January 10 - Onigiri with Beet Salad

.

.

The only thing I had leftover from dinner last night were some beets, so I had to get creative.

I didn't want to just throw the beets in there plain. That's how I had them for dinner, and it was delicious, but I wanted something different for lunch. I grabbed my Just Bento cookbook, and flipped to the index to see if there were any recipes featuring beets. There was one, so this is it. It's a beet salad with a grainy mustard dressing. I sliced up the beets in to thinner pieces before dressing them.

I settled on chicken nuggets as my protein - there are actually 4 in there, one is hidden under the cup.

And for my carb, I've got 2 onigiri, made with a plum rice seasoning I found at a little Japanese style convenience store near my work.

I filled the space with grape tomatoes (I like how these ones are slightly green at the tips - they don't taste underripe, but they look nice!), and some carrot matchsticks.

Fresh Start

Holy cow, I've been gone a while.

I've been super lazy for my work lunches for aaaaaaaaaaaages, and I want to try and be healthy, and look forward to my lunches again.
For the last several months, I've been throwing assorted veggies into a zip lock bag, a hand full of crackers in another, an apple sliced up with a container of peanut butter, a fruit cup or some pudding, and anything else random that I feel like.

Well, hopefully no more ...

Since it's been so long, I'm sure nobody will notice, but the blog has a new name, and a new theme.

On to the Food!

I work early, so I have to bring breakfast with me too. In the small container we have some greek yogurt with a touch of honey, and some vanilla almond granola mixed in (it was packed separately in a tiny zip lock bag, but I mixed it in before the photo)

Lunch is a leftover chili-cheese sausage from dinner, potato-cucumber salad, grape tomatoes, snow peas and a deviled egg. Also, a can of flavoured sparkling water (I find it helps me not drink pop - I get the fizz without all the sugar or chemicals)

Simple and tasty!

Oh! Also new is the box - it is a 550ml glass container with a 4-way locking lid. Haven't tested it's water-tightness yet, but it has a rubber seal. The yogurt container is a round plastic 100ml version. I got them both at a dollar store. Big container was $2, little container came in a 3-pack for $1.25.

Now I have to go make tomorrow's lunch!

Bento #68

I woke up and wanted to cook something, because I've been eating frozen dinners at work for a while. I've just been so tired, and I hate it.

My mom gave me a bag of chicken strips - she had found a whole bunch of frozen breaded chicken on sale, so she stocked up.
I decided to make easy chicken tonkatsu with them. Since I've never made tonkatsu before, I had no sauce in the house. I used this recipe minus the allspice, because I don't have any of that either.

I made a bento for my cousin as well - he got hired at the same office as me a few weeks ago, and we're working the same shift tonight.



We each get:
Rice
Chicken tonkatsu (2 chicken strips with sauce)
Deviled egg
Carrot sticks
Edamame

I had some leftover rice, and I made 2 more chicken stirips than what I needed, so I threw a bit of food together for my husband to eat later. Instead of just plain rice though, I gave him bonito flavoured onigiri. I had already decided to make a deviled egg for him, because he loves them.

Bento #67

Today I had ...
2 onigiri with furikake (plum and salmon)
deviled egg
marinated mushrooms
coleslaw with mandarin orange sesame dressing
carrots

smaller today, but delicious :D

Bento #66

I'm working the late shift at work this week - 3pm to 11pm!
My bentos will be a little larger this week, because they are for dinner instead of lunch.



Today's Bento is

Chicken karaage (I cooked it a little too long, so please excuse the burnt bits - but the chicken was still juicy and delicious!)
Gomae (spinach salad with sesame sauce)
Onigiri with plum furikake
Coleslaw mix with mandarin orange sesame dressing
Tamagoyaki
Carrots and snow peas

The chicken and spinach were from the Just Bento Cookbook. I had to make the sesame sauce from scratch, following the recipe in the book - and even then I had to improvise. I really need to invest in a mortar and pestle.