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Between packing up stuff we don't use constantly, house hunting and viewing, work, and day to day life (not to mention the fact that Kaia is teething, AND she just got her 12 month immunizations...), I haven't even been eating lunch, nevermind bento-izing and photographing it.
But tonight, I put in a little effort for hubby's lunch for tomorrow. I have been making him lunches, but nothing with enough color/variety that I'd consider it photoworthy at all. :3
Roundy Lock n Lock with salad and dressing, square side dish of red grapes. Main container - plain onigiri with a chick soy sauce bottle, chicken burgers cut into chunks, with a container of BBQ sauce for company (yes, new containers! No more HK for hubby! I also got a new bento box, but haven't been able to use it yet), celery, and half a crunchy peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich.
I'll try to be better with my lunches (or at least actually EAT), but no guarantees, at least not until life calms down. x_X
On a side note, but still food related - I bought a new cookware set. Haven't cracked it open, and won't until we move (just one more thing to repack), but it's snazzy! It's bright orange - this picture I found doesn't really do it justice. Hopefully this works; I'm a total HTML n00b.
Yay, I found time to make a semi-bento lunchie for hubby! ^_^
Contents: Ham and cheese sandwich on a roll, carrots, plum wedges (that was one huge plum!), corn, and hot pepper rings.
Hopefully I can keep this up. I missed bentoing. :3
Normally, I make this recipe into two BIG loaves, but I wanted something a little more portable (for lunches!), so I divided it into 16 minis! I didn't end up getting to the store to get spring onions or sesame seeds, but this bread is pretty darn good all on it's own. There's something about homemade bread that makes it so yummy! It helps that the house smells like it now, too. Mmm...*stuffs her face*
If anyone wants the recipe, I'll post it. :P
...mostly. Kaia is teething, and she's normally a fusspot as it is, so I'm tearing my hair out a little. On a Kaia note, today is her first birthday! Her party is on Sunday, so I'm getting together stuff for the meal/cakes. I'll post a picture of the cakes I make her - I have big hopes for my designs! :3
Food - As of right now, there is NO fruit in the house, discounting Kaia's baby food. Veggies? Potatoes. A cabbage. And a rutabaga. Oh, and some frozen corn, which will be going into hubby's lunch. I used up the last of my frozen peas today. >_<
(Don't worry - Kaia always eats very well. I make all of her food, aside from her baby cereal. She gets the best of the best, and always organic when possible! I should stop being so cheap regarding my own diet, I think...)
I'm officially going to have to break down and buy groceries. There's tons of FOOD in the house, yes, but it's all starches! Rice, pastas, bread, etc. The pantry is packed, but aside from condiments, some soup cans, and pasta sauce, it's all starch! D: And that just isn't a healthy diet. :x
Maybe I can find something to make with my lentils that hubby will actually eat. Any ideas? I've never really used lentils much. I bought them meaning to try incorporating more non-meat protein sources into our diet, and never did find a recipe for them. I have red and green lentils. Just no idea how to use them! :3
A poster on the bentolunch community on LiveJournal posted a piccie of her lunch, and the bread looked SO good. I'm going to try and make something like it, I think. Just need to buy some sesame seeds and spring onions. So yeah, that settles it. Going to have to buy food. :P
It's been a while since I last baked homemade bread anyway, so it's overdue. LoveLOVE homemade bread, but Kaia being Kaia, it's damn near impossible for me to find time to do anything I can't do onehanded. Hopefully once hubby gets home, I'll get a chance. :3
I made Rice-A-Roni Spanish rice as the main part of my lunch for tomorrow...and I totally hated it. Blech. I'm so picky...I will stick with my regular recipe from now on. I'll just have to buy a salad at work.
Next to no veggies in the house now (do potatoes count? I think there's some mixed frozen veggies, but I like to save those for "fried" rice...), and the only fruits are apples (which I dislike in general - it's a texture thing), and bananas. So my bento would have been boring anyway. x_x My parents are meat & potatoes-type people to the extreme. They buy a TON of starchy stuff, which really sucks for me. I'm a vegetarian, and I like my veggies, dammit! >_<
I'm grateful for what they're doing for us, letting us stay here and all...but I would go crazy if we weren't getting out soon. They are very hard to live with on so many levels...love em, but we don't see eye to eye very often. :3
Might have to break down and buy groceries...but I really hope we don't have to, as I don't want to spend money on anything I don't have to at this point. The more we save, the more we have once we move! D:
I did crack out my new rice ball mold though, and made a batch of little round onigiri! I also learned that one batch of rice, made according to package directions, makes exactly 12 rice balls. Which is perfect, really - I'll only have to make a batch once a week. Two per day for hubby's lunch, and one for each day I work, since I only work Saturday and Sunday.
Hopefully I can make a decent lunch for Sunday - I miss my bento already! :(
See that pile of rice in the lower left corner? Yeah, that used to be a sheep onigiri. He broke in half when I was shifting it from the bowl I microwaved it in (was from my frozen stash)! :( Oh well, it'll still taste good. :P
Keeping my poor rice company is a few sprigs of broccoli, and an elephant soy sauce bottle. In the main portion of the Lock n Lock are two chicken burger patties cut into chunks, a few buttered brussels sprouts, a HK container of BBQ sauce for the chicken, and a pear, cut into chunks, topped with cinnamon. You can't really see it, but there's a cute soft green monkey food pick tucked in beside the pear chunks. I just received it today, along with a few others, and my rice ball moulds and green grapes kinchaku bag, to match my bento box! Yay! So after I use up the last of my handformed onigiri, it's on to the rounds! I'll make up a batch tomorrow, probably. ^_^
I know, not much color in this one. We're moving soon, so we don't want to spend too much money til then. :3 So happy to finally be moving, though! The LATEST we'll be out is December 1st - something to look forward to!
Decided to test sending ramen noodles for hubby's lunch. I'm expecting they'll be a bit gloopy, but hopefully not too bad - I added a tiny bit of oil, let's hope that helps! Mixed veggies with the ramen. Mini burgers from the stash. Couple sprigs of broccoli. Chopped up plum, with an elephant food pick. Hello Kitty cuppy of ketchup for the burgers. And a scrambled egg brain.
Wait, what?!
Yeah, I scrambled two eggs, then formed it into a round. But, it looks like a brain, in my opinion. >_>; Appetizing!
Not shown, the usual side container with mini cookies and muffins.
Back to work time for hubby tomorrow, so time for more bento!
Top tier has baby carrots, red grapes, and a couple sprigs of lightly steamed broccoli. Bottom tier has bowtie pasta with sundried tomato pesto.
Side dish - you can actually see my baking now! @_@ A few tiny peanut butter cookies, and some mini corn muffins.
Happy Thanksgiving, to any Canadians out there! Mom cooked dinner for everyone yesterday, so leftovers to the rescue!
I made turkey "fried" rice. I love this stuff - it tastes good, uses up any leftover meat you have kickin' around, and it's a FAST add to a bento! Other tier is cheese cubes, a plum, and carrots.
This one is actually for hubby, but I figured it would be ok to put it in my pink piggy bento, since he's just eating at home - no work for him, since it's a holiday. :P
WE GOT A NEW CAMERA! Haha, yeah, I'm excited. We recently got cell phones, and with each, got a $50 gift card. Figured that it was a sign we should invest in a new camera! Only ended up paying 70something bucks with tax, yay free gift cards! We got a Sony Cybershot, 7.2 megapixels. Not too bad! It's pretty user-friendly, but I'm still getting used to it (and I'm somewhat technologically challenged, so bear with me! But, pictures should be better now! :D
Hubby-bento contains "fried" rice a la Biggie with ham and mixed veggies, grapes and carrots, and mini burgers with yellow hot pepper rings.
I made more hand-shaped onigiri today too, towards my freezer stash. Really liking that freezer stash - so nice to be able to grab stuff to add to lunches without any more effort than microwaving for a couple minutes!
And on a totally random note - Shrek 3 is freakin' hilarious! We need to buy it when it comes out on DVD, I LOVE that movie! Haha
I just had to post this. ^_^
My husband usually calls me while on breaks at work. He just called me a little bit ago, and mentioned that a few of his coworkers said his lunch looked great today, and that it was great that his wife took pride in her cooking. Hehehe, that made my day.
Hubby's reply? Just wait til I get a real bento box, then it'll be even better! He then went on to explain a little about bento meals in general, and they were all enthralled, and said they wished their wives/girlfriends would make them nice lunches. :P
Poor coworkers and their plain old sandwiches, or mediocre cafeteria food. :3
So, I've quickly learned that my new spot for taking photos really isn't any better than the others - anything light colored gets totally washed out, and with flash off, isn't very visible. x_x
I actually took the whole afternoon baking/cooking stuff in mass batches to freeze for bentos - mini banana bread muffins, mini corn muffins, supercute mini peanut butter cookies with star decors, randomly shaped onigiri, and a bunch of mini hamburgers. Alas, the cookies and such look lame as hell with this crappy camera, because you can't see all the little details I put into them. :(
Top is my bento - simple, I know, but I still feel like hell. This is the most solid food I've eaten since I got sick. I never feel like eating when I'm sick, the most I eat is soup. :S Consists of one mini banana bread muffin, some raisins, red grapes, and brussels sprouts and carrots with a little butter.
Hubby's for tomorrow. Mini burgers with a few yellow hot pepper rings, lion soy sauce bottle for the onigiri (you can't see it very clearly either, and it's CUTE!). Two butterfly onigiri stacked on top of each other (I even took the time to draw on yellow details on the top butterfly, using a hot pepper's juice), surrounded by red grapes, and brussels sprouts with carrots (with a little butter on 'em).
Side dish with 4 mini peanut butter cookies (the star decors make them SO cute, I really need to take a picture of them somewhere they can be seen properly! :( , two mini banana bread muffins, and one mini corn muffin. Also, a hello kitty container of ketchup for the burgers, and more soy sauce for the onigiri.
I found the original recipe at allrecipes.com, but tweaked it a bit when I wasn't entirely happy with it. Oh - and the verdict is in on the rice-and-beef mix - he said he really liked it! :) Anyhoo:
~2 tablespoons veggie oil
2 tablespoons finely diced onion (or coarser chop, if you prefer)
1 1/2 cups white rice
2 cups chicken broth (I'm sure veggie broth would work too)
1/4 cup water (or more broth, if you feel like it)
1 cup chunky salsa (I'm a fan of medium, hubby prefers hot)
1/2 packet of taco seasoning (think the packet I use is 35g total)
Heat oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and stir around til tender. Toss in rice, stir around til it gets that translucent look - just a minute or two.
Add in the rest of the stuff. Stir, cover, turn heat to low - you just want it to simmer - and cook for about 15-20mins, or til liquid is absorbed. Then eat!
If you feel like adding beef, just cook your rice, fry up some beef (with a little water and the other half of the taco seasoning, if you want more of that flavor), and stir it all together. Simple!
Yeah, I'm sure my hubby will be thrilled with this one. I told him, "Your lunch is cute!"...his reply? "Great..." >_>;
Halloween is coming, though! I decided to try making onigiri for the first time, be afraid! One is a pumpkin shape, one is just a roundie, and they both have raisin faces - I don't have nori yet. Green and red grapes surround them, and a couple pumpkin shaped candies are joining the party. A little soy sauce bottle is hiding under the pumpkin, for the onigiri. I resisted the urge to put one of my cute animal soy sauce bottles in, and used a plain one. It could be worse, right? :P
Peas and corn on the left side, more grapes and carrot sticks (again!) in a side dish, and the last of the corn muffins in a little ziplock bag.
I've been searching for alternate sites to buy my bento stuff from, aside from eBay, and J-List seems to be a decent choice. I've actually bought a couple animes from them in the past, and was very happy with the service, so I probably will try them next time. They have bento boxes and more - furikake too! I haven't been able to find any furikake with a decent price tag on eBay, so that's even more of a reason for me. Also, Japanese snacks sound good - I can't get much in the way of it here. Mmm... :3
While I think about it, here's my recipe for mini corn muffins:
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
1 egg
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400F. Grease two 12-count mini muffin pans (or use liners, if you prefer).
Mix together all dry ingredients. Toss in wet ingredients, stir just enough to combine thoroughly. Split evenly between muffin tins.
Bake til a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (I don't remember exact time, I'm going off memory here - no more than 15mins)
Makes 24 mini muffins.
I had a little Spanish rice sitting in a bowl in the fridge - leftovers from earlier. I fried up some ground beef, and mixed the two together. The result? I got my youngest brother to play guinea pig for me, and he says it's good. We'll see what hubby thinks tomorrow. :P
My last two veggie egg rolls and a mini corn muffin accompany the beefy rice. And, a side dish of grapes and carrot sticks.
I know, I repeat a fair bit, but I hate waste. D: Also, my dad bought a hugeass bag of carrots that I have to burn through before they go bad! (It's BIG, I think 10lbs?)
Ok, that didn't last long. I feel craptastic, but I felt guilty about not making my hubby meals (especially to take to work), so I made him bentos anyway. I actually DID make one last night for his lunch today, but I was too out of it to care enough to take a picture.
This one is for his dinner, as I know he'll be very hungry when he gets home - he apparently didn't notice the side dish of carrot sticks or corn muffins when he took his lunch out of the fridge this morning, so his lunch is kinda small for him. I think this meal looks small in the picture, but it is quite large - I think that container holds close to 4 cups or so. It's just your average tupperware-ish container, but I wanted something square for a change!
New tweaked version of Spanish rice (I'll post a recipe if he deems it satisfactory), with carrot sticks (repurposed from the forgotten side dish), cherry tomatoes from the garden, and steamed broccoli. Not shown, three mini corn muffins.
Going to have to make more muffins soon - I make a batch of 24 minis, and freeze them for future use. I'll post the recipe later on. ^_^
My temperature is sitting at 102 degrees right now, so I apologize if this makes little to no sense - I'm trying! D:
