Chili Roll-ups

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

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!

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)

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?

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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!