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.

11/16/2010- Hot soup at Work Bento- also some longer musings

Sometimes I like to have hot soup at work. One of the ways I do it is by making my own asiany rice stick or bean thread soup. Yes, I am aware that you can buy such things premade--just add hot water--really really cheaply. That's not the point.

When I make my own, I can put what I want into it. And it's fresher, less salt, and I just feel pretty smart making something like this up.

Here is what it looks like when I take it to work:
On the left is a small bowl of chopped carrots, dried-sweet Thai radish, a little onion, and snap peas. It has about a tablespoon of shoyu poured over it. The middle bowl has cut-up bean thread noodles, a vegetarian boullion cube, a secret blend of spices, and finely cut dried shiitake mushrooms. The sidecar has tamari almonds. This and an apple is a great lunch for me.

Here's a close-up of the vegetable bowl from the side. I layer it because it's easier, but it also looks pretty.


I keep the vegetables separate because I almost always make up my lunch the night before. This guarantees the noodles don't get over cooked or fall apart.

Then, at lunch, I'll pour hot water over the soup, microwave the vegetables for a little bit, then dump them in (with shoyu) and let it sit until it's cooked.

Here's what it looks like when it's in the process of cooking:
The mushrooms float to the top. And by the time it's cooked, it's cool enough to eat. Very efficient.

So, this isn't exactly a bento, per se, but I wanted to post it because it's a great way to think about hot soup and making your own, homemade equivalents to store-bought things. And that's really the way I roll (my bento-philosophy, if you will).

Forgive me some self-centered introspection, but food is really important to me. Making my own food, from scratch, preparing food for myself and the people I love, is really a part of how I define myself as an adult. Part of how I show care for myself and others is by feeding them, from the labor of my hands.

There have been times in my life previously where I have had difficulty "feeding" myself (both in a literal and a spiritual sense). For me, paying attention to literal feeding also helps the spiritual. That's why I make bentos for myself. In many of the bento blogs I read, mothers make bentos for children, but not for themselves. They use their labor and art to send their children off into the world with a physical representation of a mother's love for her child. When I pack a special lunch for myself, I am doing the same thing for myself. Because I *am* worthy of a unique and attractive lunch.

Of course this doesn't mean I never use convenience foods or eat out or whatever, but I do feel that being mindful of what you eat and what you feed your loved ones, however you would like to define "mindful," is a valuable practice.

And that's why I bento, just in case you were wondering.

11/15/2010- Pasta Salads Bento

Finally, our fridge has reached a point of maximum leftovers, so there is enough variety to pack the kind of bento I like to pack. Lots of little things. :D

Contents of Bento: Top tier- two pasta salads. The one on the left is tamari-roasted carrot and asparagus, wild rice, and mini bowties with lots of fresh ginger. I put it on some spinach leaves to prevent leakage across the barrier. This was what HB's mum made for dinner the other night. The pasta to the right is rotini with fake chicken and peppers, olives, onions, and artichokes. I made that for dinner last night. It was cooked down with some vegetable broth, a little red wine, and whatever else I felt inspired to throw in. It made a pretty good "Sunday night chicken dinner" for people who don't really eat chicken!

The bottom tier has two strips of red potato pizza with broccoli, snap peas, and a small tomato. I had to cut the bottom of the tomato off to fit it into the tier, so I shaped that slice into a sort-of heart shape, which is on the pasta above. Since the larger part of the tomato was bottomless and leaky, I put it in a silicone cup.
The side car has homemade chocolate-covered apricots. I made this great chocolate sauce (with a little southern comfort) the other night for dessert. It has also made great covering for apricots! Hooray!

I also took my little bbq sauce guy for the pizza.

The best part about this box is that it has chopsticks in the lid. It makes for very satisfying eating of portions like this. When you eat small portions with a fork, you can feel cheated (at least I sometimes do) but when you're using chopsticks, it's lots of trips to your mouth, even if it isn't a lot of food.

Well that's my real post of the week. I'm hoping that I'll be able to exceed my goal and post twice a week, but I'm going to resign myself to baby steps for the time being.

11/13/2010- Snack Bento

Sometimes I will take a plain ol' container of leftovers. Most of the time, in fact. But this time, I also packed up a little snack bento that was better than nothing :D

Contents of snack bento: olives, carrot sticks, hummus. Pretty straight forward. It was actually too many carrot sticks, but that's ok. I just ate them later.

10-2010- Veggie Burger pseudo bento

Sometimes I like to just take a simple lunch. This is one way to make a veggie burger and chips lunch into a bento-appropriate one.

Contents of bento: Condiments in the glasslock, blue corn chips in the small container. A frozen veggie burger is in the tinfoil, and a frozen pita bread is in the paper towel.

Everyone has their favorite ways of packing things, I like to pack frozen bread products in paper towels so they don't get soggy. I'm lucky to have a toaster oven at work, so I can just heat everything up there. I really don't like microwaved veggie burgers, they're much better when they're crispy. The burger is wrapped in tinfoil so I automatically have a little "pan" to use in the toaster oven. If you don't use the office toaster oven tray, you don't have to clean it. (And in some places I've worked, I seemed to be the only person that ever cleaned it....bluh)

Here is a detail of the condiments (which is actually the only strictly "bento" part of this lunch.)
Contents of Condiments box: lettuce, red pepper strips, tomato slice, a little silicone cup of cheddar, dill pickle slices, and a teeny-tiny container of bbq sauce. This little container originally held wasabi in a container of take-out grocery store sushi. Thanks, HB's mum, for saving stuff like this. I'm just thrilled because it actually fits in the glasslock. It's a pretty shallow box, so it's hard to find lidded containers that will work in it.