Five rats and a chicken pot pie bento

This is my chicken pot pie bento in Mr. Bento.  I haven't used Mr. Bento in a while. Do you know of his style? Well, it is insulated. To some degree. And here I have chicken pot pie which must be warm. The topping must be warm by ambient heat. And the radishes and berries will be okay whatever.  Nothing is ever very warm with Mr. Bento. However, it is a nice change when the weather gets cold. I have no microwave or oven at work.

A Grade Ahh Bento

A Mr. Bento bento + A thermos of tea = Grade A Bento

Do you need a description?

Well OK - Here it goes.

Walnuts and chocolate - ahh!

Carrots and cabbage - ahh the next day.

Freshly made rice - ahh filling the tummy.

Little chicken dumplings - ahh yummy in the tummy.

Not just a Grade A Bento, 

A Grade Ahh Bento.

Mashed Taters & Gravy Bento

I took a Mr. Bento to work the other day. I might have mentioned that my work space is cold, as in ice box cold, when it is cold outside, so a warm lunch seems critical to my sense of comfort.

Hence comfort food!

I'm sparing you the really gruesome pics of the other parts of this bento. Did you know florescent lights make ugly bento photos?

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.

Long time no see Mr. Bento bento

I haven't tackle a Mr. Bento bento in a long time and was surprised to see very little recent activity on the Mr. Bento Flickr group. I wonder was it just a phase for some? Bento is certainly going strong, but maybe thermal bento - hot or cold - is beyond prime. Any thoughts on this are surely welcomed, or if I am mistaken and the troop has moved to a different camp, please let me know.

Now for the details. This was my Thursday bento. Thursdays are my long days and I found that I don't want to feel hungry at work because it makes me kind of grumpy and I don't want to be grumpy because well, who wants to be grumpy?

So clockwise, starting with the top left round, raw spinach, tiger pick, hummus, grape tomatoes, big fat green olives, double cream Gouda. Yum! 

Next round, smoked turkey and smoked Fontina on an onion bagel with Dijon and mayo. Yum! 

Next round, fresh pineapple (just cut in fact) with a happy lion pick and a marzipan strawberry. A bite of marzipan with a pineapple chunk equals bliss! 

Next round, blueberry yogurt.

I ate everything but the yogurt and now when I look at this picture, I think I know why.

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.

Bob's Bleu Cheese Bento

Baked polenta (it's so easy!) topped with miniature meatballs and a little creamy basil tomato sauce (top left). Homemade white bean and diced tomato soup (top right). Pistachios and chocolate-covered raisins with a couple of Easter eggs (bottom right). And baby herb salad with carrots and celery and nice little dish of Bob's famous Bleu Cheese dressing or dip.

Those of you who know Bob's restaurant chain know why they sell the dressing in 30 ounce glass jars in the produce department of your local supermarket.

A week of winter bento or not

I was poorly prepared for bento this week. Partially because the baby back ribs that would be fodder for Tuesday's bento did not come out. That is to say the ribs didn't taste right. Apparently they were defrosted and re-frozen when the power was out last week.

So I had to resort to hummus and pita bread and that was fine. I am experimenting with pickles, so the carrots and radishes are actually pickles and they are sitting on a sprout mix.

The delight of Tuesday's bento was the miniature tangerines. No seeds and really sweet, they were a fun addition.

Wednesday I was at a loss. I decided to buy a deli sandwich near work, and immediately wished I had my $6.73 back in my pocket. 

Oh well, I have to make that mistake every once in a while to remind myself that even a few basic things from home are usually better than old deli food.

Thursday's bento is a bit of a joke. This tiffin was bought prior to my bento adventure. I never really got used to using it because the clamps are vicious. They require such pressure to snap and unsnap, I think my thumbs will snap instead. 

In the end the bottom tier didn't even close, so the V8 and apple went into a brown paper bag. 

Silas wanted to jump into that bag too, the little muffin. By Thursday he has had enough of me leaving him alone all day, and I rather agree wishing I could stay home and curl up with him and a good book. 

Lasagne bento

Leftover lasagne was the anchor dish in this bento. I make my own sauce with black olives and bell peppers, onion, garlic and herbs, and use three cheeses, ground beef, and spinach for the layers. The bundle of spinach that I purchased the very same day as I made this dish smelled off. So I tossed it out. If experience has taught me anything, it has taught me to trust my instincts and my nose.

The ham and cheese puff pastry was a fun addition. The mini sweet peppers were stuffed with shiitake saute in butter. Half mini bagel with cream cheese, dried apricots, radish, and two hard boiled quail eggs filled the second tier and were left out of the Mr. Bento thermos (because everything was hot in the thermos).

This bento serves as breakfast, lunch, and snack in a very cold building. Although the building does warm up with the heater blasting, it takes awhile.

A lot of bento - A lot of heart

This was Tuesday's bento. I need a lot of food when it gets cold. But especially some greens. Yessiree!

Even The Mister came out for a peek at the finish, but I had packed it up by then so I showed him some pictures on the camera playback. He was so cute.

"You included the cookie!" He said. I thought it was a muffin.
"Ahh yeah," I said.
"How cute!" He said.
"Really," I said.

Well the old man is like that sometimes. I told him ONCE in passing that when he shops, as he often does, to "think bento." Now he brings me mini shiitakes ( shown here ), dates - well he thinks they're bento ( shown here ), and tada - Quail Eggs! ( shown here ).

We are quite collaborative when we want to be.

One Half & The Other Mr. Bento

This was my lunch today. Leftover Beef Wellington that I should not have warmed. Linn's berry pie. Red pears sliced. An array of pickles, radishes, beet star pickles, and brussels sprouts that were roasted.

Three Blind Mice Bento

I read French Bento and you know she has translation to English if you need it, and she did these little radishes that looked like mice. I have a whole story about mice when I lived in my old county home. Si didn't hunt. I think he was their den mother.

 Anyways.

Sick Day Bento

I ate some of this after I came home from work sick around 1pm.

Now I'm going to go lay down.

Adult Comfort Food Bento

Adult mac and cheese with LA beans and pomies and strawberries.

Shiitake Omelet Bento

YUMMY!

Meet Mr. Bento

The various parts of Mr. Bento (and "Mr. Bento" is registered trademark). Four separate containers in a wide mouth thermos-type container that is wrapped with a black bag. The pyramid is my cool charm stone. We'll talk about it later.

Mr. Bento showing one of his side latches.

Mr. Bento all zipped up.

Bento Box Week #3 At Work

Somebody in one of these bento box Flickr groups put rice crackers in their box and immediately I was teleported back to my childhood, childhood childhood when Lee and I would visit the Japanese tea room at the Descanso Gardens. A woman dressed in a kimono would serve us a pot of tea and a dish of delicately shaped crackers. We would sit outside by the pond or the bridge under the tall oaks and camellia forest. Peace all around us.

Maybe that is why I equate Japanese culture and food as calming and sublime. Maybe I had been significantly influenced by the nurseries, the architecture, and rice crackers, and that's why I turned out this way. Eh.

I went sort of cracker happy on Tuesday. Along with my rice and meatballs (recipe at this blog), crackers, grapes, radishes, tomatoes, and yogurt with raspberries et al, the lunch was a success.

Wednesday I woke feeling so inspired by this video (click on "Bento" near bottom right) that I made a "sunflower." It wasn't perfect, but hey this is my tenth bento box. Ever. It was weird to eat the egg lukewarm too, even though I eat cold hard boiled eggs. Don't know. Just odd.

Yogurt again with three fruits, tri-color bell peppers with mayo and pickled cabbage, and pork cooked with soy sauce and a leftover stuffed jalapeno. Those be pine nuts.

Thursday I was all get outta my way. I'm late! Grilled swordfish with rice and bell peppers and clam chowder were leftovers. So gooooooood! Red bell peppers which I'm really liking with soy and a fruit bowl. Those raspberries were so tiny.