Today's Bento

Top: noodles, teriyaki stir-fry, and there's ponzu in Pokémon's head

Bottom: cabbage and salsa, cheese, greens miniera

Cabbage and salsa is one of those things I picked up from my dad. He has a number of interesting food preferences left over from the days when he lost something like 40+ pounds (I'm not sure exactly how much since I was little when he started his weight loss). One of those is shredded cabbage with salsa. I've modified it by sautéing the cabbage first, but it still keeps the heart of this odd combo that I've grown to like.

yesterday's bento

Top: greens miniera and rice

Bottom: radishes, teriyaki meatballs, sautéed cabbage, sautéed carrots

Top: Strawberries, radishes (they are the braised ones again - tucked in with the strawberries), goat cheese, carrots, and cabbage, meatballs, and marinara.

Bottom: Rice, avocado, greens miniera, and regular greens.

I have one more day of regular greens, which is about all I can take of them. I like the greens miniera better, which is a good thing since I have a ton left. I am all done with the strawberries, and to tell the truth, I am surprised they made it this long. I really like strawberries, and they usually start to go before this, anyway.

Top: strawberries, goat cheese, sautéed carrots, greens, and meatballs and cabbage and sauce
Bottom: braised radish, rice, and greens miniera

Lunch!

Top: strawberries, goat cheese, sautéed carrots, forgotten vegetable kinpira, pickle!, greens

Bottom: greens miniera, rice (under the greens)

Not pictured: two teriyaki meatballs that I forgot to fit into the top compartment (yes, there was room).


It was really really yummy.

Top Left: veggie stir-fry, carrot slices, and greens #1

Top Right: greens #2, kinpira, greens #3

Middle: salad with radishes, carrots, pot roast, and tomatoes

Bottom: cookie-brownie slices

Two in one day....

Here's yesterday and today's bentos.


This is yeasterday's bento.

Top: two kinds of greens, stir-fry, and ceviche

Bottom: leftover potatoes and onions from my St. Pat's dinner of Dublin coddle.

Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures of the Dublin coddle, so I'll have to wait until the next time to post about it (over on M&OM).


Today's bento. I was in quite the rush this morning, so its in the 180mL and 460mL Lock&Locks. Ceviche on the left, then angel hair pasta with marinara and goat cheese in the middle, and then two kinds of greens on the right. Should be tasty.

A New Week

Tasty tasty greens. These are chard and radish greens cooked up with a bit of bacon grease, garlic, lemon juice and some random spices.

Top: Stir-fried vegies, carrot sticks, greens (these were made last week with collards, kale, and beet greens with soy sauce and hot pepper paste), and ceviche.

Bottom: radishes, cheese, strawberries, and the greens from the picture above this one.

Top: beet and greens noodles, carrots, and teriyaki meatballs
Bottom: three tuna-salad stuffed ongiri (heart and star have prosciutto on top), broccoli, more carrots, celery, prosciutto, and celery kinpira

I was really stuck for variety today. I need to figure out more to do with my produce because I feel like I'm in a rut making mostly the same things every week. And I feel like I've got too many carbs (mostly noodles and rice today).

Bento Again

Top Left: teriyaki meatballs and greens version 2

Top Right: two inari with pickles

Middle: salad with lettuce, peas, tomatoes, broccoli, and carrots (and dressing that I added)

Bottom: celery sliced to fit in the top case of my box

So a return to bento-ing today. The goal is to finish the stuff I have in my fridge. So far I'm doing ok since this was the last of greens version 2. I don't have anymore meatballs, either, but I'm sad about that since that means I need to get more ground pork and ground beef. I've decided to refrain from diving into my stock of tuna this week, since I've had tuna two weeks in a row. This leaves a bit of prosciutto and some frozen salmon for animal protein, and beans and eggs for veggie protein. oh, and milk. I do have plenty of milk. I'm sure I'll drink it all, though. If there's one thing that I can devour, it's milk.

Thursday's Bento

Top: Baked Apples, celery, pear tomatoes, tuna-stuffed inari, pickles

Bottom: Greens version 1, roasted veggies, greens version 2, celery, tuna with cilantro hot sauce

Didn't have time to post this yesterday. And then after a week of bentos I wanted a day off today.

Accidental Wall-E

Top: Tuna-stuffed inari (with spicy mayo and topped with sorrel), pickles, celery, pear tomatoes, and baked apples.

Bottom: Roasted veggies, teriyaki-pineapple meatballs, greens version 1, and an onigiri with a surprise stuffing (in other words, I don't remember what I stuffed it with).

One of my labmates saw this picture, and declared it to look like an adult Wall-E. At first, he just said it looked like a face, with the inari as eyes and the onigiri making the nose/mouth. Then he pondered the box a little longer and declared it a robot face, something like an adult Wall-E.

I hadn't thought about it this morning, making this - making the inari, really, since I saw the inari skins in the fridge and thought 'oops, better use those up!' even though I hadn't planned to make them. The rest of the stuff was all pre-prepped, so I just had to heat and pack. Even still, this bento stuff is taking more time than I'd like. When other bento-ers talk about how fast they pack their bentos, I am usually jealous. Maki over at JustBento says it takes practice to get that fast, and I believe her. Anyway, packing my bento, just trying to fit everything in, I accidentally made a face. :)

Onigiri Today

Top: greens version 2, roasted veggies, and three onigiri (teddy bear is filled with tuna and miso, star is filled with cilantro-pepper sauce, and heart has nori wrapped around it and is filled with tuna).

Bottom: baked apples, celery, pickled ginger and peppers, and tuna topped with cilantro-pepper sauce. There's also a few folded sheets of seasoned seaweed under the pickles, but they didn't hold up well. Lesson for next time: put the folded nori in the top of the bento box where the chopsticks go!

I went to a seminar today at lunch time, and as there was pizza, I promptly forgot about my bento. Instead, I stashed it in the fridge and ate it for dinner. It was still pretty tasty, probably thanks to tips I've read about bento food needing to be well-spiced.

beginning bento again

Top: greens version 2, tuna, cilantro hot sauce, pickles, and cold soba with ponzu.

Bottom: greens version 1, roasted veggies, and baked apples.

Greens version 1 are a more Mediterranean style with olive oil and raspberry vinegar. Greens version 2 are more Thai/Indo inspired using olive oil, fish sauce and sambal terasi. Both are pretty tasty, though version 2 would have benefited from sesame oil.

The cilantro hot sauce is a riff on the sauce recipe of approximately the same name in South American Table. I had a ton of cilantro hanging around, so I figured what the heck and made it. Pretty tasty, somewhat akin to a very cilantro-y salsa verde.

Bentoing Again

So, I fell off the bento wagon this week. I didn't get my johbisai done this weekend, and then I stayed home Monday because of the holiday so I didn't bento Monday. I actually had a sum total of one bento this week. And though I packed a huge salad today for lunch, it didn't get eaten. In my defense, salad when it's raining out doesn't seen very appetizing. Instead I went for something hot - a burger - and was dissapointed when it wasn't as good as what I could have brought from home if only I'd put in the prep work.

In any case, here's the one bento of the week:


Top: greens, tuna, and shiritaki with miso

Bottom: leftover Tampiqueña

So, I was incredibly rushed, both this morning and at lunch - I actually only wolfed down about half my bento before returning to work because that was enough to take the edge off. In any case, I didn't get a chance to take a picture. However, I used my natural lunch bento, which totals 580mls.

In the top tier, I had a cupcake tin with homemade pasta and marinara with a sprinkling of parmesan, greens, and a lamb chop with chèvre. In the bottom tier, I had leeks vinaigrette and some roasted acorn squash that I shaped into a nest and filled with two quail eggs and some carrot pieces. I figured that was the best way to protect the mojority of the squash, eggs, and carrots from getting the vinaigrette from the leeks on them.

Monday Lunchtime!

I knew I was going to be having kind of a long day and exercising quite a bit (4.25 miles running and half a mile at the pool), so I packed a big bento today. I ended up not finishing the inari and not eating the two Pocky sticks in the lid of my bento at lunchtime because I got full, even though I'd just finished my swim. I'll probably eat all that later, though. Anyway, here's my bento:

Top: two inari stuffed with rice/quinoa mixture and topped with a tsp or so of lobster salad, a quail egg, roasted acorn squash, and greens

Bottom Left: more lobster salad, and blanched leeks with some vinaigrette

Bottom Right: carrot flowers, paté, Cypress Grove truffle tremor, and pineapple

Fun on Friday Bento

I managed to make things a little cuter today with carrot flowers and my little quail egg in its acorn squash "nest." Thankfully, the flavor combination worked well and lunch was tasty. Carrot flowers separating the cornichons from the pineapple was a total must.

Top: green beans, steak, sesame greens, acorn squash, quail egg
Bottom: Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor, carrot flowers, paté, cornichons, and pineapple.
Not pictured: two choc. chip cookies that I stashed in the lid/chopsticks compartment.

Thursday's Lunch

I didn't do the best job on the photo, but since my camera ran out of batteries right after this, I didn't get to take a second photo. Anyway, it's mostly the same staples today. I was pressed for time, so it's not exactly a cute bento today.

Top: Inari, teriyaki-pineapple meatballs, sesame greens, and homemade spaghetti and marinara.

Bottom: Paté, Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor, cornichons, pineapple, steamed green beans, a little bit of carrot, and a quail egg.

Another Day Another Bento

I had time to make some inari this morning! I made them with a half quinoa, half genmai rice mixture. When I first made the rice/quinoa mixture it was fairly sticky, but that's faded. I think from now on I'll make it and then make onigiri or inari immediately to preserve the stickiness.

I also tried to make a molded quail egg, and I did get slight indentations for a chick face, but clearly I wasn't using hot enough eggs. It's a learning process, I guess.

Anyway, here's whats in the bento today:

Top: two inari, two teriyaki-pinepple meatballs, pineapple, and below the meatballs and pineapple is sesame greens.

Bottom: Paté, carrots, cornichons, Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor, steamed green beans, and the boiled quail egg.