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.