1/28/2010- Scary Monster Spinach Knish

Another charben attempt. Everyone is shocked, I know. I had intended to just take this lovely spinach knish from the deli counter, but it looked sooooo monstrous in the box...well, the carrot decorations just got away from me.

Contents of Bento: Massively scary spinach knish monster with carrot fangs, eyes, and toes (feet-idies). Decorated (?) radish, pomegranate seeds, broccoli sauteed with garlic and soy sauce, red pepper spread in the pink silicon cup. It sort of looks like the monster's gore, or something.

I know this definitely doesn't qualify as "pretty," but I think it's pretty funny, so maybe that works. I suppose I should have put some of the "gore" around his mouth. I thought the yellow stains from when the knish was originally cooked looked fearsome enough.

I took the knish out to heat it. Everything else was deeeeeelicious. The broccoli was part of what HB made the night before for dinner. I have been up to my eyeballs in school work (3 projects due on the 30th. wtf??) so he has been bringing me a study dinner in my little office. Verrrry nice :D and prevents me from subsisting entirely on granola bars and tea.

1/27/2010- Taquito and Pig Bento

No, it's not Taquitos with Pork...there's clearly a Pig in my bento box. (At least, I hope it clearly looks like a pig...)

Contents of Bento: black bean and cheese taquito, split into two pieces, clementine. Black beans with salsa, carrot sticks, pomegranate seeds, 1/2 a prune (for purple color). Carrot flower decorations. Steamed broccoli with PIG radish, his eyes are a little askew in this picture, see below for a more glamorous shot. Side cars have salsa with a little yogurt and multigrain corn chips. The Bear of Salt is eying the pig. Good thing pandas only eat bamboo.

I didn't end up eating the side cars, because there was food at work from a breakfast party.

So, my little pig. Have a look at a closer shot:
awwww, look at 'im. He looks so mad. :D his snout is a slice of carrot, he is a radish (obvs.), and his nostrils and eyes are sesame seeds. The snout is held on by a little piece of an orange toothpick. Since I'm not making bentos for tiny children, I can put dangerous-choking hazards in them. He started out as a mouse, with big round ears, but then quickly turned into a pig once I realized I didn't have a good way to make his face look mouse-like. I trimmed the ears to be pointy-piggy ears. They're big and floppy, like some pigs are. Woo! First Char-ben attempt.

1/19/2010- Rice Pilaf Bento

I was going to cross-post this for Hapa Bento's B.O.M.B. challenge (that's Best Of the Month Bento). The theme for January was roasting, but the winner has already been drawn. Whoops. I guess I'll have to see if I can get something together for whatever February's challenge is.

Contents of bento: Rice pilaf (from Trader Joe's) with peas, garnished with peas, pomegranate seeds, and feta flowers. Steamed broccoli, carrot sticks, seasoned pecans. Roasted potatoes with thyme and rosemary, topped with feta and pomegranate seed.

Everything was tasty. I actually stuck the entire box in the microwave for a whole minute at work. Nothing exploded and there wasn't any "plastic flavor" (a dead-give-away for badness and breakdown)-- so hurray! My box is supposed to be microwave safe, but I'm pretty leery about microwaving in plastic. I try not to do it at all, but if I do need to, I try to keep the amount of time as short as possible.

1/18/2010- Bento-sized Calzone

Another try at a pretty bento. Our housemate had a "Make Your Own Calzone" dinner, so I made part of mine into a tiny, bento-sized one. This is a good technique to use to fill your bento. Are you making something for dinner? Cook a small serving of it especially for your bento. Making burgers? Make a mini-burger for your lunch at the same time. (or what have you) It saves time and makes for a cuter way to take leftovers.

Contents of Bento: Mini Calzone, sitting in foil, steamed broccoli with carrots below, carrot sticks, and green salad with mushrooms above. There is a tiny foil cup with a marinated artichoke cut into little pieces (garnished with an olive). The elephunt has balsamic vinegar for the salad. The small side car has sauce, and a strange garnish pattern. Patterns are pretty, right?

I heated the calzone a little bit when I went to eat it so it wasn't so cold. Cold cheese makes me a little sad. I had packed this bento on Sunday night, but it was fine when I went to eat it on Tuesday. The calzone has cheese and artichoke hearts inside. Deeeeeelicious.

Here's what it looks like all packed up in my kinchaku bag. See my awesome, new, tiny chopsticks! I love thems :D they are so tiny!

1/15/2010- Pizza for Friday Bento

When I was a kid, the elementary and middle schools I attended would always have pizza on Fridays in the cafeteria. I always had a packed lunch. I didn't have a bento, but it was an attractive, tasty, and healthful assortment of foods. My little mama packed my lunch for a lot of my youth and then helped me to continue to pack a great lunch as I got to be an adolescent (Thanks, little mama!). But sometimes in middle school, the peer pressure was too much and on Fridays I would forgo eating my lunch and buy the crappy school pizza. Man, was it terrible. But it was pizza, so how could a 12-year-old say no?

In that tradition, a pizza-for-Friday bento!

Contents of Bento: Steamed broccoli with olive garnish, balsamic vinegar in elephant bottle. Banana bread man, frozen sour cherries. Two mini pizzas with 2 wing-a-lings behind flanking 4 cut out stars of bread and 1 of Parmesan cheese. Side car of sauce, with olive and broccoli garnish. Not pictured: side car of tortellini (just a few).

So, the banana bread man was an experiment. I should have cut out a more recognizable shape from the banana bread (he looks a little indistinct) but it was the only cutter I had available that fit the strip of banana bread I had cut. I suppose I could have cut out a banana bread pepper or something, but that seemed even sillier than a banana bread man.

(Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the banana bread man! But actually, a man made of banana bread would have squishy little legs and wouldn't be able to run very fast at all. That was the case here. He was deeeelicious.)

I ate my lunch with my new tiny chopsticks. Hurray! They fit inside the leaflet tight box, too, which is also super awesome. I didn't really use the fancy orange pick I packed, since the chopsticks were so perfect. Also, the pick was inadequate for eating the tiny broccoli. I really cut it down to doll-house size, almost.

Also, this lunch was packed on Wednesday night and stored in the fridge until Friday morning. I have to report that everything fared pretty well, all things considered. The pizzas were a little soft, but I stuck them in the toaster oven to rewarm. The wing-a-lings had also started to separate from their breading, but that wasn't a big deal. Interestingly enough, the texture on the banana bread man was perfect and the bread stars were also fine. Wednesday night was when I had time to make pretty lunches, though I suppose it's a little against bento-principles to make a bento lunch a few days ahead. Well, too bad. That's probably how my bentos are going to have to go this spring. :D

1/14/2010- Indian curries bento and Bento Resolution

There haven't been a lot of postings recently because I've not been packing a bento lunch, just stuff in a bag. Although it's been tasty, it's not really interesting to look at, and also outside of the scope of this blog. ANY-ways.

Lots of the blogs I read have been talking about New Year's Bento resolutions: make bento lunches for the first time, make bento lunches every day, try to post every day, stuff like that.

I decided that I, too, should have a New Year's Bento resolution. I know that my schedule will keep me from packing (and photographing) a bento lunch every day. I'm just too busy between work and school and life. But I decided, after reviewing my blog, to take more time in how the bento looks. I resolve to make "prettier" bentos this year. Maybe not charaben or anything like that, but with a stronger eye towards visual appeal. It has never been a challenge for me to pack a tasty lunch. I'm a pretty good cook (IMHO) and like good quality food. But I do tend to disregard how things look. No more!

The first bento of the resolution features Indian foods made by my housemate, who makes delicious Indian food. It's turmeric-heavy, so I busted out the old glasslock box. MAN, is it tiny. (407ml, baby)

Contents of bento: Kala Chana masala with potatoes, topped with a takuan star, steamed broccoli to keep the sweet things from being curry-ified, frozen sour cherries, and two small pieces of banana bread, curried green beans. The side car has basmati rice in it.

It may be tiny, but this was a very filling lunch. It ended up being more rice than I had thought. I pulled out the two silicon cups and microwaved everything else for max-tastiness and hotness. The takuan star was a little strange on the curry, but not unpleasant. The broccoli barrier also kept the banana bread dry. Sadly, I think my silicon cups will be stained with turmeric tie-dye for a little while.

I tried to use my new, awesome, bento-sized chopsticks (thanks, little mama), but they are white and I didn't want them stained yellow on their first use. I'll have to wait, I suppose.

In my effort to make "prettier" bentos I think I may need to build some kind of light studio. I had a heck of a time trying to take a decent picture of this last night. And I still think it looks weird and dark.

Crossposting- Bento Safety

After my last couple of postings where I talked about how I'm not really concerned with food safety, I've been feeling like the universe is telling me I should be.

For example, this blog entry from Just Bento (one of the ones I follow) gives some tips and hints for keeping your bentos fresh and safe. I feel some sort of obligation to repost it here, since I'm so terribly blase about food safety. In an effort to present a balanced view, I thought I should put it up.

I unrelated news, I had a dream last night about trying to pack up a bento. In my dream I had all of these new bento boxes...hah!

1/8/2010- Black Bean Burrito

The title of this posting says "burrito" but you'll notice that there is not a burrito pictured.

Contents of bento: salsa and plain yogurt in small container, a piece of pumpkin raisin bread, kale and bell pepper burrito filling, HB's famous refried black beans.

This picture shows the sidecar of corn chips. I don't know why I felt compelled to post two pictures of the same, rather plain lunch, but that's ok, I suppose.

What's not pictured (even in two pictures) is the tortilla that made this accumulation of fillings into a burrito. It was very good (heated in the microwave and then crisped in the toaster oven). I'm pretty lucky to have both a microwave and toaster oven at my disposal at work.

The pumpkin raisin bread is from our housemate, who is our resident "baker." It was really good. I didn't think about keeping yogurt unrefrigerated until lunchtime (my lunch sits in the fridge overnight and then is carried in an insulated lunchbag until I eat it) but it tasted fine. The salsa on top of it was pretty spicy/acidic, so maybe that helped. I'm not really very concerned with food safety. I mean, I use clean utensils and bento boxes and I keep them cool overnight, but once I take them to work, the biggest feeling I can muster is "meh." I've not gotten sick yet. :D

1/5/2010- Happy New Year with Chili

Happy New Year! This chili lunch was packed at my folks' house before I came back to work.

Contents of Bento: Cornbread muffin, french onion dip for the carrots and celery, mini banana muffin with pecan on top, green olives, picked onion, some pieces of cheddar cheese.

As you can see, I put two of the pieces of the cheese on top of the chili before I microwaved it.

The chili was from a nice get-together my little mama hosted for some of my old friends. It was just lovely. Yay old friends!

Retro-posted from 12/29/2009- Yaki Onigiri from Trader Joe's

This posting features my first real product review. Woo!

Contents of Bento: yaki onigiri from Trader Joe's Frozen section (review to follow), dried Korean seaweed, mini pepper stuffed with broccoli floret, takuan with umeshiso paste in the center, burrito filling which is mostly tempeh and peppers--adorned with a pepper ring, and steamed broccoli with Hoisan sauce.

Also: a side car of my homemade applesauce with dried cranberries


A pretty complicated bento for me, all in all. The Korean seaweed stayed crispy until lunchtime, which is so crazy. Like I've said before, it must be some amazing technology.

The burrito filling was on the stove when HB and I got home on the 28th. But I didn't realize that it was burrito filling. It also has rice in it. Our housemate made it to clean some stuff out of the fridge. It's funny how your expectations of what food will taste like changes how you think it tastes. I was pretty sure it was stir-fry before she told me that it was burrito filling. Weird, huh? Anyways, it was quite tasty and a perfect addition to this bento.

Yaki Onigiri from Trader Joe's

I don't know how long that link will stay active, since it's a new product page from Trader Joe's. So here is a listing of the nutrition information from them. They call them Baked Rice Snacks (because they're baked, not fried) and all you have to do is microwave them. They come in a package of 8 for around 3.50$ (your mileage may vary) and are pretty tasty. They do have fish sauce in them (and are made with dashi) so if you are a strict vegetarian, it might not be for you. I personally am not bothered by fish sauce. It's made with small anchovy-type bait fish, which are basically like bugs. And I would eat bugs, I'm just glad I don't have to.

The onigiri were easy to microwave; they were a little sticky when hot, and the flavor was a little pungent when they were warm. They carried excellently in the bento until lunchtime and were absolutely delicious at room temperature. There's no filling in them, but I found that taking umeshiso and takuan was fine for ramping up the flavor. They also have a soy-dashi taste that's pretty nice when they're at room temperature. The texture was pretty terrific too. They are not (like homemade yaki onigiri) at all crunchy, but they are still pretty great. I definitely was glad to have gotten them, will get them again, and keep them in my freezer for quick lunchtime addition. They're pretty expensive for what they are (um, rice), but you're paying for the convenience. I wouldn't take them every day, but once and a while they are a nice addition.

Retro-posted from 12/28/2009- No-chicken Parmesan

On the 26th I made a special dinner for HB and me. This bento has some of the parts of it.

Contents of bento: sauteed broccoli and mushrooms (very savoury and delicious), stove-top applesauce with dried cranberries, and no-chicken Parmesan.

No-chicken Parmesan was made with Quorn, this bizarre myco-protein chicken substitute. Basically, I made my awesome homemade tomato sauce, cooked it down, then dumped in the Quorn. Then it went over fancy, Italian squiggly pasta and was baked briefly in the oven (under the broiler) to melt the Mozzarella and Parm I put on the top. So good. Too bad it looks so ugly in my bento. As you can see, the portion in the box just has shaved Parmesan on it. It didn't take a magical trip through the broiler. I microwaved everything in the box a little bit before I ate it. I love warm applesauce.

Also, I think it's impossible to make applesauce look pretty. I guess if I had used a pretty-shaped food cup, or decorated the top, I could have pulled it off. But sadly, it just ended up looking like mush. But the mush was as tasty, as tasty could be....

Retro-posted from 12/26/2009- Stuffed Shells

Before Christmas my little mama made some awesome stuffed shells. Unfortunately, I was packing this bento on the 25th, late at night, because I had to work on the 26th. The unfortunate part is how mashed up the stuffed shells look.

Contents of Bento: Stuffed shells (with ricotta and lots of spinach) made by my little mama. Two mini peppers (not spicy, though they really look like jalapenos) a piece of artichoke square and some orange segments.

The artichoke squares are a "my family" tradition for events (of any kind). They're sort of like an awesome crustless quiche, but with lots of artichoke and 1/2 a lb. of cheese. Amazing, addictive, and probably not very good for you. These get made for Thanksgiving or parties or whatever. They are tasty both hot and cold. Maybe I'll post the recipe here sometime.

When I went to eat my lunch, I microwaved the shells tray a little bit. Deeeelicious.

Retro-posted from 12/25/2009- A bento for my Little Mama

My little mama made the mistake of expressing some passing interest in bento-making. So I got her her own set (with some stuff to start her out).

Here is the set all wrapped up in its matching kinchaku . Next to it is a tiny Bonne Maman jar, which matched the box. However, it is too tall to fit in either tier, but it's often nice to have a little extra jar to take salad dressing or what have you.

The box looks like this:
Sorry the picture is a little out of focus. Two tiers with rubber lids on both tiers.

Under the lid, a little storage area!
You can see the elastic band in the front and some tiny cocktail (bento-sized) forks in the back. One plastic and the rest are bamboo. This set also came with some darling bento-sized chopsticks. But little mama doesn't do chopsticks so her darling daughter got them instead :D. I guess I should take a picture featuring them...they really are a great size, about the length of my hand, and plain white. Now you know what they look like.

Inside everything...
Top tier has two lift-out trays in classic 2/3 - 1/3 proportion. Bottom tier has a sliding barrier. Obscured by the barrier are 2 little fishes for sauce. Also featured: 4 silicon mini-cups (2 blue and 2 red) and a little 40ml container from Japan. Seriously, I love these guys. I'm going to have to buy some more if I keep giving them away...

The box is micro-safe with lids off and also dishwasher safe. These are key elements for my little mama. It has yet to be used, but someday soon! I was supposed to pack her a starter lunch before we left, but that didn't happen. It's a little bigger than I thought it was going to be, but a very nice set all in all. I got it from jBox. And even though I ordered it in late November, it arrived before Christmas. The shipping and whole process was very smooth.

Retro-post from 12/9/2009- Pasta Bake

An astoundingly boring bento. Can you guess what's in it?

That's right. Romaine salad. Penne with sauce and cheese (affectionately called pasta bake in our house.) I ate the salad, then heated the pasta a little bit. Tasty. Boring and tasty.