9/14/2010- Delights of Summer!

Our garden is bursting with tomatoes and everything right now. Crazy. I spent most of the weekend (it felt like) processing tomatoes to freezer can or making pesto to freeze. Of course, when HB came back from out of town and told me he wanted "that great pesto pasta you make...with the sungolds" how could I say no?

Contents of bento: In lower tier-Pesto mini penne (with almonds instead of pine nuts) with halved Sungold Cherry tomatoes, garnished with parsley. In upper tier- chips, homemade salsa with 4 different kinds of onions from the farmer's market, small plum, and some great mild sheeps-milk cheese (also from the farmer's market).

This bento really says "late summer" to me. Sure, you could make a bento just like this in January, but the plum and tomatoes would definitely be sub-standard.

HB's mum collects all kinds of things, including these little lidded plastic containers that fit perfectly in this bento box. Score! After my weekend of tomato processing, I still had (have) plenty of fruits but I was getting tired of peeling, seeding, cutting, and boiling boiling boiling. I was standing in the kitchen and thinking, "oh man, what else can I do with tomatoes???" And then it hit me: fresh salsa, duh. This came out so well I made more to go with the chili I made tonight for dinner. No picture on that, it's just going in a regular container, so I hardly think it counts as a "bento lunch." But regardless, I am excited to have some other way to eat tomatoes. I haven't gotten a rash from them yet, but the first frost is still a ways off. :D

9/4/2010- Leftovers Bento!

Even though I'm a working girl again, I don't have a whole lot of time for bento-ing. Or maybe it's just that our kitchen set up is not conducive to being creative. Anyways, excuses aside, I do have a bento or two to show you for September:

Leftovers in bento form! I think this was eggplant parmesan (from a restaurant) on the left and I know that the right was sauteed string beans with eggplant, onions, and balsamic vinegar. The garnish is a celery leaf.

This is in my glasslock box, which is so crucial for hot lunches. I'm very leery about microwaving plastic (as I've mentioned before). There are times, however, when I wish I had a more bowl-shaped glass container. Ah well, I will have to keep my eyes peeled. This is a good example of how to arrange leftovers in an attractive way. So always remember, you don't have to make special stuff for you bento. (This is a note to myself as much as anyone else!)

8/12/2010- Sandwich Bento

I like sandwiches. They're easy to hold, I like bread, and they taste great at room temperature. But for some reason I don't often think of packing them in a bento. There are these great little buns you can find at the grocery store up here. They're like hamburger buns, but about the size of the palm of your hand...well, my hands are small, but you get the picture. Perfect for bento. Here you go!

Contents of Bento: carrot sticks; sandwich with pesto, cheese, and hummus on tiny bun; blueberries, tomato, lettuce, and leftover pasta salad. Side car with melon and a flower pick, and a peach. (Do I dare to eat a peach?........yes........)

It was great! I put all the lettuce on the sandwiches. By keeping the lettuce off (cheese goes next to the bread, with squishy stuff on the cheese) you can avoid terrible soggy bread, one of my least favorite things. And the place where I'm working is in a converted old mill building, so it's right by a river. I ate my lunch on a nice big rock down by the river. Very pleasant. :D

8/10/2010 a Bento for Back to Work- Mixed rice and Lentil

As some of you may or may not know, I am currently between libraries. I have a temporary gig (as of today) to bring in the benjamins, so I'll be packing bento lunch again on a regular basis! Hooray! Though, I'm pretty sure that by this point, I have no readers left... oh well, we obscure bento-bloggers must soldier on through anonymity.

Contents of bento: bottom section: delicious lentil goo, and mixed wild and brown rice with almonds, onions, and fresh herbs. Top section: green tomato with sungold in center, carrot sticks, green pepper pieces, a tiny apple, honeydew and 3 flower skewers of blueberries. The side car has very fancy hummus- plain hummus with parsley, chives, paprika, olive oil, and a chive flower.

Everything was delicious at room temperature, though I got a little sun eating my lunch outside. Even though I was in the shade...I guess I need to come up with some plan to prevent this. It's hard when it's 80-90 degrees out, though.

I really enjoy eating out of this blue sheep box. It's so brightly colored that it provides a nice automatic contrast to the food you're eating.

Retro posted from 6/30/2010- Orzo salad for a car bento

On my way down to DC, I packed a bento lunch so I wouldn't have to eat fast food. I should have taken a picture of it, because it was lovely. This posting has my bento lunch that I packed for the ride up. Less pretty. In fact, pretty darn simple.

Contents of Bento: mini peppers, orzo salad with feta, tomato, olives, and chickpeas. That's it folks. Pretty straight forward.

A car bento is, however, a great way to eat delicious food and also to save your pennies. If you are in the business of penny saving, like I am, it's pretty crucial.

Retro posted from 6/27/2010- Small sandwiches and the toll of no sleep

As the conference went on, it became more of a test of our fortitude--in DC by 8am, getting on the metro by 10:30pm. And then hanging out with my folks until the wee hours of the night--then getting up and doing it again. So this was the last day that I made a bento for us and it's pretty low-key. It ended up being pretty delicious, though, so I'm not really complaining.

Contents of C-bento: strawberries and grapes, carrots, tomatoes, small sandwich with star-cut out. More small sandwiches, two olives, carrots. The bottom section has cabbage, mini pepper, and a hot-dog octopus! The little face did not survive, but that's ok. There's also a fishy of ketchup. The octopus is sitting in an octopus food cup which was from the SWAG. The tiny sandwiches have pub cheese and jalapeno in them. It was actually really delicious.

Contents of my bento: tomatoes, olives, tiny sandwiches with star cutout, and carrot sticks. The other side has cabbage and strawberries and grapes.

Like I said, the pub cheese and jalapeno was good. And the sandwiches were not soggy by lunch time. The pub cheese was from Trader Joe's, so I don't feel that badly about eating it. It's more cheese and less cheese-food-product. This bento also reminded me that though I don't often pack a sandwich bento, I probably should consider doing it more often. They are very tasty and if you pack your fillings carefully, they can stay nice (not soggy) until lunchtime.

Retro posted from 6/26/2010- Jambalaya and other adventures in Little Mama's kitchen

As I mentioned, one of my former colleagues (who was also in the same library science school program as I was) stayed with my folks and I while we went to the conference. So of course I offered to make her a bento too! Lucky me, she definitely appreciated them. She also eats meat, so I could pack things I don't pack for myself.

Packing a bento box in Little Mama's kitchen was an interesting adventure, since I didn't know what she had for bento foods, but I think we made out pretty well.

Contents of bento for my conference buddy, C: small oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies, two meatballs, 1 grape, jambalaya rice from Trader Joe's with carrot hearts. The other side has a cream-cheese stuffed mini pepper, more grapes, and a spanikopita. The bottom section has broccoli slaw, grape tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and a fishy of lemon juice. The side car has salsa for the meat balls.

Contents of my bento: broccoli slaw, tomatoes, a few errant grapes and carrots, two cream cheese stuffed mini peppers, and garbanzo beans in the corner. The other side has a spanikopita, more grapes, and jambalaya rice. The lid held some more of those little cookies.

Everything was great and we even had a chance to eat together. It is very nice to make a bento lunch for someone who appreciates it. I had to use little mama's bento box, but she said that was ok. Anyways, fun! And bento lunch!

Retro posted from 6/25/2010-Leftovers and the ALA Annual Conference

As some of you may know, I'm a librarian. And this year I was able to make it to our ceremonial spawning grounds (so to speak) the ALA Annual Conference. It was great! I got to stay with my folks, hang out with one of my former colleagues, and see/learn/hear some amazing stuff. Of course, since I wanted to do the experience on the cheap, I brought a bento for some of the days. So that means for you, my darling, low-numbered public, that there are more bento pictures! And use of some of the awesome SWAG I got in the bento contest.

Contents of bento: Leftover eggplant parm with rigatoni. Two cut out cheese people in the top left--one of the advantages of being at little mama's house is the ready availability of american cheese for deco. Bottom tier: broccoli slaw with tomato, two dolmas, one kalamata olive, and a fishy of lemon juice. The top of this bento (which is from the contest) holds a little whole grain cookie, chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, and a salt and pepper packet I got from Scandinavian Airlines many years ago. They have hilarious messages on them:

Salt:

The color of snow

The taste of tears

The enormity of oceans

and Pepper:

Pepper has been called

"the gift of the East",

though "gift" means

poison in Swedish,

don't let that put you off.

The little cheese people were because this trip (1-week long) was the longest that HB and I have been apart since we've been married. I think we fared ok, though I was very glad to have him around again when I got back home.

I ate this on the top floor of the Washington Convention Center, sitting against a wall. It was very edible at that point, but the cheese people had gotten a little melty during the day. Oh well, I knew what they looked like when I made it, so it's not too big of a deal.

The white box, which shall be known as the white box, has, to the best of my measurements, 280ml in the top and 205ml in the bottom. There's also a little room in the lid, though none of my chopsticks are small enough to fit in the holders in the lid. I brought my ELPH chopstick set which was great instead.

6/15/2010- Dinner Bento

Another swag bento :D

This one requires some input from my darling reading public (which I have just found out might be slightly larger than I had thought! Woo!)

This image is without flash.

This image is with flash.

Which do you prefer?

Contents of bento: Salad with pretty cut outs of cucumber and mozzarella cheese, burrito filling and spanish rice with pepper jack cheese and tortilla cut-out stars, tortilla strips with melted cheese and a King Strawberry obscuring a piece of pineapple.

You can tell the strawberry is a king because of the crown. And also his HUGE size. Seriously, a monster berry.

This is packed in a new box, a blue French Sheep box. The top says something in French that I can't remember at the moment. The top holds 380ml and the bottom 290ml for a whopping total of 670ml. This is pretty big for me. So I made sure to put salad in the bottom section. This box comes with nice little chopsticks that fit in the lid and is just a nice set. I like it!

The lunch was pretty good too.

6/15/2010- Breakfast Bento!

The first bento from swag! Also, new background...

This is a 480ml box that I will now call "Putifresh Trees." They're not really trees--they're bunches of grapes. But they look like trees to me. Meh.

Contents of bento: Fruits! canteloupe slices cut with flower cutters, strawberry, pineapple (in a paper cup); awesome tomato-headed sauce container filled with BBQ, a silicon baking cup with granola, leftover Red Potato Pizza* cut into pieces.

You can see the quarter for scale, perhaps. This box is pretty tall, but fits the sauce bottle perfectly. Something you may not know is that I don't eat ketchup. I had to refill too many little bottles of it when I worked in food service, so it really turned me off to it. But I do like BBQ sauce and I will put it on most things potato (NOT mashed, however). It is delicious on the red potato pizza.

A good bento, everything was tasty at room temperature. It is hard to eat granola with chopsticks, however.

*Red Potato Pizza is a particular specialty of NE CT where I now live. It is made with white sauce, red potato slices, cheddar cheese, and topped with either bacon or broccoli or both (mine here has just broccoli). It is really quite good, especially with BBQ. :D