Finally

Sorry for the slow down, were entering a busy time of year for me at work - all the more because I'm getting ready to head to a new job in the next month or so - which will require me to get more regular with my bento - as there is no cafeteria in the building.

Nonetheless, tonight I made cornbread from scratch. Why did I never know how to do that before? Awesome! Also on view, leftover rotisserie chicken, stir fried vegetables in soy-maple-ness and cranberry sauce for the dude.

I'm glad I did that!

I didn't really feel like making lunch tonight, but now that its all locked and loaded to go, I'm glad I did. I should remember that on future days where I feel less than motivated. Features include turkey kolbassa (that's how it was spelt on the package) and hard boiled eggs.

Spebento!

I've been calling this spe-bento in my head all night. Cause I'm quite silly. Inside the shaker bear is some grated cheese. Can I just say, berry season is my favourite season of all the seasons? Totally.

Woooooo!

The one above is from last week, when I skipped dance class cause I was tired and decided to just enjoy an evening of bento making. I made a pasta salad and then went crazy with picks and lunch meats :)

Tonight I was inspired by the leftover rotisserie chicken, I took some onigiri out of the freezer and packed it up with some fried mushrooms, flower shaped cukes and all purpose awesome sauce.

Bento Busy-ness

All the new stuff has got me working it Bento Style!

I found my crinkle cutting knife the other day, which made for cuter veggies. This little bit of potato salad was so good it was specifically noted by the man. The secret ingredient, like in most things that taste good, was green onion.

He's working overtime today, so I'm going to make him some of his favourite - scattered sushi. I finally got around to attempting Taco rice, as suggested by my friend Nakji, and if its half as good as it was for lunch today, its gonna be a good bento!!

Bento Station! Inspiration!

I got a package from my lovely wonderful friend who lives in Japan, Nakji of Tokaido Notebook. It is sooooo exciting and inspiring! I'm pumped to put it all to use. The first thing it made me do is get organized! Its officially enough stuff to need organization. I took the spice rack I received for Christmas and took all the little bits and it turned into this, which will soon be mounted on the wall.

Then I dumped all the larger bits (including a mini-steamer!) into a bin we had lying about.

Then I made bento! In brand new bento boxes! Assemble your own meatloaf sandwiches (on thin burger buns - which are like greek pitas). The little orange case is filled with Mayo (for me) and the yellow one with BBQ sauce (for him). The cases let you push the sauce through them in a fairly magical way (at least it seemed magical in the Japanese instructions).

Thanks lovely friend for sending more toys to play with, and for getting me hooked on bento in the first place! Lunch is soo much fresher and exciting now!

Yummers!

I saw these packages of fancy cold cuts at Loblaws on Friday and I knew exactly how to Bento them for optimal beauty. And, double bonus, they also tasted tasty! Yay!

Trail Bento

We like to make our own trail mix - its an excuse to shop at Bulk Barn, and its only full of things we like. Ron was putting together our latest batch, and he added the dried kiwi slice - pointing out that it was almost as pretty as bento. I'm so incredibly proud. (For those interested, the trail mix contains pecans, macadameia nuts, raisins, craisins (strawberry and raspberry flavoured), peanuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, chocolate covered ju-jubes and a dried kiwi slice).

I have returned!

I have returned from a conference in Florida, which served as an excellent reminder of the importance of serving size. Things were brought to me that were easily 3 bentos big. Anyways, this week's triumph is the veggie wrap - red and orange peppers, green onion and red pepper bean dip for the man, pimento cream cheese for me. Rave reviews from all!

Meat and Potatoes

We bought a bunch of chickens (ok, two) this weekend to rotisserie on our new barbecue. Sadly, it was too windy today to keep the flame lit, so I baked up this one for the sole purpose of bentoing. Other features include double mustard potato salad (one of my new favourite things) veggies, and craisins for the man. He loves craisins.

Flying Bento!

I've been travelling for work the past week, so not much bento news, though if people are interested, I can offer a full review of the University of Windsor's catering service (here's a tip - don't eat the muffins). I was pleasantly surprised on the way out, I flew Porter Air, a new regional airline that serves free food! Including, an adorable little box with a racoon on the cover that featured half a sandwich, a Babybel, some crackers, napkins and a piece of chocolate. It was bento-licious. Sadly, I didn't take the camera. So this picture of Mr. Porter will have to do.

New Container - New Way

This is my favourite use for my new style container. Centre full of hummus, sides full of pita, veggies and other treats for possibly dipping in said hummus...maybe this one should come with a mint.

Salad Season has Arrived!

Its been a long cold winter, but salad season is back, and I'm celebrating with this melange of vegetables, leftover chicken cooked up in an all purpose Thai sauce we found at Costco and some cheese. It didn't travel very well, next time I'm going to try more lettuce.

New Container

I found a new style of container at the dollar store! It has a built in secondary bowl for dip! As you can see, I've used that to its best advantage! The second pic shows the cheese and other dipper removed, and the top of the inside bowl open to reveal my favourite salsa (Kickin' Salsa - Hot). Its the snack that eats like a lunch!

Thai-riffic

My neighbour friend gave me a Thai cookbook for my birthday (Simply Thai), and I finally got to using it this week - to great success! Here's Pad Woon Sen, and I added the baby corns myself. I failed to make enough rice to make bento out of the spicy pork awesomeness I made yesterday...but it may yet make an appearance here :)

Curry-licious

Mmmmm, this looks good! Leftover Chicken Curry and Mango Rice from Costco this weekend, carrots, green peppers, kiwi and strawberries. I really like this particular box because of its moveable divider...and its Strawberry Shortcake design. We're going to have to go back to that dollar store soon. I'm sure the man will enjoy the Dora The Explorer version.

Snowed in!

I noticed the weather forecast on Friday and realized we wouldn't be able to get out this weekend, so I picked out lots of things at the grocery store that would keep us well stocked. Today I made slow cooker pork sandwiches and coleslaw, which have be transformed into tommorrow's two part bento. Hooray!

A flurry of foodieness!

In the hour or so I've been home I feel I've accomplished a lot domestically! I made this bento which I am super excited to eat, cause I love left over spaghetti.

And I made this non-bento, but still impressive Pineapple Roll Cake for the cake auction at work tommorrow. Sadly, I won't get to taste it, but it sure did smell good.

Airplane Bento

The man has to travel today, and tragically will not be going Executive Class like we did on our vacation, so I hooked him up with Awesome Class Bento. Lots of snacky things that will be easy to eat on the plane and that he can pick at throughout the flight. The dip is White Bean and Roasted Red Pepper from President's Choice. Should be more bento action now that we are settling in from our trip.

Valentine Bento

Sweet Valentine bento for the man, and tasty remants of that for me (cutting the red pepper that way left a lot of interesting shapes...). I toyed with cutting the pita into hearts also, but I thought there would be too much waste and that their pocketness would disappear. So round pitas of love will have to do.

This is also the last pre-vacation bento...see you after Vegas baby!

Reruns

Tonight's dinner was Thai Turkey sausages from an adventure we took to the grocery store in the classy end of town this weekend. So tomorrow's lunch features those with an option of the pasta we had with them (sundried tomato and parmesan) or roasted garlic and olive oil cous cous. Yummers.

Going on vacation soon...

So this week's bento are dedicated to cleaning out the fridge. Also, my man didn't really like the baby pitas I gave him today, so he gets something different for tommorrow.

Lazy Lady Bento

Its been a CRAZY week for me, and tommorrow's lazy bento, is an extension of tonights lazy dinner. I'm certain it will be just what I need between meetings tommorrow. I did make an exciting purchase at the drugstore this evening other than the Kraft Dinner - pill containers that double as sauce/dip containers! Inside that one is my fave roasted onion dip.

Turkey take two

Another approach to the turkey leftovers...they're almost gone now :) The man's crackers are wrapped in Press and Seal to protect their crackery goodness.

Two fresh bentos

Here's Friday's bento - better late than never !

It was quite tasty - the dip is baba ganou.

And for tommorrow... turkey leftovers, bento style.

An experiment reaches fruition...

On the weekend I took my first shot at onigiri - rice shapes, then I sealed them in saran wrap and froze them. My man also made a rather lovely beef stir fry which I froze in my new silicone cups. Add some dry fried mushrooms and zucchini and it turns magically into Thursday's lunch!

Tommorrow's Bento...Today!

Here's Wednesday's lunch - three kinds of crackers (Ritz, Toppables and Grain First), three kinds of cheese (Vache qui rit cubes, Babybel light and Kraft Liveactive) and three kinds of fruit (fuji apples, cherry dried cranberries and a few grapes) and...one kind of chocolate. Hershey's sticks fit so nicely into Bento.

Lots of exciting Bento Action

Its been a busy few days here in Bento town. We went exploring local dollar stores and grocery stores on the weekend and found a few useful tools - mainly silicone muffin cups and the pinch bowl used to contain the red pepper and white bean dip seen here. We also turned up a few more bento appropriate containters. I personally, found this lunch to be quite delicious. The star is made from a sugar snap pea.

I also successfully re-created the scattered sushi bento I made with my friend (this photo is of the original) and made one that was really pretty featuring leftover rice noodle salad, which received some constructive criticism - mainly relating to the fact that it leaked all over someone's lunchbag. Oh well, it all helps my bento skills grow!

My first independent Bento

I made Bento unsupervised today! Well...if you call cheese/chorizo and crackers Bento. The one of the left has no cheese (due to allergy) and a teddy bear full of chipotle sauce. I was pleased with my use of the ovation stick to provide separation - and dessert!

Revelation

I had a revelation about Bento on the bus yesterday.

Bento = Scrapbooking for your lunch.

You get to make pretty designs, punch out fun shapes, add little stickers and toys, arrange everything just so, and appreciate its beauty more. Just like scrapbooking. We can definitely get more people hooked on Bento with this knowledge.

Hoooray for Bento!

After a brief visit with one of my closest friends who has recently moved to Japan, I have become quickly enamoured with the concept of the Bento lunch. I will be posting here (with pictures) of my creations of Canadian Bento.

Today's first experiment was a delicious medley of leftovers from the visit - Rice Noodle salad, Carmel Pork, Eggplant and snowpeas, with a few Cherry tomatoes for colour and support.