Yvo, the Feisty Foodie, once told me that my blog makes her feel like she is reading someone’s personal diary (or at least that is what I remember). That description of this blog has never been more apt as I sit down to compose this post. It has been nearly two weeks since I last posted a bento. I keep promising to share the Crawfish Cornbread recipe I tried, but still haven’t. In all honesty, I have no good reason for why I haven’t been around. I’m going to force myself to be open and honest. I admit that while I have been busy with a few late work nights there is no reason why I could not have made a bento, even if the bento was just a sandwich and a few chips.
Events came together that caused me to eat out two days in a row (lunch and dinner). With that two-day hiatus, I quickly fell back into my old habit of constant take-out. That was all it took. Two days, and I was back to where I started. I blithely ignored that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me to stop, I know better than this. As I ignored the voice, breakfast, lunch, and dinner were served to me on restaurant plates and styrofoam take-away containers. I found my kitchen littered with the evidence of take-out Chinese food, hamburgers to go, pizza boxes, and more. This past Wednesday, I forced myself to stop ignoring my bad behavior and think about what to do next. I could no longer make excuses that I was too busy or distracted too cook for myself. I was feeling the horribleness of my lax eating habits. Tiredness, sluggishness, and irritability were settling in like the old unwelcome friends that they are. These were the reasons I began this journey of learning to cook, eating healthier, and using bento boxes to accomplish those goals in the first place. In two weeks, I let myself ignore and temporarily forget those facts.
On Wednesday, I knew I couldn’t face another white paper bag sitting in the car seat next to me containing something unhealthy and, in the long run, just not that tasty. The question was what to eat. I had shoveled so much fried meat and potatoes in my system that the thought of meat and starch of any sort was vastly unappetizing. I sighed as I figured salad would be the dinner for the night. I am not a huge fan of salads. I don’t find them especially interesting, for the most part. I also find them a bit annoying to try to eat. I just told myself while not terribly interesting, I had to get some sort of vegetable into system. In fact, this seemed par for the course lately. Slipping back to old habits was easy. I was primed for it. All in all, I wasn’t overly happy with my current bento life. I felt frustrated always trying to figure out some recipe to cook, some food to make for lunch the next day. Nothing had seemed appetizing, so take-out was easier, was brainless, and, in the end, was very, very stupid.
While contemplating my upcoming salad dinner, my Google reader let me know a new post was waiting for me to read. Yvo posted her synopsis of her Meat Hiatus. This was a series of posts I’ve been reading and watching very carefully during her 6-weeks of non-meat eating. With each post and weekly recap, I thought about what she shared and how it might apply to myself, but didn’t give it any real consideration. I have had the opportunity to speak with Yvo on and off via e-mail during her 6-week challenge and repeatedly commented how proud I was of her accomplishments. My constant refrain was, “There is no way I could do that.” First, I’m an omnivore with relish. Second, I have no willpower (as evidenced by these past two weeks). As usual right when I needed it, serendipity struck. I love serendipity; it is usually pretty nice to me.
As I hit my low point on Wednesday, I was reading Yvo’s post. “I can definitely stand to start dropping meat from a few meals each week,” she stated in her recap. It was as though a light went on. You would think that being a reasonably intelligent individual this is a concept I could figure out for myself. But no, it took me to see it in writing to realize it. I’m so ingrained in the 1 meat, 2 sides thing that I have a hard time looking past it. Plus, isn’t bento supposed to be a whole bunch of random little food bits in my box? (Yeah, I know that’s not an accurate description. Work with me a bit, pretty please?) Normally, I look at vegan dishes and think, “Hmmm, that would make a great side dish.”
Her comment really made me sit back and think. And the first thing that popped into my had was a tantalizing dish I had seen on VeganYUMYUM. I remember seeing this dish and having a nearly visceral reaction. I remember thinking, “I want to eat that now.” I remember feeling odd about that reaction. Normally, I don’t react that way to a meatless dish, but it just looked so darn pretty.
I re-thought my idea of a salad. After two weeks of crap, I knew I needed to put myself back on track. A trip to Whole Foods was my impetus for change. I love that store, but I don’t often allow myself to go there. I tend to buy stuff I don’t really need. However, I’m a big believer in bribery to get myself to do something, and a self-promised trip to Whole Foods was just the ticket. In case you think I’m being silly, trust me. Bribery was needed, because after two weeks I’d gotten myself to a point where I was afraid to come back here and admit to my misdeeds.
As I drove to Whole Foods, I thought about the VeganYumYum dish as well as one that Yvo had posted toward the beginning of her Meat Hiatus. I’ve never had soba noodles before and had been avoiding them because they were unfamiliar to me. Another bad habit that I have been trying to break, but had resurfaced. I purchased the soba noodles along with yellow squash, another new-to-me food. I saw it in the store and it just looked right. I purchased a purple onion because I like there color but have never actually used them to cook.
I went home with my purchases looking forward to the evening. I wanted to make something using the techniques employed in the dishes I liked. The yellow squash ended up being a very pleasant surprise. I have discovered I quite like the stuff, as well as the soba noodles. I did a little looking and discovered that soba noodles have a low glycemic index. I’m going to start using these much more often. I was also pleasantly surprised by the red onion. Not only did it have a slightly sweet flavor, it did not make my eyes water while dicing like regular onions do. SCORE! Wednesday night’s “reset my life” dish included red onion, snow peas, broccoli tops, carrots, yellow squash, red bell peppers, pine nuts, and soba noodles with a wee bit of fresh grated parmesan cheese on top. The spring rolls were found in the freezer section at Whole Foods.
They are very tasty, though a bit too spicy for me. I really, really, really, want to try to make these on my own. I’m just not sure how. By how, I mean how to season what I’m going to put in the middle of the spring rolls. I want to use the same vegetables: green beans, carrots, and corn. I’m just now sure how to season it all.
The leftovers were packed into a bento for Thursday. The little cup in this tier has grated parmesan on the bottom with toasted pine nuts on the top. This tasted just wonderful the next day.
Tier two was a bit of a challenge at first. I wasn’t sure what to pack. Of course, I knew I wanted to bring two of the spring rolls, but what was I going to do with the rest of the tier? I packed a hard boiled egg. I took the rest of the yellow squash and cooked it by itself with a small bit of olive oil. I didn’t like this as much as the thicker slices I quickly sauteed for the sort-of stir fry. These seemed to soak up too much oil, and I ended up disposing of them. The last container was a stroke of good thought on my part. I remember eating black beans at Chilis that I really liked. I found a recipe that was supposed to be a copycat, and they came out pretty well. While I liked them, they didn’t match up well flavor-wise with the rest of the meal. All in all it was a good lunch, and I was definitely feeling better.
Friday was the first of the three staff meetings my place of work holds each year. Lunch is provided, and I chose the cucumber sandwich with salad. It was DELISH! I’ve never had a cucumber sandwich before. As I ate the sandwich, I realized how odd it was I’d never tried this sooner. I love cucumbers. Cucumber sandwiches may need to become part of my repetoire. They certainly seem easy enough to put together.
Saturday, I remade the soba noodle dish with the veggies I had left over, plus a couple of frozen delights from my freezer. I must say that this dish has done wonders to reset my thoughts and my system as I contemplate the coming week.
Saturday night, I had a brainstorm and decided to use the leftover black beans to make black bean tortillas. Whole wheat tortillas were used. The black beans were dessed up with spicy guacamole dip, cheese, red onion, and red peppers with a bit of sour cream. I cannot begin to tell you how amazingly awesome these were.
I’m feeling quite in good sorts now and am looking forward to this week of bento lunches. As I’ve thought about the two weeks and all the things that I let go wrong, there are a few things I’ve come to realize. First, I must make an effort to plan my meals better. Not just for the sake of this blog, but for the sake of my health as well. I also have to get back to why I started bento in the first place: to eat better. Sometimes, I get so caught up in learning how to cook and being excited that I can actually make stuff now that I forget what I ought to be doing.
One problem is that I try all sorts of recipes, then file them away. I forget to go back and make it the dishes again. Instead, each time I get ready to cook dinner I search for a new recipe. When I can’t find something appealing to me, I get frustrated and give up, creating opportunities for myself to say, “The hell with it,” and eat something inappropriate. For the next few weeks, I am swearing off new recipes. I plan to go through my recipe binder and identify those recipes that would work as fall-back and staple recipes.
It’s a process, and I’m hoping to end up back on the good end of the process. We’ll see what the coming weeks bring.
It can be hard to plan and make tasty, healthy meals all the time.
I find a bit of weekend cooking gets me through the week(stuffed peppers, chicken casserole,breakfast egg muffins, carrot & ginger soup etc.).
Also, pre-marinating portion-sized pieces of fish or chicken and freezing them makes it easier to cook sensibly through the week (just after work is not a great time for inspired cooking). Just fish out something nice the night before and let it defrost/marinate in the fridge.
For veggies I make it simple: Stir fry from frozen veggies, oven baked cauliflower or broccoli (very good for bento!).
A great bento dessert is homemade jello (strong-tasting juice such as pomegranate with gelatin or agar-agar).
But sides and sauces I’m nor very good at….
You are so right Niki! I used to do alot of weekend cooking and have gotten away from that concept for some reason lately. It’s a definite must to get back to it.
We forgive you for falling off the Bento/Healthy eating wagon… Let’s blame it on the moon. I was eating far too much take out last week also. We’ll all get back to normal this week.
I too have a hard time remembering to revisit a recipe that becomes a hit with the family. I’ve found a calendar mounted to the inside of one of the kitchen cabinet doors helps. I only post meal related things on this calendar. At the beginning of the month, Hubby and I post meals to each day of the month. This way we don’t end up eating Chicken Fried Steak 3 times a week (which would be fine with Hubby.) It also helps when I’m wondering what to set out to thaw for the next night or when Hubby decides to set something out or even start dinner for me.
When I run across a recipe or meal that we really like, I will post it to the calendar about 3 or 4 weeks out so we can try it again. We all know the calendar isn’t carved in stone and gets mixed up from time to time. This calendar also helps with making a list for shopping and I find I’m only shopping once a week when I use the calendar. You could also plan foods to carry over into Bento this way too. Now it’s just a matter of using the calendar…. and not falling off it, as we sometimes do.
That calendar is a good idea Judith. I’m going to think on how that would work for me. Being single, I find I cook something and I’ve got food for a few days depending on what it is I cooked. Hmmm, just have to figure out how to work that. I have to go back to Just Bento and look at her bento planner. I’m wondering if that would help me as well.
Congratulations on making such wonderful, healthy meals and for trying out so many new foods!
I have an idea for your spring rolls… I find that filo dough is great for the wrapping. When you bake it, it gets super crispy like the fried spring rolls do, but it is far better for you. I’ve also found whole wheat versions of it! You’ll want to put one piece of filo down, brush or spray on a little olive oil, put down another piece, more oil, then one last piece. Fill with your filling and roll up. Brush the outside with a little more oil then bake.
I have a great recipe for lentil tacos that you may be interested in trying too. I know they sound a little weird, but they are awesome! (Cut back on the chili powder if you don’t like spicy food.)
http://www.missionvegan.com/happy-birthday-nana/
Subbing lentils for ground meat in this recipe saves you tons of calories, fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. If you did that to one or two meals a week, it really adds up!
Congratulations again!
Hi. Long time lurker here.
I know how you feel. I was on a fantastic planned-meal kick. I gave myself flexibility so if spur-of-the-moment dinner with friends popped up, I could easily go but not get derailed with my planned meals. I too “fell off the wagon” and got to slowly eating out more and more to the point where I was eating out all the time as well and it got to the point I was sick of eating out and finally got a major craving to start cooking again. Granted, it took me about 6 weeks to get completely fed up with eating out!
I also know how you feel with the cooking for 1. Most recipes make a meal for 4 (or more) and sometimes I don’t want to eat the same thing 4 times in a short time-span (but sometimes I don’t mind). I usually try to scale things down, many recipes you can divide in half or so and not really go too wrong (unless there is a baking element involved then it needs to be more precise). I also find (that works for me) is making more things that freeze well (so I can divide up and freeze portions for later). For example, I have a nice “all purpose ground beef mix” recipe that can easily be scaled up and used for meatloaf, meatballs, etc and I have used ground chicken and turkey in place and it still tastes great. In a couple hours I am going to make the mix for 2 lbs of meat and make half into mini-meatloaf and half into meatballs. I’ll use half of the mini-meatloaf for a recipe for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow then later in the week use half of the meatballs for a dinner/lunch (this will all get cooked before freezing). Plus I’ll still have some meatballs/meatlof frozen to use another week. Sometimes I make bulk amounts of the ground meat mix (using whatever happens to be on sale at the grocery) and just freeze it flat in ziploc baggies (a la Biggie’s tips).
Since you are willing to experiment, just play with things to find what works for you. Take tips and recipes that work for you and ignore those that don’t. And there are times when you get off track with things in life. It happens. The important thing is that you did get back on track–and ON YOUR OWN!
I have a stack of a (now defunct) magazine called “Cooking for 2″ and most recipes are for 2-3 servings. I have by no means tried all of them (so I can’t claim how good/bad the recipes are), but if you are looking for a scaled-down recipe, I would gladly email it to you so you have a starting point to tweak from!
Wow, this is a really great post. I find myself falling off the bento bandwagon way more than I would like lately. For me, I just rationalize that I’m too busy with school to pack anything but, the truth is, it doesn’t take that long to pack a bento. Especially when I usually just use leftovers of meals.
Anyway, thanks for posting this! I’m going to try to start making bento again more often too!
It looks like your store bought spring rolls probably had some curry powder in it (commercially made can be pretty good, like S&B brand). Maybe a touch of soy sauce, too? When I’ve made SR’s, I briefly stir-fry/saute the ingredients and let cool before rolling them. If you soften the vege’s, they are less likely to poke thru the wrappers. Also, try shredding the carrots and anything else you can. Just season away while you’re cooking.
That tip on using filo dough instead of the doughy wrappers is Money! Thanks!
Hey, I’m just happy when I do get to see what you make! Sure…we missed your Bentos the last couple of weeks but we’ll live. That said, I need help! Can anyone suggest a nice Bento Box that I can get for a hubby who likes part of his lunch hot? Meaning, he has to be able to take part of it out to heat and I really love the above black box with the little compartments but I don’t think that’s meant to be heated. HELP!!
The above box is actually a Lock & Lock bento lunch set. Hard to find, but are reheatable. It is made by the same individuals that produce the regular Lock & Lock line. If he must microwave his bento and you’re worried about microwaving the cheap bento boxes, I would invest in some Lock & Lock food storage containers. Some of them come with inside dividers that can be microwaved as well. The ones found at grocery stores, department stores, or bed & bath type stores are usually a tranluscent clear “color.” In fact, Lock & Lock is what I first used when I started bentoing. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m a sucker for something cute, I’d probably still use them.
Here are a few places online that I know of that sell Lock & Lock and the type of box I’m refering to. I have no affiliation with these links.
Heritage Mint: http://www.heritagemint.com/
They have many divided lock & lock boxes. Look under the square and rectangular shapes to find them.
QVC also carries them but you can’t purchase by the piece.
Maybe someone else has more suggestions or even knows of somewhere else to purchase them. I found some of mine at major chain grocery stores in the housewares aisle. While Lock & Lock does cost more, they are well worth it. They do last a long time.
I hope that helps.
Good to have ya back, lady! I know what you mean about getting lazy with the cooking. I used to do a lot of cooking on weekends, making big batches of whatever and then freezing or making them up into bento portions for the week, but I’ve gotten out of that habit.
Mostly because my kitchen has gotten cluttered and I have no place to spread out and work.
I worked on some of the clutter this weekend, though. So hopefully I’ll be able to do a storm of cooking next weekend.
Top recipes on my weekend cooking list: your beef stew recipe (probably with added potatoes), your teriyaki chicken recipe… LOL apple torte… also yours. And a mess of Maki’s (from Just Bento) recipes.
It gets to be a real pain to have to come home and cook every night, and figure out what we’re going to eat.
Thanks for the suggestions! I do have some of the Lock & Lock boxes already and I do like them. But they’re plain.
I guess I shouldn’t care since these aren’t my lunches anyway…but I love looking at everyone else’s neat boxes and it just makes me sad that hubby has to be so difficult!
How about the Bitter & Milk series that Ichiban Kan carries? The website says it’s microwavable other than the inner lids. It’s a bit more expensive though.
The only other thing I could suggest is to try one of the Mr. Bento sets.
But those are sort of plain looking too.
If you find something that suits, be sure to share it with us here! I’d love to see.
Curses! I looked but there really aren’t compartments in the one on Ichiban Kan. Oh well, like I said…it’s for him and he’s content with the Lock & Lock stuff so why am I complaining? Maybe I’ll invent one?! ; ) Thanks for your help!!!!
Hey! I’m glad I inspired someone with my meat hiatus (to something besides hate.. haha)! I find it funny that as I’m reading this, I know the rest of the week = no bento. Oops. I get into that sometimes too – just fall right off that wagon and you’re all, what happened? And I love the black bean tortilla thing, I made something similar but more work so now I’m going to do them more similarly to you (no cooking involved). Hahahaha. (Curiously, Google Alerts did not pick up this post to tell me I was mentioned… grrr!)
I love the first photo!
And though I haven’t decided 100% yet… and definitely have not mentioned this anywhere yet… I’m likely going to decide to cut meat out from lunch entirely… or mostly. We’ll see. It’s an idea I’ve been toying with and I’m not quite sure how much I want to do that. Oh and me too – meat and two sides is totally how I view meals. You can tell by most of the things I make.
PS that picture of the black bean taco is killing me because I want to eat it so badly.
The first photo (of the turtle) I took at a local park.
As for the meatless thing, I’ve been toying with it too. Today’s bento contains the first bit of meat I’ve eaten in nearly a week at lunch time. Actually, it is only the 2nd occurrence of a meat product in that week. I’m surprised that I even did that this week. I’ve been thinking about something similar with my lunches. Like only packing meat 2 days a week. I’m just not sure if I can be that disciplined. I’m going to be interested to see what you do. I hope you don’t think I’m copycatting you! But it’s been a good influence for sure.
Copycatting? There are no original ideas in this world and even if this was super original, I’d be flattered if I believed I was the sole reason for your meatless meals, silly! I don’t believe I am but I feel camraderie for you instead of “OH MY GOD THAT WOMAN NEEDS TO STOP COPYING ME!” hahaha. I’m not 12. Not when it comes to this. Now when it comes to funny Scrabble words, however…
LOL! You always make me laugh. “I’m not 12.” You’re right. You’re not. But, I’m gonna tell you that next time you ask me the same question concerning photographic backgrounds. 