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.

Roast Pork Tenderloin (Bento #46)

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

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!

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 #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!

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

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)

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.

Bento #26: Chicken & a New Bento Box

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

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 No and Bento Yes

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.

Chicken with Carrots & Green Beans (#22)

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

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

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.

A New "Dish"

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!