Rice Ball Bento

This was the Middle of Summer and a cooling bento was amongst us. Rice balls covered the black sesame seed and salt, radishes, grapes, and lettuce.

Cheese and Crackers in my Paris Bento Box

A week or so ago I made this bento with Paris on my mind. What a world we live in. Such evil and such goodness.

I like a lunch like this - a little bit of everything. We have black grapes and dried pears in one box. A mix of cheese, tapenade hummus, purple radishes, and a Bubbies dill pickle in the other. Crackers on the side.

Pork Two Ways Bento

I finally got around to using my Sushi Bento House. It looks a lot bigger than it is. I filled the bottom layer with pork, two ways. My cooked ahead chicken-fried pork and my cooked ahead curry pork.

I am currently reading (and will soon write a review) a book called Effortless Bento. Cooking ahead a variety of meals, freezing or not, is the main part of the book.

The rice I made in the morning with my little and dumb rice cooker.

Strawberries, orange wedges, and radishes make up the top box, and cool pack goes in the attic.

Of course the whole bento goes into an insulated bag with two small blue ices because it gets hot out here.

And this is where I had lunch last Thursday - a turn-out along the railroad tracks in the shade of an oak tree. This picture was taken when my Scion turned 20,000 ODO in September 2009.

Chicken Fried Pork Bento

Getting on the bento train. Woooo woot! Here's my Tuesday bento - Chicken-Fried Pork - panko crust, radishes, mustard, and cubes of rice  with a sprinkle of roasted sesame seeds and watercress garnish.

All in my indigo rabbit box and eaten at the historic stage stop, Rios Caledonia Adobe in 100 degree heat.

Pink Bear Bento

A cut up pink lady apple with pink bear pic, cut radishes, and kimchi.

I am suspicious of what this bear might be doing. I've known a lot of boys in my life, and when they strike this pose, it usually means one thing.

my girly French bento box

Bullet Train Bento

Protein: white chicken meat, roasted. Leafy green: organic water cress. Super food: blueberries. Crunchies: radishes. From the garden: tomatoes, Juliet. Orange container: sea salt. Bullet Train pick. Bullet Train container: shoyu.

My cute Mio box

Sly Cat and a Totoro Snack Pack Bentos

Cute little flap-down bento box that I'm calling Sly Cat. It's filled with cous cous with pine nuts and homemade kimchee. I always bring a juice and a piece of fruit with my lunch bentos that I end up drinking/eating at 3:00pm to power through the afternoon

I'll be working later starting this summer, so I might bring an extra bento. But the main problem is I need refrigeration. I like the "two hour rule" even with blue ice. It's just that it gets so hot around here!

This is my lovely Totoro snap bento. The pick and container are from Japanese planes, trains, and automobiles set that is perfect for a little boy (or a little girl if the little girl was like me). I still like to chase trains.

Olive Me Bento

For this week I took a lovely pork sandwich to work, yet I felt compelled to bring more food - perhaps a few sides. Hence, this polar bear bento box called out to me. It's time to freeze at work, so we might as well have a smile with Syrupy O'Clock.

The little pink bear (apparently with tummy problems) pleads, "Why not take Olive Me?"

Alas, I'm sorry we're destroying your habitat, Sweet Polar Bear. Here, have a cherry.

Better Be Good For Goodnessakes

Long story short I took a spinach salad to work for lunch this week - twice!

This is the cutest donburi bento bowl box with a gasket snappy lid and little containers for extras like purple sauerkraut and oil and vinegar salad dressing. The photo is actually taken at work, so one can see the salad which includes spinach, tomatoes, radishes, and avocados looks quite nice after transport.

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.

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!

Round Up A Sammie Bento

 A couple of rounds to complete a half of ham and cheese sandwich.

The sandwich also had avocado and tomato slices.

 Celery, carrots, and radishes with a cucumber dill dipping sauce.

Cherries, berries, and white nectarine slices.

Underneath The Spinach Bento

This is my lovely strawberry box. 

I'm calling the bento the Underneath The Spinach Bento because underneath the spinach the deli chicken and olives are hiding. It's important to note that some of these boxes are deep and can hold a lot of food. It can be deceiving because they look so cute and diminutive.

 I brought a bento every day this first week of August, but only took pictures of this one. 

This bento box even comes with its own bag!

Caviar Bento

Fresh radishes from the garden, a sweet orange and blackberry bombs, and dried pomegranate seeds hang out with Mr. Grumpy Giraffe. Believe me, I can sympathize with Mr. Grumpy Giraffe as this consoling bento was my lunch on my first day back to work after my vacation.

So I used a new box, My Neighbor Totoro holding a four-leaf clover, and filled it with rice and teriyaki chicken and pickles. That is black caviar on the rice.

I know it looks like a blackberry. I bought the caviar to add to salmon sashimi, my birthday dinner.

Yay! I made it another year. Yes indeed I'd rather be lucky like my lucky Totoro!

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.

Ploughwoman's Lunch Bento

It was a dark and stormy morning...
Or so it seems from this picture.

I had visited the very fine cheese shop over the weekend for parma to make risotto and left with brie, double cream gouda, olives, and salami too. We visited some of these ingredients in my last bento, and we'll visit a few more here.

The traditional ploughwoman's lunch has bread, cold meat, cheese, fruit, and pickles. Dear Goddess, how could I've forgotten the pickle!

Well, I made up for it with that sweet little container full of organic dijon mustard. And all organic blueberries, raspberries, and tiny tomatoes from my garden.

It's hard working out in the field all day. A good and hearty lunch is always important.

Blue Cat Bento

Not much out there in the natural world that is blue. The sky, okay. Blueberries, yep. But what else?

That is why I'd like the thank the makers of Almond Joy's pieces for their blue candies. Nothing says I'm completely artificial like blue candy.

But does the blue cat care? No no. Giant radish mice burrow in the giant radish rose and le bleu chat would like to spring over the peanut butter and cream cheese wraps and dance on top of the luscious orange honeydew to get to the lovely candy coated milk chocolate almond flavor pieces.

Too bad kitty kitty meow meow you must hang out with my standard faire of double cream gouda, marinated olives, and black peppered baby backs.

Aww don't look so sad.

At least you got to ride in the strawberry box.

C'est un nomade...

This is a wonderful little box. I love the pale turquoise and yellow combination and the little backpack the bear wears. The bear is not happy or sad, just traveling dot dot dot.

I used to walk everywhere when I was a child and young adult. That's quite an accomplishment growing up in Southern California. I knew all the routes that didn't have mean dogs. I'd strap on the pack, wear comfortable shoes, and get cruising dot dot dot

Here's one of my lunches last week. Ham and cheese on baguette, lettuce, mango, radishes, celery, and a plum.

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.

A couple of bentos I made this week

I made the pork curry the night before with sweet peppers and shiitake mushrooms and carrots. For some reason Thai spiciness does not bother me like some other spicy cuisines. 

I really wanted a warm lunch, so I separated the curry and rice from snacks and raw vegetables using my ecobox. I was going to separate the curry from the rice with a lettuce baran, but that would make the lettuce all wilty and really wouldn't work anyways. So I used a little glass bowl instead. 

This wasn't a very successful bento at work. The whole thing was a bit of a mess.

Wednesday I woke up late and didn't have time to make a bento much less photograph it, but Thursday I put together a Mio Mio bento with my big and little Mio boxes. There's a half of a pita filled with Seal Cove brie, and the other half is plain to go with my hummus. Some radishes, blueberries, and strawberries with a sweet pepper flower, and a flower rice ball with a bottle of soy sauce.

Cute little green-eyed kitty probably wanted tuna instead.