Panda Box with Strawberries

New box filled with deviled eggs, hummus, and strawberries.

Deviled Eggs and Salad Bento

Rub a dub dub

New gear, new year!

I purchased some adorable little containers for bento and filled them with salad-friendly accouterments. 

chia, salad dressing, and cashews

Mixed organic salad greens, deviled eggs, a squeeze of lime in the yellow part. From the garden last summer some dried Juliet tomatoes, and cabot cheese with the animals in the green part. Honey crackers, and a couple of hard Jolly Rogers candies in the beige part. 

Put it all together and what do you got?

 

Deviled eggs and salad

All wrapped up in a Burger Box!

Hamburger Bento Box!

Rejected Mummies Bento

Hitting an October stride and bentoing along the way. This was my lunch for Tuesday this week.

Mandarin oranges, red grapes, container of salt for the radishes, three rolls of deli ham guarded by two happy pandas, and three radishes with their tails up high.

Next tier is a leftover chard and mushroom stuffed chicken breast, rejected mummies, and soy sauce marbled hard boiled egg.

This is one of my favorite boxes!

Welcome 2012 bento

Happy lucky wild fun yummy hopeful daring and altogether pleasant new year to you!

This at home bento was yesterday's Martin Luther King Jr. birthday/federal holiday lunch.

Rice balls with a miniature pickled plum. Just add hot water miso soup with tofu. Teri-chicken, kale, black pepper omelet, rainbow cherry tomatoes, and radishes with their tails.

There's nothing to eat, Mr. Bento

There's nothing to eat, Mr. Bento, a photo by Judy's Notebook on Flickr.


There's plenty to eat, but nothing looks good, and I want to be served too. All this rushing around before work to make sure I'm not just gulping down a bag o' chips and Dr. Pepper. Life is tough. 


Oh boo hoo. 


So I got out the old Mr. Bento and marveled at just how much space needs to be filled. Pickles and grapes fit into the smaller rounds nicely. A bean and cheese quesadilla sizzled in the stove. Easy and crunchy. My new motto?

Rolled some lovely scrambled organic eggs and used pups and penguins picks for some tasty salami. Lots of protein proportionately, but this lunch was perfect for the cold rainy day.

I think autumn may be here at last.

Remember Me Bento

This charming box was one of the first ones I purchased two years ago when I started to bento. It adorns the header of this blog, my twitter page, and many photos in the old flickr account. I love it!

This box is also rather large and I find that size is an important aspect of my bento experience. I need a variety of proteins, a good dose of fruit and veggies, and whatever else sounds good.

I always pack my bento in the morning but often plan the night before or even days before trying to make dishes that will be good served as leftovers.

Teriyaki sesame chicken is a fabulous lunch. Tasty cold. So are garlic fried shiitakes - that's what is in the cup with the heart jeweled pick. Picks are a great way to add a smile to lunchtime.

Here's the whole shebang. In the same box as the chicken, there is fruit, as in cherries and cut up nectarines. In the other box is cucumber sushi and soy sauce in a pig on one side, and fresh cucumber pickles and dill pickle slices with an egg dish called Tamagoyaki (Japanese-style omlette) inspired by a recipe in The Manga Cookbook.  

orange you a good pup

I started this blog 9.10.09 and during the first year I had a blast buying, making, and eating bentos. This past year I fell out of the groove, primarily due to the severe illness of a dear friend. It was the same for all my blogs actually. I just couldn't write or think about writing.

Well, I'm back now, I think, so I'll see you around.

Mr. Bento is such a stud!

Mr. Bento came to work with me this past week.

I made a batch of teriyaki chicken as per hapa bento's suggestion to have a bento stash. Good idea hapa bento! (She's having a giveaway too!)

Also made a quick chili with black olives. The crisper was bare, so no additional veggies, darn it. But lots of cheese melted in (which is why it looks so orange) (that and lovely florescence lights at work).

Organic wheat thin styled crackers. So good. And Botan Rice candies! smile smile smile

Hard egg that is sliced-o-matic, hummus, pickles, raspberries, and bacon.

I can never say "bacon" again without sounding like that dog in that commercial.

Notice the background? That's my beachy desk - all speckled with sand.

Deliver me bento

This was last Thursday's lunch. The end of work in the merry month of May when just about everything went wrong. (Is Mercury in retrograde?)

Everything in work, that is. Home life was fine. Cooking meals and gardening were terrific, but work sucked. And I have to get over it and move on because it's a new month tomorrow.

I like to turn a new leaf.

Bentoin' all week with you

Monday ! Tuesday ! Bento Days!

Leftover panko chicken and stuffed peppers, and vegetables and brie and crackers.

Mixed salad, chicken sausage and rolled omelet, carrots and tomatoes and hummus, cookies and candy.

Wednesday ! Thursday ! Bento Days!

Tomatoes and mangoes chunked, hummus and peanut butter with bread sticks and kumquats.

Heirloom tomatoes and cottage cheese and a carrot star and thinly sliced radish, pecans and orange slices and bell pepper and carrots and strawberries

Yay!

The Groundhog sees his shadow bento

And that means 6 more weeks of winter. It also means winter is over half-way done. So yay! Happy Groundhog Day!

This groundhog was made with peanut butter and nutella (Oh btw Happy Nutella Day is today!) and that's buttah for the whites of his eyes. I really envisioned something a little different than this. But this is what came out. It's all on my homemade sourdough mini loaf. 

Gamene over at bentozen requested the sourdough recipe, so I might try to post it someday. I sort of do it differently every time. Also Gamene is throwing an outrageous give-away, if you're into bento, check it out.

The rest of this bento is a deviled egg (I know - my old stand by) and bacon. For fiberous fun I added a sliced purple carrot and a little yellow carrot cut into sticks. And tangerine juicy jellies. Actually it looks like the groundhog is eyeing the candy in this pic.

The Spicy Deviled Egg

The language of cooking is fascinating. A scant, a heaping, a dash, a pinch. What does it all mean, Mom?

She would teach me how many teaspoons were in a tablespoon, quarts in a gallon, and so on. She would pull out the Betty Crocker cookbook and we would make snickerdoodles. I would get to measure and sift, and she would hover over the KitchenAid. I would roll the balls in cinnamon and sugar, and she would man cookie sheet and the oven.

There's a lot to be said about teaching your child to cook. It's a math and chemistry lesson, with some cultural history, and a smattering of social skills all in one.

Take the egg. Mom would hard boil that egg to an inch of its life. It took me years to undo that lesson, but that's okay because I always enjoyed "the better late than never" philosophy. Personally when it comes to eggs, I can't eat more than one a day, and I really don't fancy eating them everyday anyway.

I went to a deviled egg party one time, and it was too much. Platters and platters of eggs made with one thing or another. Me, I like one deviled egg at a time. One, as in two halves, and spicy. Here is my version.

The Lip Plumping Deviled Egg

Take one hardboiled* egg and slice in half, lengthwise. Pop out yolks in a small bowl. Add a scant teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a heaping teaspoon of mayo, a dash of cumin, a shake of ground pepper, and a good shake of salt.

Take a fork and mash and stir till desired consistency. (Can you stand a few lumps or do you need it perfectly creamy? For me it depends on my current level of patience.)

Divide mixture in half with the eyeball and scoop back into egg white halves.

Put a small bit of ground cayenne pepper in the palm of your hand and take a small pinch with your fore finger and thumb and sprinkle on the yolk mixture. Repeat for other half.

Consume.

*Here is how I hard boil eggs.
Put four chicken eggs in a one quart pot. Fill with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil on medium high heat. Cover. Turn off heat. Set timer to 16 minutes. Prepare ice bath in sink with ice cubes and cold water. When timer dings, pour off hot water and put eggs in ice bath. Spin them around and let the eggs cool off. Get a container that has a top that will hold four eggs in water. When eggs are cool, run the water slowly in sink while you crack and peel each egg under the running water. Repeat for other three eggs. Put in container and fill with cold water. Seal and place in fridge. Eggs can be used when cold.

Mini Tostados and Lemon Slice bentos

To the right here is Wednesday's lunch. I can see by adding the extra chips that one cannot tell that those were meant to be three mini tostados. But they were.

They were filled with refried beans and green salsa and topped with cheddar cheese.


On Thursday I did a little experiment with an artichoke heart leftover from the previous night's dinner. We eat a lot of artichokes. It's easy for him to make. The trick to keeping them is lemon juice as chokes oxidize to a rather unappetizing black color.

When I open the box at work, the lemon smell was powerful and I was afraid to taste the choke at first, but it was surprisingly delish.

Crab Apple Bento

Apple and chicken sausage with shiitake omelet, rice with flower detail, rice snacks, cheese, tangerine treat, date nuggets, and an organic crab apple.

I would really love a crab apple tree in the front yard. Maybe I will convince him this year.

oh no egg salad bento

One egg was used. Cut in half and yolk removed. Bottom half of white mashed together with yolk, mustard, and mayo. Toast was cut in an egg shape and cracked in the middle. Sesame eyes and carrot beak on the face, and it is all laying on a bed of baby greens mostly red and green oak leaf lettuce.

The Sausage Was Good

Breakfast for Lunch

The lessons I learned making this bento, my my, I will tell you.

After feeling like a pile of crap for many days, I awoke to a slight headache and full of energy. The headache went bye bye after a nice hot shower, and I was ready to begin the day.

The first order of busy-ness was a pomegranate. Now everybody knows that seeding a pomegranate is a zen-like experience. It might also be helpful to be stoned. But rather than fall down that slippery slope first thing in the morning, I decided to let my *yawn* first blush of the day ease me through the task.

I cut open the monster (the pomegranate was as big as a grapefruit) and the puddle of blood oozed out on the cutting board. I cut each half again in half again and rub the jewels into a container, all the while jabbering on to The Mister about my plan of the day.

I want to do a Cute Bento, I said. Of course, that is a redundancy, I continued, hahahahah.

He said something like huh-ehh (fart).

Yes, I said, a Cute! Bento.

Hmmm. An acute bento, he said. Sounds like a disease.

So we were off and running as they say of the day. Many of my favorite bento artists were using pomegranate in their daily bentos the week I non-commissioned. Inspired by my growing stash of shiny gems, I envisioned using my new pink single story box and filling it with breakfast food that I have been craving.

Really pink and girly with no Halloween-y to detract.

Then I thought well maybe a couple of ghouls with big eyes hiding in the back, but everything else - pink bows and pink elephants and pink flower cups.

Lesson 1. Keep the creative process open.

Maybe the french toast could look like an old dead tree, I thought. That would be cool. Like the trees in OZ that threw apples at Dorothy & Co. With eyes and mouths and arms. And if I have an old dead tree, I might as well have a graveyard. Yes indeed the bento was being transformed.

What I didn't expect were the owls. They were ghouls poking their heads up from the ground. When I went to put eye on them, they became owls. You can't see the wings, but that doesn't mean they don't have them.

Lesson 2. Working with Nutella is a bitch.

Since this was to be a edible bento by me for me straight away, I wanted my eggs hot. Cold eggs are okay, but today they had to be hot, or at least warm. So I had to be quick with photos plus no stress on the details and perfection. Ah yes. The heat of the eggs melted the Nutella which was also the glue that held the eyeballs on the owls and they started to slide down.

Meanwhile The Mister started to bug me. Not now, I cried. I've put too much into this piece!

Oh the Drama!

In the end I had to change lenses. Nutella on everything. Yuck! But I ate my Breakfast for Lunch bento and it was really good.

Lesson 3. The unexpected pairing that was superb - pomegranate and bacon - yum!

Oh and the milk bottle (bats eyelashes) that's maple syrup.


Now for a couple of blog items:

I have a giveaway in progress. You must go here to enter. Please do. The more, the merrier.

I have a new Flickr group, Bentoland, and I'm the only member. I tell you that is sad! I know there are lots of bento groups out there already, but I'm really open to suggestions to make this a fun adventure!

Hello Kitty Mini Box

The Tuscan melon was so sweet. Definitely the best part of this meal. The monster egg was the result of an accident. I love peanut butter mini sandwiches. Next time I'm going to add eyes.