and my smaller dose of kimchi.

All in all the bentos are getting rather samey at the moment, but I am hoping once I have some more time and some more bento accessories I am going to try and start making some more cute bentos. I have some punches for scrapbooking that I may reassign to bentoing. :D

Happy eats!

Post Turkey day Bento fun

So for tomorrow's lunch I am making use of the left over turkey (well some of it) that we had. We made a small Turkey breast, some potatoes, and the like for Thanksgiving since it was just the two of us. It was very nice. So these Bentos feature a lot of fresh veggies (a lot of veggies over all really) and some turkey.

First up we have Logician's:

He has three square/ovalish onigiri topped with a new variety of Furikake. I did not really enjoy the only one we found without Nori so he went ahead and got one today that does have some in it. It also has bonito, wasabi, and some other seasonings in it. Then he has some snow peas, cucumbers, and a bit of bell pepper. The turkey is topped with a bit of fresh basil and some siracha sauce. In his side compartments he has some Kimchi (we bought some new stuff today), and then some carrot sticks with a bit of pickled radish to cool off after the spicy veggies!

Now for mine:

I have Kimchi as well, but instead of carrots in my side pocket I have cucumbers and pickled radish. Then I have one side of my box stacked with rice. This allowed me to be rather more creative with the veggies. I then have some fresh basil and sesame seeds on top of the rice. My veggies are some carrot sticks, snow peas, bell pepper, and then the last little bit is my turkey. I have my two soy sauce bottles tucked in with my veggies and decided to keep my protein content down. I am finding I enjoy the rice and veggies the most at lunch time.

No eggs for us today, we decided against them. Although we have them made. I try to make a good sized batch of rice along with several hard boiled eggs on Sunday, that way I have them for the week. I usually end up making a second batch of rice around Wednesday night.

We went to the Indian Market in town today for the first time ever and we're quite surprised at the stuff we found. I am looking forward to incorporating some of it. Here's to another week and another step closer to the new year.

Bento 11/23 and 11/24 (For 11/24 and 11/25)

So I didn't update this morning like I meant to. Basically because I decided to sleep in a bit. So here is the Bento that Logician and I ate for lunch today.

The one on the left is Logician's and the one on the right is mine. Here's the menu:

Left over Sonny's Baby Back Ribs removed from the bone, raw snow peas and hard boiled eggs make up the main dish. They are of course on a bed of rice. Then we both have some cucumbers (could only find the waxed ones so no outsides) and then he has some chocolate candies and I have green Salad Olives.

I was given a present early (yay for Bento stuffs) tonight that makes it's debut in my boxes for tomorrow!

The one on the right is mine and the one on the left is Logicians. He told me that the one above (With the BBQ) had too much rice for his liking so I made him some cute ovalish plain onigiri. Mine contains the same bed of rice as yesterday since I enjoy the rice most of all at lunch time! The meat is provided by small turkey burgers I made this evening, and the green is provided by some raw cut up snow peas. Then we both have hard boiled eggs (he has one, I have two) and he also has some cucumber slices. I decided to stick with green olives but am taking far fewer than went with me today.

Do you see my presents?! Logician got me cute little sauce bottles! You squeeze them in the liquid and they suck up whatever you want them to have. He likes fish sauce so he has one fish sauce (in an appropriate and adorable fish container) and one soy sauce. I have two soy sauce bottles. These little contraptions are adorable!! I like them so much I am going to use them every single day.

I am very glad he is providing me feed back and supporting my habit! I enjoyed making us two different Bentos this evening and may continue to do so in the future. The only problem are the onigiri. They do not last very well and need to be made from fresh rice. But I will find a way. I am thinking of some containers to use for them right now!

Happy early week! Tomorrow is my last work day this week so I don't think they'll be any more Bentos (unless we end up hanging out with MC Etcher then I might have to make a giant ham or turkey destroyable Bento..... heh plotting is fun!)

Gobble Gobble!

A lucky find, and more double the fun!

While Logician and I were at Wal-mart today I found separated Gladware containers that are going to serve as our Bento boxes until Christmaversary (By the way I use this term as our anniversary is the 27th of December) when I am hopefully going to get some awesome Bento stuff from him. I am very excited about Christmaversary this year!! I think he's going to love his gifts.

So with these two new containers in hand I went ahead and made enough rice to last our Bentos for the week (i.e. enough for lunches for the 3 days of work I have this week, woo for Holidays!). I boiled some eggs this morning and we had purchased some veggies Friday night. Here's what I came up with:

Logician's is the bottom one and mine is the top. Both consist of three plain onigiri, gently sauteed snow peas, marinated thin steak over a bed of sauteed spinach and some mushrooms I quickly sauteed in the marinade for the beef. We both have a tangerine, an egg (white only, yolks were not fully done), and some cucumbers. As he does not like olives I omitted them from his and gave him two styles of cucumbers while I enjoy my nummy green salad olives.

I am hoping these containers will help me get better ideas for smaller containers (and smaller portions) so I can be prepared for some traditional containers down the line. These will work well though if I need to separate things, or if I just feel like changing it up a bit. My only concern is whether or not this will fit in my lunchbox without being dumped over.... Hm...

This week is probably going to be another week of very similar Bentos but truthfully that helps keep the costs down. Can't wait to eat this all up tomorrow!

The thought occurs

It occurs to me that I haven't said anything about what Bento is. Basically the concept of Bento is a traditional Japanese lunch box that provides a filling, economical lunch that is pleasing to the eye. Basically for me it looks pretty so it fills me up some just looking at it, then when I eat it I'm very happy and content!

Several of the articles and blogs I have read have mentioned that it is a good idea to try and incorporate a five color scheme to help provide balance in your life. I try to incorporate green, red, yellow, black, and white in mine.

I am looking forward to getting some Bento items for Christmas and working on making some cuter stuff!

Double the fun

So I have finally been able to create Bento's for Logician and now it's going to become a habit!!

Here's tomorrow's lunch:

I took the picture with my phone tilted the right way and the picture is a bit clearer. The top two boxes are the same, one is mine and one is Logician's. The bottom is my standard tangerine box with a "oh my gosh what do I have left for Friday" veggie bowl. Under the cheese and crumbled egg yolk is a "salad" of sliced kalamata olives, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, and some pickled okra that I made a while back. Lastly it is completed with a nummy egg.

The top two boxes are rice with some sauted frozen broccoli, spinach, some mixed salad greens we bought at the farmer's market last weekend and a bit of garlic. Next to that are the remains of one chicken tender left over from Logician's dinner covered with a bit of Sirachi! Num!

Two Bento's for your viewing pleasure

I had a meeting yesterday to discuss a possible change in my near future, so I did not make a bento. Instead I had a peanut butter and honey sammich and some cool ranch doritios. But for today I made both myself and Logician bento's!

Both his and my main dish involve a lot of rice, a quick sautee of snow peas, spinach, and broccolli with a little bit of lime juice. I then sliced a hardboiled egg for each of us and put the whole one in his (which looks awesome) and the white of the second in mine.

Here's his:

It looks very cute in my opinion. Hopefully it will taste great too.

And mine, which also has a salad making mine the "Very Green Bento"

I decided to put some white and black sesame seeds on my egg and saute, and also have a salad with tomatoes and green salad olives. Finally I have two tangerines, one peeled and one unpeeled to snack on.

It is fun to see what I can come up with at the end of the week when I am running out of the veggies I bought during the weekend. I am now out of olives, cucumbers, snow peas, broccoli, down to one egg, and low on spinach. So tomorrow's will hopefully involve either a kimchi and rice dish or some left overs from dinner tonight.

The 1st part of Logician's Holiday gift arrived yesterday, now I am ready to order the second part and purchase wrapping paper! Probably the first week of December we will purchase an artificial tree to setup somewhere downstairs (I am excited for the Holiday this year because I am getting Bento stuff!).

Happy Thursday! One more day till the glorious weekend!

Tuesday is another day

I am beginning to wonder if I should update this every day, every few days, or just once a week. I suppose that will depend on the goings on in my life in the near future. :)

So today's bento features Onigiri I made this weekend over a forest of broccoli and kept company by two tomatoes and a left over piece of chicken (by the way Sirachi (now I can spell!) sauce and previously frozen chicken breast is amazing). Although the Onigiri did squish when I put the lid on (which I'm okay with, they were a little dry and will now soak up some more moisture when I warm it up later). My veggie box has a small bed of salad greens, a few more tomatoes, the white of a hard boiled egg, some green salad olives , cucumber sticks aaaaand Kimchi! We've had the Kimichi for awhile so it will be quite spicy I am sure. I am going to take a piece of bread or two, just in case!

Lastly is my fruit tray which today is just a peeled tangerine and a couple pieces of chocolate. Tuesday is softball day so I generally alott myself a bit more caloric intake. Which if needed will be met by bread, a bit of ranch for the broccoli and the salad, and the chocolate.

___

Right now all my bento's sort of look the same, but I believe it's because I have not yet got into my cooking a bunch of food on Sunday for the week plan yet, and because I don't have an actual Bento canvas with which to work (i.e. a box). Hopefully by the 1st of the year that will be fixed! :)

Happy eating!

Bento 3 - AKA Stay Off my Lawn!

So today's Bento taught me a very important lesson - I create better when I know for sure which parts I am going to use. I made this last night and had established on Saturday (when I made my first Onigiri, unfortunately the only rice seasoning I could find without nori in it I did not like. Will have to try another approach) that it would contain rice and chicken. Sadly that was as far as I got and when it came time to put it together the veggies were a bit uncooperative!

It came out okay, but it was a good lesson to learn early. Here's today's menu:

Snack - Fruit salad consisting of a cut up kiwi, a tangerine, and the outside of a pink mochi
Main lunch - Chicken (frozen chicken tenderloins, seasoned with pepper and garlic), sushi rice, and snow peas
Veggies - Raw broccoli, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumber, and the white of a hard boiled egg

Logician is buying me some Bento boxes as part of my Christmasversery (Our 2 yr anniversary is the 27th of Dec) present. I hope to borrow the gifts I'm buying him for use too (cooking stuff). I am looking forward to having some shallower but prettier containers!

Tomorrow I will use some of the left over Onigiri that I wrapped up in plastic wrap.

Also point of note I have resumed my study of Japanese. The Kana and Kanji may be my undoing! We'll see.

Blog 2 = Bento Mania

Since I've decided to start Bento-ing (i.e. making functional but attractive looking lunches that match their containers) I needed a home for the pictures.

A Bento Blog you say? Over done you say?

You're right, but I want to do it so too bad for you! :)

So here's attempt #1

You can't tell but to the left under the blue lid is a smaller container with some nummy salad dressing Logician made. The rice is white rice, soy sauce, Shirachi sauce, and salmon mixed with black and white sesame seeds.

Today I made:

Which I am naming the "Immigration Bento" in honor of Logician's rousing description of it while I was making it. I'll spare you the details just know it looks delicious.

*Edit I should add what the ingredients are! The left dish is white rice with leftover Katsu chicken on top (We went out last night and I saved a piece). It is topped with Shirachi sauce and toasted sesame seeds, surrounded by raw snow peas and guarded by two cherry tomatoes. The middle is an empty tomato container with green salad olives, baby bella mushrooms, a hydroponically grown cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Lastly a box with a peeled tangerine, a whole tangerine, and a kiwi. Woo! I made a lot for this so I had stuff to snack on in the morning when I am consistently hungry. *

Anywho there's the beginnings of a fun hobby.