Pasta Salad and Cocktail Sauages

I've been on a Greek salad kick - cucumber, tomato, pepper, onion, olive. So simple, so delicious.
Yesterday's lunch was packed in 15 minutes in the morning, and it was a full-sized version of the salad I had on Thursday, with the tomatoes cut in, and some olives added.

Today's bento incorporates the same flavours into a pasta salad, dressed with a feta salad dressing.



The pasta is one of those 'smart' ones, fortified and all that jazz.
The main protein today comes in the form of cocktail sausages (weiners!). I did 3 cut in half, and a 4th cut into an octopus, because it's hard to resist doing. There is a grainy mustard and mayo dip in the container.
I also have a tamagoyaki in there as a secondary protein. I didn't season it with the usual soy sauce and sugar - I used seasoned pepper instead, which is amazing on eggs.
Filled the space with 1/4 of an apple (not bunnified today, the other slice is hidden), broccoli and matchstick carrots.

Bento #40

I said I was going to ...

My Sailor Jupiter Bento box - it's not exact, but it's fairly close, and I was working with what I had on hand just to see if I could do it. Also, my bento box is smaller in size, so I couldn't fit as much as there is in the one from the cartoon.

Here is what I put in it, with comments.

2 round onigiri with furikake with lettuce baran - Jupiter has 3 onigiri and it looks like they are in a long divider cup.
tuna croquette (recipe from Alton Brown) - I only put in one, again due to space constraints, but it looks like she has 3 and they have some sort of sauce on them. I had to cram mine in, so I skipped the sauce.
pasta salad (whole wheat rotini, carrot, cucumber, honey ham, mayo, a dash of sour cream, onion spice mix) - If I used regular pasta, it would be closer in colour, but I like the whole wheat stuff, so ...
mini octodogs (hot dog cut into 4 pieces, only cut 4 legs on each one) - I didn't put faces on mine.
tamagoyaki slices - if I wanted it to look exactly like the picture, I could have used nori in the middle, but I didn't like the flavour when I tried that once.
juliened carrot and snap pea wrapped in honey ham slice (sealed with a dab of cream cheese) - it looks like this might have been wrapped in beef in Jupiter's
cherry tomato - this is the only thing that is exactly the same - hah!
Strawberry - I didn't have anything to replicate the pink things - I think it might be mochi, but the only mochi I have wouldn't have fit, and I didn't want to take the time to make some, because I was running out of steam.

This was a lot of fun ^_^
I'm sure I'll do it again someday.

I showed The Mister ... he kinda stopped and went "oh" - I think maybe he thinks this one is a bit too silly - haha. Thankfully his is different - it's got a lot of the same stuff, but it's laid out differently and in a square lock & lock container.

Bento #18

For tomorrow's bento, I made it mostly with the just bento cookbook. I changed a couple of things, because I didn't have some of the ingredients or wanted to try something different, but inspired by her recipes. Some of it came out a little small, so I packed in some fruit and snow peas to fill the rest of the space.

Rice with mixed veggies
Dwarf Bok Choy stir fried with garlic and tossed with a dash of sesame oil (yum!)
tamagoyaki
ham roll filled with chive whipped cream cheese and cheddar
strawberry
grapes
snow peas

I printed out the "weekly meal planner with bento lunch box" from the just bento website and slid it into a plastic page protector. I used a grease pencil, which wipes off the plastic very nicely, and wrote out this week's meals, planning the veggies and sides so I can use them for the bento lunches the next day. I stuck it to the side of the fridge with magnets for handy reference. (the wire basket has index cards with recipes in it)



Let's see how well I follow it!
I'm going to try and remember to take photos each day.

Finally, I went to the farm market and picked up a whole bunch of fruit and veggies for a great price. I want to make it my goal to try something new when I spot it at the market. This time around I got some enoki mushrooms, which I will be using in a bento later this week.
I guess the bok choy sort of counts too - I've eaten it before, but I've never made it myself - and these ones were so tiny!

Garlic Bok Choy Recipe:
large handfull of Bok Choy
1 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp beef broth
1 tsp sesame oil

heat oil and garlic, add bok choy and stir fry until leaves just begin to wilt - ensure garlic gets spread evenly . Add beef broth and quickly cover the pan, steam for a couple of minutes until heated through. Drizzle with sesame oil and toss.

Bento #16

I got a couple of single-tier bento boxes today. They're just the "Lovely" brand from Daiso - a blue 850ml one for the Mister and a pink 550ml one for me.
According to charts I've seen, they're each 50ml too small for our age (the height is quite far off), but that's okay, because we're both trying to lose weight.
Mine was a little harder to pack, because it is smaller (it's only 30ml smaller than my URARA dragonfly 2-tier box, but I'm not used to the single space).

Inside each box is a vegetable stir fry (not vegetarian, but it could be if you replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock):
1tsp olive oil fragranced with a piece of ginger (heat oil, lightly sautee ginger, remove - The Mister is not a big fan of ginger, so I didn't want to leave pieces in)
1/2 tsp minced garlic (I'm lazy and have the pre-minced stuff in a jar)
handfull each of snow peas, green pepper, yellow pepper cut into bite-sized pieces
handfull of carrot, thinly sliced
Sauce:
1/4 c chicken stock
splash each of mirin, rice vinegar and soya sauce
cornstarch (about 1tsp) to thicken

Tamagoyaki with herbs (we each get half):
2 eggs, a generous pinch each of parsley, basil and oregano, and about a teaspoon of finely chopped green onion.

I also made hot dog "jumping fish" - cute! (he gets 1 whole hot dog cut into 4 fish, I could only fit 3 fish into my box, so I ate one right away!). Put in a small container of honey dijon to dip the hot dogs in.

I get 1 cup of rice, he gets 1-1/2 cups - topped with carrot and snow pea flowers to make it pretty.

These ones look a lot more "traditional" than my other bento boxes - I actually really like it.

I'm really looking forward to getting the JustBento cookbook.
I've started a notebook specifically for bento friendly recipes - though I'm thinking of getting index cards and a plastic box so I can organize them, instead of just writing it all down and then having to flip through it all to find what I want.

***

In addition to the above bento boxes, I also bought a Makiyakinabe pan today. It's a small rectangular pan specifically for making tamagoyaki. It was only $2, and I make tamagoyaki often enough that I wanted to get a pan, so I could make them a nice uniform shape for the bento boxes.
People often say it's a single-purpose item, but as soon as I was done the omelette, threw in the hot dog "fish" to cook - they all fit perfectly in a single layer. I'm sure I can make use of it a lot with making various small portioned fried items for the bento boxes. And because it's a nonstick pan, I don't have to use much, if any oil.
Not something totally necessary or for everyone, but I'm glad I bought it.

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.)