6/22/2011- Stuffed Shell Bento

Ha! I am back! This time I had a legitimate excuse for not posting: a move! We're now in upstate NY and HB has a new job. (I have my same job, just now over the phone/internet. It's funny; in a previous post, I called it a temporary gig. It has definitely transitioned into a more permanent one!)

It's been a long time since I have posted or bentoed or both. A move will do that. I also work from home now, so there was less incentive to bento. BUT! I decided that packing myself a bento lunch is a great way (as I've said many times before, blah, blah, blah) to do something nice for me. And I like taking pictures and having things to post, so there.

Here is my (very small) lunch for today:
Contents of bento: Stuffed pasta shell, strawberry, 2 Ratatouille skewers, salad, tiny tomato. Side car (bowl?) of Cadbury Roast Almond Chocolate Pieces.
(Not Pictured) a piece of nice bread from Red Hen Baking Company in Burlington (soooooo delicious. And organic!)

Sorry about the terrible picture. I took it with my phone. HB has stolen my camera for work. Maybe I will find myself a new camera, so we don't have to pass my ancient one back and forth.

2-8-2011 Pasta, Fake Meatballs, Sandwiches

A hearty set of lunch for myself today. I started the day with some more snow shoveling. We got about 4 inches between tonight and this afternoon. That's actually *nothing* compared with what we have had in the past. Ah, growing up in Virginia gives you such a different perspective on snow. For example, we shoveled the 4 inches, instead of busting out the snow blower. That's how you know it's not a big deal.

Anyways, I digress.
Contents of bento: pasta, fake meatball, celery leaves for garnish on the smaller bottom tier, clementine, dried cranberries, more fake meatballs, celery sticks and a dried peach under the meatballs to fill the space. Sauce in a side car.

A close-up of this part:


I actually ended up putting the sauce into my smallest side car. The container pictured was way too big, in my opinion.

This lunch is in my awesome and cute elph box that I got when I graduated from my master's program. However, it's pretty tiny and when it's packed more loosely like this, not really enough lunch. At least not during winter when there's lots of snow shoveling to do.

I decided a second, snack-sort of bento was in order.

Contents of bento: Three tiny sandwiches, garnished with celery leaf and flower pick. The sandwich fillings are (from top down) peanut butter and homemade grape jelly, provolone with dried apricots, and local Nantucket creamery cheese with olive hummus. They are sitting in little paper cups with sea life on them that I got from my contest SWAG.

Those paper cups are seriously awesome. They keep things dry because they are plastic coated. They're also very cute: you can almost see the one in the elph box. It has penguins on it :D

Everything was delicious. Packing the sauce in a separate container and dipping, rather than just keeping everything in one dish was a great way to ensure the pasta stayed al dente. I also didn't feel the need to heat anything up. Very efficient.

2/7/2011- green noodles bento

Actually, the stuff in the noodles is green. The noodles are white rice noodles. I am super-pleased with how this bento came out. Not particularly decorated, but definitely a real "bento's" bento. Lots of colors, lots of little things, and an asiany main dish.

I started with the leftovers from dinner: rice noodles with baby bok choy, edamame, shiitake and white mushrooms, turnips, onions, cashews, garlic, celery--a pretty simple south-east-asian-type stir fry.

Then I had to hunt around to fill the other tier. I decided that I wanted a big portion of stir-fry, so that went in the larger top tier. HB and I chipped up and shoveled the HUGE amount of ice that was in the driveway yesterday. Yuck. So today, something substantial and protein-rich for my aching body.

Contents of bento: Asainy stir fry on right, local awesome cheese in the yellow silicon cup, a dried cranberry, some pecans, sugar snap peas, and a whole row of baby tomatoes.

But what to go in the other spots?

Some clementine segments and a spicy fake chikin wing-a-ling with a carrot heart. awww. I also put in a flower pick to eat the tomatoes with--I think it sort of looks like a flower with a sugar snap pea leaf/stem.

Everything was delicious at room temperature, even though I made this bento last night after dinner and it spent the night in the refrigerator. I was thinking about it: my bentos are made usually 15-20 hours before I eat them, not exactly the fresh experience that someone would get from a bento made at 7am and eaten at noon.

What do I lose by making them ahead? Probably some textural things. My noodles were a little dried out, not bad. The wing-a-ling's breading was also not crispy. It wasn't mooshy either, but the texture was a little diminished. My carrots and cheese were also a little dried out, again, not badly so.

For me, however, what I gain by making them ahead more than makes up for these minor losses. I can make them the night before, thereby streamlining my morning. I can also put leftovers directly into my bento box, saving an intermediate dish. My food only gets heated once, rather than twice (if one were packing leftovers). And I can also cool everything down all the way before refrigerating--which means I don't have to worry too much about food safety.

If I had to make a bento lunch in the traditional, morning-of, Japanese style, I think I wouldn't. I think that bentos, certain kinds of bentos particularly, can be very successfully made the night before. If anyone out there (does any one read my blog? oh well, maybe someday some one will...:D) thinks that bento-ing is not for them because they are not a morning person, it's just not true. :D

2/3/2011- Potato Monster Bento

Potato Monster! I think he looks pretty fierce.

Contents of bento: Potato half decorated with cheese, olives, carrot, snap pea, and celery leaves, on a bed of salsa. Side car of carrots, tomatoes, celery, snap peas, and a little silicone cup of hummus.

I heated the monster up for maximum tasty-ness.


Here is a close up:


I am pleased to say that the side car was well-packed enough that it did not shift around at all. :D

PS: I went back and counted. As of today, I have 66 bentos that I have made posted on this blog. For almost 2 years, that is not bad.

2/2/2011- Happy Groundhog Day

Apparently in one of the communities where they traditionally view the ground hog, they had the unfortunate happenstance of having their ground hog die of old age a little while ago. They couldn't find a replacement, so they are using a stuffed one this year. No foolin', read about it here: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/01/groundhog_day_2011_in_eastern.html

All's I gotta say is that's pretty sad. I know it's hard to find a groundhog; but a stuffed one??

Anyways, my bento today has nothing to do with groundhogs and everything to do with leftovers.

Contents of bento: chili mac with chips and cheese, a small stripe of salsa, delicious refried cumin-and chili canellini beans. And a snap pea flower garnish.

Our area right now is covered in snow and ice several feet thick. (Several feet of snow, the ice is pretty thin, all things considered.) So, more flower-garnishes are in order, I think.

First Bento Post of the New Year! (Bento from 2/1/2011

This is also post #100. That doesn't represent 100 bentos, but it's close. (I haven't had time to go back and count. I guess I should.)

A couple of months ago I made a grand pronouncement that I would post once a week. And then....NOTHING. Bluh. I have been making a lot of excuses for not posting, for not bentoing, etc. And I have decided to just free myself from the guilt-burden of feeling like I have to have a world-class bento blog. I'm going to take pictures of my bento lunches when I make them, even if that is not very often, and I'm not going to feel bad that they're simple or plain or whatever. SO THERE!

Basically, I was reminded that bento-making used to be a hobby of mine when I got a nice letter from C (remember from the summer?). She asked what I had been bentoing lately. The answer: nothing. I still take my lunch and it's usually in little containers, but there have been very few bento principles there. The other prong of the goad that has started me back on this track is that I have made a lot of excuses for why I don't bento now: I'm busy, our kitchen isn't set up right, blah blah blah. The fact of the matter is that last spring, during a terribly chaotic time in our lives, I was able to pack a bento at least once a week while finishing up my master's degree and working full time. No more whining!

I have a new bento-gear item: tiny spoons! My friend JP who lives in the UK brought me a whole bunch of teaspoons for Christmas and one of them fits into the lid of my bento box. Sweet!

the distance shot

and the close up.

My bento for yesterday.


Contents of bento: pizza pieces in the upper tier, garnished with a snap pea and food pick flower. Mixed greens, more snap peas, a silicon cup of pecans and cranberries. The mooosh is pureed pumpkin with maple, salt, and pepper. Mmmmmm adult baby food.

Aside from the fact that the pizza was too moist (and kind of gooshy by lunch) it was a tasty bento.