Scrumptious Bento

Bentos #111, #112, #113, #114... You know my greatest fear with this blog?

2011-11-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

It's that I'll spell 'Scrumptious' wrong. I have a mini panic attack every single time I type that damn word.

Anywho. I had a lovely, busy week. It started with a load-in of 'The Nutcracker' on Monday morning. Bright and early. Or maybe just early. And definitely not bright. The Covey Center actually does at least three 'Nutcrackers' every year. And they start before Thanks giving. And by the beginning of December, we all want to start pegging the 'Waltz of the Flowers' dancers with airsoft beads. Not because they're not good dancers, or we dislike them in anyway. But that song gets going through your head...

They actually loaded out on Wednesday night. By which time I had 36.75 hours for the week. This didn't stop me from taking a freelance gig on Thursday and Friday. Because I get bored when I'm not working. And I need the money.

My first issue is that I need some massive dental work done. ... I look like a hobo right now. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I need an implant and a few crowns. And those babies aren't going to be cheap. But, you know, then my face will be fixed and I'll have, to quote my oral surgeon, 'a movie star smile to go with my movie star eyes.' Yeah. He totally said that.

And then I found out last week that I need new tires on my truck. Something about them being so cracked around the sides that they don't want to top off the air in them for fear they'll explode. ...I love my truck, but I really should have taken a better look at it before I bought it... Truck tires aren't cheap, although I may go to the Pick'n'Pull to see what I can dig up.

Oh. And Christmas is coming. And I already started getting gifts for the entire clan, so I can't back off and just get them family gifts now. It's too late.

This week holds another 'Nutcracker' for me. And NIMS training, because if something goes down around here, my theatre becomes the morgue, and I a morgue attendant. Ew. And hopefully a bit more freelance work over the weekend. Busy, busy... but that's how I like it.

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For your enjoyment... or mine... I guess... I've packed turkey meatballs with broccoli and two onigiri from my freezer stash in the one layer, and carrots, hummus, cucumbers, blackberries, and kiwis in the other.

My basket last week contained cabbage, so I figured I'd make some Irish cabbage and noodles. Which is what I did. Just stir-fried cabbage with onion and peppers over egg noodles. And then... I was out of Polish sausage. And all I had that I could quickly top it with was some stir-fried beef. Two flavor profiles that do not mix. Lemme tell you... Also I had lots of cucumber, kiwi, and blackberries.

This one contains a really good fall rice casserole thingy. Apples, onion, peppers, cinnamon, nutmeg and sausages... It's such a good mix. I've got it coupled with roasted delicata squash. The other layer has kiwi, strawberries, cucumber, and a babybel cheese.

Last Sunday my little brother, who is a really good cook when he actually does it, made spinach manicotti. Which is what that cheesy mass covered in carrot flowers is. I've also got carrots and hummus, blackberries, and kiwi.

Bentos #109 and #110... My LocknLock prize came!

2011-10-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

For some reason, nobody ever knocks on my door when I can actually get the door. I'm either in the bathroom or shower, or I'm not properly dressed... I live by myself. I don't have to be 'decent' all the time...

So when the fedex guy knocked, I was in the midst of getting ready for work. I dug around for a second to find my robe, ran a brush through my wet hair, and rushed to the door. There was no one there when I peaked through the window. I'm usually not fast enough to catch whoever it was that knocked. But there, sitting on my tiny stoop, was a giant box. It blocked the entire doorway. I knew what it was. And I couldn't bring myself to leave it out there... So I opened the door, checked to make sure there was no one around, and awkwardly dragged it into the house with one hand. Awkwardly.

And then I called and told the guy I work with that I was going to be late. I have my priorities.

So I unpacked it all. And I took a picture for you. Or at least tried. Poe chose that moment to come and see what was going on...

I gave Poe a treat to keep her out of the way for a moment. And took the picture.

See how shiny the lids are? Like mirrors! Yes. That's me with a camera.

The prize was the whole set of Cookplus Fruits pans from LocknLock. There are 2 saucepans, 3 casseroles, and a stock pot. They feel really heavy for their size. Which I take as a good thing. At some point in the near future, I need to do the fudge test. It's my experience that a crappy pan won't turn out a decent batch of fudge. So I'm picky with my pans. Fudge is important to me.

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The fact that I have now received my prize means it's time for a giveaway! Check back in the next couple of days! Or... become a follower. Because you have to be a follower to participate in any of my giveaways anyway. Might as well get a jump on it. ;)

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And... here are the bentos!

This one is another taco salad. But without torilla chips. I've got kidney beans, tomatoes, sharp cheddar, soy nuts, and Thousand Island dressing for the salad that's hiding under the tray, and a couple of Dove chocolates for dessert.

I found a honey poppyseed dressing that has no sugar added. But there's a problem... Honey poppyseed dressing should be sweet... Next time I pack the dressing, I'm going to add some honey myself...

So. Kidney beans, sliced grapes, soy nuts, and the dressing to dump on the salad. And a babybel cheese and a turtle for my desert.

I didn't manage to eat all the salad last week. I have enough for another lunch. And I picked up my basket yesterday, which had, and will almost always have, more lettuce. If I can get do three salads in this week, I should be good!

Bentos #105, #106, #107, and #108...

2011-10-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

I think it's funny... I started needing bentos again at work. And so I started making them. But I was so out of the habit of blogging about them that... well... here we are. With a bit of a catch up post.

The bit of an update is this... My comp hours are still up around 100. It was finally decided at work that it would be impossible to just try to send me home. So we sat down and figured out a plan that would slowly bring my comp down to an acceptable level. We'll see if that works. Related to you... that should mean I'll need a decent amount of bentos over the next couple of months.

Also related to you... I told you about winning the LocknLock review contest! I'm still uber excited about it. I haven't received my prize yet, but when I do, that'll mean a giveaway for you guys as well. Because if I didn't have a blog, I wouldn't have written that review in the first place. This giveaway is in addition to the 3000 views giveaway that will hopefully be happening in the next couple of weeks. So... keep those in mind!

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A lovely bento, consisting of a brown rice onigiri, turkey meatballs in a sweet soy sauce glaze, and steamed cabbage. Also cucumbers, yellow tomatoes, a babybel cheese, Italian prune plums, and hummus. I put sliced carrot flowers over the hummus to dress it up, and also to help keep the hummus from making a mess. Works every time.

Egg fried rice with peas, carrots and cucumber with hummus, a yellow tomato, a babybel, and an Italian prune plum.

A meatless bento...tri-color rotini with ICBINB and Johnny's Italian Seasoning with broccoli. Also figs, yellow tomatoes, a babybel, pickled sweet peppers, and a few mini Reese's cups.

What the salad? Right. I ate this and everything. There were TWO heads of romaine in my basket this week and I vowed to at least attempt to eat it. So I dug out this awesome salad bowl that's been gathering dust in the corner, and here we are. To top the salad, I have tomatoes, kidney beans, sharp cheddar, and FF Thousand Island Dressing in the center container. I also had a bag of tortilla chips at work to crumble in. And for desert, I have a turtle and a couple of sweet and low candies.

How much salad do you think I can eat this week? I'm not exactly sure, but I think I've got enough for 3 more of these... I might die.

Not a bento... miss me?

2011-10-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a need to pack bentos for the past few weeks. Hopefully you'll see a few next week. But. I just had to tell everybody...

I won the review contest at LocknLock! You know what that means! I won the entire set of Cookplus Fruits pans. Which I've been drooling over for ages... and a gift certificate!

Why should you care? A giveaway, of course! More details will come soon. But. You know... fun!

Bento #104... Finally... some downtime.

2011-09-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

My show is open. Finally. I've got about 120 comp hours to burn down now. I was going to take the train to San Francisco. (It sounds fun.) But try as I might, I can't convince myself that I can afford it right now. Maybe in the spring... I'll probably end up going camping for a few days here and there. And catching up on some projects. Like my motorcycle. And the '49 Dodge sitting in front of my apartment that needs tires. Maybe I'll even deep clean my apartment. Maybe.

Anywho. This is a bento from a dress rehearsal. I don't remember which one. I was just happy to have it.

It has an onigiri from my freezer upon which I sprinkled some furikake, some of the chicken patty things, and I filled it in with frozen peas. (I was in a massive hurry...)

The other container has two Italian prune plums, a handful of Thompson grapes, cucumber rounds from my planter, two tomatoes and a strawberry (also from my planters), and a babybel cheese.

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I think I've written about a giveaway in all of my last few posts... and there's another for you.

Not Exactly Bento is giving away an awesome Lock'n'Lock box, a sports bottle, and a collection of Tony Chachere's spice mixes to a lucky reader. Check it out here.

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Just a reminder that I'll be hosting a giveaway of my own once the guest counter reaches 3000. So keep reading and watching!

Bento #103... Better

2011-09-08T01:00:00.002-07:00

3 Musketeers opens tomorrow. You know what that means? I'm averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night. I'm still awake now because I'm needing to unwind from that rehearsal. It went well. It's a good show. And I think it will make people happy. But damn I'm tired.

I spent way more time on this bento than I should have. But I really needed to focus on something just for me for a little while...

There's a bit of a leftover remake to this one. I made the little chicken patty things with leftover chicken from Sunday dinner at my parents' house. Recipe will follow, providing I can still see the screen when I get that far... Along side the cute little chicken patties, I have broccoli and an onigiri from the freezer stash. I'm getting the hang of using those things. This one I was able to just pick and munch. There's also a bottle of potsticker sauce for the chicken patties.

The other layer has a nectarine, carrots, hummus, a few grapes, and a babybel cheese. I love and adore babybels, but I won't buy them anywhere other than costco, because I refuse to pay a lot for them. So this is the first one ever to make it to a bento.

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Chicken Bites

1/2 chicken breast, cooked.

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon Mrs Dash. Whatever kind you feel.

2 heaping tablespoon flour (I used wheat)

Water until sufficiently moist.

You could also add shredded zucchini and carrots to this. And I bet it would be amazing. I'll have to try it once my new Salad Shooter gets here.

Anyway. Shred the chicken. Mix the ingredients. The batter should be moist, but not runny. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Put small dollops of the chicken mixture into the lightly greased pan. Slightly flatten. Cover. Cook for 3 minutes or so. Flip. Cover, and wait until cooked through. Maybe another 3 minutes. Serve with yummy sauce that you love. I love potsticker sauce.

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There's yet another bento giveaway happening! This time over at Bento Monsters. Do I need a new box? Signs point to no. But it's so cute!

Also, Casa Bento is giving away a bento box on facebook! Just follow the instructions here to enter.

Bento #102...

2011-09-06T09:28:00.002-07:00

I almost decided not to post this one. I was in a hurry. And it's not as balanced or as pretty as I usually try to make them. And then I said to myself, "You know what, self? Just take the picture and get over yourself!" So I did.

The back box contains a turkey sausage cut into three sections. I tried using a cutter to put a shape in the end, but this sausage doesn't behave the way a hotdog does when heated, so the effect was lost. The sausage is surrounded by a garden fresh summer squash, and the other side has a freezer onigiri that I didn't even have time to microwave and get the plastic wrap off. (As a side, after I microwaved this one, I put a little bit of pressure on it to reform. It held together quite well!)

The other layer has a nectarine, green grapes, and an Italian prune plum.

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I'm planning another giveaway! My little counter is at about 2500 visitors right now. When we get to 3000, we'll have some fun!

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On a related note... while you're waiting for my giveaway, hop on over to Not Exactly Bento to check out a giveaway that's happening right now! There's $50 LocknLock coupon up for grabs!

Bento #101...

2011-08-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last couple of days trying to find time to make a bento. But things kept coming up. Like... Monday. I was going to pop into work for 20 minutes or so and then run to the gym. Come home. Shower. Make a bento. Make it back to work in time for a meeting. What actually happened was that I went to work, and my boss caught me (slightly embarrassing considering the workout clothes I was wearing) and decided that we should have a staff meeting. But we couldn't do it until the Box Office Manager got there. Which wouldn't be for 40 minutes. So I had to wait around. It would have been ok. Meeting started at 10:00, my other meeting wasn't until 1:00. Except every single time we went to end the meeting, something else came up. I was there until 12:30, which gave me barely enough time to book it home, shower, and then book it back to work. I ended up eating out.

Tuesday I had to pop into work again. This time at 2:00. The plan was to leave at 3:00, run some errands, make it home to put together a bento, and be back by 6:30... But. I didn't get to leave until 4:30. I was still running errands at 5:30 when I got a call about a meeting at 6:00. So... I ate leftovers from the day before.

And here. Finally. Is the bento I've been trying to make all week.

Please forgive the skuzzy picture... My camera is at work so I can take pictures of cast members who haven't emailed me their headshots yet.

I have an onigiri in a case with a fish full of soy sauce. (This is my experimental frozen brown rice onigiri. That I'll probably have to eat with chopsticks because I didn't take time to reform it after I microwaved it.) The lower right box has four homemade potstickers, separated and surrounded by summer squash slices and topped with carrot flowers. The other box has a peach, some cucumber slices, some carrot sticks, a mini yellow tomato, and some mini-mini sweet cherry peppers. The bottle contains dipping sauce for the potstickers.

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If you haven't already, check out the All Things for Sale giveaway! They're giving away at least two bento sets including a box, an insulated lunch bag, and a matching water bottle! Click here for more information!

The comforts of rice... a bento-ish lunch

2011-08-28T13:26:00.002-07:00

I'm writing this as I'm sitting on my living room floor, encompassed by the incredible aroma of cooking rice. Rice is one of my biggest comfort foods. My family had rice for dinner three or four times a week when I was a kid. I have a big family (my parents, me, and six brothers!) and rice is cheap. There was always a twenty pound bag on the floor beside the microwave stand. And another two or three in the basement, waiting their turn.

I learned to cook rice on the stove. I couldn't always time it right, and sometimes I burned it. But I was a kid. Give me some credit. I was probably the most excited person in the house when my mom brought home our first rice cooker. And when I moved out, a rice cooker was the first appliance I HAD to have. And I've been using that same cooker for the past six years. It's also the appliance that I use the most.

I love rice in all its incarnations... plain, with soy sauce, covered in a country gravy, or ground beef gravy, Spanish, spam-fried (the only way I'll eat spam...), risotto, cold and covered in cinnamon sugar and milk (really! It's good!)... The list is really endless.

Usually the only rice I have in the house is short-grain brown rice. The flavor is nutty and rich. And, you know, it's better for you than white rice. Or something like that. My goal for this pot is to make onigiri. I've never made successful onigiri with brown rice. Oh, this is sticky enough. I think I'm just not pressing them firmly enough out of fear of making hockey pucks, so they fall apart. Also... I don't think I've done it with freshly cooked rice.

The pot just clicked. I'll be right back...

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There they are! I think I did it right. At least, the one I just ate only started falling apart when I got to the nori. I seasoned them like I do sushi rice... a splash of rice vinegar, a pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt. I used a mold, but I filled it a little more than I usually do. Once popped out of the molds, I wrapped the bottoms in a bit of teriyaki flavored nori. I'll try making one for my lunch tomorrow, and we'll see what we see!

On a related, but not exactly bento note, the rest of my lunch consists of leftover garlic pepper porkloin, steamed carrots and broccoli, a peach (I ate the other half while putting the plate together), and a handful of black grapes. I've come to realize that I put a fair amount of effort into making my bento lunches colorful and healthy and varied. And I usually put much less effort into making my meals at home the same. Usually I would have just eaten a bowl of rice and a peach and been done. I should likely work on making my at-home meals as good as my packed meals...

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I shaped most of the rest of the rice into onigiri (some flavored and some not). They'll be a great addition to my freezer stash!

Bentos #99 and #100!

2011-08-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Blogging during rehearsals again... I usually am not here during stage combat rehearsals, but this one was rather unplanned, so I don't have anyone here to cover it. That's ok. I got some things done. And now I can do this.

I threw this one together in a hurry. It has roasted sweet corn and red peppers with sliced garlic pepper pork tenderloin, black grapes, and three quarters of a peach. The rest is from my garden; 3 tiny strawberries, mini-mini sweet cherry peppers, a few small tomatoes, and three green beans.

I had intended to do something a bit more exciting for my 100th bento. But then I forgot all about it.

The left layer has a pasta salad made with tri-color rotini, turkey pepperoni, tomato, cucumber, parmesan cheese, and carrot flowers. The dressing is a blend of red wine garlic vinegar, italian seasoning, and EVOO.

The thing holding the hummus on the right layer is a cucumber! My lemon cucumber plant is going bucking nuts. Which is nice. So. I chopped one in half, hollowed it out, and filled it with hummus. It's surrounded by carrot sticks. There is also a pluot and a handful of grapes.

Bento #98...

2011-08-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

So. We're rehearsing '3 Musketeers.' I've told you this. It's great fun. The sword fights look pretty brutal. The actors are all great. Whatever. The past week we've been rehearsing at my old high school. Because we hired my old drama teacher as the costumer. And since there's been a dinner theatre onstage at the Covey, we needed a place. And by rehearsing at the high school, the costumer gets to pull whoever she needs for fittings. It works out well.

My ASM, who actually graduated from the same high school just this summer, realized this week where he knew my name from. It's on a 2x4 in the booth. I think we used to prop up the projector with this 2x4. Anyway. It says, "Wise man say: Never wrestle with Pam, she will kick you in the face. Among other things."

That's probably true.

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Check it out! Not only is it a single layer (which you don't see very often), it's not meant to be microwaved at all (which you see even less)! There hasn't been an accessible microwave at the high school. So I had to move outside my comfort zone...

It contains... a hard boiled egg, a few slices of black-pepper beef, a handful of mini potatoes, cucumber slices (in the back), 3 cute little tomatoes out of my garden, a mini-mini sweet pepper (also out of my garden), grapes, a silicone cup of pluot chunks, and a strawberry. Also from my garden.

The director has gotten into the habit of stopping rehearsal when I pull out my dinners, because she wants to see. And who can blame her? They're adorable!

Bento #97... and I join a gym

2011-08-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

I was doing SO good with my running. 3 or 4 times a week even. Although I never did get past week 7 of the Couch 2 5k program. Mostly because when I run for longer than 20 minutes, I get really light headed. I'm sure it has something to do with eating correctly before I go running. Which I'll be researching.

In the past three weeks, I have run 3 times. I think that's sad. But I know why. It's really hot outside. And I'm not actually capable of getting up before or even with the sun. And running in the heat really contributes to the light-headedness. So it's not that I don't want to run... it's that I'm not making it possible for me to run.

Which is why I joined a gym. No sun. Controlled temp. Cardio cinema... Also they were having a membership sale.

We'll see how it goes. While I did mostly join for the cardio equipment, I'm thinking I might as well take advantage of the weights and junk, too. So I'm trying to find a book that will walk me through routines. Because I'm much to cheap to hire a personal trainer.

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This is my very first round bento box. Thanks to Lia Chen over to www.mybentolicious.com. I won a contest! Which happens very rarely. I'll be putting together a better bento to show off the box and the cute picks I got with it. I was just running behind yesterday. I'm not sure how. I had 3 hours to get ready for work...

The top layer contains a hard boiled egg, black grapes, a strawberry, and lemon cucumber slices from my garden. I may have let the lemon cucumber get too mature. It's very tough around the outside edges. I love the taste though... Cucumbery, but slightly sweet.

The other layer has a stuffed sunburst squash. I'll be honest... it was kind of a fail. No recipe for you. I ended up dumping out the filling and just eating the squash. Someday I'll learn... Start with a recipe and then tweak. :)

Bento #96... Lazy Bento

2011-08-12T18:46:00.001-07:00

I've been... down... recently. It happens, I guess. The problem is, when I do occasionally get like this, I have very little motivation to do much of anything. Like eat. Hence the lack of bentos recently. I DO eat. I just end up with a bunch of kids meals from fast food places because it's that or nothing. And the toys make me happy.

Once upon a time, Del Taco had little plastic hamsters in wrestler masks. I forget what they were called. But there were six of them. One of which was a hamster in a black mask with a glow-in-the-dark skull. Del Taco toys come in black bags so you can't see what they are. You know what that meant? I, and the entire crew at work, ended up eating Del Taco kids meals every day for about four weeks. We gave up eventually. And then my boss' kids wanted Del Taco and randomly ended up with the elusive black mask hamster... I might have to find one on ebay or at the Saver's if I really want one... And I might...

Anyway. Here is proof that things are looking up. A bento!

I tossed a slice of lasagna leftover from Fazoli's (lovely, lovely Fazoli's...) and a bunch of sauteed asparagus. The other layer has a Persian cucumber, 5 bitty strawberries from my garden, and a small slice of cheesecake (leftover from my birthday).

I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I agreed to take 5 big slices of cheesecake home with me... Now I'm going to have to eat it all. And lack of motivation means I've gone running once this week... ;)

Bento #95... I did go camping

2011-08-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

And it was interesting. At least I think so.

This is the first time I've ever been camping on my own, so I was a bit nervous. I'll admit that. When I got to the lake, it was drizzly and overcast. Check-in wasn't until 2:00, so I found a little turn-off that looked over the lake and spent a couple of hours reading a book. At 2:00 I went to the campsite, paid my fee, and started settling into my spot. I made lunch first. Chicken, noodles, and zucchini. I got my tent up, and then it started pouring. Buckets. I got soaked. And I discovered that neither my tent or my umbrella are waterproof. Great.

As soon as the torrential downpour turned to just a drizzle, I decided I should move to another campspot. One where my truck would be parked much closer to my firepit. Just in case the weather stayed gross. It didn't, of course. I could have stayed where I was and been just fine. But that's what I get for being careful.

I spent a few hours just walking around by the lake and sitting at the dock. I met a guy who invited me back to his firepit for beers, but... I'm kind of like a good little Mormon girl. He offered me marshmallows instead. When I got back to camp, I got really tied up reading a book though. I didn't even build a fire. Or eat dinner. Somewhere around 11:00 I realized that A) I was hungry and B) it was late. I munched some fruit from my ice chest and went to bed.

It was at some point in the middle of the night that I realized... even though it wasn't raining, it still would have been nice to waterproof the tent. The condensation on the outside was seeping through where my sleeping bag was touching... My socks were wet.

I did make myself a decent breakfast. I boiled a potato (that was supposed to have been baked in the fire the night before) and then poached an egg. And had hot chocolate. Really good hot chocolate. I make my own mix that is sugar-free, fat-free, and really good and creamy. And then I added a caramel-vanilla marshmallow to it.

After I cleaned and packed up my camp, I went fishing. Kind of. I baited the hook twice. But I was reading, and couldn't be bothered with actually putting effort into the fishing thing. I spent hours out there, and baked my shoulders to red crispy bits. Even though I really was using sunscreen. I promise...

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This bento contains lemon-pepper chicken (that I cooked while I was camping), green beans, lots of tomatoes from my plants, plum slices, peach slices, a bit of mango, and a cantaloupe ball.

The green beans were steamed in my microwave steamer and then tossed into a saute pan with some garlic and hoisin sauce. They turned out really good!

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And now... Two of my favorite camping pictures...

I did not use the zoom with this picture at all... I saw this gal near camp, started snapping pictures, and she walked right up to me. I could have touched her. But there was this nagging voice that said touching wild animals would get me killed. Even if it was just a little deer...

The area around Strawberry Reservoir is covered with these little neon orange flowers....

Bentos #91, #92, #93, and #94... Quick Catch-up

2011-07-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

I have a thoroughly uninteresting life. This week I had rehearsals. Our real swords came in, so my actors are no longer using sticks to practice with. I managed to get the rehearsal schedule put together and functional up until the run (no small feat). I went jogging more than once. I cooked one interesting thing that will eventually end up in a bento, at which point I'll tell you about it. I went to lunch with my mom. And my birthday was Saturday. I did absolutely nothing fun. Although I may have overcompensated today when I bought a butt-load of camping gear.

Speaking of which. I'm going camping. I was going to go tonight, but really didn't get started prepping early enough. So I'm going early tomorrow. I will fish. Although I'm not sure what I'll do if I actually catch one. I've not ever cleaned a fish before. And only kind of know where to start, thanks to youtube. I will cook things on my new little camp stove in my new little camp cook set. I will sleep in my teeny-tiny tent. Unless it's raining. In which case I will sleep in my truck. (The tent hasn't been waterproofed yet...). I will read one of my many new books (Big-Lots was clearing out all theirs for 50 cents each. I may have bought about 30 of them...) I will jog somewhere by the lake. I roast caramel-vanilla marshmallows. And it shall hopefully make this week more interesting than the last.

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On to the bentos...

Teeny-tiny potatoes on skewers with kale and smoked turkey sausage bits. There's j-dawg sauce in the container... Other layer has carrots and hummus, melon, pineapple, and a little strawberry from my garden, plum and nectarine slices.

This is a bento in which I attempted to make tofu edible. I think tofu could be a cost-effective meat replacement substance... If it could be make edible. This was only barely. I didn't finish it. Something about soy sauce, garlic, and sugar. I am rather happy with the green beans. They also had something to do with soy sauce, garlic, and sugar. But in a much better way. The zucchini was just pan-fried with salt and pepper.

Other layer has nectarine and strawberry slices, and cucumber with mini heirloom snacking tomatoes. Which I love. They're the size of marbles.

Orzo pasta salad with kale and feta, carrots, cucumber, black-pepper beef, plum slices and hummus

First, we focus on the two veggies in the top corner. The yellow tomato is from my garden, as-is the black pepper. The tomatoes ar funny. I planted yellow pear tomatoes, but these are not those. When actually ripe, these puppies turn orange. And there is no pear shape to them. As for the black peppers, they are not supposed to be mini'.

This bento has carrot slices over brown rice with leftover rosemary pork tenderloin, broccoli, cucumber, carrot, melon, nectarine, and the veggies from my garden.

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I can't keep my eyes open and keep telling myself that I'm going to leave really early. That might not happen...

Bento #90... Oven-Fried Anything...

2011-07-22T09:26:00.006-07:00

You may have noticed the recently added 'Recipes' tab at the top of the page. I wanted to make all the lovely things I cook easy for you to find. And then I went back through my posts and realized that I usually don't tell you exactly how I make things. I throw things in a pan, add dashes of this or that... and that's it. So I'm making an effort to actually put recipes in my posts.

This one might be a bit of over-compensation...

*****

I'm generally not allowed to fry things at home. I nearly bought a countertop deep-fryer once. And then realized that I would fry EVERYTHING. Did you ever watch the 'King of the Hill' episode where Bill and Dale start playing with their fryer? That would be me. Because fried things are delicious.

So. I decided I could oven-fry things. And I had a package of mushrooms in my fridge that I really needed to do something with.

They're not exactly pretty, but they'd been in the fridge for a week.

I decided to do a zucchini as well. In protest to Red Robin changing their fried zucchini recipe.

I put all my veggies in a ziploc bag with *1/2 cup of flour, *1/2 tsp paprika, *1/2 tsp pepper and *1 tsp salt. Since these are not being fried, you have to add salt now... you can't do it later. It won't stick.

Shake until the veggies are coated.

In a bowl, whisk an *egg with *1/3 cup milk. Dunk your flour coated veggies in the mix and then...

Put them directly into a mixture of *1 cup panko bread crumbs and *1/3 cup Parmesan cheese. Press the crumbs into the veggies.

Put your veggies onto a greased cookie sheet. (I line everything with foil. I don't really like washing dishes.) And bake in a 350 degree oven until the outsides are crispy! Mine were in for about 15 minutes.

I ate these with ranch dressing. And I didn't feel bad about eating a lot of them. They're oven-fried, after all.

Yeah... I totally did a turkey sausage. I had leftover panko... See? You can oven fry anything!

*****

This is a little snack bento I did using some oven-fried goodness... The zucchini and mushrooms are packed in a baking cup to keep them separate from the moist things. Carrots, black pepper beef, and a tin of sliced plums make this a perfect snack. It's got all the food groups in it! I'm so amazing!

Eat bento and be happy!

Bento #89... Rosemary Pepper Pork Loin

2011-07-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

I bought a new toaster oven. I decided I had to. And I know better than to argue with myself.

I live in an apartment in an old house with only one accessible, open-able window. And the poor little AC unit I've got in it has been having a difficult time keeping the apartment cool during the recent spate of uber hot summer days. And I like to cook. And using the oven (which is far, far away from the AC unit) just doesn't help anything. So I bought a toaster oven. And I'm in love.

Not only does the toaster oven keep my apartment cooler, it means I don't feel like I have to cook big batches of things to justify the use. The first thing I made was two cookies. I never bake more than that, because I will eat them. I usually just eat the raw cookie dough. I know. You aren't supposed to do that. There's a warning on the package and everything. Bite me.

The second thing I made was the Rosemary Pepper Pork Loin. This is actually a VERY simplified recipe of my pulled pork. Which is a recipe I will probably never share. Everybody has that thing they make incredibly well that everybody else wants to eat/make/hoard. The pulled pork is mine. All mine.

*****Rosemary Pepper Pork Loin

You need:

1 lb Pork Loin, cut into 4 oz pieces

A bottle of honey

Dried Rosemary

Pepper

Salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a pan with foil (unless you want to clean caramelized honey off it later) and then spray with canola oil.

This is the part where your hands get sticky... Drizzle honey over the pork loin and smear it around until the entire thing is coated. Sprinkle with rosemary (I like a ton, you might not), pepper, and salt. Place on pan. Bake for 7 minutes, turn pork pieces over, bake for another 5. I like my pork a little teeny bit pink in the middle, or you could cook it through.

*****

This bento consists of zucchini, the most adorable baby potatoes I've ever seen, and a piece of pork sliced over more potatoes. I drizzled the veggies in this layer with a garlic flavored oil. It may be slightly odd, but I had to convince myself that drizzling oil was no different than buttering...

The other layer has carrots and english cucumbers with hummus (in the container), pineapple, plum slices, canary melon balls, and a strawberry from my garden! This is not the first, but it is the first one that actually lasted long enough to get into a lunch. I usually eat them right off the plant.

Bento #88... A Dinner Plate Comparison

2011-07-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

One of the new-to-me things I found at the market the other day is a bag of Vegetable Pancake mix. Basically, you wisk it with water and then add veggies and seafood. If you feel like it. I decided to try the stuff out with cauliflower. The measurements on the bag were all in ML. I don't have any measuring cups that cool. I guessed.

Once I felt I had the ratio right, and the batter looked like I thought it should (although I was likely wrong), I dumped in some finely diced cauliflower and some green onions. So far, so good.

I also decided this would be a good time to try out the truffle oil I found at Ross a couple of months ago. So I heated some in my small, sad frying pan. I say it's sad because the bottom is warped. It doesn't sit flat anymore. I'm sure it's my fault, and it involved cold water after a bout of cooking.

My first attempts at the cakes came out thin, flat, and uber crispy. They were delicious. As things that are fried generally are. But they looked nothing like the picture on the bag. I turned down the heat in the pan. And tried again. The second batch came out slightly thicker. Chewy in the center but still crispy on the edges. And equally delicious.

It was about that point that I realized how horrible these things are for me. Especially considering my slowly shrinking waistline. I would like it to continue in that vein. So I decided to try baking a few cakes. I dropped some batter into six silicone muffin cups and tossed them in the oven. And then I finished frying the batter I had. Because even if it was bad for me, I didn't want it to go to waste. I'll make that sacrifice.

The baked cakes turned out chewy all the way around and through. And then I had a brilliant idea to crisp them up. I drizzled them with the tiniest bit of oil and then put them under the broiler. And I had success! They still looked nothing like the picture on the package. But they were cooked through, crispy, and not too greasy. And yummy. Did I mention yummy?

*****

The big thing I hear when I take my lunches to work is, "That's not very much food. Does it really fill you up?"

Especially when I started packing bentos, my focus was more about substance than cute. Because I was also concerned about whether it would fill me up. It always does. I'm trying to make that transition to cute now. I mean... substance is still important. But a little bit of adorable goes a long way. To the point where I have to unpack my dinners before my rehearsals or meetings start. So everyone can gather around and make impressed noises.

I actually packed this bento to eat during staff meeting today. But then we moved staff meeting up two hours, so I just ate the banana I took for breakfast. And I got sent home because I'm up to 92 comp hours. And they don't like that. So I ate it at home. And I thought it would be fun to put it on a plate and take a picture.

Here it is IN the box...

Leftover steak from Applebee's, sauteed mushrooms, steamed kale, and cauliflower cakes.

Half a plum, pineapple, canary melon, English cucumber, and carrots.

And here it is on a plate.

That's more food than I got at Applebee's last night! I've never actually done this comparison before. I knew I was eating plenty. But. I didn't know I was eating that much. I never fill these plates this full when I'm eating at home. Although, when I am home I grab random fruit out of the fridge and snack on it. I guess it evens out.

So there you go! Next time someone asks why you're starving yourself, dump out your pretty little lunch and show them how big it really is!

Eat bento and be happy!

Bento #87...

2011-07-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

So. The first and most important thing. Lock&Lock has re-released their 45% off discount code. So. Type in QLTY4LESS at checkout. And bask in the good deal. The code works on already discounted prices, which means the bentos that are 30% off right now get way more cheap. I might have to buy one in every color.

*****

I found another Ethnic market today. I've been driving past this place since I was a kid. When my mom was driving. Today I really felt the need to find some panko so I can oven-fry some mushrooms. The place I usually hit is closer to my parents' house. This place... kinda looks like a dive. It's almost impossible to park anything bigger than a sedan in the parking lot. And there's no sign with hours and such, so I wasn't even sure they were open.

But I'm glad I went.

Mostly because they carry haw flakes.

Kinda sounds like fish food, yeah?

Haw flakes are a kind of Chinese candy made out of dried haw (which I think is some sort of stone fruit) and sugar. The little round bundles look like fireworks. I loved taking them to school when I was a kid. Because fielding the "why are you opening a firework?' questions was fun. But this is the first time I've seen them in nearly ten years! They taste just like I remember...

*****

I haven't shown off my Bountiful Basket in a while. I think I should do that now. Because I was really pleased with the pile of produce today...

- 1 head cauliflower
- 1 bunch broccoli
- 1 head salad savoy (YUM!)
- 1 head romaine
- 1 English cucumber
- 2 organic beefsteak tomatoes
- 1 gigantic Canary melon
- 1 pint blackberries
- 7 bananas
- 3 red pears
- Many plums
- Many nectarines

I know, right!

I roasted about a head and a half of cauliflower (I had some left over from last week.) and I promptly ate all of it. Every time I roast the stuff, I mean to save some for my lunch. I think I've managed to do it once. At least it's good for me.

*****

Dinner!

I packed this in another of my new Lock&Lock boxes. Which I will review at some point in the future. When I can clearly see my computer screen.

I've got brown rice hidden under meatballs, peas, and corn. The other layer has saurkraut (under the sauce container), J-Dawgs sauce (in the container), and tomatoes with sweet pickled mini peppers, figs, plum, and pineapple. I usually get my J-Dawgs with saurkraut and pickles. So I was hoping that the combo would work with the meatballs. It wasn't bad. But it wasn't as good as it is with a giant Polish dog.

Bento #86... and a Lock&Lock review!

2011-07-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

All the Lock & Lock boxes I ordered arrived. And I love them all. My first order contained a Slim Lunch Box and a Mini Lunch Box. Along with a vacuum bottle that will just have to wait in a sad, lonely corner until it gets cold out to be reviewed.

Anywho. Lunch boxes. I took pictures of only the Slim because the Mini is in the sink, waiting to be washed. It's ok though... they are basically the same lunchbox, just a slightly different shape and size. The Slim compartments are 250ml and 340ml, while the Mini's are 270ml and 330ml.

The set came with the box itself, a set of collapsible chopsticks (cool!), a lunch bag, and I opted for the optional beverage bottle.

Here are all the pieces of the lunch box, including the chopsticks. The compartments are deeper than I'm used to packing, which is not necessarily a bad thing... just something to note. I just had to figure out how to prop up some foods, and all was well.

I love that the chopsticks have their own little compartment. I'm pretty sure I could fit some m&ms in with them as well if I need a reward for eating all my veggies. The chopsticks go together easily, and they are secure enough that you don't need to worry about them falling apart while you are using them. It took me a couple of tries to get them apart when I was done with them, so they might not work so well for a small child. Maybe practice with the kid before you send the box off with them to make sure they can do it.

I figured this out while I was playing with it for the photos... the layers stack into each other! A nice space saving design for those with limited cupboard space.

A nice feature these boxes have it that the lids are microwavable. You'll want to crack them open a little bit, but they can be left on! I don't think I have a single other box like that. And I have a lot of boxes.

The bottle has a top that pulls off, and then a cap that screws off. I think it's perfect for freezing water in for those who don't have access to a refrigerator. It holds 300ml. I'm hesitant to put anything other than water in it. The screw cap has a foam insert that I think would stain or hold flavors.

The bag is made out of canvas. It feels pretty heavy duty for a lunch bag. Which I like. It's an insulated bag, although the insulation big only goes up as high as the top of the box, which makes me wonder how well it works. I have a fridge at work, so haven't had a need to try it out.

The bag has a strap sewn in. It wraps around the bag and then velcros on the bottom. It was designed to fit perfectly around the bag with the box and the waterbottle inside. I wish there were more velcro strip on the strap though... I don't see myself always wanting to use the water bottle, which means that the strap will be loose on those days. ...On the other hand, with the strap loose, the bag kind of has a handle. That's my silver lining.

The box itself fits rather snugly in the bag. Not a problem for a person with such fine motor skills as mine, but possibly an issue for a child. Just another thing to practice with this set before you send them off with it.

This is what the set looks like all bundled up. It's very compact. Stylish even. Not likely to get confused with a coworker's sandwich.

Long story short. I'm glad I bought this box. And the other one.

I paid around $9 a piece with a coupon code. Which is expired now. But Lock&Lock always has some awesome sale going on. This week the boxes are 30% off, which puts them around $12.

*****

This is the lunch in the other one:

Shrimp alfredo with broccoli. I sprinkled it with diced squash blossoms. My squash plant has been blossoming like crazy, but only male flowers. So I'm eating them. The other is cabbage tossed with salt, rice vinegar, and a little bit of sugar with a cup of sweet pickled mini peppers nestled on top. I told you you'd see those eventually. The other half has plum slices, apricot slices and two roasted figs.

I got the figs in my basket last week. They didn't have much flavor just eaten fresh, so I googled a bunch or recipes and then put my own together.

*****

Roasted Figs.

*De-stem and slice figs in half.

*Drizzle with honey.

*Sprinkle with rosemary and fresh cracked black pepper to taste. I use a lot of pepper.

*Sprinkle with a little bit of salt.

*Stick into a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or so.

*Eat them up!

*****

This is Poe. She's helping. The teeth marks by the sticker are hers...

*****

*This is NOT a compensated post. I like Lock&Lock all by myself. I don't even have an affiliate link... maybe I should work on that...*

Bentos #83, #84, #85...

2011-07-12T12:48:00.000-07:00

I had a nice weekend. It didn't start until Sunday morning. But it was nice.

I spend Sunday morning at a friend's house working on my poor little motorcycle. It's an '82 Honda Magna v45 that I paid $50 for about three years ago. Last summer I got a bad tank of gas. A horrid tank of gas. It coated the inside of the tank, all the fuel lines, the carbs, and the intakes of the engine with an awful caramel colored goo. I'm finally getting it cleaned out. And I should have it running next weekend. I hope. It's to the point where my throttle hand twitches whenever I see a motorcycle...

At some point mid-afternoon, my friend had to go do family things, as one does on Sundays. I decided to go running. And it was a glorious overcast afternoon. I moved up to week 7 of the C25K, which is a 20 minute run. I thought I was going to die going into it, but I could have gone longer! I didn't. Because building up to longer runs is part of the program. And I didn't want to screw up, hurt myself, and have to start over.

*****

I packed this one in a hurry. Which is the reason that the fruit is not cut up into cute, easy to eat bits. I made fried rice with corn, peas, and canadian bacon. I was going to put in an egg until I realized what time it was... I cut the flowers out of the bacon first and then diced up the other bits. I didn't even take a picture of this one before I lidded it up. That's my desk at work in the background of the picture...

This one was my breakfast this morning. I went running. Like I do. But before I left the house I realized that I had no water. I decided to take something to eat after my run in order to give the crews out in the street extra time to fix my water before I came home and wanted to take a shower. I've got string cheese, black pepper beef, grapes, half an apricot, half a plum, and a baggie of roasted green peas.

They got the water working before I came home. Thank goodness.

This one was another meal from Saturday. And also a meal on Monday. I packed two identical lunches. The top has pasta with red chard, tomatoes, and mozzarella artichoke chicken sausage tossed with Philly savory garlic cooking creme. The bottom has my last nectarine, strawberries, and some cabbage.

Bento #83... Rehearsals!

2011-07-07T20:51:00.001-07:00

So... Rehearsals!

I'm sitting here in my theatre watching the first stage combat rehearsal for Alexander Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" (adapted by Ken Ludwig). It's rather amusing. Bunch of actors slowly swinging at each other with wooden dowels because we don't trust them with swords yet...

I'm actually really excited for this production. The script is a little bit... cheesy (sorry, Ken). But we have a great director, an amazing cast, and... you know... me. I'm stage managing. And I'm feeling rather accomplished right now because I just finished a very detailed schedule for the first month of rehearsals. Which was a complicated task for this show. I promise... I'm amazing.

We're having a Stage Combat Boot Camp for the first week. Which is great for me because all I have to do is show up to let the cast and the fight choreographer in. I'll probably start using the time for paperwork and other boring things starting tomorrow... but for now? I want to see them beat each other.

*****

I brought this for my dinner today... And I intended to eat it before rehearsal started, but who has time for that? With cutting dowels to the appropriate length and discussing schedules with people... I ate it during rehearsal...

Look! I kind of made it cute! Two days in a row!

I like brown rice. I like the taste. I like the texture. The color leaves a little bit to be desired in a bento box... but there it is. The flowers are made out of canadian bacon and slices of kidney bean. The grass is little shreds of summer snap peas. I've got a cup of spiced kidney beans (recipe below), surrounded by broccoli. And there are ham scraps underneath that.

My excuse for a butterfly is made of nectarine slices and strawberry bits. There are more strawberries beside that. Then there are snap peas and tomatoes. With a little ladybug tomato slice. Which I'm probably a little bit too proud of. Because I thought of that all by myself. If I had more time and a decent pair of kitchen scissors, I would have done the spots from nori. But I ended using Wilton food markers. I imagine they work better on ... not tomatoes.

*****

Edit... because I forgot the recipe... *sheepish*

Spiced Kidney Beans

1 can kidney beans
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 tsp spicy mustard
2 Tbs sugar or honey
1/4 tsp powdered garlic
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
Black pepper to taste (I add a lot...)

Rinse the kidney beans. In a small frying pan, mix all the other ingredients. Add beans. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly. They are done when the sauce is thickened and sticky.

Bento #80... and jogging

2011-07-06T22:24:00.002-07:00

Wait... Bento #80? Didn't we just to #82? ... Yeah... I may have skipped a number...

*****

I've been really good with my jogging for the past couple of months. I've worked up to the Couch to 5k week 6. Which I've realized varies between a couple of programs. My current run is a 5 minute walk, 8 minute run, 5 minute walk, 8 minute run, 5 minute walk. I've been doing some weeks over, or for an extra day or two, which is why I'm only at 6.

It doesn't sound like much. 8 minutes at a time. But. Taking into account that the last time I ran for more than about 30 seconds was when I was in junior high (more than 10 years ago), and when I did it, I ended up in the hospital for a week with asthma and bronchitis... this is a major thing for me! I think the coolest thing for me is also one of the dumbest... I had a redbox movie and about two minutes to return it. The 7-11 is just around the block, so I just took off running. And I made it! And I wasn't winded at all! Little victories people. Little victories.

I do intend to run a 5k at some point. This fall most likely. I'm actually looking forward to it.

*****

Lunch!

Everything except the salmon came from a Bountiful Basket...

I've got pan-fried salmon with broccoli and miso-roasted butternut squash. The other layer has grape tomatoes, salted cabbage, strawberries, and nectarine slices.

I actually made two of these... but this was the cuter of the two.

Giveaway winner announced!

2011-07-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

Why hello!

First off, I'm a slacker. May was crazy. That was my excuse for not making healthy lunches for myself. This week? I didn't make time and I ate out EVERY SINGLE DAY. I haven't done that in a long time. And I'm feeling unhealthy and strapped for cash. That'll show me.

And then. Because self control, motivation, and other things have been lacking for the past week... and because Lock'n'Lock has a discount code out for 45% off your entire purchase... I may have bought five new boxes. Yeah. I'll tell you about them when they come in...

So. Expect more lunches. Healthy, colorful, guilt-ridden lunches.

And now, the winner of the giveaway! I put all the entries on little slips of paper and handed the pile over to my four year old nephew. He picked...

Kellybmomof3!

She said,

Just started following after finding you on WFLW.

Why I bento?

It's a little something I do for me! 37 years old and I bento for myself! I just started in January and really enjoy it! I blogged about it and my friends at work even come by and see what's in my lunch each day! I love it! I am also trying to lose weight and I find that bento-ing helps with portion control. Works out well for me! I just need to work on my creativity side for design food. That's my favorite part about other peoples blogs. LOVE to see all the creativity...and new recipes!!

Congrats! Please email me at scrumptiousbento @ gmail . com (without spaces....) with your address!

Bentos #81 and #82...

2011-06-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post... It's late, but I still need to go on my walk. I've been attempting to tire myself out. Lately I've been in the habit of waking up a couple of times a night and then popping wide awake at 7:00 in the morning.. I went on a walk a couple of nights ago and it seemed to help. So that's the plan...

It's been a while since you've seen me attempt to dress up my lunches, yes? This lunch has turkey meatballs with bone picks and a yummy pasta thing I've been making with spinach, tomatoes, and Philly cooking creams. The bottom has peaches, blackberries, a homemade apple gel with watermelon bugeyes and a celery mouth, more celery, and cabbage. I grew up just eating sliced cabbage with salt. For some reason I haven't done that once since I started getting my baskets...

This was a quickly packed breakfast bento. I love this box. It's just the right size for something like this, and it's vintage, and it's cool looking. I stuffed it with peaches, a plum, watermelon, and blackberries. And a couple of Dove chocolates. Because I'm a big girl and no one can tell me not to have chocolate for breakfast...

*****

Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway! Only one more week!

Bentos #78 and #79 ... Concerts in the Park

2011-06-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday nights in June are Brass Band in the Park nights. That means I have to work, but I'm ok with it. I really enjoy the concerts. I pack up a bunch of folding chairs and the portable sound system and have a good ol' time.

Once my system is up, I just sit back, listen, and push the On button for the microphone between songs.

Except yesterday. Yesterday it was raining. Actually, Utah got more rain yesterday than we usually average for the month of June. So the band moved under the pavillion and sat on tables, benches, and a few of my chairs. I didn't set up my system because... well... it was wet. And the outlet I usually plug into has exposed wiring. I sat in the van out of the rain and listened. And felt sorry for the 30 or so poor suckers who showed up for the concert despite the rain and then had to sit in it.

*****

This one was my picnic for the concert. I always bring snacks, and thanks to BB, they've been healthy snacks. This is cucumber, celery and fresh ground peanut butter, a plum, blackberries, peach slices and watermelon.

I also packed a thermos of homemade tomato soup. Because it was raining. And soup sounded good.

This is my lunch for today. I decided to stuff all the mini sweet peppers I got this week with a mixture of brown rice, Philly Italian blend cream cheese, mozzarella and parmesan, and a couple of sprinkles of that yummy garlic seasoning. I topped them with more cheese when they were almost done.

I proceeded to eat most of the batch. I wasn't even going to save these for lunch today... until I did the math and figured out how many calories I had already devoured... I've also got some oven roasted onion and a sliced turkey sausage on a stick.

Bottom has cucumber, a plum, peach slices, watermelon and blackberries.

*****

Don't forget the giveaway! 11 more days...

Bento #77 - Sides only.

2011-06-18T13:19:00.003-07:00

I up my basket today. As per usual. My site's pickup is 7:00am. I wasn't exactly on top of things... While I was standing in line I heard 'Hi Pam'. I looked up. And my thought process went like this *Who knows my name here? Oh. It's Penny. No. That can't be Penny. Oh wait. Yes it can.* 'Hi Penny.' *Oh. Mike's here too.* 'Hi Mike.' And yes. It took just as long to think it as it does to read it. And yes. I had a stupid confused look on my face while that was happening.

The basket was great today, as per usual.

6 bananas

6 apples

12 plums

3 containers of blackberries

1 pineapple

1 canteloupe

1 bunch of spinach

1 head of romaine

1 bunch of celery

1 head of cabbage

4 cucumbers

6 gorgeous organic tomatoes

I've got a whole lot of apples. I never eat them. One of my front teeth is a temporary. It makes eating apples difficult. So today I sliced up the six and layered them in my crockpot with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. I topped it with some vanilla. I'm going shopping later. I'll get some ff whipped cream to top it off with. And maybe make an oatmeal crumb to go with it.

I bought a juicer a couple of weeks ago. My other plan with the apples is to juice them all. I'll drink about half of it and I'll make fresh fruit gel in my little silicone cups. They'll be great for lunches.

*****

I spent the morning running audio for a Middle-Eastern Dance recital in the park during the Farmer's Market. Right now our Farmer's Market is really low in produce. But. There are a lot of food vendors. Today I picked up lunch from a little Thai family. Mango sticky rice. And Thai spring rolls.

Honestly I thought the spring rolls were disgusting. I ate half of one. And then gave up.

The rice though... Oh. The rice. I should have taken a picture. A bed of rice with a row of mango slices spread across and then topped with a delicious sweet white sauce... I was in heaven. I'm sure I'll get the rice again at some point this summer. I'll take a picture then.

I knew I'd be picking up something to eat while I was there, so I just packed some sides.

I've got peach slices, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, and peppered beef rollups.

It's not amazingly interesting. But it was yummy.

*****

Don't forget about the giveaway! 12 more days!

Bentos #75 and #76 - Also a giveaway!

2011-06-15T18:55:00.007-07:00

I love that I can cook. Something about pulling out my wonderfully stuffed lunchboxes at work while others are unwrapping soggy sandwiches or running out for fast food makes me feel all sorts of smug, healthy, and generally satisfied with life.

I packed two meals for today, but only ate one. It didn't turn out to be as long a day as I was anticipating...

The warm layer has 5 cheese tortellini with artichoke heart tossed with ICBINB and that Johnny's Garlic Bread seasoning I love so much. It's also got roasted yellow peppers.

I have to tell you about these peppers... I was trying to get my produce all squared away before it spoiled. My yellow peppers were starting to get those spots that peppers get, so I sliced them up before I really knew what I was going to do with them. I ended up tossing them with olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I roasted them and they became incredibly sweet. I just started eating them off the pan. It was a struggle to stop eating them long enough to pack these bentos...

The bottom layer has canteloupe, watermelon, grapes, and a cup of the ends of all the mini sweet peppers I pickled yesterday. You'll see those in my next post, I'm sure.

There is a little Chinese restaurant a few blocks from my apartment that has the most amazing Tiny Spicy Chicken. It is not tiny or spicy. But it is SO good. This bento contains Tiny Spicy leftovers and roasted yellow peppers over brown rice, the better part of a peach, watermelon, and canteloupe.

*****

Now. You all want a giveaway. And I want to give something away. This is where some lucky person will get to take advantage of my awful hording habits. Ready?

This amazingly awesome giveaway package includes six egg molds, a package of piggy sauce bottles, a package of cute animal picks, a rice mold set, and 10 little veggie picks. (The veggie picks come in packages of 50. I don't know why you'd ever need 50 of them. So I picked out my 10 and have been giving sets away. They haven't ever been used. Promise.)

This giveaway is open to everyone. Wherever you are.

And here's how you enter.

1) Become a follower of my blog, and then answer the following question in the comments of this post. There are no wrong answers, of course. I'm just curious.

**Why do you bento?**

2) Get a bonus entry by posting a link to my giveaway somewhere! Your blog, facebook, twitter even... Whatevs. And then put a link back in the comments section. (Did I phrase that right? I think so... I want to see where you put it. Basically.)

The winner will be picked in the most fair way I know how... Using either little strips of paper with your names on them and my four year old nephew. Or using random.org. Most likely the second one...

Drawing will be held July 1st! Get your entries in before then. :)

Bentos #72, #73, and #74 - a post ONLY about food!

2011-06-12T13:43:00.004-07:00

That's not exactly a first, but usually I ramble on about the goings on in my life for the first little bit. I'm doing the exact same thing here, but I intend to only ramble about food.

First off. I have this great desire to show off my Bountiful Basket this week. Ready for this?

- 1 watermelon

- 1 canteloupe

- 8 huge peaches

- 7 apples

- 6 bananas

- 3 pears

- 1 head of Romaine lettuce

- 1 bunch of spinach

- 3 artichokes

- 2 onions

- 4 tomatoes

- 2 yellow peppers

- lots of mini sweet peppers (I didn't count)

All that for $15! One of the reasons I wanted to share is that BB is spreading. They have sites in South Carolina now! I expect at some point they'll make it to every state. Which would be pretty darn awesome.

Second, I am about 2 days away from being able to eat fresh produce out of my container garden! I've got a few strawberries that have turned a light shade of red. I'm so looking forward to eating them!

My tomatoes are blossoming. My peppers have been blossoming but for some reason the baby peppers are just falling off. I'm going to try an epsom salt solution to see if that helps. I've got some sugar snap pea plants that are growing well, but no blossoms yet. A few lemon cucumber plants have come in, but at the moment the biggest only has three leaves. We'll see how they work out... Just Monday I planted a crookneck squash plant and a peter pan squash plant. I almost killed them first. They've come back though, and the peter pan plant looks like it's going to blossom in the next week or two!

I'm really excited about my garden...

*****

So this bento consists of leftover chicken and rice with paprika cauliflower. Grapes, raspberries, strawberries, canteloupe, a mini sweet pepper, and a bit of cottage cheese fill it out. This one sat for a few days... People kept showing up to work with food. It didn't do good things for the bento, but it was still edible.

The top layer here has more of the leftover steak topped with sauteed mini peppers and onions. The pasta things next to it are Hot Pockets brand baked ravioli. Pretty good. But I likely won't buy them again. They are so not healthy. The bottom has carrots and hummus, strawberries, an apricot, and raspberries.

I made a great chicken salad. I've made it before. Just chicken, apple, celery, and carrot. They're all diced up and then mixed with honey poppy seed dressing. The dressing is acidic enough to keep the apples from turning brown. The other layer has a mini pepper, canteloupe, raspberries and strawberries.

*****

One more bento until the giveaway!

Bento #71...

2011-06-05T09:21:00.003-07:00

On Friday night, one of my brothers took the family out to dinner. We went to Sizzler. Because that's his favorite place to eat. And the place least likely to kill him... He has a lot of sad allergies...

He did that as a celebration. He paid off his car. I'm looking forward to doing that exact same thing... No more car payment means an extra $300 a month.

After we ate, we walked over to the Big5 so he could help me pick out a fishing rod and reel. Yup. I'm going to learn how to fish. Nope. I will not use live worms for bait. I'm pretty sure I can gut a fish, but stringing a worm on a hook just grosses me out. I also picked up a telescoping reel so I can just tuck it into a motorcycle pack if the mood hits me. Now I just need a license and tackle.

*****

I took this over to the park after I was done with work Saturday morning. The Farmer's Market has started over there, but produce was not abundant. Taking into consideration Utah's weather for the past few months, that's not surprising. But. The food vendors are everywhere... maybe next week I'll only pack sides...

Leftover steak and rice from Sizzler, combined with a whole bunch of broccoli. Little tiny celery paired with fresh peanut butter, a mini pepper, grapes, strawberries, and raspberries. I'm not exactly sure where the cup that the peanut butter is in came from. My best guess is that it's the endcap that comes on conduit when you buy it from the hardware store. It's the perfect size though...

I used a box I've never used before... I have no idea what the French says...

*****

Four more lunches until the giveaway!

Bentos #67, #68, #69, #70. Catching up.

2011-06-02T20:33:00.004-07:00

Who here is a slacker?

*Raises hand...*

This past month has been... interesting... But. It's over. And here I am.

I've got my 'garden' in. There's a row of 12 gallon totes outside my front door. I gave up on the starts I had. They'd get so far and then something horrible would happen to them. Like my cat, Poe, would knock them off the cupboard. Or the cucumbers would start molding. Or ... I dunno. Just bad things.

I ended up buying starts from a greenhouse. Which ended up being a lot more fun. I have three different kinds of peppers, three different tomatoes, strawberries, sweet peas (ok... those actually were seeds I planted), and lemon cucumbers. The tomato plants all have blossoms coming on. The peppers have blossoms, and one of them has a few little tiny veggies on it. There are lots of strawberries already. I wonder how long it will take for them to get ripe?

Until then, I'm still picking up my Bountiful Basket every week. And I figured out what to do with the lettuce that's there EVERY SINGLE WEEK. I found a lettuce soup recipe. And it's yummy. And very green. This is the first time I've ever actually eaten all the lettuce.

*****

So. Bentos.

The hot layer has pasta with ICBINB and an incredibly awesome garlicky cheesy seasoning. I just found it. Way back when I was a young teenager, my mom came home with a big bottle of this stuff. I ate it with everything. I thought it was amazing stuff. And then it was gone. My mom didn't like the stuff much, and, you know, it was her money. So when it was gone, it was gone. Until a few weeks ago when I found it at Costco. It is called Johnny's Garlic Spread and Seasoning. And I love it. It's like old times.

There are also turkey meatballs, broccoli, and since there was room... I sliced up a single mushroom and sauteed it. The other layer has cucumber, cantaloupe melon balls, pineapple cubes, string cheese, and m&ms. Note... the bag of m&ms with the juicy fruit layer wasn't such a good idea. They got sticky. Also note. Those are pretty good looking melon balls. And the $3 I pent on a melon baller was totally worth it.

The top layer has Santa Fe chicken with rice. There's also a cup of tomatoes tucked into the rice to mix in with everything. The other layer has honeydew melon balls, some massive blueberries, carrots and hummus, and grapes.

There's more Santa Fe chicken and rice with green beans. The bottom has the cup of tomatoes to mix in, honey dew and blackberries. The carrot cake in the other cup is courtesy of my little brother's birthday.

I made a quiche. I got a bunch of rainbow chard in a basket and didn't know quite what to do with it. But I had eggs. And I had milk. And I had cheese. So I mixed it all together and I baked it. And it was good. So there's a piece in my lunch. There's also some green pepper strips, Some baby red baked potatoes, and some summer squash.

The other layer has honeydew melon balls, blackberries, orange slices, and more carrot cake.

*****

On another awesome note. I'm working on putting together a giveaway. It should have been for my 100th bento, but since I've been a slacker for the past month... well... I see no reason to punish you. So. We'll make it for the 75th bento. And I promise I'm back on the bento horse, so it won't take another month to come around.

Bentos #65 and #66... Busy busy...

2011-05-08T13:41:00.002-07:00

The past couple of weeks I've been on my own at work. My boss is having family and health issues. So I've been working a whole lot and haven't had time to toss together many bentos, or blog about the couple I actually did.

And here they are...

Bento #65 has brown rice and sauteed cabbage and daikon in the top layer. The line down the center is furikake. The bottom has quick pickles, green peppers, strawberries, and orange slices.

Bento #66 is a pasta salad with green pepper, radish, and parmesan cheese. I made the dressing myself from EVOO, garlic red wine vinegar, and a shake from a package of Italian dressing mix.

Bottom has more quick pickles, pineapple, strawberries, and grapes.

Bentos #62, #63, and #64...

2011-04-25T22:54:00.002-07:00

Our little group from the Covey Center drove up to Logan the other day to see a show. We decided to stop for dinner at maddox's. When you pull into their parking lot, there is a barn in the back. That's where tomorrow's steaks are coming from.

I ordered a ground bison steak. It was pretty good. Except that by the time the steak came out I was already full from the soup and rolls. So here it is. Bison, sauteed mushrooms and such, with potatoes. Also tomatoes, radish, and celery with hummus, strawberries, orange slices, and a chunk of sharp cheddar with the maddox symbol on it.

That's leftover Coconut Chicken Curry. ...I love that I can cook. It's paired with fresh broccoli, celery, cheese, hummus, strawberries, blueberries, and mango.

This is more Coconut Curry Chicken. It's with celery, mango, orange, strawberries, blueberries, and a hunk of cheddar.

Bentos #59, #60, #61... Did you miss me?

2011-04-17T10:26:00.003-07:00

I think spring is finally here! I'm SO happy! This means I need to get my motorcycle running, and lots of dirt for my container garden. This means I won't freeze half to death while geocaching in the middle of the night! ... It's the little things.

It's been so nice the past few days that I've been eating lunch in the back of my truck. Odd? Yes. Except that I have a bed extender, and when it's folded back into the truck it makes the perfect backrest. A friend and I have decided that one day we'll have to get my projector, set it on top of my truck and back up to a random white building to watch a movie. Just because we can.

I had a really busy work week, which is why you haven't seen me much. We had a live audio class from the local college come in do concerts as their final project. It's always fun... and interesting to see if any of them learned anything. The second group was almost a disaster...

The thing that I like is that when they come in, I get to do whatever I want to with the lighting. Last year I found some light panels and lit up the bottom of the drum riser. Pretty cool. This year they brought in a hard rock band. Hard rock is not really my thing. But. I had this brilliant idea. At least I thought so...

We pulled out all the drape so you could see the electrics and the trees and the vents and... pretty much everything. And then we hung up all the random pipe we had lying around the theatre and lit it. The effect was like... we had hung colored fluorescent bulbs. Or light sabers.

I was pretty proud of the effect...

*****

Have you seen those Philadelphia Cooking Cremes? I bought a couple of different flavors to try out. And wow. They are sooo good. And easy to use! I sauteed chicken with squash until the chicken was done, tossed in tomatoes and the creme, let it go for a couple more minutes, and ta da! Dinner! I served it over orzo pasta. It was heavenly. And I had leftovers.

Said leftovers went into the top layer of this box. I arranged some oven roasted chayote squash over the top. Chayote is kind of like zucchini, but sweeter I think. Also. When you roast it, the skin gets really tough and you can't eat it. Fair warning. I just picked up the slices and ate it like funny looking watermelon.

The other layer has sliced green peppers, a cherry tomato, sharp cheddar (upon which I drew a strawberry), mango, strawberries, blueberries, and a couple of slices of orange.

Vegetarian bento? Not likely. I had leftover chicken and sauteed onions and mushrooms from Applebee's at work. This was all to go with it.

Brown rice, green pepper strips, celery, cherry tomato, sharp cheddar, with orange slices, blueberries, and strawberries.

My cold layer is looking about the same every day. I guess it gets boring visually. So I've tried adding picks to liven it up. I recently bought a box to sort my picks into, so they'll be easier to find in the mornings when I'm in a rush...

The top layer has brown rice, asparagus, and freezer stash meatballs.

Bentos #57 and #58... When I can't sleep

2011-04-08T07:40:00.004-07:00

I haven't been sleeping well lately. I occasionally have these bouts of insomnia that last me a month or so. And I'm 2 weeks in. I'll go to bed and stare at the ceiling for an hour or more before finally falling asleep. And then. Without fail. I'll wake up around 5:30. Or earlier. I'll toss and turn before hopefully falling asleep again an hour later. This gets old.

Yesterday morning I wasn't falling asleep again. So. I rolled out of bed. I did some dishes. I ate a real breakfast. Took a shower twice as long as I usually do... I still had more than an hour to dink around after all of that. So I decided to make something awesome for my lunch.

I made pizza using naan bread for the crust. I made the sauce with a few tomatoes I had in the fridge and topped it with another tomato, mozzarella, Parmesan, bacon, and ham. So good! I may have eaten some right then, just to make sure it was worthy of becoming a bento.

By this time I was running late. So.

I love this strawberry box. I feel like it's huge. And perfect for bulky things. Like pizza. The bottom has pineapple, strawberries, mango, green pepper strips, and a grape.

This looks oddly like yesterday's snack... hmmm. Yeah. We only ended up eating about half of it. So I topped it off this morning. Pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, and a cutie orange. Hummus in the sidecar for the Club crackers. And a string cheese. Because I love string cheese.

Bentos #55 and #56...

2011-04-06T23:01:00.003-07:00

No real news for you, except my spare time is now taken up by an online experiment. Involving referrals and internet marketing and crap like that. It's not really fun. But I'm committed to giving it six months of actual effort. Just to see if anything will come of it. I think the most fun part about it is the blog I started to chronicle the effort. Maybe in six months I'll be rich. Or be able to afford to take a small vacation. Or just fed up with the whole thing and glad it's over...

*****

Dinner bento:

I packed this sucker a couple of days ago, but only got around to eating it today. I also didn't get a picture of it before I lidded it up, but considering the brownish goulash thing, I don't think it would have made much of a difference.

So. There's a rice dish made with black and brown rice, apples, onion, veggies, turkey sausage and cinnamon. I love it. It tastes like a bowl full of fall. Which is even good in the spring. Next to it I've got green beans. They were frozen. Ew. The other bit has hummus and carrots, grapes and pineapple.

This was a rather large snack bento I brought to share. A whole sliced green pepper, strawberries, grapes and pineapple. There's a sidecar full of hummus and I brought a package of Club crackers to eat it with.

Bento #54... Shooting and Gardening

2011-04-03T22:14:00.004-07:00

I have six brothers. It would figure that at least one of them would have an interest in all things that shoot bullets. As it is... five of them do. And the last one has a good tolerance for them. I, however, have never had a huge interest. I've always seen guns as potentially useful, but not enough for me to care. They asked me to go shooting on Saturday...

They've actually asked me a few times, but I usually have to work. I actually had Saturday off. So I met up with Joe about 8:30 in the morning. We met up with Mike, James, Jeffery, my dad, and a couple of Mike's kids about 9:00 to waste some bullets. They brought the full arsenal. A couple of .22 rifles, two 12-gauge shotguns, two AK-47s, a .45 colt rifle, and about seven different handguns. These people are crazy. And I'm related to them.

Up until this point I had never shot a gun before. Joe started me off with a .22 pistol and then moved up to a .45. I think. I didn't really like any of the handguns, and I think I shot each one of them at least once. They had a kick that I felt like I couldn't control. And that feeling worries me when I'm holding something that could kill another person. Joe said he'd find one for me that didn't kick as much. We'll see.

I went through each of the long guns... The shotguns had a wicked kick, but were really fun to shoot. The .22 rifles were the easiest and most gentle of the lot. The AK-47 was probably the most fun for me. A bit of a kick with a lot of power. It actually knocked me on my butt once. I blame that on the way I was kneeling though. And for the record, that shot hit its mark. I really enjoyed the feel of the .45 colt though. It just felt right.

I don't think shooting will become any huge pastime for me. For one thing, we probably waded our way through $200 worth of ammo that morning. That's a really expensive hobby to have. Granted, I could spend my way through $200 worth of bento supplies without even trying. But I can use those again and again. Once a bullet is spent, its gone. For another thing, I don't find shooting that exciting. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to have a .22 rifle around my place just in case. My neighborhood isn't the best. But I wouldn't feel the need to go out and practice with it every single weekend.

*****

I've decided to start a container garden on my front walk. I think the garden is the thing I miss most about living at home. When I was a kid we'd take the salt shaker outside and eat tomatoes and cucumbers right off the vines. Store-bought tomatoes just aren't that tasty. Even the ones I get through Bountiful Baskets.

I don't remember exactly when I decided to do it. Probably I saw a stack of 5 gallon buckets sitting by the back door at work. I had some discussion with my dad about how well they would work as planters and got some tips from him. And I was sold. I picked up one of those little Jiffy greenhouse starters with the little peat pellets and a few different kinds of seeds. Of course, I had an eye on produce that would work well in my lunches. Most things I picked because of the color... heirloom tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, and carnival peppers. I'm hoping I get lucky with the carnival peppers and end up with the purple and white varieties. I also picked up some sugar snap peas.

I'm figuring on having two big totes for the heirlooms and peppers, and four 5 gallon buckets for the cukes, pear tomatoes, and a couple for the peas. Unless I can find two more totes. I would prefer the look of the bigger containers.

*****

This was a lunch for Thursday...

Salmon, yellow potatoes, and as much broccoli as I could squish in there... I overestimated the size of the box and ended up forcing it all in because I didn't have time to find containers to put the little bit of leftovers in. I don't know how I overestimated. It's not like I've never used this box before...

I had carrots and hummus in the the other layer, along with grapes, pineapple, and a cutie orange.

*****

Also. The BEST basket yet on Saturday morning.

Watermelon, strawberries, mangoes, apples, oranges, bananas, two bunches of asparagus, romaine lettuce, zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, and green peppers.

Bento #53... yet another geocaching post

2011-03-30T20:48:00.006-07:00

Last night I decided to go geocaching with a couple of friends after work. It was meant to be a diversion for only an hour or so. But you know how it goes... We started at an easy-to-get cache in town. And moved up to a more difficult cache under an apartment complex. Where we almost got caught. And had to hide in the thorn bushes for a bit or risk getting caught by some angry intoxicated tenants. (The cache wasn't on private property, for the record. Just really close to it.) And then we moved up the mountain because it wasn't THAT far. And then a little bit farther up the mountain, because we had already hiked that far up, so what's a little bit more? That seemed like rational reasoning at midnight. Why? I dunno.

*****

Dinner. Tasty, tasty BBQ leftovers.

I have a Hawaiian BBQ sausage from the place down the street with boiled yellow potatoes tossed in Mrs. Dash. And broccoli anywhere there was a place to put it.

The other layer has carrots and hummus, grapes, and a baby cutie orange. The lumpish pastry on the side is cinnamon apples wrapped in phyllo dough.

Bentos #51 and #52...

2011-03-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Every so often I end up having to work a Sunday. This time it was because a client didn't plan ahead when they were scheduling. They didn't put in time to load in or to strike their things. So I had to be at work at 8:00 am yesterday. This doesn't make me happy, since Sunday is usually the only day of the week that I am able to sleep in. However. They also brought in their own crew. So I spent the day catching up on paperwork and watching things on hulu. ...It could have been worse.

I still have leftovers from that little barbecue place. This bit is a spicy italian sausage covered with the awesome bbq sauce. Also black rice and asparagus. It's got a few carrot flowers and a sprig of inoki mushrooms for cuteness' sake.

The bottom has a mandarin orange and a bunch of red grapes. There's a silicone cup full of hummus (with a couple more carrot flowers) and a whole bunch of baby lettuce leaves to eat it with.

*****

I went to my parents' house after work last night to help my mom with an audio project. I ended up hanging around for a while more than I wanted to. So I made my mom and I dinner, and I helped my little brother make yummy apple... thingies... using apples and phyllo dough. They were really good. I still have a bunch in my fridge. I might put one in my lunch for tomorrow. I mean... they are really not healthy... but they are also full of fruit. That makes up for it, right?

I decided to pack my lunch there so I didn't have to come home and do it. And since I still had my box from lunch with me, it worked out.

I've got more steamed asparagus (my mom gets baskets now as well), a couple of baby yellow potatoes, and a dollar store steak I found in the freezer. I think I'm the one who bought it a few months ago to give to a brother. Who thought I was bringing him dinner from KFC. And I'm a little turd, so I gave him that first. It was actually a half decent cut of meat. Not amazing by any means. But not bad.

I found a bag of cheese curds in the fridge, so filled the silicone cup with those, and then filled in with blackberries, a mandarin, and apples with cinnamon. And then I thieved a mini hershey's bar from a brother. It fit perfectly.

Bento #50...

2011-03-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

For a milestone bento, it's not all that fancy. But it was good. And I was in a hurry.

There's a glorious little BBQ place just by my work. It's run by a guy who trained in Italy and other places. So it's mostly BBQ, but sometimes he gets on a wild hair and makes... well... whatever he feels like. Last week he felt like making meatballs. And they were great meatballs. Each was about the size of my fist. And they were drowned in homemade marinara.

So... leftovers. In my cute donburi style bento. Can you see the cracks in the lid? It fell off the cupboard one day, and I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. So it's been superglued. The lid never actually comes in contact with the food, so I don't think it's an issue.

I put the meatballs and marinara in with some 5 cheese tortellini. I didn't have time to pack a sidecar, so I tossed a couple of cutie oranges and an apple in the bag.

*****

I actually took a picture of my Bountiful Basket haul before sorting it into the fridge.

Not bad for $15, right?

As I'm writing, I've got a sorbet in the icecream maker. It's got pineapple, mango, tangelo, and grapefruit juice. It was really good before it was frozen. I think that's a good sign.

Bento #49... An experiment in face food...

2011-03-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

So... I don't claim to be any great bento artist. The great focus of my bentos is healthy, balanced, filling food, with cuteness as an afterthought. It's just not high on my priorities list. That doesn't mean I don't want to play with my food though.

A couple of weeks ago I took one of my 'I'm bored' trips over to Amazon. I searched 'bento' and happened upon Face Food Recipes by Christopher D Salyers. It was in the used books for 32 cents or something like that. I also picked up Cute Yummy Time... but that's another story.

So I splurged 32 cents plus four dollars for shipping. And a couple of days ago, it came in the mail. The first thing i did was thumb through and look at all the pictures. The photos are gorgeous. And clear. That's something I appreciate. Just because all the pictures on my blog are fuzzy doesn't mean that's what I'm satisfied with.

I could have stopped there. I mostly bought it to look at the pictures. But... I figured that since I owned it, I should actually read it. Let's be honest. I have no intention to start putting anime characters in my lunches. It's just not my thing. But I was still interested in how the construction of each character worked. I want to know how the layers work. And I want to know what materials were used. Because I find myself picturing bentos that are a bit more than just food, and I need an idea of where to begin. This book provided that for me.

Beside each of the gorgeous photos, there is a sketch of the same bento. Each of the elements of the charaben is numbered, and below the sketch there is a list of ingredients with corresponding numbers. For the most part, only the ingredients of the characters are present, but I find that's really all I need to know. If it's not specifically part of the character, there's no reason I can't put whatever I want in there.

I guess some people may find the title to be a little bit misleading. There are very few recipes in the book. They live in the back with the glossary and the how-to. I bought the book figuring that 'recipe' would refer to items used to build the characters, so I wasn't disappointed.

I am quite happy with the book. I think I would be happy with it even if I had paid more than 32 cents for it. It is my first bento book and won't be my last, but I can see myself coming back to it for inspiration over and over again.

Will you see the results right away? Not likely. It still takes me forever to make my simple lunches. But I did experiment a little bit, pulling from the book...

I made a caterpillar! He's made out of fresh green beans. His head is made of fish cake. His face is nori, and his antennae are inoki mushrooms.

This is my first time using fish cake. And my first taste of it. My mom found it the last time we went to the Oriental Market. She went all nostalgic on me. My mom grew up in Hawaii and so she grew up eating fish cake. Based on that and the fact that a lot of the cute bentos around seem to use fish cake, I had to buy some. ...I'm still undecided as to whether or not I like it. The taste is fine. The texture is taking some getting used to.

The face was cut using the only face punch I own. It isn't my favorite. I don't thing it's very kawaii. But I don't have little kitchen scissors yet. Next shopping trip maybe.

My caterpillar is sitting on a bed of black ham fried rice. I love black rice. It's pretty and it tastes good. I mixed in more fresh green beens, diced ham, and more inoki mushrooms.

The fruit layer looks more of a mess than usual, I think. But... I'll deal. It's got pineapple, strawberries, a cutie orange, mango, and grapes.

*****

No one paid me to review the book. I bought it myself. Because I wanted it.

There. Disclaimed.

... I may need to actually research the rules...

Bentos #47 and #48...

2011-03-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

No stories for you today... But two smallish bentos just right for a horridly long day working on a kiddie dance show.

This bento went along quite nicely with the lunchables and cookie that the client brought us.

Snack bento containing carrot sticks with red pepper hummus (my favorite kind so far), strawberries, orange slices, and a key lime truffle from See's Candies. I love their key lime truffles. If anyone wants to know what to get me for my birthday, Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, or just because you care, a box of those would suffice nicely. They didn't pay me to say that or nothin'. I just like them that much.

Dinner was more chicken salad with lettuce leaves to eat it in and strawberries, blackberries and oranges.

*****

I picked up my basket Saturday, as always. This one I had to pick up a few cities away because I forgot to order right at noon on Monday. Worth it though... It had: apples, bananas, the smallest cutie oranges I've ever seen, cantaloupe, 3 mangoes, tomatoes, cilantro, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, and asparagus.

The tomatoes were in the fruit basket today. I realize that they technically are a fruit, but it amuses me how they move them around depending where they need the extra item of produce.

I was much faster ordering my basket on Monday. I get to pick up at my regular site.

Bento #46 ... just a small snack...

2011-03-17T16:51:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure I've discussed it before, but I'm the Resident Stage Manager at a local theatre. It's great fun. I work with different people every week. We run upwards of 3000 people through the building each week. I get to do awesome things like be the Master Electrician for S.T.O.M.P. and Crew Manager for Kenny Loggins. I get to design lights, and climb ladders, and all sorts of things like that. And I get to use my theatre occasionally to do something most people will never get to do.

I get to watch a movie on my cyc. (The big white thing at the back of the stage.)

You are all wondering why this is any different than going to a movie theatre... Well. We thieve all the couches out of the lobbies, so we are incredibly comfortable. We all bring snacks and goodies, such as you will never get to enjoy in a movie theatre. We tune the sound system, surround ourselves with speakers, and boost the subs. We get all of this without 100 people around us, whispering, throwing popcorn, kicking our seats, and generally making nuisances of themselves. It sounds a lot more appealing now, yeah?

We watched 'Inception', which is a good movie to watch in your living room, but is an amazing movie to watch on a huge screen surrounded by giant subs. I hadn't seen it before, but had heard that you couldn't blink, or you'd be totally lost for the rest of the show. I didn't find that to be the case, although I didn't blink. I didn't find the levels thing confusing. I thought the concept behind the movie was great. And, like everybody, ... something something spoiler.

*****

Anywho. My movie snack.

I made a small chicken salad using chicken (of course), carrots, and apple bits. I tossed it with some yummy poppyseed dressing. My original goal with the mix (sans dressing) was to make spring rolls, but I found the texture of the wraps... unpleasing. Maybe I did something wrong... I then filled the rest of the box with the usual assortment of bountiful baskets fruit: pineapple, strawberries, and blackberries. And a couple of strawberry hichews.

*****

I nearly forgot to order my basket this Monday. By the time I remembered and logged on, the only sites left in my county were each about a half hour away. I ordered anyway. The gas money may cancel out the produce savings, but... I'd really miss my basket.

Bentos #44 and #45... Also... An awesome geocaching picture

2011-03-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

So. The other day I shimmied 20 feet into a hole in the side of a mountain to find a geocache. It was pretty much awesome.

What happened was this. After work one day, a friend and I, being completely bored and not wanting to go home, decided to randomly drive places. We started out grabbing a hot dog at the Maverick, and then we drove up to a make-out point. But not to make out. We're not like that.

We finished our dinner and decided to geocache, but there were no caches at this particular point. So we drove to another one. Where we had the brilliant idea to open up the sunroof and all the windows and blast oldies love songs. That was fun. But there were also no caches there. We ended up just driving along the highest residential road we could find. And... there was a cache up behind one of those big huge houses you just find on the side of a mountain.

So... we found a little trail and went on an after midnight hike. The cache was called 'tunnel'. And we quickly found it. Well... the tunnel. Not the cache. It was a 3 foot wide cement pipe with the opening just off the side of the trail over a small rise. So we looked. And looked. And looked some more. We finally decided it had to be in the pipe just past some rocks. So I crawled in. And it wasn't there. Really? It wasn't supposed to be that difficult to find.

And then I looked up. And there it was. More than 20 feet down the pipe. Really really? So I went in feet first. Through leaves. And bugs. And spiders. Ew. But one cannot leave a geocache log unsigned. That's just how it is. You want proof?

Like I said. Awesome.

Also it was a large cache (an ammo box), so we swapped a plastic frog and some dreamcatchers for a pair of cool sunglasses. These are the kind of caches I really like. Sure, the teeny tiny ones are a challenge to look for, and you feel all sorts of accomplished when you finally figure out what little hidey-hole they've been hidden in, but the big caches are just fun.

*****

And now. The food. This was all actually from Monday, but I didn't have time to post. Now I do. So I am.

I packed a snack for staff meeting. Because they just go on. And at some point in the middle, we break and everyone goes searching the cupboards in the boardroom for snacks. Way ahead of them.

Garlic artichoke hummus and garlic parmesan pretzel crisps (obviously I'm not worried about kissing anyone...), carrot sticks, and blackberries. I discovered some extra room when I was flattening a bit so I could put the lid on, so I tossed in three cadbury mini eggs.

Dinner consisted of black rice with leftover crock pot chicken on a bed of sauteed cabbage, pineapple, blackberries, strawberries and (thanks to TJ for this one) two sliced turkey rosettes. I rolled the turkey up in the lettuce. It was pretty good. Between that and the balsamic vinaigrette, I might actually start eating all of my lettuce. Or most of it.

Bentos #42 and #43... and Freezer Stash!

2011-03-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

I've been bentoing for a while now. It usually ends up being a leftover main dish with fresh fruits and veggies to fill it out. But. This week I got an acorn squash in my basket. I have never liked sweet squash. Vegetables, to me, are supposed to be savory. Which is why there is still a butternut squash on the shelf from a month ago. It's a good thing they keep a while.

My goal is to eat everything that I get in my baskets. Even the yams. And I still haven't figured out how to make those perfectly edible. I decided on acorn squash gyoza. They weren't all that difficult. I started out with five of them, just to see if they were good and I'd actually eat them. And... I will! So good! They are just a touch sweet, which I can handle. And maybe even enjoy. So I made lots more.

I started out using a gyoza press I had picked up from ichiban kan when they still had an online store. It was easy enough to use. Plop some filling into a wrapper and fold. Except if the wrapper properly positioned, the filling oozed out. I worked with it anyway until I decided I wanted to see if I was even capable of folding a gyoza the traditional way. Turns out, doing it by hand was easier than using the press. And that is why there are two different shapes. These ought to make a great freezer item...

I also made turkey meatballs for the freezer. All I had was breakfast sausage, so I went with it. I added a couple of eggs and some toasted multigrain bread crumbs. They're not half bad, especially when eaten with strawberry jam.

*****

Yesterday's lunch: Turkey meatballs, some funny looking acorn squash gyoza because I hadn't yet figured out the proper way to cook them, carrot flowers, apple and orange slices, and some balsamic vinagrette and strawberry jam to dress things up a bit.

Dinner: Leftover sauerkraut pork that my mom made on Sunday with summer squash, mango, apple slices, carrot flowers and grapes. There was a chocolate frog and some mini cadbury eggs in the lid. For the record, I had no intention of eating the lettuce in this bento. And I didn't.

Bentos #40 and #41... My incoherent Monday...

2011-03-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

I believe I mentioned in the last entry that I've been a bit sick. And by a bit sick I mean I've been still able to go to work and go geocaching in the middle of the night and do other dumb things you shouldn't actually do when you are sick. Except for Monday.

I don't remember most of Monday. This is what I've pieced together from my phone history and talking with my boss...

He stopped by at 8:30a to pick up my keys because another employee had borrowed his and not returned them yet. He asked if I wanted to go to staff meeting. Apparently I said yes.

He called at around 10:00 to tell me not to come to staff meeting. He could tell I wasn't feeling well. And we usually don't accomplish much at staff meeting anyway.

I called him about 20 minutes later to ask if he had just called and told me not to go to staff meeting.

I became coherent-ish at 12:30 or so, realized I was an hour late for staff meeting, and sent him off a text that said the following: 'Crap! I'm late for staff meeting! Am I in trouble? Nobody called me. Crap.' And then I went digging through my dresser for something to wear to work.

He called to see if I was dead. And then told me to go back to bed. I did.

I'm not usually like that, even when I'm sick. It rattled him and he spent the next three days calling to make sure I hadn't forgotten how to function.

*****

I packed both of these meals on Friday. But when you work in the industry I work in, mealtimes don't always happen when you want them to, so I only ended up eating this one.

It has the last of the Bamboo Hut bbq chicken leftovers, asparagus, and yams. The bottom has a bit of a banana, mango, orange slices, and a little cup of those minty chocolate chip things. And two chocolate frogs. I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out of those... They are SO GOOD!

Please. Somebody. Give me some new ways to cook yams! This one (baked and sprinkled with mrs dash) was not good. They were all dry and almost... chewy. That's not right.

*****

My other bento...

I was a bit worried about how this would keep overnight. I haven't had the best of luck with pasta salads and taste after they've been around too long... as in... more than a few hours. I went in prepared Saturday with a microwave fried rice thing. But. I didn't have to eat it. The pasta salad kept great. Probably because I made my own dressing, which was surprisingly good for just dumping things in a bowl...

I used tri-color pasta that supposedly has a whole serving of veggies mixed in and topped it with tomato, diced ham, and parmesan cheese. I made the dressing with garlic red wine vinegar, a few shakes of garlic and herb seasoning, and some olive oil. It didn't smell all that appetizing when I made it, but I was in a hurry so I dumped it in anyway. I'm glad I did. It was tasty, and it didn't leave a funny aftertaste like the dressings I usually use.

The bottom layer has mango, orange slices, and carrots with hummus in the little cup. I put in a little bottle of balsamic dressing after I snapped the picture. I've decided it's kind of like a punishment to have to eat the lettuce last... I'd much rather end on the fruit, since it's kinda desserty, but since the lettuce is on the bottom... I'm still eating it, but I feel the need to whine about it just a little.

*****

My bountiful basket update:

Yesterday I picked up pineapple, apples, bananas, champagne mangoes, grapefruit, spinach, baby gold potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, yellow squash, an acorn squash, and turnips.

Confession... I didn't know they were turnips. I've never had one before. I went to work and somebody asked me if I had anything cool in my basket. Since I had no idea what they were called, I said, "Remember the vegetable they use to demonstrate the catapult in Chicken Run? I got four of those..." Yeah...

Here's what my fridge looks like right now...

Aside from the nearly empty box of fresca, that's all produce.

It makes me happy. Now I just have to eat it all.

Bentos #38 and #39... also geocaching...

2011-03-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

Did you miss me? I've been sick the past few days and luckily haven't had to work. So, of course, no bentos. However. I have noticed that in the past four days I've eaten out more than I did the entire month of February. How is that? I should have been home! In bed! ... But I wasn't. I may or may not have dragged myself out of bed for soup from Zupas with friends... and maybe ordered in pizzas when a couple of us were watching movies... maybe a couple of other times, too... Make it stop!

My bank account is getting smaller and my waist is going the other way. It doesn't help that I can't go jogging. I went jogging once when I had a cold. It turned into bronchitis. I learned my lesson. I'm hoping to be over this by next week. I'm figuring I'm going to have to do the second week of C25K over again because of the sick time. And I have to finish the program by May if I'm going to run my 5K.

*****

Look! Five stars. That now means 'change of subject'. Because I'm not talented enough to write transitions...

*****

Since I started geochaching, I've been waiting for one thing. The cop who notices a couple of people poking around in weird places and asks what the hell is going on.

Geocaching is pretty much a treasure hunt using your GPS. Once upon a time, a bit more then ten years ago, some dork thought it would be awesome to hide something and give his friends the GPS coordinates to see if they could find it. And here I am today, sneaking around with a flashlight and my smartphone, looking for film canisters and ammo boxes. It's fun.

It's a pretty widespread hobby. Not in that everybody and their dog knows what it is, but in that there are now geocaches EVERYWHERE. There are 14 in my little neighborhood. Six along the back road to Walmart. Five in the area around my work. Three in the little podunk town on the other side of the lake where I get my nieces every few Sundays and about 30 on the road back to civilization from there.

Late the other night. Like 3:00 in the morning, a friend and I had just finished a long long wander around Walmart. We were there for almost two hours. He bought tweezers. I popped on my GPS just to see if there were any close caches. There was one about 20 feet from our car. We found that and then had to find the one across the parking lot. And then the one next to the Del Taco. And then we had to go to Del Taco.

We headed up the backroad and pulled over where my GPS said there was something to find. And then we reversed because we had passed it. We were reversing just as a highway patrol truck was passing us on the other side. He didn't seem to like that, since he flipped around and turned on his lights. We just sat there. Wondering if he knew what geocaching was. If he did, he'd understand what we were doing in the wee hours of the morning, poking around an electrical box on a backroad. He walked up the window with his big Mag light and shined it around in the car before he asked what we were doing. And we told him. There's a geocache over there. We're going to go find it. "Oh," he said, "Don't get electrocuted." And he walked away. That was it. I have to assume that they get calls from people all the time about odd behavior that turns out to be geocaching.

...That story was a lot more thrilling as it was happening...

*****

I'm designing a concert for "Vocalpoint" tomorrow. I'm in for a 14 hour day. Those are not unusual for me. So I'm taking lunch and dinner.

And here they are.

Lunch consists of leftover barbecue chicken, courtesy of Bamboo Hut, baked yellow potatoes, and broccoli. The other layer has strawberries, orange slices, mango, carrot flowers, lots of lettuce, and a container of sour cream for the potatoes. I added a small bottle of raspberry vinaigrette after I took the picture. I've discovered that with the proper dressing, lettuce is actually edible. Who knew?

Steamed summer squash, pulled pork and rice from Bamboo Hut, furikake to make it all interesting, strawberries, orange slices, carrot sticks with hummus, and more lettuce. There's a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette in the lid of the box. Along with a couple of chocolate frogs.

Bento #37... Finally eating my leafy green vegetables.

2011-02-27T23:03:00.001-07:00

I haven't been working much. More than I should be still, but I don't need to pack lunches. And when I'm at home I usually just grab something out of the fridge and munch. That's not exactly a brilliant habit, but it could be worse. At least now my fridge is full of healthy stuff. However, I believe I'm going to start making bentos, or at least bento-esque meals, even on days I don't work.

I haven't even cooked the sunchokes yet. I decided that I wasn't allowed to until I ate all my spinach. I have a hard time doing that, even though of all leafy green things, spinach is one of the most bearable for me. I finally decided to cook it. It was easier than I thought, not quite nasty, and that big tupperware I had full of it cooked down to nearly nothing. It was great. It doesn't matter if it's not my favorite when it can be eaten in six big forkfuls, right?

So I put said spinach into a bento. As far as bentos go, this was... ok, but I tried, and I managed to put it together in just a few minutes. Spinach cooks really fast.

I also put sweet potatoes in this lunch. Another not-my-favorite food. I'm experimenting with different ways to cook them though. This one wasn't too bad. I microwaved it until it was tender, diced it, and then tossed it around in some garlic and olive oil in a sautee pan. Not too bad. On top of the spinach are some swedish meatballs. Honestly, it's probably time to toss that bag. It's old. They weren't all that tasty.

And then there's the layer where I can't really go wrong. The bottom has strawberries, grapes, and orange sweet pepper strips. Along with that #*(& lettuce. Which I did eat, by the by. The dressing I've been using is the balsamic vinaigrette spritzer stuff. I forget who makes it. I just spritz it into one of my little dressing bottles and drip it on during lunch. It's almost tasty.

My fridge is once again overflowing with produce, although that never stopped from last week. I don't work for the next three days, so I'm planning on breaking everything down to fast usable bits. I was slow ordering my basket last week and the closest option was in Lehi. Totally worth it. My basket this week had: strawberries, mangoes, a coconut, lots of bananas, forelle pears, cantaloupe, tomatoes, asparagus, lettuce (#%^$), broccoli, and baby gold potatoes. I'm kind of excited to roast the coconut. Aside from the obvious eating it thing, I want to use the shells in the style of Monty Python. Maybe the next time I go to a department staff meeting. Those people need some excitement in their lives.

#36... Leftover Panda. And playing trucker.

2011-02-25T01:48:00.000-07:00

One of my older brothers drives a semi. He is also the brother who I turn to when I'm having issues with cars, dishonest businesses, or both. My pretty new 05 Nissan Frontier has a horrible drinking problem. It's been going through 2 quarts of oil a week. Which is pretty ridiculous for an engine with less than 30,000 miles on it. And the dealership had been ignoring my issues for a few weeks. So... I let my brother go on them. He called and talked to the manager who had sold me the truck. He left a nasty message for whoever was in charge. He threatened taking it to the state, because it shouldn't have passed emissions the way it was running. He threatened to let my mechanic dad loose on them... it went on for a while. And then he called the service manager, who told him to just bring in the truck. Obviously should have gone there first...

On the day in question, my brother had just made it to Salt Lake with a load of drywall from California. We met at the dealership, where we passed off my poor sick truck. The service manager apologized for the run-around we had been getting. Apparently the owner of the dealership had died a few weeks prior. So... maybe I could understand that. My admittedly less-than-sensitive brother managed to stop himself from saying, "I haven't heard that excuse before." If I'm lucky, I'll see my truck in a week. It needs a top end rebuild.

Anywho. After we left my truck, I got my first ride in a semi. It's a cozy little thing. Bunk nestled right in behind the seats. He had a couple of shelves built over one end for his bags and some snacks. I rode on the bunk because it was too much of a bother to move the cooler from the passenger seat.

So I played trucker for a while. I went with my brother to drop off his drywall. I even helped him fold his tarps and untie his load. I ate some lunchables, which are apparently his trucker snack of choice. I went with him to pick up his next load at the steel yard. It was an eye-opening experience. Mostly in that I realized that I had no desire to be a trucker. I had thought it would be an acceptable fallback if ever I lost my job. Now I know better. It's not that fun.

Once that was all said and done, we went to Panda Express. Which is where this not so bad looking lunch comes from. Because they give you a massive amount of food.

This is leftover black pepper chicken with the onions and junk pulled out of it. It's not that I don't like onions. I just don't like the way they cook them... Over the leftover mixed chow mein and rice I added broccoli, and some awesome broccoli stem shapes. It should have been all broccoli, but I had a major duh moment this morning... While dumping the water out of the container I had microwaved the veggies in, I wasn't holding the lid on tight and so managed to also dump most of the broccoli out. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

The bottom container has strawberries, bell pepper strips, and grapes. I suppose I have to count the lettuce as well, since I actually ate it. I found a raspberry vinaigrette that makes it bearable...

I realized today that I've hardly touched my produce from last week. I need to work on that, considering I pick up another day after tomorrow. So I need to start cooking. I should probably skip a week, but I don't know that I can do that. I'd feel like I was missing Christmas or something. Although I would get to sleep in on a Saturday... I haven't done that in a couple of months...

Bento #35 ... I didn't eat it. Somebody did.

2011-02-21T21:27:00.002-07:00

I totally worked on Presidents' Day. That's right. I work for the government. Every other department in the city was shut down for the day. And I had to work. I don't really mind. The way my schedule is, I get random days off all of the time.

I almost didn't pack a lunch today. I looked at my watch and realized I had only 15 minutes before I had to be at work and it takes at least 5 to get there. I hadn't prepped any of my foods from my bountiful basket yet. And I had no idea what I had in the fridge. But then I thought... A Challenge! 10 minutes with no planning? It will be amazing!

It wasn't exactly that. But it was balanced, looked edible, and from what I was told, tasted pretty darn good.

The hot layer was the remains of a Parmesan herb chicken I had made in the crock pot. I'm glad I found it today. Two more days and it might have been iffy. It also had broccoli and under those things, the last of a pot of brown rice.

The other layer was strawberries, grapes, and orange bell pepper strips. And those lettuce leaves that I will probably never end up eating. Maybe I'll try next time. I'll pack a tiny bottle of dressing, rip up the two leaves, and eat them. Maybe. ... maybe.

Something I've been enjoying a lot lately is checking out all the fresh foods in my lunches. The frozen veggies that used to get chucked in there are long gone. And these taste so much better!

... I suppose you're wondering why I didn't actually get to eat my lunch today... At about 1:00, we decided it was lunch time. I announced, as I have been lately, that I brought my lunch, and would be eating in the office as per usual. And the friends were having none of that. I was told that if I came with them, they'd pay for my lunch. I decided it would be rude to turn them down. I gave my lunch to the poor intern who never brings lunch and didn't want to go out. He ate the hot layer. I'm currently eating the fruit.

PS. Basket this week. Because I know you all want to know... Strawberries, bananas, forelle pears, cantaloupe, apples, mangoes, yams, spinach, cabbage, yellow squash, carrots, and Jerusalem artichokes. It was a pretty good basket considering the deep freeze in Mexico last week. And the Jerusalem artichokes are intriguing. They'll likely be showing up in my lunches the rest of this week... or at least, the two more days this week I'll need to pack lunches...

Bento #34... and a short story involving me doing something dumb.

2011-02-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

It snowed today. Not a whole lot. Maybe an inch. And it was wet, sticky snow.

I got off work about an hour ago. We had just had a dress rehearsal for a dance concert. It had gone well. And one of my employees and I decided to do a zombie run across the parking lot while our cars were warming up. Yeah. I am that kind of a boss.

You're probably wondering... what on earth is a zombie run? Well. If you have an android phone, you can download an app called 'Zombie, Run'. This app, using your gps, triangulates where you are, and you tell it where you want to end up. The app then generates a map of the area you are in. With zombies on it. And you run. If one of the zombies gets you, you lose. Obviously. And if you get to your destination in one piece, a nice big 'survival!' pops up.

So we ran across the parking lot twice. Giggling madly the entire way. And then we decided that it was much too cold to do it again. So we said our goodbyes and hopped into our warm vehicles.

My vehicle is a new to me. It's a 2005 Nissan Frontier. With a sunroof. I was so very amazed when I saw this truck. Not many trucks have sunroofs after all. I'm still learning things about my sunroof. This one should have been obvious.

I pulled out of the parking lot, and at the first light, decided it would be a good idea to open the sunroof. So I pushed the button. And then I looked up. Just in time to get a face full of snow. And I was too surprised to do anything about it! So I just sat there as more snow fell on my head, and then down my back, and onto my headrest... The inside of my truck was suddenly its own winter wonderland. And I just felt kind of dumb.

I spent the rest of the drive home with the window down, grabbing handfuls of snow and dropping them out onto the road. It was cold.

Anywho. Lunch! Or dinner. Or a bit of both.

First off, I would like you to take note of the pretty, frilly little lettuce leaves I dressed it up with. I have to admit... Although I'm not really a fan of green leafy things, it does add a touch of class to a bento...

Nestled snuggly in the top tier are six loverly mushroom risotto cakes. I have to admit. I made risotto just so I could make cakes. All I've heard over the past however-long-I've-been-following-bento-blogs is how good risotto cakes are for bento. Easy to eat. Really yummy. Possibly better than fresh risotto... So I decided I had to make my own. And as luck would have it, there were mushrooms in my basket last week. I do not find making risotto enjoyable. As a matter of fact, I earned a small blister for my risotto making efforts. I made it with brown rice, so it took a bit longer... Anyway. The risotto turned out lovely. I ate a small bowl of it. And the rest went into the fridge for risotto cakes. Turns out, people are right. Risotto cakes are a really good reason to make risotto. I took small spoonfuls, plopped them into a small amount of hot cooking oil for a few minutes per side. And there they are. Mushroomy, ricey, cheesy, crispy pillows of goodness.

Also in there... some fresh steamed broccoli, which seems to be the only way I'll eat it... I've tried all sorts of awesome broccoli recipes. I can't seem to handle the green stuff any way except steamed. At least I'm eating it, I guess. And in the bottom there are grapes, cantaloupe, and strawberries.

The thermos contains some of my homemade tomato basil soup. The thermos is a copco, and I'm not so sure about it. I filled it with steaming hot water while I was heating up the soup. It sat for maybe 5 minutes with the water. And I'm fairly certain I got the soup all sorts of hot, too. But when I went to eat it two hours later, it was stone cold. Why reserve judgement? I think it's supposed to sit for 10 minutes with hot water in it, but I was in a hurry. And I didn't actually test the soup temperature before I put it in. I will need a retest before I make a conclusion.

#33 - Speed Bento!

2011-02-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

I've spent my day being rather productive. And then kind of unproductive. I think it evens out. I got up at the crack of dawn this morning to pick up my produce basket. It was a good one this week. I love walking in to the pickup site and seeing all the gorgeous colors in the baskets... This week I received: cantaloupe, strawberries, apples, blood oranges, bananas, lemons, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, orange peppers, mushrooms, and carrots.

I think the best part is going grocery shopping right afterwards. I always walk through the produce just to check prices of the things I got that day. And the total usually comes out somewhere between $40 and $50 dollars.

I spent the day breaking down produce to make it easier to use. The spinach is ready for a salad and the lettuce is ready to line my bentos. The broccoli, which I have yet to enjoy fresh for some reason, is ready to steam. My apple container is full. And my fridge is just stuffed.

I've also been cooking. I had to make banana bread to make room for the new ones. Had to. There was no choice. I put chocolate chips in it. Then there's the pepper and zucchini stir fry to use up the rest of last weeks' veggies.

I'm really enjoying the fresh produce. I have to take it for lunches or I'll never get through it before it turns, so I'm eating healthier. I'm snacking on fruits and veggies instead of snacks. I'm being introduced to new foods. And I'm learning how to cook new things. Dinner tomorrow, for instance, will likely be spinach pesto and pasta. Or mushroom risotto. I dunno. They both sound really good.

Best part though... I'm losing weight. As of this morning, I'm down to 177.4 from 184.2 a few weeks ago. I can imagine that when I start keeping with my running regime, it will come off even easier.

What? Start running? I know. I should have been running all along. But A. It's cold and I'm a wimp, and B. I've been working overtime the past couple of weeks. The next two weeks will slow down. And I'll behave myself and get to the rec center. They have an indoor track. And I work for the city, so I get in free. :)

Anywho. The reason you are all here. This is a bento I packed in only 5 minutes! I'm so proud!

It contains: A bear egg, turkey rosettes, cucumber and celery, grapes, apple, pomello, and cantaloupe. There's no carb because I had just made and eaten a bunch of sushi before packing this. I figured I was good there. I'm rather proud of the apple baran. That's just the way the apple slices wanted to lie and I thought it would be a great separator for the fruits.

I had the box open at work later that night and an employee came in and saw the cantaloupe starts... He loudly exclaimed, "They come in shapes now!?" And then I had to explain the food cutter thing. He though it was pretty cool. Which I appreciate.

A few lunches from bygone times...

2011-02-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

So I'm cleaning out the picture backlog on my phone, and I found a few pictures of lunches that I never got around to posting. I'm doing it now. So I can get them off my phone...

Potstickers, summer squash, mandarins, cottage cheese, kiwi, and mini sweet peppers

Leftover rosemary pulled pork, rice, veggies, mandarin orange, celery heart, kiwi, pepper, and a mini cadbury egg

More pulled pork, microwave roasted potato on ... spinach I think, diced tomato, kiwi, strawberry, huge grapes, and kumquats. I remember wanting to try kumquats... and I'm pretty sure I've never had the desire to buy them again. Mostly because the price is ridiculous around here...

Potstickers, summer squash, huge grapes, cucumber flowers, sweet mini pepper, strawberries, and a kumquat

And a closeup. So I can show off one of my few cute lunches...

Stuffed Pepper Bento

2011-02-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

I was motivated today. Totally. I was at work by 6:30, done by 9:30, and had no idea what to do with the rest of my day. I know what I should have been doing... but that's beside the point. So I did dishes. And I found a tomato soup recipe. Which turned out the first homemade tomato basil soup I've actually enjoyed! I ate the entire batch. I figure since it was just veggies and homemade chicken stock, it was healthy enough that I don't have to have guilt. I'm making a bigger batch on Friday. I still have a whole bunch of tomatoes to use up.

As the soup was cooking, I went through my fridge to start breaking down all the produce in there. I sliced a cantaloupe and now have a container of precut cute shapes. I broke down a pommello. I de-stemmed a bag of grapes. Cut up a bunch of celery. Did some more apples... The fridge looks much more user friendly now. I've still got some fruit to work my way through... more apples, oranges, grapefruit, lemon... but I feel well on my way now. And it made packing my bento this evening SO MUCH EASIER! I just pulled out a stack of containers and picked some things out of each of them. And... ta da! Lunch! Not only a lunch, but it looks like I tried!

The larger container holds a halved stuffed red pepper. I received a couple of gorgeous peppers last weekend, courtesy of Bountiful Baskets. I thought about cutting them up into lunch friendly bits and pieces, but I have lots of mini sweet peppers. Why would I need a big one? So I stuffed them with leftover rice and a crumbled tomato basil chicken sausage. And topped them with sharp cheddar.

... You know... I might lose more weight if I'd stop smothering all my fresh veggies with cheese... The stars I topped the halves with are cut out of provolone.

The smaller container has a fish hard boiled egg which does not look all that fishy, turkey rosettes, cucumber, pommello, cantaloupe stars with scraps underneath, strawberries, grapes, and some cute apple shapes. Oh. And a baby carrot gap stuffer.

Somebody pat me on the back! I did good! Not only is it cute, but it only took about 15 minutes to put it together!

Anywho. I feel the need to share this soup recipe that I told you about. Because I'm picky about my tomato soup, and I found this one to be delectable. I tweaked it from the recipe found here

Roasted Tomato Soup

6-8 tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 more tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 stalks of celery, finely chopped ... really finely chopped.
1 carrot, diced
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves, crumbled
3 cups of chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Toss tomato halves with olive oil. Spread on a baking sheet and roast at 350 for about 15 minutes or until slightly caramelized. Peel them. Or not. Whatever.

2. Heat olive oil in a large-ish pot on the stove. Toss in onion, celery, and carrot. Saute until onion is transparent. Dump in tomatoes and basil. Add a bit of water if needed. Let simmer for 15 minutes or so.

3. Either use an immersion blender or blend in batches. Carefully. Hot things in blenders are scary.

4. Dump back into pot and add stock. Simmer until it reaches a consistency that makes you happy.

5. Eat it. I added a bit of skim milk to mine. I bet sour cream would be yummy. Or cheddar. Or whatever it is people usually put into tomato soup.

Note. The celery strings do not blend away. So unless you like the texture of the strings, really finely chop. I put most of my first batch through a sieve so I didn't have a huge amount of texture. I'm not doing that next time. But you can if you want, I suppose...

And now... I'm off to eat a baked potato for dinner... smothered with cheese...

Not exactly healthy bentos...

2011-02-07T00:43:00.000-07:00

True. One of the points of bento is the healthy aspect. But come on! I had leftover spaghetti noodles. And I refuse to pack tomato base sauces in my bentos. I don't want to ruin them with that tomatoey mark of shame. So... I made a cheese sauce. Give me a little credit... I used skim milk. ;)

These two bentos are pretty much the same. I'm going to see if I can convince my boss to eat one of them. If not, he gets a sandwich from my fridge stash and I have lunch for Tuesday as well.

The strawberry box, under that layer of cheese sauce, more cheese and turkey smokies, is about half spaghetti noodles and half California mix veggies. Everybody likes cheese on their cauliflower and broccoli, right? The bottom of the strawberry box has... wait for it... strawberries! Also a heart shaped egg, grapes in the empty places, and for desert, a pear that I sauteed in butter and then added sugar and cinnamon. It's incredibly sweet. We'll see if I actually eat it. Because I can only do so much sweet at one time. The little hearts at the bottom are apple cutouts. I had this brilliant idea this morning while I was cutting up apples to snack on that I should just precut shapes, dip them in lemon juice, and then they'll just be there when I need to cute-ify something. I don't know how well that's going to work, but I guess I'll find out.

The black box also contains cheese sauce with spaghetti and veggies, but I had this brilliant idea to put the sauce in the middle of the layer instead of on the top. I don't know why that's brilliant, but that's what I'm sticking with. And then I topped it with more sharp cheddar.

The bottom has an egg trying to masquerade as a bunny, but it didn't quite fill the mold enough to pass. There are pastrami rosettes, tomatoes, a sweet mini pepper, strawberries, grapes, and an apple teddy. I hid a tiny chocolate frog under the lid of the box for desert.

My refrigerator is overflowing with produce goodness. Oranges, apples, cantaloupes, tomatoes... so much more. Remember the co-op? I picked up again on Saturday. And I've figured out why I'm having issues eating it all. It's not that I can't do it. It's that I'm dead lazy. And when i get home at night, I don't want to work for my food. Therefore, I have decided to prep things so they are just ready to eat or put into bentos. I need to unpack my tupperware so I can keep it all separated and fresh and junk. The cantaloupe will be sliced into ready to eat cute shapes. The celery will be peanut butter ready. The tomatoes... well. Mostly I really need to find a tomato soup recipe that I like...

Here's to eating healthy on the cheap!

Two more meals...

2011-02-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

Yet another long day tomorrow... I'm in at 6:30am and likely won't leave until 10pm tomorrow night. We're loading in for a Ririe-Woodbury dance company show. Most of our light hang was done today. I'd like to point out that I managed to rehang 3 lighting electrics in less than an hour. Go me. Tomorrow we'll finish the hang, focus, gel the lights, lay the marley dance floor, and load in a few props. It doesn't sound too bad... not like it will take 14 hours. But you never know. So I'm going in prepared.

Why yes! This picture is horribly lit. Thanks for noticing. ...Once upon a time I was really really worried about taking gorgeous pictures with great lighting... but now I think that until I get into the habit of posting regularly, I'll be lucky to have pictures at all.

Anywho. Another pasta salad. This one with orzo pasta and tiny diced chunks of cucumber, tomato, pepper, and carrot. The grape thing makes another appearance, this time holding a Lawry's Herb and Garlic marinade. There's a small cup of fruit salad... or at least the pineapple and strawberries I picked out of a fruit salad, an egg attempting to be shaped like a flower, a couple of turkey rosettes, and grapes to fill in the empty spots.

And for dinner...

Wild rice, spaghetti squash, some asparagus, a garlic chicken sausage, and what? More spaghetti squash? Yeah... this box was bigger than I thought it was. And since I don't like mixing hot and cold layers, I had to stick something else meant to be warm in it. And I was tired and feeling uninspired... so I went back to something I had ready to go... My 'cold' box has mini sweet pepper slices and more fruit salad.

I keep looking back over my pictures and thinking it would have been so easy to make these lunches cute. Faces on the sausages and eggs... Flower cutouts on the pasta... Furikake shapes on the rice or the squash... Why don't I ever think of these things while I'm in the kitchen?

On the other hand. I still haven't gotten the hang of making fast lunches. If I were to start worrying about faces and cutouts, the only thing I would do at home is make food. That's it. There would be no time for anything else... Maybe after a few more months of practice going fast, I will start worrying about going cute.

Long day tomorrow... Lunch and Dinner!

2011-01-30T23:45:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is one of those days. We have a client in the theater from 8:00 am until 10:00 pm. No breaks. On days like this, we require client to feed the crew at least once. It usually ends up being a pizza run. Not that I'm complaining. Pizza is a great food. Pizza makes me happy. Pizza makes my stomach not so happy. So I'm going in prepared tomorrow...

I haven't decided yet what to eat for lunch and what to eat for dinner... depends on what kind of mood I'm in. And if I think I'll have time to run to the microwave right before the performance. Which I rather doubt. Which means this will end up being lunch.

I've got fresh asparagus, sauteed with salt and pepper, pork tenderloin kabob-ettes, and wild rice. On the bottom there's my new favorite sliced thin dill pickle in a cute cup, slices of sweet mini peppers, three little grape tomatoes, baby carrots, and a cup of pistachios. As always, I need to work on cutey-fying my microwave layer. Better ways to arrange it, or little cute edible things I can add to it... I dunno.

I love this box. It's big though. It feels much too big to do my regular warm and cold layers. So it usually ends up holding salad. And since I'm not on speaking terms with most leafy greens, it usually ends up holding pasta salad. Whole wheat rotini with pastrami, grape tomatoes, and sweet mini pepper slices. The little blue baseball cap in the corner (do strawberries have corners?) is a sour grape container filled with ff italian dressing.

The bottom holds a beautimous fruit salad. Pineapple, pomello, apple, orange, and strawberries. I'm quite proud of that salad. Not because it's anything special as far as fruit salads go... No. It was something else entirely.

The pineapple, for instance. I do love pineapple. Out of a can. I have seen them fresh. I have eaten them fresh. I know what they look like. And for some reason cutting up a fresh pineapple was intimidating. Maybe because they sell a gadget designed specifically for cutting it up. If they had to invent one of those, then if follows that cutting up pineapple must be difficult, yes? I learned my lesson. If I'm the one holding the knife, there's no reason to be intimidated...

The pomello was a completely new thing to me. It came in my produce co-op yesterday, as did everything else in the salad. I had to google it to see what it was. And how to peel it. It's really good! Some people were comparing it to grapefruit, but aside from the fact that they are both citrus... I don't see it. The rind is nearly 3/4 of an inch thick. And the membranes are really tough so you have to go through the fruit and peel out each section. It took me 20 minutes to do the one fruit. But the taste is worth it.

Are you all jealous of my co-op yet? This week's take included a cantaloupe, two pomellos, strawberries, apples, oranges, asparagus, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and ... I dunno. I usually forget something. (The pineapple was last week...) I gave the lettuce to my mom. Because ew. And am trying to work my way through everything else. I still have grapefruit and lemons from last week. And tomatoes. I never know what to do with them. I need a really good recipe for tomato basil soup.

On a side note, having nothing to do with food... I drove my 1949 Dodge Coronet for the first time today. It was an experience... I had to google how to drive it. It shifts on the column, but is a mix between a manual and an automatic. I had my hands glued to the wheel and my eyes on the road, but my friend who was following me said every person we passed stopped to watch until we were out of sight. It IS a pretty cool looking car. And how often do you see a 62 year old car out on the road? I intend to get it all running nicely and purtied up so I can just drive it everywhere. After all. What's the point of having a car you aren't going to drive?

Bento in a hurry. Finally.

2011-01-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to give myself a time limit on my bento. So I did. 15 minutes. And I actually did it!

I had made some stuffed mushrooms. Really really good stuffed mushrooms. Which I feel the need to share the recipe for. At the end.

Anyway. The top layer involved some of the stuffed mushrooms on a bed of a wild rice mix. The zucchini was diced, steamed, and then stir-fried in a bit of canola oil. And yes. I managed to do this in my 15 minutes.

The bottom included the mini sweet peppers, a thinly sliced dill pickle, a string cheese, and some apple slices dipped in lemon juice to keep them from browning. And in the gaps you'll find some sweet and low hard candies. Which I didn't actually eat. I just don't have any good little gap fillers. I'm off to buy grapes tomorrow. Most likely.

I say most likely because tomorrow is Saturday, and as you may or may not know, Saturday is the day I pick up my co-op produce. And I never know what I'm going to get. I'm a bit behind in the eating of my fruit. I have a drawer full of citrus and tomatoes. And a bag of apples. And a pineapple and some bananas. I can usually keep up with the veggies, but I need to work on getting more fruit into my lunches. I think I'll cut up the pineapple tonight and broil it with some Splenda. Supposedly that's also good with grapefruit... Breakfast tomorrow, I think.

It was a yummy bento, but I think that because I packed it all together while the zucchini and rice were still warm, it caused the juice from the pickles to condensate and then get all over my peppers and apples. Lesson learned. Wait for it to cool down, or don't pack pickles. ...Actually. I know that for food safety reasons, you aren't supposed to pack warm food at all. Condensation can cause bacteria growth and such things. Which is, of course, no good. But I've never been much of a rule follower. And I figure that if all the bugs, floor candy, and been-in-the-fridge-too-long-leftovers didn't kill me when I was a kid, this likely won't either. I could be wrong.

Anywho. Stuffed mushrooms. My way.

1 package mushrooms
1/4 cup diced onion
1 TBS olive oil
pepper to taste
savory blend Mrs Dash to taste
salt to taste
2 TBS flour
2 TBS white cooking wine
1/4 c water
1/2 c some sort of cooked pork, cut into little tiny pieces. I used leftover pork tenderloin
1/2 c sharp cheddar cheese, grated.
1/4 c snipped parsley

1. Wash the mushrooms. Oh. And preheat the oven to 300.
2. Remove the stems from the mushrooms. Cut the stems into cute little pieces.
3. In oil, saute the onion and the mushroom stem bits until just soft.
4. Add pepper, Mrs. Dash, salt, and flour. Stir until all the flour is moistened.
5. Add wine and water. Stir until it gets all thick and bubbly.
6. Mix in pork, cheese, and parsley.
7. Taste the mix. Ok... you don't actually have to do this, but it is yummy. And you can check your seasoning and adjust if you need to.
8. Spoon mixture into mushroom caps. Pile it on there. Place mushroom caps onto a greased baking sheet.
9. Back mushrooms 10-15 minutes.
10. Eat mushrooms.

If you have leftover filling, it's really yummy mixed into rice.

Shocked and Dead bento

2011-01-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

Can I name a bento for the two picks I used in it? I dunno. But I did.

See? It took me forever to make, because I have yet to figure out speed bentoing. I look at the amazing bentos made by the ladies on some of the blogs I follow. And I marvel. That they look so good. And so balanced. And that they didn't spend two hours making them. I WILL get the hang of this. I will. I will. I will.

So. I had to use up the rest of asparagus and savoy from my bountiful basket. There's the top tier. I just steamed them with some salt and pepper. Easy peasy. It would have been easier and peasier if I had steamed them in the same pan at the same time. I'll learn.

I think my favorite meat to prepare at home is pork tenderloin. Followed closely by pork loin. And maybe country style pork ribs. ...If it came from a pig, I like to cook it. Except bacon. I hate cooking bacon. Go figure. Anyway. This is pork tenderloin. I cut it into little pieces that I figured would look good on cute food pics and tossed them into a pan. Salt, pepper, and garlic herb Mrs. Dash. That's all it took. And those little things are SO GOOD! Also. They reheat well and without drying out. And next to the little pork is a small potato that I diced and ... wait for it... I cooked it in the same pan at the same time as the pork. See? Learning! The potato turned out really yummy.

Bottom layer contains three mini sweet peppers, a loverly chocolate, some Provolone cheese strips, and a little cup of pickles. The pickle was a baby dill that I just sliced thin with my mini mandoline.

I ended up sharing my bento with a coworker who didn't have lunch and wasn't hungry enough to make a sandwich with the supplies I keep in the fridge at work now. I wasn't all that hungry either, which worked out well. The good news? I have changed this coworker's views on asparagus. From 'It's a vile weed straight from the pits of hell' to 'Hey. That's pretty good stuff.'

Also. I'm a full time employee now. That means I have access to the secret gym under the city center. At all hours of the day and night. This makes me happy, as I like to run at night, but my neighborhood is kind of creepy. I get my keycard next week. And I'm still planning on running that 5k in May.

Goals. But not New Year's resolutions.

2011-01-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

New Year's is past. And nobody keeps their New Year's resolutions anyway. These goals are in no way related to the beginning of 2011. Rather, they are related to me feeling like I need to be more responsible. And healthy. And maybe a bit less of a dork.

First goal. Run a 5k in May. Maybe two of them...

I started the Couch to 5k program last month. I'm still doing the first week. Time to move on? Probably. But running has never been my thing. And asthma has always kept me from the good cardio stuff. Except... I stopped having big issues with my asthma a couple of years ago. And I never changed my habits. So that's why I've been doing week 1 for the past 4 weeks. And I'm glad I did. I went running a couple of days ago and went a half mile further in the same amount of time than I did when I started. And I wasn't nearly as winded. So yes... I think this week I'll finally move on to week 2.

Second goal. Eat healthy.

Which kind of goes hand in hand with not eating out, and bento. Eating out... It's hard to not eat out when I don't work with a single person who brings lunch. I absolutely hate staying at work by myself for lunch. It's boring. And if I'm going to make this one work, I have to work on changing not only my habits, but maybe some coworkers' habits.

I did just find a wonderful resource for eating healthy on the cheap... Bountiful Baskets. It's a produce co-op that I stumbled on. They have pickup sites all over the west. I was a bit wary the first time I participated, but holy crap is it great! Every Monday I 'contribute' $15 to the co-op. And at the un-godly hour of 8am on Saturday morning, I pick up my basket. A laundry basket FULL of fresh produce. Good stuff too. This week included apples, bananas, pineapple, pears, grapefruit, tomatoes, purple savoy, lettuce, asparagus, red potatoes and broccoli. Last week there were avocados. A few weeks ago there were pomegranates... My challenge to myself is to eat everything before I get the next basket.

Third goal. Financial blah blah blah.

I have a budget. It used to be a very strict budget. It has become less so in the past few months. That needs to change.

I do now have a full time job. (Woot woot!) There is more money floating around my bank account. But. I just bought a newish truck. Which means I have a car payment. And I have a whole bunch of student loans. And a few credit cards from my 'wild' days. And if I keep paying them like I'm paying them, I will be in debt for at least the next 18 years. That's a long time!

This is where 'snowballing' comes in. I found an awesome snowball calculator here. It's free. And it has charts and graphs and a column for 'flake' payments. And if I keep with it and add an extra $100 to my bills every month, I can have EVERYTHING payed off in six years! Debt free! How would that be? ... I'd sure like to find out.

I'm almost considering getting a hobo job (i.e. donating plasma) so I can afford to pay more without feeling deprived... I think it would totally be worth it.

Fourth goal. Finish school.

18 credit hours. Or something like that. They changed up the requirements during the year I was gone. But dang it! I'm that close to my bachelor's degree. I need to get it. Especially if I want to get a Master's in Arts Management someday. Which I do. Luckily, my new full-time status comes with many perks. Like access to the secret gym. And health benefits. And auto insurance discounts... and tuition reimbursement. I don't even have to pay for it! I have no more excuses!

I'm taking just one class this semester. Ethics and Values. With the papers... That's always been my problem with school. The writing. I can do it. I'm even good at it. But I absolutely, positively despise it. I'm a math person. I like numbers and order and the one right answer. I hate writing. My first paper is due in three weeks. Wish me luck.

I don't want to promise anything. But I did finally unpack my bento things today. I even packed a bento for my lunch tomorrow. It's all sorts of fun colors. Too bad my camera batteries aren't charged. I'm going to try to be better about posting my bentos. After all. That is the whole reason for this sad neglected blog, right? Right.

So. Lunch tomorrow... A sun-dried tomato chicken sausage on black rice. Steamed purple savoy and asparagus. A pear. A bit of granola. And a chocolate. Because I still have junk left over from Christmas and I can't very well let it go to waste.

Anywho. Wish me luck in my many endeavors.

A bento backlog. After two days.

2010-07-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

How? How can I have a backlog in two days? Well... I've been working 12-14 hour days, so I have lunch bentos, a snack bento, and dinner bentos to share with you. Let's get started, shall we?

I did something a little unorthodox here. Those familiar with these cute little two tier boxes know that they are not 'tight'. And you shouldn't pack liquid in them. Ever. But I don't really have any cute and little tight boxes. So I used it anyway.

I thieved a divider from another of my boxes to partition off the soup side of the top. Of course, the divider doesn't actually fit. It's just kind of wedged in there, a half inch from the bottom of the box. So I lined the soup side with plastic wrap and filled it up. The other side I stuffed full of broccoli and cauliflower. And a few little carrot flowers for cuteness' sake.

The bottom of the box holds sweet mini peppers and cucumber sticks, with a little mayo case full of a yummy pepper dill dip I made.

Anywho. The plastic wrap solution worked really well. I wrapped it up around the lid of the box before closing it. And... no leaks! I'm pretty sure this only works when you really pay attention to keeping your box right side up during transport. But it does work. Also. I have no issues with microwaving in plastic wrap. Those of with issues... I suppose this won't work for you.

My snack on Tuesday was packed in an awesome little box I got on ebay. It's a box from the 1950's that was completely unused when I got it. It still has the manufacturer sticker on the lid. And it came with a little cup that fits inside. So I filled the cup with jerky and the rest of the box with plum slices.

Dinner was a nutrisystem pizza. I decided it would be better if I just made it at work, so I left it in it's package. I didn't take a pic of it. It wasn't cute.

In the box to go with the pizza, I packed canadian bacon pieces, spinach, and a little bit more ff cheddar cheese for toppings. It turned out really yummy. I packed a loverly little romaine salad with sweet peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers in the top tier, and filled out the bottom tier with whole peppers, pistachios, and a little lime guy full of ff italian dressing. The little lime guy came from the Dollar Store with seven other fruits, full of icky, powdery candy. I made the guys at work eat it all so I could take the containers. They're perfect for salad dressing.

Wednesday lunch was really simple. A cup of beans and ham soup. That I didn't have time to repack in a cute container. And a munchie veggie tray kind of thing with cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and a case of ff ranch dressing.

And. My favorite filler protein, tamagoyaki. Heart-shaped tamagoyaki. With a bunny pick. Because I was eating a whole lot of rabbit food for lunch.

Dinner was almost a tragedy. I've discovered that nutrisystem sweet and sour chicken is mostly inedible. But I packed it anyway. I have issues with wasting food. Even if it's not very good. Or appetizing looking.

I packed it with cauliflower and broccoli, with zucchini flowers on top. And I ate all of it. And I have another package. I'll probably eat that one, too. The side dish was lovely though... I diced a couple of zucchinis and stir-fried them with onions and peppers. When they were about cooked, I added a dash of ponzu and liquid aminos. And then I topped it with sweet pepper flowers. So it matched the other tier. And, of course, there are pistachios. I love pistachios. And there are only four calories in each kernel. Four! That's it!

I expect I will be straying from the diet thing over the next three days. FYI. It's my birthday tomorrow. There will be cake. And Tucanos. And probably more cake after that. And ice cream. But I will try to have everything in moderation. And we'll see if I've lost anything on Sunday.

Really? Another one?

2010-07-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

I have yet to get in the habit of naming my bento lunches. Mostly, I don't want to get attached to something I'm just going to be eating. And I'm not so good at coming up with the clever names. So I just call them what they are. Lunch for Monday. Snack for Monday. Etc. It's boring. But at least I know when I ate the bento.

And this. This is lunch for Monday. Notice the quality of the picture. Maybe not top quality. But SO much better than what I've been putting you through. But more on that later.

I've decided that tomorrow is the day that I start my Nutrisystem. Tomorrow is as good a day as any, right? From what I've been reading, some of the food is just gross. To some people. So to combat this, instead of taking the package to work and crossing my fingers, I'm going to make it at home. So I can try it. And decide if it's worth eating. And pack it into cute little boxes that make it really not feel like diet food.

The above red beans and rice are totally worth eating. It doesn't really look like diet food, does it? You'll notice the complete lack of fruit in my lunch. That's something I'll have to get used to. For lunch, you're supposed to add two veggies and a dairy or protein to your nutrisystem entree. Fruit is for breakfast, snack, and dinner. Luckily. I do like my veggies. A lot. So I've added green beans, carrot shreds (which really don't count for anything but color), and roasted zucchini. The red case has ff sour cream to top the rice with.

This is the first time I've ever roasted zucchini. It didn't sound that difficult. So I decided to make some for my lunch tomorrow and for a snack today. I didn't realize how much it would cook down though. I didn't get my snack. I'll live. Maybe.

Roasted Zucchini (and other veggies, I guess)

Zucchini (or whatever)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Olive Oil PAM

A. Preheat your toaster oven to 425 degrees.

B. Slice, dice, quarter, destroy the vegetables however you please. Spray sheet pan with PAM. Arrange on a sheet pan.

C. Spray veggies with PAM. Sprinkle on the herbs and spices of your choosing. The salt, pepper, and garlic powder are what I used today. I think the possibilities are endless. But I'm not going to hold your hand for that.

D. Put the whole lot in the oven. Leave it there until it's done as much as you like it. I left mine in for an hour and fifteen minutes. But the recipes I've seen have varied anywhere from twenty five minutes to an hour and a half.

E. Remove from oven. Maybe salt them a little bit more. Let them cool and toss them in your lunch. Or eat them. Both are acceptable choices.

And now. A snack. Because apparently I have to eat those. I'm not really complaining. I do like food.

That right there happens to be cottage cheese and a chopped nectarine. A dairy and a fruit. Every day. Right around three o'clock. I'm not so sure I can keep that schedule. But I'm gonna try.

Anywho. The camera.

One day I was wandering around Walmart at 2:00 in the morning, like ya do, when I passed by the electronics section. Where there was a clearance case. Now... I'd given up on being able to afford the camera I really wanted ages ago. Someday I'll have a full-time job with money to spare, but until then I may as well still be a broke college student. Without the college.

This clearance case caught my eye because there were a few cameras sitting there in ziploc bags. Which I found highly amusing. And then I noticed the prices on the ziplocs. They were fairly low. Decent prices for the cameras. But then I spied a sticker claiming that they were 50% off of the marked price. This required further investigation. And I found a Casio EX-Z80. Marked at $48. which meant... $24 to me. For a nearly brand new camera. That the photo department was just too lazy to go in back and find the box for.

Well. I bought it. Sure. It isn't the camera I'm still drooling over. But it takes better pictures than my phone does. And a step up is a step up, right? I ended up spending another $10 on three batteries for it and $10 for two chargers. So in all, I got a $44 camera with two spare batteries and a spare charger. That's kind of a hard deal to beat. And it should last until independent wealth strikes me.

I do LOVE a good deal.

Mini Cookies for One: First attempt.

2010-07-24T20:35:00.001-07:00

So. It's just me. I have no significant other at the moment. So I don't bake very often. Because I would just end up eating everything I baked. Unless I took it to work. But I didn't work today. So I used one of those recipe size converters to take a big chocolate chip cookie recipe down to 2 servings or so.

No. I'm not posting the recipe yet. Resizing a recipe that dramatically seems to do things to it. Not horrible things, but it could be better. And it will be. I insist. Any recipe for cookies that only dirties a cereal bowl and two measuring spoons deserves another chance. And besides. They're perfect for bento.

Aren't they cute? That's all the recipe made. They didn't rise at all. Or get less shiny. So really they just look like balls of dough on the plate. But I did cook them. Promise. And they were yummy. I think they need a rising agent. I was out of baking soda so I used a pinch of powder. And maybe less flour. Ideas?

Now I have guilt...

2010-07-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

Ok. I know. It has been forever. I just have not been in the habit of taking pictures of my food. Even though I have a new camera. Which I'll tell you about later. I've also not really been in the bento habit. And I really need to be. Especially now.

Anyway. The reason I have guilt is that I suddenly have like 230 views on my blog. Which. For a blog with only nine or so posts, seems like a lot. Which. Means that there are people out there who want to know what I have to say, and I haven't been saying anything. I'm a horrible person!

And I will try to remedy this.

This is what has been going on in my life lately...

*My landlord has had to file for bankruptcy. I'm losing my $200/month apartment, so my living expenses are about to go up about $300/month. I won't be able to afford to eat out anymore. Actually, I may not be able to eat anymore. I must look into the hobo job of selling plasma. And let my boss know that I'll soon be looking for another job if that doesn't work out...

*I'm apartment hunting. Directly related to the first point. And I have to find a place I can afford that has space for my truck, my many motorcycles, my '49 Dodge Coronet, and will let me keep my cute, toilet-trained cat. I refuse to be one of those people who moves and then puts their animals up on craigslist. "It was good while it lasted, but bye now!" Asshats. I'll give up a couple of motorcycles before I'll give up my cat. Besides. I've put so much time into toilet-training her now, I have to keep her.

*I've been working massive amounts. More now that it has become part of my work duties to stage manage the first main-stage production that the CCA has ever done. I'm enjoying myself immensely. But. My weekly work schedule has gone out of control. And we haven't even started rehearsals yet.

*I figured out that A) by only working 30 hours a week I will run out of my 1530 part time hour allotment at some point in November. B) by working my usual 38 hour average, I will run out sometime in October. C) I won't be able to afford to live on 30 hours a week soon anyway. So therefore D) I'm going to have a hoard money and freelance for three months. Or get a seasonal retail job. Ew.

*I've been asked to be a guest blogger on a very well known blog. And I don't even keep up with my own blogs! I've decided that I will accept. But not for another month. Because that way I can beef up my blog and then shamelessly promote it. Right now, I'm not so sure it's interesting enough to pimp out to the homemaking masses.

*I just purchased about 17 Bento Boxes. Because I'm a dork. I don't need 17 new boxes. I already have about 20. But when fitjpstore.com has new inventory, you have to take advantage of it fast. So that's what I did. Yes. It did involve $60 that I should have been hoarding. But you remember that piggy bank I've got? While most of the money in it has absolutely nothing to do with my goal of putting aside money every time I bento-ed, there is enough change in there to cover this impulse purchase. I really wish fitjp had an affiliate program. I'd be rolling in (more) bento boxes by now.

*My weight has not been under control. At all. Because I haven't been eating carefully. So that's my fault. However. A sweet lady off craigslist decided to get rid of her nutrisystem because she'd "rather eat pizza and ice cream than get skinny". My mom has been doing nutrisystem with great success this summer. And I only need to lose 30-40 lbs. I discovered that one could find nutrisystem on craigslist for about 1/3 of the price of actually signing up for the program. I'll try using the free stuff for a few weeks to decide if the expense is worth it. I also think it will lend itself well to bentoing. Because you have to pack along all your veggie side dish goodness.

*I want to start the Couch to 5k program. Not only to lose weight, but because when the zombie apocalypse happens I want to be able to outrun you. Because as with bears, you don't have to be the fastest, you just have to be faster than the other person. (OK. So I don't believe in zombies. But it does sound like some good motivation to exercise, does it not?)

*My finger is healed up. There's just a scar now. It itches sometimes.

Geometry Bento! Ok... That might be a stretch...

2010-03-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

I took the motorcycle out today for a real-ish ride. I say ish because I don't think I should go too far before I rebuild the starter clutch, lube the shifter linkage, and bleed the clutch master cylinder. And maybe I'll do the same for the brakes. It was rather chilly. I mean sure. It was around 50 degrees today, which is nice and perfectly ride-able. But. Someone at work made off with my motorcycle/work gloves. So was making do with a pair of fingerless gloves I usually reserve for summer riding.

Next paycheck. Gloves. Saddlebags. Windshield. I hope it's a big one. The check. Not the windshield.

So. The geometry bento. Kind of. Mostly I put it together and then decided it could maybe be math related.

The top layer has a baked red potato topped with salt, pepper, and sharp cheddar triangle cutouts and turkey lil smokies, which I have decided look like pi. Also there are mixed veggies. The bottom has a container of cottage cheese, two mini sweet peppers, an aussie cookie, a clementine orange, macadamia nuts, and a mint.

Really I have BSed the math thing. I didn't mean for the smokies to look like pi. But I figured that matched with the triangle cheeses and the round bits in the bottom... Ok. Not so much.

Here's a picture of this box all closed up. It's one of my favorites.

Jurassic Park, The Bento!

2010-03-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

The quick update. I exercised yesterday. I'll do it again today. If I do eat out, It has to be a salad. And the reward is that I don't feel ill after eating a load of fried food.

And I've decided that every time I make a bento and actually eat it instead of going out, I'll be putting aside $5 for a bento purchase of my choice. Which means I need six more bentos before I can buy the newest box I have my eye on. Motivation is a wonderful thing.

Ok. A cute bento.

No really. I did something besides shove food into a box. And I'm quite proud of myself. I did, however, learn the value of planning these things out. Mostly I got up this morning and was watching tv when I glanced over at my videos and saw the Jurassic Park logo. Click! Bento. Two hours later. I was going to run errands this morning. That didn't happen.

I made the logo out of nori and a slice of provolone. The red bit was colored using a food marker. It took me a while to figure out how best to transfer the image to the nori. And then I realized I had a roll of tracing paper in my art bag. So I traced the dinosaur and cut it out. I cut the nori using a really sharp steak knife like it was an exacto. It was not comfortable. I think I'll be buying a real exacto knife before I do something like this again.

A closeup. I realized just now that I didn't put the logo on there straight. The bushes should be at the bottom.

The logo is sitting atop a bed of brown rice surrounded by mixed veggies. I was going to put the hard-boiled eggs up there with it, but then realized that I'd be microwaving the rice. And microwaving the eggs would be a bad idea. Sure. I could have taken them out before microwaving. But I like having my layers separate. Cold food and hot food. It makes my life easier.

Those cute dinosaur eggs were colored with food markers as well. I tried to do them like my mom used to... crack them all over and put them in egg dye. But it didn't work out. You need to get through that little membrane that covers the egg so it will actually color. And I didn't. But the food marker worked.

The eggs are being propped up with a couple of sliced mini sweet peppers. And the orange one you see is stuffed with cream cheese. Then there are the always familiar carrots and clementine orange, with all the little spaces filled with macadamia nuts. And a mint. Because no one likes egg breath.

I bento. But not very often.

2010-03-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

I ripped the brake release handle right out of my truck a few days ago. It was very 'Princess Diaries'. Except I wasn't rolling backwards down a hill. I was quite worried for a little while. I didn't think I could park the truck without automatically hitting the brake. I don't think I can buy the part anymore, and I never have time to get to the Pick-a-Part. So I improvised. I wired a nice purple ribbon onto the lever that the handle is supposed to attach to. I'm not sure it will pass inspection like that, but I kind of want to try.

I haven't been bentoing as often as I should. It's so much easier to run across to the grocery store and buy a tv dinner. I'm really trying to get into the habit though. I might start putting the money I save from bento into my piggy bank. And I'll use it to buy more bento stuff that I don't need.

Anywho. Two bentos. A snack and a full meal.

The left container has carrots, clementine oranges, kiwi, and a small container of cottage cheese. The right contains a pasta salad made with whole wheat rotini, grape tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, Parmesan, pastrami, and a reduced fat Caesar dressing. I threw in another small bottle of it to freshen it up before I ate it.

It did have a funny aftertaste that I've noticed I get a lot with my pasta salads. Maybe because I pre-sauce it? I dunno. Next time I'll try just packing the bottle of dressing.

Yes. That is a mini sweet pepper stuffed with another mini sweet pepper. If I had been feeling more ambitious, I would have cut shapes out of the yellow one so the red one would show through. But it was nearly midnight. I didn't care much.

It also has a hard-boiled egg kind of shaped like a bunny, macadamia nuts, clementine orange segments, and a lovely thing called an aussie bite. It came from Costco. And it's an oatmeal cookie on crack. I recommend it.

I, of course, cannot eat a hard-boiled egg without salt. And maybe pepper. I found the perfect bento salt and pepper shaker. In the camping supplies at the grocery store. See?

If you're wondering why I still have the cruddy pictures, I did finally decide on the camera I want. And it won't be released for another few weeks. It's the fujifilm f80exr. I think it'll be great, not only for bento pics, but for lighting pics at work.

Also. I haven't lost any weight over the last month. Likely because I haven't been bentoing. I've got to get to it though. I'm going to be getting riding leathers this spring and I want to get them at least a size smaller than I am now. Dear elliptical in the corner. I'm gonna start using you more than once a week.

Yet another awful bento picture

2010-02-08T19:31:00.001-07:00

For those who worry, my finger is doing much better. The cut on my knuckle is pretty much healed, so it looks like I have two stitches for no good reason. The cut on my finger... Kinda gross still, but healing. I get the stitches out on Friday. I put pictures up. They're at the bottom. So... If you don't want to see gory-ish pictures of my hand, don't scroll all the way to the bottom.

I haven't had much occasion to make bentos lately. I've been working evenings and I try to eat before I get to work. But I worked all day today, and I needed lunch.

So...

Top layer is short grain brown rice, which I loves, and a fish full of liquid aminos. I sliced a whole summer squash and steamed it with salt and pepper. And the cute little wieners on top are turkey 'lil smokies. I'm quite a fan, as they have 2/3 less fat than the regular ones. Therefore, my ban on the 'lil smokies brand has been lifted.

Bottom layer contains tamagoyaki. Tamagoyaki is quickly becoming one of my favorite snacks. I add a bit of salt and pepper. That's pretty much it. I've also got a clementine orange and a mandarin orange, a mint, a cup of cottage cheese, and macadamia nuts.

And now... for those of you who like this kind of thing... a gory picture.

I'm warning you...

Don't scroll down if you have a weak stomach...

I mean... it's not that horrible...

But I won't be held responsible if you can't handle it... :)

Ok... Maybe one more...

2 bentos. But mostly me slicing my finger open.

2010-02-03T00:09:00.001-07:00

So I had to work 15 hours yesterday. I went to work at 6:30 in the morning. And I was tired, dang it. I had slept all of about three hours because I was coming down with a cold and my nose was burning with chemical nastiness because of an epic cleaning job I had to pull on Sunday night. ...So very tired. I pulled out my knife. My very, very sharp knife. And was cutting a piece of gaffer's tape. And the knife slipped. And there was suddenly a large amount of blood dripping from my finger. I managed to put pressure on it while still holding the knife. I was quite happy with myself. At least later. When I could think about it.

So I got to the sink, closed and put the (bloody) knife in my pocket, and turned on the water. And it so happened that there was a hose attached to the faucet. Which was curled around the bottom of the sink and then pointed straight up. For about three seconds there was a brilliant fountain of water arching up and over the 400 amp company switch. I slapped it off and grabbed the first absorbent thing I could find by the sink. It was a sketchy looking napkin, but I was dripping. And desperate.

About the time I got the napkin clamped over my finger, the guys came around the corner to investigate the water. And they found me. Bleeding profusely. Grinning at them. And asking if they had any idea where the first aid kit had gone. And they didn't. This big blue first aid kit had disappeared into thin air. So we had to bring Dan into it. We would have had to eventually. Dan is my boss. And also my best friend. Who seems to get quite upset when one of his friends is injured. He wanted to pull back the cut to see if it had gone to the bone. And he put his hand over my eyes so I couldn't see. Cuz he cares.

He dragged me to the laundry room to get some rags, as the napkin was quite red by this time. And he asked for my knife. Which was in my back pocket. I couldn't really let go of my finger... The whole bleeding thing... So I told him that if he wanted it, he'd have to get it himself. Oh. The look on his face. One of the guys happened by in their search for the first aid kit and pulled out one of theirs. I never did find out what happened to the strip Dan cut off the towel he had. I ended up with the rest of the towel somehow.

Someone showed up with the first aid kit from the boardroom. I was ordered to the office with my hand above my head while they decided how to wrap it up. On went one gauze strip... and then they pulled out the iodine and alcohol pads. I was so very thankful when they decided not to use them. Dan put on another strip of gauze and then started wrapping it in medical tape. It took all of about a minute to bleed through. Dan decided we were going to the workmed. Which was likely a very good idea. Dan made me keep my hand above my head the entire time.

So. Dan's boss met us at the workmed. He had the paperwork all ready to go when we showed up. He cracked to Dan that he could fill it out as my husband. Again. The look. He mumbled something about his wife. One of the nurses ended up filling it out while another one took the crap homemade bandage off my hand and washed the cut. And the doctor came in and stitched me up. Ten stitches. Not bad. I got a tetanus shot, a breathalizer test, and a drug test. Cuz that's what they do at the workmed.

I got Dan a coke while I was in there. Cuz he had to sit in the waiting room worrying for an hour. He told me I could take the rest of the day off. But we had left a sound guy in charge of designing lights while we were gone. And really. It didn't hurt. And I was the only one not freaking out through the whole thing. Also, I quite enjoyed the sympathy from the multitude of choreographers.

Anywho. I had prepared for the extra long day. I had a lunch bento and a dinner bento. Neither of which I ended up eating. The lunch bento was an experiment with some Philidelphia artichoke and spinach cream cheese. I made wraps with that, a leftover chicken tender, and whole wheat tortillas. I brought a Slimfast bar just in case they were gross. (Which they were.) The bottom tier of the box had a clementine orange, grapes, kiwi, tomatoes and carrots.

Dinner was leftover pecan-crusted pork tenderloin with rice and green beans. And again. The fruits and veggies, same as the other meal.

Also. I'm consistently down to 179. I'm pretty darn happy about that. Sure. It's one pound. But every little bit helps, right? I've got my elliptical set up in the living room, looking toward the tv. I just work out while I watch a show. It seems to be working out well.

I've about got my camera picked out. I thought you should know. Salvation is near. It will either be the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX580, the Samsung TL320, or the Fugifilm FinePix F200EXR. All of them are equipped with manual aperature and shutter settings. Which will make the camera good for stage pictures and food pictures.

And it obviously got later and later as I was writing this. And therefore, less and less interesting.

Flower Onigiri Bento... also a snack

2010-01-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

Drew came over today. It was good times. Too darn cold to play motorcycles so we sat in my living room and played Simpson's Road Rage. And then we went outside and talked about what we'd be doing if it weren't cold outside. I have a 1996 Kawasaki Ninja that needs a few more tweaks before it is ready to sell, and a 1972 Honda CB450 that I'm going to be restoring. I've also got to rebuild my '82 Magna's starter. Drew has to do a bottom end rebuild of the engine in an 80's Yamaha XS850. But 30 degrees is much too cold to be hanging out in my shop. I'll be adding a heater in the near future.

So. I made a cute bento. Ish. My color choices weren't the best. Brown rice happens to be the same color as an 'ivory' bento box, which also happens to be the same color as chicken breast. However. I made the effort. Give me a little bit of credit.

The bottom layer begins with a bed of spinach, topped with two flower shaped onigiri. One of them is kinda squished. Because I attempted to stamp it with a flower. And it didn't take. I used a small cutter to make the spinach flowers. I think they're adorable. But that's just me. And then I tucked pieces of leftover chicken around the onigiri.

The other layer has carrots, tomatoes, corn, a clementine orange, grapes, macadamia nuts, and cottage cheese. Oh. And the liquid aminos for the onigiri. If you don't know, liquid aminos is kind of like soy sauce. But with less sodium. I used aluminum food cups for the corn and the cottage cheese, and I made them square by wrapping them around the bottom of a square rice mold.

The box has two snacks in it... the slimfast bar. Which is a chocolatey vanilla blitz bar. Which has to be the tastiest sweet treat I've had in a long time. And the other is a clementine, grapes and a few macadamias.

Dear Pants. I have won.

2010-01-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

Bwaha!

You know how much it bites when your favorite pants are too darn tight? And your stomach does that muffin top thing over the waistband? And then you just can't wear them because it's too depressing?

I had that. A cute pair of size 12 Hydraulic jeans. That made my butt look so darn cute. Which is an important trait in a pair of jeans.

And this morning, in a hurry and not paying attention, I pulled out the first pair of pants my hand touched and I put them on. And then realized that they fit me perfectly again! Yay! *does the happy jeans dance* I'm pretty sure I haven't worn these jeans since October, so the nine pounds actually did make a difference. :)

If I had a camera, I would take a picture for you all. Even if the camera does add ten pounds. At least it doesn't add the muffin top.

On a related note. I have decided to buy a camera with my tax refund. It won't be a brilliant camera, as I have many other things to buy with the refund as well. I'm thinking that an Olympus FE-46 might do the trick. It has a cuisine setting. And it comes with a box of Crayola crayons. How can I go wrong? So readers, give me two or three weeks, and I'll be able to post some half decent bento pictures. And jeans pictures. And maybe a picture of my elliptical machine, my entire bento collection, and my cat.

A picture of a bento... and an elliptical machine

2010-01-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

No, really! I remembered.

See?

The top layer obviously has green beans in it. I dumped them in right out of the bag from the freezer. Because I see no point in cooking them and then letting them sit for four hours before I cook them again. The noodley bits are not spaghetti. They are an egg noodle that I found at Sunflower Market. They come in little nest shaped rounds that I can cook in the microwave. So. Great bento fodder. The bottle has a yummy sauce I found over at aibento.net. I don't have permission to reprint it, so you'll just have to go over there. And then I put in some leftover chicken I had cooked in the crockpot.

(I love crockpot chicken. Sometimes I get the ones that are already marinated and just toss them in with a cup of water. No thawing. No cutting up onions or potatoes or measuring spices. Just a frozen bird in a crock. And six hours later... juicy deliciousness.)

The bottom contains heart-shaped kiwi slices, a clementine orange, a couple of baby carrots, grape tomatoes, cottage cheese, and a mint. Also, note the heart pick I threw in the kiwi for cuteness' sake. I really am trying to use all of this bento stuff I have lying around my kitchen.

I didn't actually end up eating this one for lunch. I was gonna. I had good intentions. The guys wanted to go out. And they were going to go to a fast food place, so I could bring my lunch. And then they went to the Village Idiot. And bought me a lunch to make up for not being able to bring in mine. So I ate it for dinner. And it was good. Although I will have to be more careful when I pack cottage cheese in the future. It did slop about a little bit in all the carrying back and forth I did today.

On another note... I participated in the Haiti fundraiser being sponsored over at aibento. And. They pulled my name out of the bento box as one of the grab bag winners! I never win these things. Except this time. I'm pretty darn excited, considering that I had to place myself on a bento buying ban for the next month. It's possible the $85 over the past month has been a little extreme considering my current financial circumstances... So. I'm happy I was able to help Haiti in some small way, and happy to be receiving bento goodies in this, my time of bento famine.

And on another nother note... I bought an elliptical machine today. I really haven't figured out how I'm going to make it fit in my living room. But I'm happy with the purchase. I paid $40 for it. And the thirty seconds I spent trying it out were enough to convince me that my thighs and calves would thank me eventually. I'd forgotten how well the elliptical works everything. I don't work tomorrow, so I'll spend some time figuring out the living room configuration. Maybe now I won't feel like the hour I spend watching NCIS isn't such a waste. :)

I love ebay...

2010-01-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

My New Year's resolution had nothing to do with my weight. That goal was there before. My resolution was to eat breakfast every day. Which will be a switch to the never eating breakfast thing. The easy solution? Slimfast.

My first purchase was for 100 Slimfast meal bars. This would have cost me $100 at Walmart. On ebay? $45. I think I got a good deal. I'm undecided as to how much I like them, but they are a good solution for me when I'm rolling out of bed and out the door.

Second was a Tupperware mini QuickShake. It's lime green, which I don't necessarily approve of. But they didn't come in black. And the only other choice was pink. So green it was. It's the perfect size for a Slimfast shake. Most of the diet shake containers I found before this one were at least twice the size needed. I hasn't come yet. For some reason it's in California right now. I'm betting that some lowly data entry clerk for the postal service put in the zip as 94606 instead of 84606, so now I have to wait for them to figure that one out and get it back to Utah for me.

Third purchase is a gorgeous little bento box from the 1950's. That's never been used. Ever. I did the math using the measurements from the listing. I think the box is only a 300 ml. Which makes it about half the size I need. However. When paired with a bowl of soup or a meal bar, I think it will be perfect.

I weighed in at 184 this morning. However, yesterday morning I was only at 180. I refuse to believe that I gained four pounds in one day. Especially considering how healthy I ate yesterday. The way my weight fluctuates really annoys me. But I'm still hovering right around the 180 mark, so that's what we're going with.

If I remember right, my next goal is 171. If I behave myself, I could have it in a month, I think. I may also have to clean the living room up a bit so I can work out with Tony Horton. The Tony Horton workouts are some of the most enjoyable I've ever done. He manages to do them without being so happy you know it's fake. And he's snarky. I do enjoy a snarky workout video.

I'm trying to decide if I have room in my living room for an elliptical or an exercise bike. I don't always feel that I have the energy to bounce and move all over the room with Tony, but I could do cardio for an hour while I watch NCIS. Or something. Whatever is on. I have a Tony Little Gazelle. It's too big to leave out all the time. And I don't think I get a very good workout off of it. It feels like a beginner's cardio machine. And I don't like it.

Maybe I'll splurge when I get my tax return and get a small elliptical...

Bento in a hurry...

2010-01-19T23:28:00.000-07:00

I slept in today. This isn't really a surprise, considering I stayed up until 2:00 this morning playing Mario on the Wii. I have to tell you. I love the new Mario. They took all the best stuff from the old Marios and put them into one game. It's great!

Anywho. I ended up having exactly five minutes in which to pack my bento. So I reached for the old standby. A can of Progresso. I finally found a 2 cup microwavable container that was just a little bit more than 2 cups. There's just enough head room for the whole can of soup. And they are just Western Family wannabes.

I used one of my gothic skull bentos to pack a few carrots, a clementine orange, a couple of grape tomatoes, and a cupcake liner of cottage cheese. I also made a couple of mini sandwiches using cocktail sourdough bread and cream cheese. However. The bread made me gag. So I tossed them. I had such high hopes for those sandwiches. Cocktail bread is so cute and little that it just seems to be made for bento. Maybe I'll try some pumpernickel or rye. Or maybe the secret is in toasting the bread. I'll try some things. And let you know.

Orange Ginger

2010-01-17T01:26:00.000-07:00

I got pulled over tonight. And I know exactly why, even though the officer didn't say it. Sometimes my truck doesn't like going into second gear. So I pulled out of the parking lot at work, tried to throw it into second, and started jerking like an epileptic having a seizure. It took me a second to actually get it in. And there happened to be a Sheriff coming the opposite direction who passed me, slowed down, and then turned around.

He didn't pull me over right away. Maybe because after the initial rough start I drove like a saint. Or because he was still trying to figure out if I was drunk. He pulled me over a mile later. I was expecting it, so I smoothly pulled off the road, thanking my stars that is was the front right blinker that was out and not the rear.

I had my license ready for him. But. I had pulled everything out of the glove box the weekend before in search of an elusive fuse panel that didn't actually exist. I had no idea where my registration was. He told me to keep looking and he'd just find me by my license plate number. I found it a second later in my book bag.

He came back, gave me my license, told me to have a good night, and made to walk away. I showed him my registration so he couldn't site me for not having it in the truck. He didn't actually seem to care. And then, almost as an afterthought, he told me my plate lights were out.

That actually kind of annoys me. I thought I had fixed them last weekend.

Tonight's dinner bento was brought to you by the Dollar-Tree. Once upon a time, just after the freezers were installed along the back wall, the Dollar-Tree had individually wrapped, sauced tilapia and salmon fillets. My favorite was the orange ginger tilapia. And I stocked up. It still amuses me that they have a freezer section, but it is also a brilliant place to find bags of frozen fruit for smoothies. And unhealthy microwavable goodness. But alas, the fish has gone away. And I only have three fillets left.

I forgot to take a picture of this one. Still got to get into that habit, I guess. Also I need a new camera. There are some photography snobs out there right now thanking their lucky stars that I forgot to take the picture with my blackberry. I am working on it. I promise. Maybe next paycheck I'll be able to afford a 10MP point and shoot. That is my minimum requirement for a camera this time around. My last one was a 7MP and cost me twice as much as the new one will.

I already had the brown rice made and in the bento box from yesterday. The fish is really easy to prepare. Two steps: Boil some water. Put the bagged fish in the water. Four or five minutes later, you have a perfectly cooked piece of fish. I dumped the fish and all it's saucy accompaniment over the rice in the top layer of my bento. And then I tucked some carrot bits in around the edges.

In the bottom layer, I had carrots, celery, cucumber, and a clementine orange. I just grouped each food together. One of the guys at work laughed at me for my cute meal. Although it wasn't that cute. Just because I had the orange, green, orange, green thing going on...

Starting Again

2010-01-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time I started two blogs. Actually four. But only two matter in this story. One was a weight loss blog. It had a rather clever title; "Weighting Still". Also I started a blog for bentos. I don't remember what it was called. I posted maybe four times in the bento blog and a dozen in "Weighting Still". Today I decided to combine them into one blog. Because they were both kind of about food. And because it's easier to try to post in one blog every day than it is in two. (I know. I still have three. I'm trying to let the other two of them go. I get attached.)

Way back in October, I bought a scale. Because I noticed that my favorite jeans which come from Maurice's and which I always buy in a size 12 were getting a little bit difficult to wear. I was quite saddened to discover that I weighed in at about 189. Nearly 15 pounds above my usual weight. The one on my driver's license. That was actually correct when I put it on there.

I spent a month working out, and lost a few. And then I went on furlough from my job and lost 10. I decided that was because of the lack of fast food in my diet. I went back to work and gained two or three.

I've been hovering right around 180 for the past month or so. It's been as high as 184 and as low as 177. So. I'm giving myself a solid nine pounds of weight loss. Not too bad considering I stopped trying. And it was the holidays. And. Maybe it's time to start trying again. I'm eating a slimfast meal bar as I type.

One of the biggest issues is that when I'm at work, we eat out. I used to pack lunches and if they guys were going to a fast food place, or the mall food court, I'd just take it with me. But they frequently go to sit-down places. With waitresses and junk. And I would feel like a dork taking a lunch in. So I'd leave it in the fridge and go with them. Which means I was wasting money. Lots of money. And most likely eating unhealthy foods. I don't have much willpower when it comes to restaurants. There may be a salad on the menu, but dang it all, I'll get the meat and potatoes every time.

I am trying to get better about the packed lunch thing again. It takes a little more time on my part because I can't bring myself to pack a sandwich and a bag of carrot sticks. How boring! I've become rather addicted to Japanese bento boxes. They are simply small containers into which you shove a whole lot of food. And then you make it look cute. ...I don't quite have the hang of the second part. But I'm good at shoving the food in.

This was last night's dinner bento. Yes. That is a goth kind of box. My boss told the new mayor I was gothic. I'm not. I'm a technician. Technicians wear black. I realize I'm not helping the issue when using lunch boxes that look like this one. But it's awesome. So I don't care. ...Much.

Also I know the picture bites. My nice-ish digital point and shoot crapped out on me. So this picture is brought to you by my blackberry.

The top layer is mixed vegetables and brown rice with furikake on top. (Furikake is a topping made of nori, salt, pepper, mustard powder, sesame seeds, and a bunch of other things in dozens of combinations. It took me a long time to find one that I like that doesn't taste like fish. Ew.)

The bottom consists of carrots, cucumber, clementine orange segments, and tamagoyaki. Which is basically a rolled omelet eaten cold. Because rewarming egg is a bad idea. It's yummy.

And you'll notice the three little hearts cut out of tomato. Aside from the shaped boiled eggs I've done in the past, these are my first attempt at cuteness. Also these were my lesson that microwaving tomato bits is icky.

It doesn't look like a whole lot of food. But it is. I promise. Someday I'll take pictures of what it looks like shoved in the box, and what it looks like on a plate. I had to do that with my first bento boxes because I didn't believe there was enough food in there to fill me up. I would pack extra things outside the box and was always surprised when I couldn't finish them.

Ta da! New blog. First post. I'll work on getting the important stuff from the weighting still blog. Like my weight loss goals. And the rewards I get when I meet them. And maybe a picture or two from the bento blog. Why not.