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!)
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
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!
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
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
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.
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.
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.
I didn't post over the weekend and had no time yesterday. So I have a few pictures and info to share this morning.
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!
Bento for 10/14/07:
Sauteed chicken pieces with steamed carrots and green beans.
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
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
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 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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
