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 #48 and #49

I'm so behind!



Mini pita sandwiches - 2 mini pitas cut in half, filled with red leaf lettuce, turkey, mozzarella, Caesar dressing (low calorie) and pepperoncini.
Cucumber
Tomato
Carrots
Pepper Kinpira




this one was a mish-mash

noodles with sesame oil and soy sauce
deviled egg
meatballs (on a pick!)
chicken nuggets
potato smiles
frozen corn
carrots
blueberries
and a container of teriyaki sauce for the meatballs.

delish!

***

Next one is Bento #50 ... I'd like to say that I'll do something special, but I probably won't.

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:

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 #10

So, I got an official diagnosis - I do not have to continue with the gluten free diet, I have a different skin condition.

One minor thing though, is the medication I need to take for it for the next few months can result in weight gain.
Good thing I have already started to eat right and exercise. It will make it easier.

Back to work today after a week's vacation.



My bento today contains:
3 eating right meatballs
tomato sauce (in the strawberry container)
2 mini onigiri - rice mixed with furikake
a deviled egg
cucumber with creamy cucumber dressing on top
grape tomatoes
grapes
carrots
m&m's

I used the silicone cups that are supposed to fit together in the bento box - my box is a touch too narrow one way, and a little wide the other way (so the cups squish a little, but there is space between the end one and the others - perfect spot for the grape tomatoes though!)

Bento #9

Tomorrow morning, I'm going out for a 10k(+) walk with a friend.
We will be going for lunch at Kushi Box (if it's still there - the website is down), but I thought it would be nice to pack a small bento for each of us as well, just in case we are really hungry.

I used the top tiers of my URARA Dragonfly and my Mori No Otomodati bento boxes.
Inside each one is:
- Onigiri filled with tuna salad
- 1/4 apple pear
- 3 snow peas
- 2 meatballs
- homemade jalapeno jelly

For the next little while I am going to be going gluten free.
I am being tested for celiac disease, as I am showing signs of a skin condition that is triggered by gluten intolerance.
The blood test should come back pretty quickly, but the skin biopsy will take about 3 weeks. I'm going to eat gluten free until the skin biopsy comes back, just to see if it will make any kind of difference.
Thankfully (sort of) my mother-in-law has celiac disease, so she has a bunch of resources and will be able to help me out.
It will be a big change. I don't expect The Mister to give it up, as he loves his sandwiches, but it won't be an issue to have the bread in the house - I can't remember the last time I ate any!
I'm just glad I already started to use more rice and less pasta in our regular diets.

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.)

Bento #1

breakfast
Life Cereal with skim milk: 280 cal

lunch
yakisoba: 180 cal (me) / 277 cal (the Mister)
3 meatballs with teriyaki sauce: 60 cal
1-egg tamagoyaki: 105 cal
5 snow peas: 7 cal
4 carrots: 15 cal
1 small strawberry: 3 cal
2 grapes: 6 cal
Fruit bar: 50 cal

Me 380 cal
The Mister 476 cal

I decided to experiment and tried to make yakisoba with no real recipe. I'm sure I could have found real soba noodles if I went to T&T, but I used 'steam noodles' ramen noodles, and it seemed to work. I don't have any mirin, so I'm missing that flavour, but I added soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and sugar - tasted not bad right out of the pan last night, but tasted MUCH better today. Added cabbage and onion. Topped it off with some sliced turkey deli meat lighly fried in a little teriyaki sauce (no oil added) and some sliced green onion.

The meatballs are 'eat right' brand. I compared them to the store brand, and they were 1/2 the calories! I think that's worth the extra dollar or so.

Made tamagoyaki using the 1 egg recipe from justbento.com

The Mister didn't work today, but this was mostly an experiment lunch, so I made one for him too.

I did have a quiznos sub for dinner... around 780 calories. Won't do that again.
An apple juice box - 100 calories, and water.

So, even with the naughty dinner, 1600 calories consumed today - yay!

I did 20 minutes of yoga, and walked somewhere over 6,300 steps - I deleted it before I got the kilometer count.