Bento 306
Eaten 9/2/10

This bento was another throw it together and rush out the door idea.  Dudes and dudettes, I so have to figure out more lunches like this.  I’m a bento slacker.  I know this.  I accept this.  I know there comes that point each month where I’m like, “Aw, forget it.  I’m eating out today.”  There is literally no eating out where I now am.  Do you hear that tinge of panic in my voice?  It’s not that I feel I have to eat out.  It is certainly better that I don’t.  This weekend, I’m definitely going to do some cooking to keep this up.

The chicken is part of a BBQ’d chicken breast that I cut/diced/shredded into small portions. I’ll just zap that in the micro for a few seconds before I eat it.  The salad has a quartered hard-boiled egg.  I accidentally left my GoToob of salad dressing at work yesterday, so some nice French dressing will accompany this.  It is all packed in a leftover take out container that I saved.  I love those things. 

In some side containers in my lunch bag I have croutons for my salad.  I can’t eat a salad without croutons, and these are hands down my favorites.  Dear grocers in my area: Please carry these croutons, every last one of you.  They are hard to find, and I’d like it to be easier, pretty please.    A bit of nut mix for a morning snack and some animal crackers for an after dinner sweet round out today’s packed lunch.

So ready for lunch, and I haven’t even had breakfast yet! 

Be the bentoe everyone!

Here it is.  April 30, 2010.  The last day of the 30-Day Bento Challenge.  It’s been a busy two weeks with too much work and not enough life going on; but it’s not a complaint.  I like my work.  It just hasn’t left me enough time for bento-ing.  Though I have been eating in instead of out!  YAY!

I couldn’t pass up this day though without a bento.  Not on the last day.  I woke extra early to put a little bento together, took my picture, then went off to work.  It’s now evening time, and I’ve got some time to post about today’s bento.  One of the things I avoid packing is a sandwich.   You don’t seem them here too often on Not Exactly Bento because I feel that they are hard to pack.  While looking at the bread section of my local A/G grocery story yesterday, I noticed the packages of bagels, and it was a like a lightbulb went off in my head.  A bagel sandwich. Ooohhhh.  That would pack so much easier for me!

One reason I can’t stand to pack a sandwich is I don’t like what bread does when you make the sandwich and then refrigerate it.  I’m a wuss.  I don’t like to take the chance that something might go bad while I’m waiting to eat my bento lunch.I know the food safety guidelines on Biggie’s site.  I’ve read them.  I understand them.  I just have a mental block about it all.  But a bagel.  A bagel doesn’t have that same problem. It’s sturdier. 

I don’t think about buying bagels too much.  Finding a decent bagel in South Louisiana can be a hard things to find.  And my idea of a decent bagel is probably quite far from someone else’s.  I’m looking for something that comes prepackaged and tastes decent enough.  Gourmet bagels are not on my radar (or in my vicinity).  That’s why I was so excited when I found these little multi-grain wonders.  Their taste is good, and their size is perfect.  A few chips and carrots complete this bento box.

This weekend, I plan to tally up comments and get ready for the drawing for the bento boxes.  So look out this weekend for my post on how everything went for me, my thoughts on my challenge, and the announcement of winners.

Be the bento everyone!

Today is my last day off on a long weekend I took.  My mother’s youngest brother and his family came from California to visit.  He and his wife brought along with them their two youngest (both in their upper teens).  It was a lovely weekend full of LOTS OF FOOD.  I’ll get to all the food in a minute.  Let’s talk about today’s lunch above first.

Friday, I enjoyed a potluck lunch at work and my contribution was two rotisserie chickesn from the local supermarket.  I’m always nervous about cooking for other people, so I don’t tend to do that.  The potluck was amazing, but I had a nearly whole rotisserie chicken left.  This is the last of it (nearly).  I think I have enough for some dinner tonight.  Along with it is steamed sweet potatoe slices, roasted broccoli and a honey tangerine.  Some of the rolls leftover from the potluck were left and I toasted those in a pan with a pat of maragarine.

This simple lunch just caps off a long weekend of food, fun, and life…hence the subtitle for this blog!  Let me go over with you what was consumed this weekend.

Friday – Friday morning started off simple with a bit of yogurt and Grape Nuts.  Let me recommend that you do not try this combination.  Though if it is already working for you, YAY!  For me, this didn’t work out so well.  Apparently, I’m not a huge fan of Grape Nuts (resulting heartburn); however, I didn’t know this beforehand.  It was a new to me type of food.  We’ll put that one in the “didn’t work out” column.  Lunch was had at work and was potluck in style.  Each staff member brought a dish to share, and oh my, did we eat well!  And probably a bit too much.  On the menu: quiche with bacon/spinach/carrots, apple salad with walnuts/raisins/celery, tortilla wraps filled with a rotel/cream cheese spread, bbq’d sausage that was AMAZING, baked beans, potato salad, rotisserie chickens, fried rice, chicken casserole that tasted like enchiladas without the tortillas, and a blackberry white chocolate cheesecake.  While some of the dishes I may have never tried before, most contained ingredients that I’ve certainly enjoyed before.  The food spread was just amazing; however, there were two new-to-me foods in the mix.  I’ve never had quiche up to this time.  It was time to try.  Verdict: Not for me.  I liked the flavor.  It was a well-made quiche, but the texture got me.  It just wasn’t something I can do (or at least not right now).  Cheesecake was the other new item.  I’ve never actually eaten cheesecake, never taking the time to try it because I’m not a huge fan of cream cheese.  Verdict: This particular was darn tasty.  However, I was only able to eat a small sliver.  It was quite rich and the texture was something I could only do in a small amount.  I also think I shouldn’t have eaten it.  After that small bit of cheesecake plus all the rest of the food I ate, I was positively ready for my afternoon nap.  Good that my vacation started that afternoon!  Vacation started that evening so I could go off to my parents house to see my California relatives.  I should find out if they live near a Daiso or Ichiban Kan, shouldn’t I?  LOL!  That night was hot dogs with my mom’s homemade deer chili.  OH MY WORD!  Deliciousness. And she sent me home with a container of chili.  It’s in my freezer now.  Waiting to be consumed.  Which it soon will be.

Saturday – Saturday was a day full of food at my aunt’s home, starting with fried fish, french fries, and fried rice.  Alot of fried foods, which I don’t normally indulge in, however, it is a  South Louisiana family get together.  Fried foods are sort of a given, and delicious on these occassions.  The fish was spectacularly good.  Nothing but that wonderful fish flavor without that horrid fishiness that comes from old or badly cleaned fish.  My family knows how to do it right!  Homemade brownies and banana pudding were for dessert.  Since I was still feeling adventurous after all the new foods I tried on Friday, I gave the ol’ banana pudding a try.  Banana pudding is another one of those items that I don’t normally eat due to the texture factor.  I don’t like pudding/plain yogurt/custard etc.  However, I do convince myself to eat these things when mixed with other things…sometimes.  This time, I decided to give it a whirl.  Like any good homemade banana pudding, this one had chunks of banana, banana pudding, and whole Nilla wafers lining the pan, inside the pudding…they were just all over the place.  Verdict: Tasty, but nothing I could eat alot of.  The banana chunks and Nilla wafers added some texture/crunch (so to speak) to the dish that helped with the whole goopy pudding factor I’m not a fan of.  However, the pudding makes the Nilla wafers a bit soggy on one side, something I didn’t overly enjoy.  It is definitely something I’d eat a small scoopful again at a family function; however, not something I’ll make at the house for myself anytime soon.

Sunday – Sunday was the last day my California relatives were in town, though we did try to keep one of them.  However, we couldn’t convince her to go to LSU for college next year.  Ah well, we’ll just have to convince them to come back soon for a visit.    We eat so well when they are in town.  Sundays meal consisted of homemade meatball spaghetti, with french bread and salad.  It was basic, but so darn good.  My family does know how to cook.  On the other end of the small town in which I grew up, my cousin and her son were at a baseball tournament.  Her son plays for a local baseball team.  When they didn’t show up for lunch, we figured they must be winning their games.  My mother and I took a quick trip up the block and around the corner to the baseball fields.  Sure enough, they were ready to head into their championship game.  A speariment snowball and I found ourselves sitting behind home plate watching the game and cheering for my home team.  They lost the game, but came in 2nd place at the tournament.  Good job guys!

As you can see, it was a fabulous tournament.  Today,  I’m tending to all those things I neglected (like the dogs and laundry) while I was hopping around here, there, and yon as I enjoyed food and family this weekend.  Aaaaaahhhh! It was wonderful.

I hope all of you are having a great start to your Mondays!  How are your challenges going as you head into the last week of challenge?  Let me know below or on the original challenge post.  It’s getting close to time for me to finish tallying the entries and pull a name! 

Be the bento everyone!

I am soooo ready for spring to come back and lead into summer.  Louisiana has had a cold, wet winter this year.  Snow more than once this winter.  This is just so unusual for us.  I wear shorts for Christmas nearly as many years as I wear pants.  That’s just our weather.  I don’t even own a really good jacket for cold weather because it just doesn’t get that cold that often for that long.  This winter (and last year’s as well) is proving me wrong.  I’m ready for spring.  I’m ready for warmer weather, more sun, and some natural heat.

So no matter if this may not be the warmest bento for today.  It is what I made to think of spring and summer.  Easter and 4th of July.  Chicken salad and deviled eggs.  If it is too chilly today for a cold lunch, I’ll just kick my heater up at home and chow down. 

And so that I’m not eating all mayo-based product, a little side car bento is coming along.  It contains the last of my steamed carrots, eggroll, and zucchini/red onion skewer deals.

Be the bento everyone.  And if you’re suffering from cold weatheritis like me, I’ll say a little bento prayer for you. One that brings you warmth, blue skies, and birds.

Last week, I ate the same thing nearly everyday for lunch: a modified version of Cajun Chicken Pasta.  The recipe was modified because I didn’t have one of the key ingredients to making the sauce for the dish: cream.  It was the evening time after work.  The recipe is quick to make…if you have all the ingredients.  I was comfortable: out of the work clothes and in my PJs for the evening.  There was no way I was getting back into another outfit to go to the grocery store to spend $1 and some change on a small carton of heavy cream to make this one dish.  It…just…wasn’t…gonna…happen.

Instead, I looked in my fridge and realized I had some creamy French salad dressing by Brianna’s that might work in a pinch.  This particular salad dressing is a bit spicy.  I opted to not add the heat factor in the original recipe, add the other seasonings, and poured a liberal amount of the creamy dressing over the chicken right near the end of the cooking time.  It worked.  And it worked like a charm.

In fact, I might have to make it like this in the future.  It ended up making a really great lunch/dish.  Along with the pasta, I brought steamed carrots.  Simple, yet colorful with the tri-color pasta.

Be the bento everyone!  A picture of today’s lunch will post this evening.

I must say that my three days of bento last week were absolutely wonderful. It wasn’t just a matter of getting back into the groove and feeling productive on the bento front. It had more to do with the bentos packed last week felt more along the lines of the bentos I packed my first year, when I was learning about bento and learning what worked well for me. Lots of experimentation later, dabbles in vegetarian meals, and 2 years of bento-making has brought me back close to where I started…but not exactly to the same spot.

While today’s bento contains a chicken thigh, the rest is all veggies in some form: steamed green beans, steamed & mashed sweet potato, and vegetarian wontons. Last week’s bentos were similar, some meat but heavy on the veggies. Now, the goal is just to keep going in this vein. It is working out really well.

Another thing working out well, and adding to the wonderfulness of my lunch, is the manner in which I consume them…or maybe I should say the environment. I mentioned several months ago that one reason my life had been so busy and prohibited bento making. Things have smoothed out in that arena: I’ve finally started the new position I’ve been working towards. YAY! The new position is at our new library location and is only a mile from my house. It also has a different work schedule, which includes a 1/2 hour longer day, but means a 1/2 hour longer lunch. Now, I have a 1/2 hour as opposed to an hour lunch. I can come home, visit with the dogs, heat up my bento lunch, and relax for a moment or two before returning to work.

Wonderfulness I tell you, complete and total wonderfulness.

Today’s bento includes:
Baked BBQ chicken thigh
Vegetarian wontons (recipe here)
Steamed green beans
Steamed & mashed sweet potato

Be the bento everyone! Hope this Monday treats you well.

It’s back to basics for me with this bento. I’m not about to go into a long drawn out discussion of my life and bento. Because that’s not what I mean about “back to basics.” Time is limited at the moment. I don’t have alot of it to spend trying new recipes, new foods, and generally exploring the world of cooking as I have been. I do expect life to become a little less crazy after the new year. Until then, I’ve got to find quicker ways to pack lunch.

One thing I have been doing in my spare time, instead of cooking, is playing with Adobe’s Lightroom 2. Now, I’ve talked about this program before, and I love it. I just haven’t purchased it. I went through a trial with it quite awhile back. When the 30 days ran out, I decided not to purchase and just keeping using my Adobe Photoshop Elements. A week ago, I decided to download the trial again to my laptop. I did this for two reasons. 1. I wanted to see if it would run smoothly on this little laptop of mine. 2. I wanted to see if how great I thought it was still held true. It is just as great as I thought it was. So it’s decided. I need Lightroom 2. My pictures look great (I haven’t been happy with them lately…more on that with this coming Photo Friday).

While this seems like a digression (and it is, a little bit), it is all to say that this Lightroom time has meant I’ve being going through my old pictures. I should do that more often. It helps me remember things I’ve tried before in the past. Today’s bento is such. This weekend, I spent a lovely Sunday with my mom taking in a movie and stopping by Fresh Market afterwards. While there, I picked up a baggie of brussel sprouts and a rotisserie chicken.

Once home, it didn’t take me long to prepare side dishes for the chicken. This is something I used to do alot for my bento. I’ve gotten away from it lately. While food shopping, I decided it would be the perfect quick meal for most of this week.

While a small batch of elbow macaroni boiled, I peeled carrots, cut carrots and brussel sprouts, and got those veggies ready for roasting (400 degrees). Since I bake my mac ‘n cheese at the same temperature, I got out one of my large industrial cookie sheets (purchased from Sam’s Club for super cheap awhile back).

The small batch of macaroni was layer with cheese into two oversized ramekin type dishes. The veggies had been tossed with a small amount of olive oil and garlic/herb seasoning mix. The ramekins and the veggies were placed on the cookie sheet lined with a bit of aluminum foil for easier, quicker clean-up. A short while later, everything was cooked and ready to go. I had enough mac ‘n cheese for a quick dinner with a bit of the rotisserie chicken. The veggies and the rest of the mac ‘n cheese made two bento boxes, which both look like the picture above. The first bento will be my lunch Monday. The second either dinner, or lunch Tuesday.

Be the bento everyone! I’m so glad to be back today with a bento that, while quick, I’m quite looking forward too! Hope your lunch is as fun.

In September, I posted about these little mini burgers. They were extremely tasty and worked out well. I meant to go back and do a post on how to make them, but time slipped away. I kept putting it off. And a few days ago as I was going through pictures I had yet to deal with, I found these. “Eesh!” I thought, “How did I let those get away from me?”  Well, here they are in all their miniature glory: Chicken & Pine Nut Mini Burgers.

First, get a pound of ground chicken thighs. I find the thigh meat does not dry out so quickly when cooking.

Next, throw in one clove of grated or diced garlic. I’m going to suggested diced to you. Grating it this way ending up being hard to spread around.

Next, it’s time for some salt and pepper. I think I used 1/2 a teaspoon of each (this will teach me to wait so long to do posts again!)

A wee bit of dried basil.

Then a 1/4 cup of plain bread crumbs.

And a 1/4 cup of pine nuts, toasted (but maybe not quite as well toasted as mine are).

I also threw in a few tablespoons of a favorite salad dressing, but didn’t find this really did anything to change the flavor, so feel free to omit.

Mix all together really well. I used a small cookie scoop to form small patties.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet on the stove, medium heat. Once it begins to shimmer, place burger patties in the oil to cook. Cook until well browned on each side and cooked completely through.

Remove patties to a cooling rack over a towel, or to a plate lined with paper towels.

Serve with a favorite side dish of yours or my quinoa scramble recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground chicken
1 clove of garlic, finely diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/4 cup bread crumbs, plain
1/4 cup pine nuts
1-2 tbs olive oil

Burger Making Steps:

1. Place the ground chicken into a bowl and make a small well in the center of the meat.
2. In the center of the meat, add the following ingredients: diced garlic, salt, pepper, dried basil, bread crumbs, and pine nuts.
3. With your hands, mix all ingredients thoroughly.
4. Using a tablespoon as a scoop, form two tablespoons of the meat mixture into miniature patties.
5. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet on the stove, medium heat.
6. Once the oil begins to shimmer, place chicken patties in the oil to cook. Cook completely through, browning patties well on each side.
7. Remove patties to a cooling rack over a towel, or to a plate lined with paper towels.
8. Enjoy!

It sort of worked, but not really.  The ingredients were great: carrots, celery, lightly salted cashews, leftover shredded chicken from freezer, and ramen noodles.  The sauce was just 2 tablespoons of hoisin added in.  Not bad, certainly not great.  I think hoisin is going to be the right base for me for stir-fry, I just don’t know what to add in to help it.  It’s a bit too sweet.  Need something else.  Soy sauce do you think?

Here it is in a quick bento: hacked stir fry with ramen noodles and roasted broccoli and cauliflower.

Be the bento everyone!

I have a goal.  I want to hit bento 200 tomorrow.  Yesterday threw quite the wrench in my plans as I bummed rides to work.  My car unexpectedly visited the repair shop yesterday; luckily all is fine now.  Then, my mom asked if I wanted to go to lunch with her yesterday.  I said YES of course.  She rode all the way out to where I work (about 30/40 minutes away from her, travel time) and treated me to lunch.  THANKS MOM!  After a long day at work, I came home and had the beginnings of today’s bento for dinner.  Whew what a day.  But a good day nonetheless.

Tuesday, I showed off 2 bentos: one for lunch and one for dinner.  This worked out really well for me on several different levels.  Today, I decided to do that again.  One reason is to reach bento 200 by tomorrow.  The other….well, we’ll discuss that in an upcoming post.

One thing I’ll say about today’s packed bentos is that it is a good thing I like leftovers.  It is also a good thing I don’t mind eating the same thing for lunch & dinner a few days in a row.  This is why bento works so well for me.

The picture above shows off the top tier of today’s bento: one for lunch, one for dinner.  It includes 4 baked chicken potstickers, 1/2 link of italian pork sausage, country wild rice underneath the sausage, snow peas and bell peppers, and steamed carrots.  I used Just Bento’s carrot kinpira recipe to make the snow peas & bell pepper concoction.

Today’s bottom tier includes 1 carrot & pineapple cupcake with 1 plum and 1 mango  cut, sliced and divided between the two boxes.

In case you are wondering, these two bentos clock in at approximately 425 calories.

Be the bento everyone!  I hope you have a great day!