Bento #47

woah, it's been a busy few weeks.
lots of family stuff going on, hosted a housewarming / open house thing, busy busy busy!

Bento for today is
Rice
Spicy Chicken (recipe here, but substituted chicken for the tofu)
Sausage Salad (from the Just Bento Cookbook, but I substituted broccoli for the celery and used bottled honey mustard sauce thinned with a bit of olive oil) - The Mister gets corn instead.
Carrots
Deviled Egg
Cherries (red and yellow)
Blueberries

I'm thinking of planning out a picnic bento for the long weekend - The Mister and I both have Monday off and I would like to have a nice day outdoors.
Though, Pride is also on Saturday, so it might be fun to head downtown for that and have a picnic.

Bento #46

Half the box was filled with noodles and wontons, with a package of wonton soup powder.
Divided with a piece of red leaf lettuce, the other half has:
Cheese
Mini yellow pepper
Snow peas
Cucumber
Strawberry
Blueberry skewers
Grape tomato
Kidney beans cooked in a little tomato sauce with some chili powder and garlic

The Mister got a cornbread muffin instead of the beans, carrots instead of the pepper, and no tomato.

After you eat all the veggies and stuff, spread out the noodles and wontons, sprinkle on the soup powder, add hot water and microwave for a minute - yum!

Bento #45

I was quite rushed this morning - I slept in - eep!
I threw this together in about 10 minutes before I ran out the door.

2 cornbread biscuits, left over from dinner (sort of recipe below)
Cheese
Grape tomatoes
Snow peas
Baby carrots
Mini orange pepper
Cucumber slices
2 strawberries
Blueberry skewers
Container of blue cheese dressing for the veggies
Container of jalapeno jelly for the biscuits

It's very bright and summery looking (even though the photo is a bit dark - I took it at work, so I didn't want to use the flash - hah)
It smells delicious too - the fruit is very fragrant ^_^

Cornbread Biscuits
I started with this recipe for cornbread.
I adjusted it for 4 servings
I omitted the sugar, since I wanted a savory bread
Then I didn't actually measure in the milk - I just added it until it seemed like the right consistency - thinner than a drop biscuit, but not a batter - kinda sticky.
I also added some paprika and chives.

Gaming for your health

A while back, I bought My Weight Loss Coach for my DS.
I didn't use it much, because the pedometer is quite large and clunky.
The rest of it was pretty cute, it's sort of a food and fitness tracker that gives you "challenges" and ideas to help you live a healthier lifestyle.
My only complaint is that I can only seem to have a "balanced day" (where your food intake balances with the amount of activity you do throughout the day) when I eat unhealthy foods. If I stick to the healthy things, the game counts them as zero "energy" (1 "energy" = approximately 50 calories) and I need to reach about 40-50 "energy" depending on what I do that day.
For example, today I had a horrible food day - hot dogs, pizza, pop an nachos! (I don't splurge like that often), but because I did about 90 mins of walking and 30 mins of yoga, the game told me I could lose 1lb in about 3 days if I kept it up!
I would not want to keep that diet up at all!

On to the yoga ... I also picked up Let's Yoga, which I talked about in an earlier post. I got busy and stopped doing it, but for the last week, I've been doing about 30 mins per day.
I really enjoy the 5 min focused routines. They are all focused on improving different areas of the body, your mood, etc. I can pick 3 or 4 of those and then do one of the "master classes"
Once I've cycled through "master classes" I plan on trying out the "random yoga" section where you can ask it to generate a 10 to 60 minute set of poses.
I'm really enjoying the yoga, now that I'm doing it more regularly.

I recently picked up Personal Trainer: Walking which comes with two "activity meters" which are fancy pedometers that use motion sensing chips instead of the rocker type motion sensor, so it's silent. It's also a lot smaller than the one from the Weight Loss Coach game. It doesn't show your step count on the device, but it only takes a few seconds to upload the data to the game card.

I've been using the three games together for the last week - the Walking and the Yoga games for activity and the Coach game for the challenges and tracking.

I'm at 207 lbs right now - the highest I've ever been (thanks to the steroids I'm on for my autoimmune disorder, which I now get to start tapering - yay!), so let's see how this all goes.
After today's feast of bad foods, I'm looking forward to a slightly healthier day tomorrow. I feel a bit greasy right now.

Bento #44

Well, I guess this isn't quite a bento ... but just go with it ;)

Salmon Salad Sandwich
Mini Yellow Pepper
Mini Orange Pepper
Baby Carrots
Yellow and Orange Cherry Tomatoes
Mini Corn
Cucumber
Dill Pickles
Olives
pepperoncini
Cheese

Salmon Salad Recipe
-sorry for the lack of measurements, I was doing it all by the teaspoon (not the measuring spoon kind!) and just judged by consistency and taste!
Can Salmon
Cottage Cheese (just enough so the Salmon is still a bit dry)
1tbsp sour cream
Feta, crumbled
Cucumber, Grated and squeezed dry
Dill
Green Onion
Pepper
Seasoning Salt
Minced Garlic

Mix the cottage cheese with the salmon - just enough so it is still slightly dry.
Add everything else and mix well.
Serve as a sandwich or wrap filling, with crackers, add to the top of a salad ... it's very yummy - a little Mediterranean in flavour. Come to think of it, it might be good with a dash of Oregano. I'll try that next time

Bento #43

Egg noodles with sesame oil and soy sauce
Deviled egg with chives
Cottage cheese with shredded cheddar, green onion, salt and pepper.
Garlic Cornick (Filipino style corn nuts)
Bell Pepper Kinpira - recipe from the Just Bento cookbook
Black Grapes

The Mister's bento was almost the same - he got Carrot Kinpira, because he doesn't like peppers that much, and I gave him cheese cubes instead of the cottage cheese.

Carrot Kinpira recipe here (though I added some dashi as well)

The kinpira reduced a lot more than I thought it would - mine is 3 mini bell peppers and it doesn't even fill the container! His was about 8 baby carrots and, same thing!

The cottage cheese recipe comes from my great aunt - I really never liked cottage cheese before. One day she was visiting my granny and whipped out a container of it mixed with the cheddar, green onion and a dash of salt & pepper. She said she never liked it either, but once she tried it this way, she couldn't stop eating it - I agree! It's really quite good (you don't use much salt at all and can omit it entirely if you'd like. I just prefer adding a tiny amount to cut the slight sweet edge that cottage cheese has)

Bento #42

Leftover risotto (a box mix that I really like)
Canned salmon on a bed of butter lettuce with homemade strawberry salsa (I made this recipe for dinner but used salmon instead of trout, and then used the leftover salsa to throw in my bento)
Feta stuffed tomatoes topped with oregano and drizzled with balsamic vinegar
Olives and mini dill pickles (don't you love my tinfoil?)
Snap peas
Carrots
Mini sweet pepper
Black grapes

I only made a bento for me for Monday, The Mister has the day off and will have to fend for himself. I think we have one box of mac & cheese left in the cupboard ... hah!
After Monday, I'm working the late shift for the rest of the week - we'll see how I do with the bentos. I hate trying to make them when I'm working late (I prefer to make them in the evenings, so I can make one for The Mister as well).

Bento #41

Sorry for the lack of posts - I've been busy :(

Today's bento includes:
Cha Soba (green tea & buckwheat noodles) with dipping sauce, wasabi, chives and nori furikake (blue container and a second hidden container)
Baby corn
Leftover schwartzies potatoes
A hot dog, cut into various shapes (hidden)
mini sweet peppers with blue cheese dressing

Kinda thrown together, but delicious :)