Long Time, No Write....

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)

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....

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!

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

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

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...

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.