Not Exactly Bento...

Long Time, No Write....

2007-12-23T06:28:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in a little while for a few reasons.

First, it has been way busy at work with getting ready for days off due to the holiday season.
Part of this business was due in part to meetings that required lunches...
Which means, I didn't bento as much this last week as normal.
I do have 2 bento pictures.

But to see them, you will have to go to:
Not Exactly Bento's New Site

That's right folks! I decided before too many people know my site that I would give it its own address: http://www.notexactlybento.com. Furthermore, I have the capabilities there to create static pages. So, I plan to have a page of links to the recipes I've been finding and using and much more. I'm excited about this.

So if you have been reading this blog or have it in a blog reader, please change your links. I hope to see you there!

Pack. Eat. Repeat. (Bento #48-51)

2007-12-13T05:33:00.000-08:00

Whew! This has been a busy week at work. I haven't had a chance to do any posting because of it. Here are my lunches for this week.

Monday & Tuesday's lunches (Bento #48-49) were exactly the same. They included:
Mini hamburger patty, corn, cucumber, carrots, 1/2 an egg.

Wednesday's lunch (Bento #50) included:
Loose groundmeat spaghetti, cucumber, carrots

By Thursday, I was a little tired of the repetition, so a trip to Whole Foods found me some delicious cherries and blueberries! Thursday's lunch (Bento #51) includes:

Mini hamburger patty, corn cut from the cob, cucumber, carrot, cherries, blueberries

Hopefully, I'll have more variety and excitement next week. Even though there were alot of repeats this week, I didn't eat out. YAY! Most of these lunches were quick to put together. I always keep a few frozen, homemade hamburger patties in my freezer for when I don't have alot of time. I do the same thing with spaghetti. It certainly came in handy this week.

It's the small things....

2007-12-09T20:46:00.001-08:00

that can be so frustrating sometimes. This was a busy weekend with family gatherings and Christmas shopping. Not much work done on the kitchen renovation front. However, I decided tonight not to ignore the kitchen completely. This kitchen redo has forced me to rethink how I'm using furniture and other items throughout the house. Furniture has been shifted and moved. I moved a small table I have next to the stove since I don't have a real spot to set things when I'm cooking. I also decided that I wanted a small shelf to hold commonly used spices.

Here's a quick pic. This shelf took me 40 minutes to figure out how to hang without destroying my wall with huge amounts of wrongly drilled holes! It was the first time I've ever hung a hidden mount shelf.

However, now that I've done the first one, I know what to do. And it's even level! I'm going to work with this little setup this week. If I like it, the shelf and the table are in line for repainting when the kitchen is finished being painted.

Slowly but surely, it is all coming together.

It's Cookie Time!

2007-12-08T20:48:00.001-08:00

Tonight was the family get-together on my dad's side of the family. Many of us tend to make a little something to give to each other. This year, I made mini shortbread cookies for the families. Of course I kept a few for my bentos this week. Plus, my aunt gave me mini pecan pie muffins. YUM! Here is the recipe I used for these cookies, with a little less than a 1/2 cup of pecans mixed in. No jam obviously.

Please welcome The Feisty Foodie

2007-12-06T06:02:00.000-08:00

There has been a new commenter on this blog lately, the owner of two fun blogs: All My Bento Are Belong to Me and The Feisty Foodie. If you'll notice, All My Bento Are Belong to Me is in the link list on the right hand side. It was one of the original links on this blog. How exciting to have her reading my blog. I've discovered over the last three months of having this blog exactly how addicting blogging can be!

So those of you visiting and reading this blog, be sure to check out All My Bento Are Belong to Me. Today, she has a scrumptious looking bento containing kickin' chicken that looks way wonderful!

They're Here!! & More

2007-12-06T05:55:00.000-08:00

There is no lunch to post today. I'm going to a retirement party for a collegeau today and will most likely eat lunch out. I do have a bit of bento related news.

First if you look the right hand side of this blog, you'll notice all links are now bento-related. I've decided that this blog will be about bentos with a bit of my life and dogs interjected now and again. Any jewelry related items (which there have been little as of late) will go somewhere else.

Secondly, I must announce that THEY ARE HERE! The new cabinets I ordered from Home Depot that is. They are just simple wooden freestanding cabinets. I was so excited I snapped a picture of them still in the box.

I have three to put together. Since some of the sides seem to come preassembled, I'm thinking (hoping), it won't be too bad.

I'll show off pictures later of them assembled.

Why Pillows Really Go Flat...

2007-12-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

When I created this blog, I chose the title since I knew my posts would not always be about bento. As is the case of this post. Ever wonder why your pillows go flat for no real reason? For example, you've just purchased new pillows in the last 3 months and already there seems to be a big groove in one of them. For me, I discovered why today:

Seems as though my dog Gabby has decided she likes this pillow. So that's where the groove in the illow is coming from! All that bed space, and she just HAS to lay ontop of my pillows. Silly dog.

Pork Tenderloin Tortillas (Bento #47)

2007-12-05T06:28:00.000-08:00

Some of yesterday's tasty pork tenderloin became leftovers for today's bento. Amazing how something that was cooked specifically for this week's bentos could be a leftover...odd.

Anyhow, I took some of the pork tenderloin and cut it into small chunks, added some boiled corn kernels (cut from the cob), and topped with mozzarella cheese. It was all then rolled up into 3 pretty tortillas and baked. Here they are ready for baking.
Now, here they are in my bento not so pretty anymore. This bento could have used a bit more pre-planning. In other words, I should have wacked the ends off the tortillas before baking. Instead, I had to tear the ends off to fit inside the bento. Ah well, cook and learn ;)

Today's bento consists of:
Pork and corn tortillas
Grapes, blueberries, tangerine
Dessert is 2 peanut butter filled pretzel, 1 chocolate covered pretzel, and 1 chocolate covered dried cherry.

Roast Pork Tenderloin (Bento #46)

2007-12-03T19:43:00.001-08:00

Take a look at this; it will absolutely make you salivate! This roast pork tenderloin recipe was so delicious an expletive escaped my lips every time I took a bite. It was uber-easy too. I highly recommend trying it. All you need is about 6 basic spices, an oven, and the tenderloin.
This vision of beauty became....

part of today's bento! Woohoo. This is gonna be tasty. This bento includes:
Roast pork tenderloin slices
Carrots & green beans, steamed lightly
Orange with blueberries
Chocolate covered pretzels

Faked BBQ Sausage (Bento #45)

2007-12-03T05:18:00.001-08:00

Okay readers. I'm back! It's been about a week since my last post. It hasn't been a good bento week with continued kitchen revamp work and some overtime at my real job. So, here's everything that I want to report. Get ready, it's gonna be a long post! Plus, I'm not showing off the bento until the very end. Don't cheat! Don't scroll down to the end first. Stick around and ready my woeful adventures in kitchen cooking first!

First, Lunch Buckets asked how the kitchen renovation was coming along. My answer is: slowly, but surely. I have gotten myself back to a point where I can cook. I still have some painting and other work to be done. It's taking a bit longer than I expected, but I'm happy with the results so far. No complaints on the diy renovation end.

Here's a picture of one section of the kitchen basically done. The cabinets have been painted white; the doors, a sage green. The new cabinet hinges and pulls are a pretty oil rubbed bronze finish. Some cabinets are getting back their doors; some are not. Whatever you do, DON'T LOOK DOWN! The floors look bad as does the kitchen countertop. Those are the next phases of this renovation (read that as sometime next year).

With this kitchen update, I decided to update to a newer stove. It arrived Saturday. Wheee! It is a ceramic glass stove. Just when I was feeling fairly good about my cooking, I've gone and changed my stove. I'm back to not being able to boil an egg! ACK! We will persevere though.

One of the most exciting things to me about this new stove is the oven window. Look at that! You can see those ready-to-bake rolls browning! I couldn't see anything through the previous stove's window. I find this to be the best feature of this stove. Well, maybe not the BEST! But it definitely ranks in the top 3.

While cooking dinner, I realized I didn't want to just move a pot from one burner to another like I did with my previous coil stove. Okay, I'll move the pot to this little table I put next to the stove just for that purpose. Uh oh! What do I put that hot pot on? I don't want to burn the top of the table. A trivet. I need a trivet! Uh oh! I don't even OWN a trivet. What is a culinarily challenged gal to do? Out comes the mini cast iron skillet I normally use for decoration. This cast iron skillet once led a wonderful life. It was owned by my grandfather who used it to cook. The man was an awesome cook. Now it is owned by his granddaughter, who uses it as a trivet. Poor little skillet. It has come down a few notches in its culinary prowess.

Now that I have properly bemoaned the poor fate of the skillet (as I promised it I would), here is some really exciting news! The items in this post were prepared in part with the help of a new set of kitchen knives! Wheeee! I had a gift card to a local department store. I decided this gift card was destined to become something kitchen related. I looked through the store not seeing anything that caught my eye until I came to the knife area. "Eureka," I thought. I could use some more kitchen knives. My current collection consists of an odd assortment of paring and steak knives. One knife that is sort of longish but not real wide that looks like a paring knife on steroids with a pituitary problem. My other knife is a large chef's knife I suppose. None of them cut especially well, despite my attempts at sharpening them (I'm most likely doing something wrong). There sat two great looking knives by Calphalon that promise to be my best kichen friends. Folks, they slice, they dice, they mince. They pick up your food like a spatula and transfer it to the skillet. (Or so the packaging says). I love my new knives. Run out a buy yourself a pair today.

Now to the dinner that will become the bento of today's post. Not only did I work on the kicthen today, I also hauled off 2 car loads worth of stuff to a local charity. Clothes, furniture, and house goods went. I'm in a purge-this-house phase. It was a long day. By the time I thought of dinner, there wasn't much time to cook before I knew my body would collapse. Out came the turkey sausage. Sausage is my quick-cook meal when I don't have alot of time. I learned a recipe from my cousin Tammy, who I shared a rental place with when I first came out of college. She would take sausage, cut it into slices, fry it up quickly in the pan, add some bbq sauce at the end, and slap the whole thing between two pieces of bread. Very tasty.

Tonight, I decided I would cook sausage, but use my grill pan instead and not slice up the sausage. It turned out to sort of be a faked bbq sausage, with grill marks and everything without the mess of firing up the bbq pit!

Here are my links of sausage nicely grilled. Next step is to just brush on a bit of bbq sauce and cook a little more to heat up the sauce.

Then serve! Leftovers from this dinner became...

tomorrow's bento. In tomorrow's bento we have:

Faked BBQ sausage with sweet potato chunks.
A small navel orange, blueberries, boiled egg.
The container has a bit of butter for the two pieces of bread (not shown) that will go with this bento.

Chili Roll-ups

2007-11-26T16:55:00.000-08:00

YAY! I have a bento for tomorrow. The kitchen and living room are still in shambles as I continue work on repainting my kitchen. A cold front brought some coldish weather that is not real conducive to allowing paint to dry. The upcoming weekend forecasts calls for warmer, clearer weather. So hopefully, I will be able to finish the redo this weekend.

This means, I can't lay my hands on all my bento supplies at the moment, making for one orange-looking bento tomorrow. I sure wish I knew where my blue bento was buried right now! LOL!

Tomorrow's bento includes one of my favorite quick-fix lunches from my childhood: chili roll-ups. Mom would place leftover homemade chili in a tortilla with cheese and bake in the oven until the tortilla became a bit crisp. This gets the broiler involved. YUM!

This bento also contains a new food for me: persimmon. I've seen it included in alot of bento blogs lately. I found one at the fruit stand and decided to give it a whirl. It was quite yummy. Reminds me of cantaloupe in a way.

Tomorrow's lunch:
Chili roll-up
Persimmon, cucumber, and carrots
Container of french dressing for cucumber & carrots
Chocolate

Kitchen Chaos

2007-11-24T15:42:00.000-08:00

The kitchen renovation has begun. Here is a small picture of what's going on. I've sanded all the upper cabinets and painted the inside of one green. The pantry has been sanded and painted (picture to come at later date). I've cut new shelves for the inside of the cabinets and have started priming and painting those as well.

The walls have been washed and readied for painting. I'm hoping I can get some painting time in tomorrow! Hopefully I can get 3/4 of the kitchen done. Then, I can get the kitchen back into some sort of order so that hopefully by Monday I can have real food again.

Since this blog is as much about eating healthy for myself as well as bentos, I've had to eat fast food 1x during this kitchen renovation so far. UGH! I can't believe how much I ate that stuff all the time. It's sandwiches for the rest of this renovation. Better than fast food, but will get boring fast!

Gobble Gobble!

2007-11-22T06:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm not sure how many bentos I may make before Monday. I have these next 4 days off from work (yay!) and plan on doing a small redo to my kitchen: a couple new cabinets, new paint, etc. I'll have pictures to share in the near future. I feel like a kitchen redo is definitely bento related!

In the meantime, I had to share this picture of my backyard last night. My dog Toby is frozen in shock by all the leaves. It is amazing how I have no trees in my yard, yet have a yard full of leaves! A storm came through last night bringing lots of wind and some crisp, cold weather for Thanksgiving day! It feels WONDERFUL out there.

Everyone have a great turkey day! I'll "see" you in the new week with more bentos.

This post brought to you buy...Butternut Squash (Bento #43)

2007-11-18T11:31:00.000-08:00

Now, doesn't this look just yummy?

Before you ask, the yellowy orange stuff is not sweet potato. It is butternut squash. You might wonder what made me pick up a squash. First, I've never eaten any type of squash before this moment. In the interest of trying new foods, squash has been on my "Foods to Try" list, albeit on the low end. Then, Pioneer Woman posted a new recipe in her recent Thanksgiving dish series: butternut squash puree. Now, I'm not one for food the consistency of yogurt or pudding; so, puree isn't my thing. However, Pioneer Woman made butternut squash sound so tantalizing (and the romance story was hilarious) that I decided to move it to the top of the list when I found it at the produce stand yesterday.

I brought my one lovely yet smallish butternut squash home, sat myself down, and searched Recipezaar for something good to eat. I decided to look for a recipe where you would roast the squash in the oven. I thought this might be a good way to start. I found a recipe that looked absolutely tasty and tried out Herb-Roasted Butternut Squash and Sausages. This was the perfect dish to try out the squash. The squash seemed to take on a little of the sausage's flavor, but I could still taste the sweetness of this new food. I highly recommend the recipe!

I decided while I was at it I'd try a new green bean recipe too. Steamed green beans are getting a bit old lately. I have them alot in my bentos. I tried a recipe where after steaming you toss the green beans in a mixture of heated sesame oil, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. The verdict is still out on this for me. I'm not sure how much my taste buds like the soy sauce/sesame oil mixture. It seems a bit strong in flavor to me.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
Roasted sausage & butternut squash
Sesame seed green beans (recipe here)
Fish-shaped boiled egg
Pocky & Hello Panda treats for dessert

Anyone Reading Out There?

2007-11-17T23:06:00.000-08:00

I started this blog after Kim suggested it as a way to keep motivated with bento. Past attempts to stop eating out so much and live a healthier food lifestyle weren't successful. I joke with Kim often that she is the only person reading this blog.

Imagine my surprise when someone other than Kim posted to my blog: another blogger, Lunch Bucket Bento.

Lunch Buckets, thanks for making my day recently when you posted to me. So if anyone else is out there and reading, go check out Lunch Bucket Bento's blog. It's got some good stuff there.

More Pomegranate with a Little Steak Mixed In (Bento #42)

2007-11-16T17:13:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about this post and its accompanying bento, I'm nearly giddy! Tonight for dinner, I decided to try out the Pomegranate and Pine Nut Pilaf Recipe I found while searching for things to do with the original pomegranate I had purchased. I used the last of that pomegranate for the chicken recipe in the last post. However, this pilaf recipe called to my taste buds and required the purchase of another pomegranate. So here was tonight's supper:

The leftovers have become tomorrow's bento. Not only do I have one smokin' rice pilaf (that stuff is TASTY!!), but this bento also came out really well I think. Wheee! I think I'm finally getting the hang of this somewhat.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
Leftover sirloin steak with pomegranate pilaf
Steamed carrots and green beans
1/2 a hard boiled egg
1/2 a blueberry muffin

The blueberry muffin and the hard boiled egg I cut in half to fit into the bento. What did I do with the other half you ask? Well, the muffin I was forced to eat. The egg went to two very grateful dogs that live in my house and clean my kitchen floors.

I hope this post made you hungry!! It certainly made me hungry again. I think I need a blueberry muffin.

More Pomegranate Chicken (Bento #41)

2007-11-16T05:38:00.001-08:00

Wow! This is my 50th post and my 41st bento. I'm so pleased that I've stuck with this for a whole 2 months. YAY!

Today's lunch is the last of the pomegranate chicken I cooked night before last. Lunch includes:
Pomegranate chicken, sweet potato, and boiled egg
Cucumber, carrots with dressing for dipping
Golden raisins
Various bits of chocolate.

Pomegranate Chicken & Psuedo Sushi (Bento #40)

2007-11-14T18:58:00.000-08:00

Tonight's cooking brings more experimentation and fun! As you already know, dear reader, the word this week is pomegranate. The pomegranate I purchased and seeded this week was too much fruit for just me. Tonight, I decided to take the remaining seeds and try out the sauce from a recipe called Pomegranate & Balsamic Glazed Cornish Hen, found at http://www.recipezaar.com/.

I juiced the pomegranate seeds by hand through a cheesecloth (fun!). Since I didn't have any balsamic vinegar on hand, I used a light balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing. This worked out well in my opinion. The sauce had a nice sweet flavor from the pomegranate, but I wasn't overwhelmed by the balsamic taste (which is why I don't often use balsamic salad dressing). The only thing I was unable to accomplish was to get the sauce to thicken and become syrupy. I think the reason for this is I didn't use enough honey; I ran out. All in all though, it made a wonderful sauce to baste the chicken breasts with and made for a very tasty dinner.

For tomorrow's bento, I also decided to try my hand at making a psuedo-sushi roll. I cooked some sushi rice and spread it out on a tumeric colored Sushi Party! soy wrapper. The rice was then sprinkled lightly with sea salt and liberally with toasted sesame seeds. Thinnish slices of carrots, cucumber, and radishes were added to the middle and then it was rolled up. I don't own a sushi mat, so I used my silicone baking mat to help me get the roll into shape. However, I think a bamboo mat might be necessary to get the thing to stay together. I didn't cut the wrap into sushi rolls because I could tell it would fall apart.

Here's a quick picture of what the inside of the sushi roll looks like. I cut one end to get a good picture. Then, I had to eat the portion I cut off. It is quite tasty indeed!

Tomorrow's bento includes:
Psuedo-sushi roll containing cucumber, carrots, & radishes
Wavy cucumber slices with french dressing in container for dipping
Pomegranate & Balsamic baked chicken breasts with wavy chip steamed sweet potatos
Pocky and chocolate "burger candy"

BTW, can you tell I purchased a wavy vegetable cutter. So much fun!

I included a picture of my lunch all wrapped up and ready to go. I'm excited because I now have matching bento/belt sets. Wheeeee!

Chicken Soup - Sort Of (Bento #39)

2007-11-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I made some chicken soup. Since I'm not much on something with alot of broth, I used very little broth and let the noodles and veggies suck up most of the juice. So this is chicken soup - sort of.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
Pseudo chicken soup
Cornbread muffin
Pomegranate seeds, black bean & sweet potatos, and hard boiled egg.
Pocky & Hello Panda pillows for dessert

The Word is Pomegranate (Bento #38)

2007-11-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

When I started this bento adventure 2 months ago, I made myselfa promise. That in order to keep this from getting boring quick with my limited culinary palette, I would either find a new food to eat or a new recipe to eat at least 2x per month. November has started out as a great month for this. Last week was black beans and discovering I liked them.

Tonight at the grocery store, I found pomegranates. I've never eaten one before; however, I've seen them mentioned recently on the Adventures in Bentomaking blog (see link to left). After finding a great Youtube video that shows how to easily peel a pomegranate, I peeled and tried my first one today. This is a deliciously tangy and sweet fruit. I can't believe I've missed out on it for so long.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
2 mini hamburgers with steamed carrots & green beans
Cucumber slices, tangerine, and pomegranate seeds.
The stop of the bento box has ketchup packets for the hamburger and 4 Pocky for dessert!
(I had to take out the Hello Panda treats. It was too much for the top of the box!

Lots to Report (Bentos #36 & #37)

2007-11-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

Whew! I have lots to report today for bento enthusiasts. I have been a bit underweather (again!) with a cold/asthma problems. So, not much bento making this weekend. I'm feeling better now and have some great bentos to share. These are for tomorrow (lunch & dinner).

First, I know these bentos are a bit orange/brown in color. But that's just the way things worked out.

Contents of Bento #36:
Pineapple Chicken over steamed sweet potatoes
Sweet potato/black bean "burritos" using soy wrappers (Thank you Brosti!)
Steamed carrots & green beans
Boiled egg

The pineapple chicken and burritos are new recipes from www.recipezaar.com. They are absolutly delicious recipes!! Here are links in the event you want to try one:
Pineapple Chicken
Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burritos

This is one ugly bento. But I ran out of things I wanted to put in it. So there is lots of space and nothing really all that beautiful. But it will be tasty and edible. That's all I'm looking for at the moment.

Contents of this bento:

Tamale with melted mozzarella cheese

Steamed carrots & green beans

2 soy wrapped burritos: sweet potato & black bean

Chocoalte candy

One last thing to share: a bento bag I purchased from a woman on a Delphi Forum. Whoohoo! This thing is awesome. Not only is it stylish, but it holds everything very compactly and nothing shifts around. I have all my bento boxes in there: morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack. I also have room to add in utensils.

Bento #35

2007-11-08T06:31:00.000-08:00

After the gym last night, I knew I was too tired to come home and cook. I stopped at Izzo's Illegal Burrito to get a quesadilla. Of course, it was too much. Half of it makes today's lunch leftovers.

Today's lunch includes:
Quesadilla, steamed carrots, boiled egg, raisins, sesame seed wafer, and hello panda cookies.

Cashew Chicken II (Bento #34)

2007-11-05T20:37:00.000-08:00

One of my earliest posts in this blog was the Kylie Kwong's cash chicken recipe. I've been craving that dish, so I decided to make it again for this week's bentos. It came out MUCH better this time around. I learned a few lessons the last go around and I very much like how this one came out.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
Cashew chicken with cucumbers
Carrots with dressing & lady apple
Sesame seed bars & 3 Hello Panda treats.

Bento #33: Chicken & Black Bean Rice

2007-11-04T20:05:00.003-08:00

Sometimes, lucky accidents happen. That's the term I'm using for tonight's dinner which turns into tomorrow's bento leftovers.

In my quest to eat healthier and try new things, I purchased some black beans at the Asian food store. While searching for recipes, I found a few that mentioned mixing the black beans with jasmine rice. Here's what I did.

First, I boiled the black beans for about 2 hours, periodically adding water to ensure they were covered at all times. I also stirred them alot ot make sure nothing stuck to the pot. They cooked up very nicely. My only complaint is that I should have thrown in some onion or garlic with them to give them some flavor. The salt I threw in the pot didn't do much for them.

Then, I cooked some jasmine rice. Once done, I thre it into a large skillet with a bit of melted margarine to sort-of-but-not-really stir fry the rice. I added in the black beans and then some toasted black sesame seeds. I also added a garlic black pepper seasoning blend. All in all it was tasty enough, but needed more seasoning.

This is included into tomorrow's bento with balsamic vinaigrette chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, sliced cucumber, and sesame seed candy.

Jambalaya Recipe

2007-11-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

Kim suggested I share my mother's Jamabalaya recipe. So here it is...

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups of rice
2 cups of water
1/2 lb of sausage, chicken, or pork
1 onion, diced
1/2 bell pepper, dice this too
1 teaspoon of table salt
sprinkle of Tony Chacere's seasoning
Drizzle of kitchen bouquet (very light just for color)

Instructions:
In a large sauce pan, brown meat, onion, and bell pepper.
Once brown, drain grease ingredients and return to sauce pan.
Add to the pan 1 1/4 cups of rice and 2 cups of water.
Bring to a boil.
When it comes to a boil, add remaining seasonings.
Let water boil almost completely down.
When water is just about gone, lower heat to simmer and cover.
Cook on a low heat for 45 minutes. At 30 minutes, uncover and stir the rice very gentle. Recover and check it in 15 minutes.

Note: On a gas stove you can lower heat and cover on the same burner. On an electric stove, change burners when lowering heat or your rice will scorch.

Bento #32

2007-11-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow's lunch is tasty too! I decided to make one of my favorite comfort foods tonight: jambalaya. YUM!

Tomorrow's bento includes:
Chicken & sausage jambalaya (thank you mom for your recipe)
Steamed carrots
Hard-boiled egg, mini cornbread muffins, cubed cucumber
Almond pocky & sesame seed candy for a dessert!

It is all packed in my one and only true bento box. A clickety click one that I adore. I'm not overly fond of the pink color, but I love my bento box!

Bento #31

2007-11-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Today's lunch was delicious! I'm getting the hang of this bento thing I think ;)
For today's lunch, I tried something I've never made before: pizza crescent rolls. I made these using the garlic buttern Pillsbury crescent rolls found near the biscuits in the grocery store. It was the only kind of crescent roll available. I was worried the taste would be too strong because the rolls smelled heavily like garlic when I took them out of the can. However, they tasted just fine.

In this bento, we have:
Two pizza crescent rolls. The rolls were stuffed with pepperoni slices and mozzarella cheese.
A lady apple & fish-shaped hard boiled egg.
Raw carrots & cucumber. Grapes too!

No Ghosts Here (Bento #30)

2007-10-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

I currently visit a forum all about bentos. The women their make really cute bentos for their kids. I thought to myself, "It would be cool to have a Halloween bento tomorrow." Unfortunately, there was nothing to be found in the house to make such a bento. So, I have "regular" food for tomorrow.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
BBQ ribs with bones cut out to fit box
Pasta with green beans, carrots,a nd peas
Cucumber with french dressing
Pears & raisins
Chocolate (yum!)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

Two Bentos for 1 Post (#28 & #29)

2007-10-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

Since I go to the gym tomorrow, I have two bentos to share. One for lunch & one for dinner.

Bento #28:
Bake pork chop with honey dijon dressing for flavoring
Pineapple
Mini cornbread muffins (container has pat of margarine for muffins)

Bento (#29)
Hamburger with ketchup packet
Sweet potatoes
Tops of 2 mini muffins
Steamed carrots & green beans
Fruit salad: peaches, grapes, pineapple, plum, & pear

Hello Again! (Bento #27)

2007-10-28T17:09:00.000-07:00

I was sick last week and only made one bento.

It consisted of spaghetti, carrots with dressing, grape & pineapple skewers, and a piece of dove chocolate.

Happy Cabinets

2007-10-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

Weekends aren't much of a bento-fest for me. I don't make bentos to eat on the weekends normally. However, I do tend to prepare things for my weekday bentos over the weekend. I had a great bento prep weekend so thought I'd share.

The first thing I did this weekend is start a large purge in my house. I've have too much "stuff" that is just useless. Much of it I have been given over the years by people who were trying to help me out when I first moved into my home. Now that I'm more established, I don't use many of these things anymore. This weekend, I packed 5 boxes and 9 garbage bags of "stuff" to bring to charity. And there is still more to go through.

One big purge was a kitchen cabinet where I keep various cooking and food storage paraphernalia. Here is a great pic of my cabinet now organized and ready for use! Notice the lovely Lock 'n Lock's on the lower right hand side. Don't they look so happy together?

Next came the freezer purge. Since starting bento, I've been keeping a very neat refrigerator section but the freezer hadn't been cleaned out in I don't remember when. So, I cleaned house and went to my local grocery store that had a huge meat sale this weekend (lots of buy one, get one free deals!). Now, I have a happy freezer as well as a happy cabinet. :)
In this happy freezer you will see lots of sealed and bagged meats ready to be defrosted and included in a bento. Whoo hoo, I'm so ready for this week! I love a neat freezer!

The last thing I have to share is a quick bagel panini (love that new pan!) I made with some of the chicken purchased this weekend. The chicken breasts were baked for 20 minutes on a preheated 350 degree oven. Before baking, each chicken breast was rubbed with 1 teaspoon of Colavita extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with salt and a garlic/black pepper seasoning blend. The sandwich is one mini bagel, slices of baked chicken breast, and a piece of muenster cheese with a mix of dijon mustard / mayo for taste. YUM!

Bento #26: Chicken & a New Bento Box

2007-10-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

Lunch for 10/19/07:

Today, I used the new Clickety Clack bento box that I purchased. I originially purchased the set for some of the items in the set, not really for this bento box. It is a little too pink for me, but loads of fun use an actual bento box!

Today's bento includes:
Baked chicken with lime/basil dressing marinade
Sweet potatoes
Raw cucumber and carrots with dressing.
Grapes with ocean animals pick
2 Chocolate Pocky & 2 sesame candies for dessert

Bento #25: More Pork Tenderloin

2007-10-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

Lunch for 10/18/07:
The rest of the shredded BBQ pork tenderloin
Sweet potatoes, small container of cucumber
Steamed carrot chips & green beans
Dressing for cucumbers
Chocolate graham crackers

Bento #24 - BBQ Pork Sandwich

2007-10-16T06:29:00.000-07:00

For a quick lunch this morning, I defrosted the other half other pork tenderloin, madea week or so ago. I then put it into a saucepan with a bit of BBQ sauce and made some shredded BBQ pork. Then, I tried to figure out what to do with it. As I was toasting my half of a mini bagel for breakfast, an idea came to me. I put some of the shredded pork on the bottom half of the bagel with cheese on top. A few minutes in the toaster oven and voila, a weird sandwich I don't know what to call.

Other items found in this bento include:
Steamed yam - Okay, we'll see how this works out for me. This is a new experience this time. I purchased some frozen yam patties at my local produce stand. I was told this was just straight yam. I think it is, but I steamed it for way to long. It ended up being a viscous (sp?) mass. Not too sweet though. I think I'm going to have to try this again and steam for less time.

Egg - Below the steamed yam is an odd looking thing to the reader. I've been reading Lunch in a Box and love the egg molds. But I try not to eat the yolk of eggs for cholesterol reasons. I eat EggBeaters instead. So in an attempt to combine Biggie's info on egg molds and quickie egg tamagoki (sp?), I cooked the Egg Beaters until cooked but still slightly moist and then pushed it all into the mold. You can't really tell I used the fish mold, but that's okay. The main goal is that it kept it all into a neat little package. I'll have to try this again soon.

Lastly, I have some salad to go with it all. Hopefully this all tastes okay together.

Bento No and Bento Yes

2007-10-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

The bento below I made with leftover chicken I had cooked for a panini sandwich. Which came out wonderfully btw. However, this bento never ended up seeing the inside of my lunch bag. As I mentioned a few days ago, a friend of mine and I went to P.F. Chang's for lunch over the weekend, and I came home with leftovers. After my lunch at P.F. Chang's, I had a major case of CRASH! My body needed sleep. I could tell I had eaten something that was setting off the insulin problem, but couldn't figure out what. I'd eaten carefully at Chang's, didn't overeat, and was carefuly on the portions of carbs. That night, I had a small portion of the noodles below with some chicken. I felt that same crashing feeling. I realized it must be these noodles. They were tasty enough, but were sort of thick and floury tasting to me. I think they simply overwhelmed my system. I'm sorry to say I ended up disposing of them.

So the rest of the bento was recycled into a new bento that I enjoyed immensely on Monday. This bento consisted of leftover fried rice (which I was fine with), leftover chicken from a panini sandwich I had made (yummy tasting), cucumber, carrots, and a jello cup.

Jello Cups

2007-10-16T06:17:00.001-07:00

If you haven't taken a look at Lunch in a Box yet, go do it now! Biggie (the blog owner) has the most amazing tips and information on "building a better bento."

She has a wonderful tutorial on making small jello cups, which I tried this weekend. I did the cheat route and just used plain sugar free jello. These turned out great and quite tasty. I included some fresh fruit I had in the fridge.

New Bento Supplies

2007-10-16T05:40:00.000-07:00

I didn't post over the weekend and had no time yesterday. So I have a few pictures and info to share this morning.

First, my new bento supplies have arrived. I am so excited :) This is really the last of what I wanted for my little collection. The only other thing I might consider is a real bento box or two.

In the first picture we have little food divider cups, sauce containers, egg molds, sushi grass, and 2 new bento belts.

In the second picture, we have a Clickety Click set. I really bought this for the bento belts and the 2 Clickety Click boxes, which left me with some items I didn't really want. I'm going to try to swap them at the Flickr Bento Swap group. Maybe I'll get lucky and get a new bento box out of it!

Chicken with Carrots & Green Beans (#22)

2007-10-13T22:36:00.001-07:00

Bento for 10/14/07:
Sauteed chicken pieces with steamed carrots and green beans.

Chicken with Carrots & Green Beans
Originally uploaded by bluefrogj

Okay, I am working on a new format for posts. Future posts will list the bento with picture first. Below that, I will list anything I have to say beyond the bento. And today's post will have some info for you, my dear but few readers.

First, the title of this post has a number after it. I've decided to keep a tally of the number of bentos I make. This particular one is #22.

The bento above is actually leftovers from the dinner below.

This was a yummy dinner. The only thing is that I'm still having a little trouble getting my paninis right. But it has been a fun process. Instead of making a sandwich for the bento, I just place the leftover cutup chicken in the bento.

Today, I met a friend at the gym. Afterwards, we had lunch at P. F. Chang's. I have noodles and fried rice leftover. You'll shall see these as a side item in bentos over the next few days.

Finally, I got a note from the post office that the package I've been waiting for has arrived from Japan. Wheeee! I purchased a few bento supplies online, as well as my first ever true bento box. I'm not sure how much I will use it, but I was ready to have 1 bento box that was from Japan.

That's all for now. More to come later I'm sure :)

Turkey Burger & Rice-a-Roni

2007-10-12T05:38:00.000-07:00

Today's Lunch:
Turkey Burger
Herb & Butter Rice-a-Roni
Cucumbers & carrots
Dove Chocolate Square

Okay, this might not be the best lunch, but it will have to suffice. It's what I had in the fridge or available to quickly make. Not alot of time this morning.

Thought I'd show my afternoon snack since it's new to my repetoire. 6 triscuits, Laughing Cow light cheese wedge, container of sunflower seeds.

Have a great weekend to anyone reading this post!

Rolled Tortilla Sandwich with Sweet Potatoes

2007-10-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I saw a nutritionist familiar with working with women and insulin resistance. She reviewed with me the diabetic exchange list and gave me a meal plan.

So, today's lunch is packed with this in mind. My biggest problem with this lunch is the 1/2 cup of sweet potatoes. This isn't quite enough variety for my liking. So next time it's a 1/4 cup sweet potatoes with a bit of fruit to complete the 1 starch portion of the meal. All in all, it won't be a bad lunch.

So here's my lunch for today:
1 rolled sandwich with whole wheat tortilla, roasted turkey, and a piece of provolone cheese.
Small bottle of Organic Zesty Italian dressing, 1 square of chocolate
Sweet potatos and a "salad" of carrot shreds and sliced cucumber.

I'm showing my snack picture today due to the cute picks. I've seen lots of bento websites that have food on picks and I think "how cute." After the appointment yesterday, I went to a nearby craft store and looked in the cake decorating department where I found these great picks. So yesterday's snack that I didn't have the chance to eat was rearranged out of its food cup and onton food picks. At first I thought I would feel silly, a 30-year-old woman with food on plastic toothpicks. LOL! Now I'm looking forward to make snack. It looks like so much fun.

Tamales & Peas

2007-10-10T05:19:00.001-07:00

Today's lunch includes:
Tamales with colby/monterey jack cheese. The tamales fell apart after steaming so they are a bit "scrambled"
Steamed frozen peas
Carrots and cucumbers with french dressing for dipping
Fresh asian pears.

Green Bean & Penne Pasta

2007-10-10T05:16:00.000-07:00

Tuesday's bento included:

Mini hamburger with green bean and penne pasta tossed with a zesty italian dressing
Cucumbers & french dressing for dipping.
Fresh peach

The Experimentation Continues: The Broccoli Episode

2007-10-07T22:09:00.001-07:00

In my quest to find variety in my bentos, I have been retrying foods that I once wouldn't eat. Through this experimentation, I found that I can tolerate and even like sweet potatoes if cooked a certain way. The next re-tasting is with broccoli. I have high doubts that this will be as successful as the sweet potato re-tasting.

Tomorrow's bento includes:
Rolled sandwich including chicken, carrots, cucumbers, and honey dijon vinaigrette dressing
Penne pasta with broccoli and Parmesan cheese (recipe from October 2007 Everyday Food)
Granny Smith apples, boiled egg, golden raisins, carrots to fill gaps, and sesame candy

Notes:
I tasted the pasta/broccoli combo after I cooked it. The broccoli is just lightly steamed, and I'm not so sure I'm going to like this. I'm not finding my taste buds are feeling overjoyed with broccoli. We'll see if it tastes better cold. If it doesn't, I'll pick the broccoli out of the pasta and try to find something to substitute for the broccoli.

The egg is in a semi-triangular shape. I do not have egg molds...yet. In the meantime, I tried using a triangular onigiri mold. It sort of worked. Egg molds are on my list of "must have bento items" for my next bento accessory purchase.

A New "Dish"

2007-10-07T10:29:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine lives near a unique restaurant that serves delicious panini sandwiches. I tried to make something similar at home. It wasn't a true grilled panini sandwich by any means, but was tasty just the same.

My sandwich includes honey whole wheat bread, provolone cheese, champagne honey mustard, hydroponic lettuce, cucumber, carrots, and chicken with lime-basil marinade. Served with two pineapple slices.

My next goal is to figure out how to make one fit into my bento box!

To Market, To Market

2007-10-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

is where I went today! There are two local farmers' markets near me. I went to both today. The closest was a bit disappointing since so few vendors attended. Apparently, this was a slow weekend, and many vendors should be back next weekend. I still found some lovely homegrown cucumbers and a beautiful eggplant for my mother. I also found some nice, fresh shrimp in my price range.

The second farmer's market is the larger one and was much fun this morning. I picked up hydroponic mixed lettuce, purple hulled peas for a friend, italian green beans, ciabatta bread, pecan wood smoked pork chops, and more.

For lunch, I steamed the shrimp and made a salad.

The salad contains the fresh lettuce and cucumber purchased this morning. The colors are a bit off in this picture; however, this light lunch was quite delicious. I have the rest of the shrimp packed in part of a bento. I'll have to figure out later what all will go into it for lunch this week.

My Heart Yearns...

2007-10-05T18:24:00.001-07:00

for my bentos. I feel as though I have foresaken them. I haven't really; it just hasn't been good days for bento-making. So instead, you the unfortunate reader of this blog, must read some whining. Would I like some cheese with that? No thank you. I'm not overly fond of cheese. A small handful of pistachios would be nice though.

My last post of a bento was Wednesday of this week. Thursday, I didn't plan a bento. I thought I would come home for lunch. I was wrong.

Thursday morning, I had a glucose tolerance test scheduled. As mentioned previously, I plan to consult a nutritionist familiar working with insulin resitant women. I have received the referral but the nutritionist's clinic wanted updated bloodwork. So there I was Thursday to have the requested tests run.

I hate having bloodwork done. Not because of the needle, but because I have deep set veins that can be hard for the technician to find. While I don't mind the needle, multiple sticks aren't fun.

The glucose tolerance test isn't lovable either because of "THE DRINK." The drink masquerades itself as a carbonated orange beverage that looks like Sunkist or Orange Crush. However after a sip, you realize that 50 grams of glucose to this one little 10 oz bottle is no joke. The stuff is so sweet you involuntarily shudder and your stomach wants to revolt. Afterwards, more blood is drawn over a 2-3 hour period to determine how your body is reacting to the high glucose intake. After 45-minutes, my body was ready for a long nap or to regurgitate the the drink.

Once the test was over and I was free to go, my only thought was FOOD. Please, get me some food. First, I was hungry. It was noon, and I hadn't eaten for 15 hours. Second, I needed something to settle my stomach. Waiting to get home just didn't feel like an option. So I stopped at Cracker Barrel and enjoyed grilled chicken, a biscuit, and a house salad.

By the time I got home, my body said, "Enough!" It then promptly and satisfactorily took a 3 hour nap. When I awoke, I was again hungry and feeling not-quite-normal after the abnormal sugar high. The body said, "Red meat sounds good. Feed me steak." "What a good idea," I replied. There's only one problem. I ruin steak everytime I cook it. If you are reading this blog, please don't reply with advice on cooking a steak. I've read books on it. I have instructions and wonderful advice from my brother and my friend Kim, both of whom cook an excellent steak. I just can't duplicate it. So instead of wasting my money and ruining a steak, I normally go to a restaurant to enjoy one.

Another problem Thursday I felt guilty about was not going to my gym. I felt too off and still a bit nauseous that evening. I decided the mall was the place to be.

I walked around each floor of the two-story facility once, browsed the shops, window-shopped, and purchased a few things that caught my eye. Certainly not as good as a gym workout but at least I was up and moving around for an hour. Across the street from the mall is a Logan's Roadhouse which serves steaks I like. A half a steak and sweet potato later I was feeling much better.

Today, my staff and I attended a wonderful seminar that took most of the workday. Afterwards, we ate out at Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro, a very nice establishment with great food. I enjoyed half of a delicious chicken and salad wrap. I sampled but didn't overindulge in the fried onion strings accompanying the wrap. The other half will be lunch tomorrow. Tonight, I don't feel too hungery so dinner became a bagel with some fruit.

Ahhh, I feel so cleansed now after my confessions of non-bento eating. LOL! But looking over my food choices in print makes me realize I didn't do too badly. I could have done much worse with the amount of fried foods at my disposal. My worst slip was the rootbeer I had tonight with the bagel. I haven't had a carbonated soft drink in a month, and I've felt much better for it. I won't have another anytime soon. The rootbeer just didn't satisfy as before.

Now that I've bored you with that long diatribe, I'll share a picture with you.

This has become my little breakfast ritual of late: half a whole wheat english muffin with a small amount (1 tsp) of bing cherry preserves and a boiled egg. Since my cholesterol is a potential issue and I'm not too fond of yolks anyway, the yolk is popped out and given to my dogs. This has been a nice symbiotic relationship of late between my dogs and I. Breakfast is as fun for them as it is for me lately.

The olive plate is new too. A purchase I made at the mall last night. One of the things I've considerd lately is the size of my current dinner plates. They seem too large for the portions I should eat. Furthermore, I'm enjoying more finger foods lately: raw carrots, grapes, nuts, etc. I have used small rubbermaid containers as dinnerware this past month.

I've kept my eye out for salad plates that made me happy and looked as though they would hold the right portion size for me. I found this plate at Macy's in the mall. I purchased this small plate, another slightly larger salad plate, and a small pasta bowl. The pasta bowl has gently sloped sides that will make it a great bowl when I have a full salad for dinner. I also purchased a small matching fruit cup for a side dish. I can't wait to use my new dishes. I didn't purchase a full set of them. These aren't for company, just for me at night. I'm finding that keeping myself with a limited number of Lock 'n Locks and plates makes me clean my kitchen more often. Trust me when I say, my mother will think that is wonderful!

It's been nice talking to you again, my readers. I'm finding that this blog stays in my mind. I find myself thinking of what I will post next. It certainly helps keep me motivated. Thank you Kim for making the suggestion to start this blog.

A Rolling We Will Go...

2007-10-03T06:07:00.001-07:00

Today's lunch is another rolled sandwich. However, this one has been rolled up ahead of time, no assembly required. Lunch consists of:

One rolled sandwich with a whole wheat tortilla, champagne honey mustard, smoked ham, and baby spinach.
A small amount of Zapp's BBQ potato chips, carrots with french dressing for dipping, grapes, and on the side of the dressing 3 Hello Panda treats.

Crockpot Wonders

2007-10-02T05:35:00.000-07:00

I found some slow cooker liners at the grocery store and decided to give my crockpot another whirl. I like using the thing. I hate cleaning the thing. In went a small pork tenderloin with onions, carrots, and garlic for seasoning. After it finished slow cooking, I took half and froze it. The other half was enough for 2 servings. So, I had part of it for dinner last night (yum!). The remaining portion I threw into a small saucepan with a bit of BBQ sauce and heated up the sauce. So today, I have shredded BBQ pork for lunch.

Sorry for the pictures. I'm having lighting issues when photographing the food. I have to find a way to adjust that.

Today's bento contains:
First box - shredded bbq pork and steamed mashed sweet potatos with salt/pepper for flavoring
Second box - carrots with sauce for dipping, rolled flat bread for pork, and 1 dove chocolate square.

Some Assembly Required

2007-09-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've been intrigued for some time now by the concept of a rolled sandwich using tortillas or flat bread. Today for lunch, I tried one and enjoyed it so much that I decided to bring one for lunch tomorrow. I didn't preassemble my sandwich. So I brought all the ingredients in the Fit 'n Fresh box I purchased at the same time I purchased my Lock 'n Locks. This is it's maiden lunch voyage.

In the bottom tier we have all the stuff to make our sandwich: a rolled piece of Flat Out honey whole wheat bread, some deli smoked ham, a container of Harry & David's Champagne Honey mustard (yum!), carrots, cucumber, and baby spinach too. A small piece of Dove chocolate is included for dessert.

Now for the upper tier. That Fit 'n Fresh has two large sized upper trays that I was trying to figure out what to do with. This is going to be one awesome lunch, but boy did I use alot of muffin cups in this one! I need some regular size silicone muffin cups. I hate the thought of using so many in one lunch!

The upper tier includes steamed green beans, homemade applesauce with dried cranberries and golden raisins, pistachios, and a small amount of bbq chips. A word about the applesauce: This stuff is delicious and super easy! I got the recipe for cinammon applesauce from the October 2007 issue of Everyday Cooking. I added the raisins and cranberries myself. This stuff is tasty tasty. Try it if you're looking for something fun. I used 2 gala apples and it only took about 7 minutes in the microwave to cook the apples. Fun!

Dry but Edible Chicken

2007-09-26T05:25:00.000-07:00

Last night, I tried to bake some chicken stuffed with cheese. This did not come out so well. Mainly, I don't think I put enough cheese, AND the chicken came out really dry. But it was still edible and tasty with the herb seasoning I had. I just need a bit more water to drink to offset the dry chicken.

Our side dishes for our dry little piece of chicken are a bit of leftover edamame and baked sweet potato with salt and pepper. I also have another box with carrots and cucumber and french dressing for dipping. I didn't take a picture of that since I pictured something very similar to that a few days ago.

The smaller box is this afternoon's snack bento: peanut butter, goldfish pretzel crackers, and pistachio nuts.

I was too tired to post this last night, so I am posting it this morning. I'll probably have another post tonight about tonight and tomorrow's bento. I have enough of this dry chicken to last me a couple of meals!

Spaghetti with a Little Yoga for Flavor

2007-09-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

I had a long day today, starting with arriving at work at 5:30AM and ending the day with a workout at my new gym and getting home for about 8:30PM. It was a long day, but a pretty satisfying and productive one.

Before I get to tomorrow's bento, I want to talk a little more about my new gym. I really like the place (which I think I've mentioned in a previous post). After my last meeting of the day, I headed off to the gym. They have great classes there, and this week, I decided to try the Svaroopa yoga class after my workout. I'm so glad I did. I've never been to such a relaxing class! I tend to carry around alot of tension, being the type A personality that I am. This class was just lovely. And I swear I walked out feeling an inch taller. We did these wonderfully gentle stretching exercises. I felt so much straighter and taller afterwards. I just can't say how nice it was! If you want to know more about Svaroopa Yoga, I found this site had a nice explanation and link to an article. Remember if it looks good to you, to consult your physician before starting any type of exercise.

Now, on to tomorrow's bento.

You've seen much of this before. I almost didn't post it but figured that was keeping with my goals. So here are several repeats thrown together.

Since I came home so late, I grabbed a small pack of meatballs out of the fridge. The leftovers with a bit of spaghetti underneath are tomorrow's lunch along with watermelon, grapes, and a salad with cucumbers, carrots, baby spinach, baby romaine, and balsamic vinaigrette on the side. No snack bentos to share since I packed the same thing as yesterday, except with sunflower seeds instead of soynuts.

Link - and - Balance

2007-09-23T16:57:00.000-07:00

Currently, I am reading The Insulin Resistance Diet. The beginning of the book explains Insulin Resistance in layman's terms and has been one of the better explanations I have seen to date. Then the authors, a doctor and a registered dietician, go on to explain their "diet" for Insulin Resistance. It's not a diet really. Actually in alot of ways, it is similar to how diabetics eat.

The concept is that to keep one's insulin from spiking, as it does when you have insulin resistance, one should link carbs with proteins in order to balance the carb intake. This will keep insulin in a level state.

So, I've tested the concept for the last two days and it does seem to work. Using the ratio in the book, I enjoyed a few carbs at dinner tonite, which make a nice leftover for tomorrow. I must say, I'm not feeling that typical drag-me-down-to-sleep feeling like I normally do. So, we'll see how this works for me. I'm going to try the concept out until I can get an appt with a nutritionist.

On to tomorrow's bento:

First tier - Homemade mini hamburger (1 1/2) with ketchup packet and psuedo-mac 'n cheese. I call this psuedo b/c I didn't have any milk on hand. So it's made with a little margarine, shredded cheese, elbow macaroni, and ground pepper.

Second tier - Carrots & seedless cucumber with creamy french dressing for dipping. (YUM!)

Morning Snack: Granola with yogurt (blue container). Green container has about a tablespoon of soynuts to help balance out the granola/yogurt.

Afternoon Snack: Crackers & cheese.

Back to Bentos

2007-09-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

This week has been a busy one at work. I had a day and a half of bentos as mentioned in my last post. After that, I had to eat out for work purposes (made sure to choose salads with light dressings, and such) and had light meals at home. No bentos to post until tonight.

This is leftovers from tonight's dinner. These are packed in two 380ml Lock 'n Lock containers. After consulting the Lunch in a Box website, I discovered a 600 ml box is what I'm supposed to use for lunch, according to the chart provided there. The ones I've been using have been a bit over 800ml. I'm going to keep those for when I have salads and such to bring, since they have more room.

In the meantime, I purchased two more Lock 'n Locks of the 380ml size. I'm using these as a makeshift 2-tier bento system. The combined ml of these boxes brings me close enough to the correct ml.

On to the food.....

In the "first tier" we have chicken basted with a fat free lime basil salad dressing by Maple Grove Farms of Vermont. It is tasty, but should have been marinated a bit longer. Probably could have used a little more black pepper too. But all in all, quite good. I used chicken thighs since they came out moister/more tender. I always seem to over cook chicken breasts. They come out dry and blech. To the left of the chicken is a sweet potato baked plain with a little margarine spray, salt, and black pepper added. I'm not one for too much added to a sweet potato. They are sweet enough to my taste buds without adding cinnamon and sugar.

The "second tier" includes a nice salad. This past week, I discovered baby lettuces. How tasty! This salad consists of baby romaine and spinach with baby carrots and seedless cucumber. The container has balsamic vingaigrette by the same brand that made the lime basil salad dressing. Tasty, tasty. I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow. Have to do some more cooking tomorrow so that I have some lunch for work this week!

I can't believe...

2007-09-16T20:46:00.001-07:00

I forgot to post the snacks. Eesh!

Morning Snack:

Granola with a container of yogurt, watermelon and pistachios.

Afternoon Snack:

PB and pretzels, apple slices, 2 sesame seed candies, half a stick of cheese, and a container of soynuts.

All packed with one of my new bento belts! Fun!

Lovely Leftovers

2007-09-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Whew! After this weekend, I have bentos for the
next day and a half of meals. Wheee. Leftovers are great. So here goes.

Bento #1:
Leftover chicken from lunch with a friend.
Leftover boiled Dungeness crabmeat (yum!) from family get together.
Steamed green beans made to go with the bento. Carrots, grapes, and a bit of chocolate in the aluminum foil. The little blue cup holds dressing for the carrots.

Bento #2:

Leftoever boiled Dungeness crabmeat.

Stirfried noodles with greenbeans and carrots made to go with this bento.

Watermelon.

I added a small packet of aluminum foil with a bit of chocolate after I added the picture.

There is a third bento that looks just like this with boiled shrimp substituted for the crabmeat.

The next day and a half are going to be YUMMY!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

2007-09-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day today. Slightly windy, clear skies, comfortable temperature of 83 degrees. And the post lady came today with my order from Sugar Charms containing my new bento supplies! Yeah! I can't believe they are here already. I've never ordered from this place before and they included a free mini onigiri mold as a gift. Wheeeee!

You can see what all I purchased to the left. Several little side dish containers, 2 bento belts, 4 cute condiment cups, 2 mayo spreaders, and a few sauce bottles. I purchased the 2 triangular rice molds and that smaller rectagular mold is the free one that makes 3 little cylindrical onigiris. Wheee, I can't wait to put this stuff to use!

A New Recipe

2007-09-14T20:48:00.001-07:00

As I think about this blog and what I'm going to write about, I realize it is highly possible this blog will be as much about my trying to learn to cook as it will be about trying to prepare a bento-style lunch.

I work at a library where I get to see alot of the new books that come through before they go out to the general public. I love looking at cookbooks. However, I don't use them much. For one, I don't know how to cook so well and many cookbooks don't give the level of instruction I need to complete a recipe. Secondly, I don't like recipes with loads of ingredients. Cooking makes me nervous. I'm always worried if I'm going to "get it right." In fact, I lay out all my ingredients beforehand in little containers to make sure I have everything I need. I have a small kitchen with limited counterspace. I don't have room to lay out all those ingredients. Finally, I don't have alot of time to cook. So, I need things that taste decent but are simple enough to prepare.

Well, with the current goal of "let's stop eating out and start making food and packing bentos," I've decided to start looking for new recipes. One gets tired of spaghetti and baked chicken after awhile. So, the yesterday at the library I browsed the cooking section looking for cookbooks that interested me. My requirements were simple but not always easily found. First, I needed a book that a picture for every recipe. This isn't always very easy to come by. For instance, I own a copy of "The Joy of Cooking." I never use it. No pictures means no use by me. I can't envision what something is going to look like, and I can't imagine what it might taste like by the ingredients list. However, I can come much closer with a picture.

Secondly, I looked for books where the recipes seemed manageable for me. This means ingredients that, even if I've never used them before, I've heard of before. Manageable ingredient lists are a plus too.

Finally, I looked for things that had food that looked like something I'd actually eat. People that know me call me a picky eater. To that I say: if I was a truly that picky of an eater, I'd be alot thinner. In actuality, I think I'm a plain eater. By this I mean, I like simple food, sort of "meat and potatos" in my tastes. I even know what this comes from. As a kid I had many food allergies, and I just never developed a taste for alot of things.

One of the books I checked out from the libary was Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking. This is one beautiful book. Each two page spread is like this: the left hand side is the recipe; the right hand side is a beautiful, full-color picture of the dish. YUM! There was a tantalizing picture of a Cashew Chicken stir-fry that I decided I needed to try. It came out beautifully and is included in tomorrow's bento below.

This bento includes:
Cashew Chicken stir-fry with garlic and cucumbers. (Don't worry, that chicken is browned and fully cooked. I'm having trouble taking pictures of my bentos!)

Edamame - Another new experience for me tonight. I've never had this before and it was suggested to me by a friend to try. Not bad. I'm still deciding how to make it a little better.

Carrrots, grapes and watermelon round out the box. I'm thinking the cashew chicken will be yummy cold as well as warm!

The final of the first posts...

2007-09-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

I want to apologize for ye few readers of this new blog. These posts aren't formatted well. I'm having some learning curve issues here. Hopefully, we can straighten them out as we go along!

Now, on to today's lunch bento. Today's snack bento was the same as yesterday.

Lunch bento contained mashed potatos with skins and a mini hamburger patty cut in half. This wasn't aesthetics as much as trying to fit everything into this tiny container! Carrots with dipping dressing and grapes as the sides.

But as I think about it, I can share tomorrow's snack bentos with you.

Morning snack: Granola with a container of yogurt to go with. Pistachio nuts and watermelon too.

Afternoon snack:

Triscuits with cucumber and mozzarella cheese slices.

A note about this snack...if you're a cooking enabled you'll probably giggle.

I purchased an inexpensive mandolin V-slicer to help me cut veggies for my bento adventures. Why an inexpensive one you ask? Besides the obvious money reasons, Cooks Illustrated says they aren't bad, and I trust them implicitly. So, off to the kitchen outlet store and a new mandoline slicer now calls my home, home. It looks alot like this one at Amazon:

So, I tried it out with an apple the other day. EESH! Such thin thin thin slices. Nothing I did seemed to work. I thought it defective. Figured it was cheap plastic and was a waste of money. Sooooo disappointing. Tonight, when preparing the cucumbers, I thought, "Let me try again." So, out comes the mandolin. I try again. Pitiful little slices. So, I look at the thing. I see those two screws on the brain and the mechanical part of my brain says, "Maybe the blade is screwed in too tight. It sort of looks depressed a bit in the middle." Off I go to the toolbox, pull out my trusty screwdriver and try to loosen the screws. Only one problem, that durned interchangeable part keeps popping out as I try to hold the thing. So I look at that interchangeable part. I look at the little hooks that hold it in place. Hmmm, I see that those hooks are offset on one side, and if I just FLIP THE PART OVER it gives it more depth. Voila, perfect cucumber slices! Maybe I should have called this blog "Adventures of the Cooking Impaired." LOL!

"Don't Forget Me," Said the Chocolate

2007-09-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

Bentos for 9/11/07

Today started the concept of the snack bento for me. Here's where you'll have to read a bit about health.

Eight years ago, I was diagnosed with insulin resistance. Mainly, this means my body has problems processing sugar. It's not diabetes but can lead into it later in life. It also comes with other issues. My case isn't severe, quite the good thing. But nonetheless, some preventive maintenance is necessary. I haven't been as good at this as I need to. This new bento phase is part of it. I'm working at making it not a phase but a permanent lifestyle change :)

Why do I bring this up? Well, any good nutritionist talking to someone with insulin resistance is going to tell them basically what you tell a diabetic: eat several small meals throughout the day. The diet isn't as strict for a diabetic though as far as foods to eat. One big thing is to try to eat things high in protein. Enter the snack bento. I'm supposed to have a small "snack" mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

This snack bento included granola and a cheese stick for morning and pb/pretzels with pistachios for afternoon. The little orange container contains 1 stick of Kit Kat.

The lunch bento...

Baked ribs with bbq sauce, mac & cheese, grapes, watermelon, and pistachios.

Cooking Experiments

2007-09-12T20:17:00.001-07:00

Okay, this one is fancier because I decided to try a couple of new things.

Meat: plain old baked pork chop with a bit of bbq sauce.

Sides:

Oven roasted corn. This was quite tasty! Simply place frozen corn on the cob in a piece of aluminum foil with a pat of margarine/butter, salt, and pepper. Bake. Voila! Taste sensation.

1/2 a mini apple pie. This was another experiment of a recipe I found online. The inspiration came from another person's blog. I can't find the inspiration again, otherwise I'd link. If I find it I will. The recipe came from somewhere else. I'm not sharing because I thought the pie filling too sweet. Next time, I'll cut down on the amount of sugar called for. If that works, I'll post the recipe and link.

Grapes and pistachios included too. You're going to see alot of those for awhile. 1. because I have them on hand for the moment. 2. because they are quick foods I can think of that are small and seem to be quite bento capable.

Bento #2

2007-09-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

Chicken quesadilla with grapes, carrots, and a little french dressing in the container for the carrots.

The First Bento

2007-09-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

My new bento obsession came at an opportune time. First, I was laid up at home with a cold and bored out of my skull. I'm not a person who relaxes well feeling I must always be doing something. Second, I'd been giving serious thought to rejoining some type of gym for the whole do-your-health-good thing. Finally, I'm just sick and tired of eating out all the time.

Now, any type of meal is tough to do when one doesn't know how to cook. For anyone who stumbles across this blog and thinks, "Hey, I can't cook either! How did you learn?," I don't have any tips to share. I'm still learning. I some great cookbooks here. But I've found it really hard to find a good basic cookbook for the cookbook challenged. Until I got the book pictured right from PBS. This is the book that has the boiled egg recipe I mentioned in my first post.

So, now I can bento to my little hearts desire. All the bento sites I've read talk about the bento boxes used and containers they have. I don't have all that (remember, we're only 2 weeks old here). Besides, I'm not sure if I want all different bento boxes. I want to be able to microwave and so many seem incapable of that. So, Lock & Lock is what I use. Be careful those out there who are reading this and think, "hmmmm, i might try lock & lock." They can be an obsession in and of themselves.

On to the first ever bento...(don't laugh)!

Okay, let me say right now, aesthetics will probably never be my strong suit. My goal here is to pack lunches that are more interesting and a wee bit healthier than the normal fast food fare I partake of. Whenever, I try to arrange things it takes me 3 times as long. Just like my website took 8 years to complete. Not because I didn't know what I was doing...but because I couldn't decide on a design! LOL!

So, in the bento....Spaghetti and meatballs (meatball recipe from above referenced book). Peaches in an aluminum foil cup, salad, croutons, and dressing in the little blue bottle.

And so it begins...

2007-09-12T19:49:00.001-07:00

I've resisted blogging for some time now. Not because I don't like it. But because I didn't think I had the time. But lately, I've been making the time to do things I want to do.

So what's the blog about? Well....

I have a hobby I love. I make jewelry. I was even published once in BeadStyle Magazine. But not even that hobby was enough to make me start blogging.

Then, nearly 2 weeks ago (time flies) I was reading a blog by a jewelry artist I admire. And there was a picture of her son's lunch, and she described it as a bento. How cute I thought! I'd eat that! So, off I went in search of what exactly a bento was.

And what to my wondering eyes appeared? But a completely interesting way to pack lunch and make it fun. See, I can't cook. This is a running joke in my family. I look up the recipe (yes, there is one!) on how to boil an egg each time I need to. I'm always worried I'm going to mess it up. I spend alot of time and money, yikes!, on take out/fast food. We won't discuss in this post the health consequences of that...

But these bentos are just little portions of food, lots of variety, cute, and not intimidating if I don't try for the whole arranging/artistic aspect.

And so began an new obsession and this blog with some judicious prodding from a great friend of mine.

This first post will be broken up into several entries. I have some bento pictures to share. Maybe one day, I'll have some jewelry to share when I stop thinking of bentos!