Bento #56

Here we go!



Chicken Teriyaki meatballs
Corn Salad
Carrots
Snow Peas
Deviled Egg
Lemon Spinach Couscous
Chocolate Coin

The couscous is from a box mix. I was a bit pressed for time, because I was being much too lazy again, and I have to work early tomorrow. It's still a healthy one though - no unpronounceable ingredients >_<
The Mister just gets plain corn, because he absolutely loves corn and he's not a fan of sauces and spices. He does like the corn salad, but I figured he'd appreciate the plain corn much more.
The deviled egg is a bit too creamy - I used only a tiny bit of mayo, but I went overboard with the dijon.
The chocolate coin is tucked down beside the corn for the purpose of the photo - I had to use flash, and it was too bright. It was packed right on top of the corn.

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I'm trying to be good -
I've planned out this week's lunches and dinners!
Pardon my messy writing - it's awkward writing with a grease pencil, and I'm left-handed. I need to hunt down some wet-erase markers.



I'm off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but I'm still going to make bento boxes for The Mister on at least Wednesday and Thursday, so I'll make the same food for my own lunches those days. The Mister normally goes out with co-workers on Friday for lunch.

Bento #33 & #34

Bottom tier:
Egg noodles with sesame oil, soy sauce, black sesame seeds and chili flakes
Meatballs with teriyaki sauce and carrot hearts

Top tier:
Frozen corn (thaws by lunch!)
Snap peas
Strawberry
Apricot slices
Black Grapes

And the centerpiece is slightly different - we each get a hard boiled egg ...

The Mister gets a chick (the egg broke around the middle, otherwise it would have been a deviled egg):



Mine is Totoro! - cut a 'V' out of the top of the egg to make the ears, painted the egg with food colouring, used the leftover egg to make the eyes, black sesame seeds for the pupils and nose:



Here's a closeup of Totoro:

dinner post

I had to take a photo of dinner, because it was so pretty (dinner doesn't normally look like this, I promise you).
I was planning on serving rice with it and making some imitation crab maki sushi, but the rice did NOT cook properly (it was mush on the bottom and crunchy on the top). I took the imitation crab and mixed it with some cabbage, mayo, sesame seeds and pepper to make a salad.
The sausage slices are a honey garlic smoked sausage cooked with a bit of garlic and some teriyaki sauce.
Frozen veggie dumplings with homemade gyoza sauce.
And finally, the part I am most happy with is the Cha Soba (green tea buckwheat noodles) - served cold, I lightly toasted some nori over a burner and cut it into thin strips, made some soba tsuyu (dipping sauce) and served it with some wasabi and green onions (as per several websites when I was looking up how to serve the cha soba). I mixed the wasabi and green onions into the dipping sauce and dipped the noodles in before eating them. The noodles are so refreshing and the wasabi complimented the flavour so nicely.

I always wondered about all the different sauces they serve at Japanese restaurants, and once I started incorporating some of the cuisine into my cooking, I learned that those sauces are all pretty simple and only require 3-4 main ingredients used in different combinations.
My next goal is to make gyoza from scratch! I'll probably wait until we're moved in to our new house before tackling that.

Bento #22

Quickie lunch for Saturday.

Fish shaped sandwiches - one egg salad and one PB&J - we got this really great low calorie jam from superstore, it's pomegranate and black currant. I always loved black currant jam as a kid (it came in a blue plastic tub with a white lid), and I love pomegranate now. I don't normally eat sandwiches, let alone PB&J, and this is the third time this week I've had it, that's how good the jam is.

Meatballs with teriyaki sauce and pineapple.

Grapes
Strawberry
Snow Peas
Grape tomatoes

Outside the box is a clementine and a taro pudding jelly cup
Bringing but not shown - a juice box (apple, orange, peach) and chicken noodle cup a soup.

The Mister's box has an egg salad sandwich - no cute shapes, just cut into 3 pieces to fit in the box. He also gets the meatballs, snow peas and grapes.

He came home and reported that he showed his lunch to his co-workers, because he was so excited about his egg chick.
Two of them thought I was awesome and one of them wishes I was his wife.

Bento #17

This was yesterday's bento - I've been making them a lot more lately, but I just haven't had the time to take photos and such.

Inside is:

1 cup rice - 3:1 mix of white and black rice (cooked together, makes it purple)
1 tuna croquette (recipe from "Good Eats")
Container with tartar sauce
Chicken, carrot and snow pea teriyaki
Broccoli tossed in wasabi and soy sauce

The little packet off to the side is instant miso soup.

This was kind of an "oh no, I need lunch, what's left in the fridge?" bento.
I had completely forgotten that I cut up a couple of chicken breasts and stashed them in the freezer in small portions, it came in handy!

Bento #14

Made identical lunches for the Mister myself.

I've been playing with the black rice more, and I made "Ninja Roll" sushi - black rice filled with salmon teriyaki. I was going to be a dork and put black sesame seed eyes in at least one of them, but I resisted.
Also in there are some vegetable dumplings and some homemade dipping sauce for them.
Meatballs with teriyaki sauce, carrot flowers and green onion
A deviled egg with salt, pepper and fresh chives
and some carrots and snow peas to fill it up.

Bento #5

breakfast
Peaches and Cream Oatmeal - 240 calories

lunch / dinner
Tamagoyaki (2-eggs, cut into 7 pieces, I took 3, the Mister gets 4) - 100 cal
1/2 cup lightly salted rice - 140 calories
3 meatballs with teriyaki sauce - 65 calories
carrot sticks - 12 calories
creamy cucumber dressing - 50 calories
chopped turkey pepperoni - 35 calories (did not use whole stick)
cheese cubes - 135 calories
(The Mister got almost exactly the same bento, just bigger portions)

Smoothie (banana, chocolate soy milk, raspberry yogurt) -
345 calories

Peach - 40 calories

Peaches in Strawberry Gel fruit cup - 90 calories

Butterscotch Pudding - 120 calories (I might not eat this, I've brought it to work and home a couple of times already (it's the shelf-stable stuff))

Deliciously Red Juice Box - 90 calories

total: 1342 - 1462 calories


I have to talk a bit about the "Deliciously ..." juice boxes I bought. They are a fruit and veggie juice blend (from concentrate), with no sugar added.
It's apparently 2 servings of fruit and veggies per 250ml - of course, the juice box sizes are 200ml. Gotta love it.
The red has beet, carrot, lemon, yumberry, red bell pepper, apple (and/or) grape juices, and cherry and plum purees.
The yellow has pineapple, carrot, passsion fruit, lemon, yellow bell pepper, apple (and/or) grape juices and apple and golden kiwi purees.
They are both really good - I like the yellow better though.
There is also a purple one, which I was hesitant to buy, as I have never really liked the usual purple 'grape juice', but this one looks okay. It's got beet, elderberry, red bell pepper, purple carrot, apple (and/or) grape juices and plum puree.
I'll have to try that one next time.

I need to get out and do a big veggie shop again. We don't buy produce from our regular grocery store, because it never looks appetising, and it's pretty expensive. I usally go to a farm market where I can spend $20 and come out with 2 oversized grocery bags full of fruit and veggies.
As an example, grocery store charges $3-$4 for a package of snow peas, farm market charges $1 - $1.50 for the same one.
Grocery store cherry tomatoes - $5.99 per package, farm market - 2 packs for $4 (including variety packs with fancy tomatoes.)