Bento #24 - BBQ Pork Sandwich

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.

Link - and - Balance

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.

I can't believe...

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!

The final of the first posts...

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!