bento: june 21-24, 2010

I haven’t made a bento in more than 6 months, so I’m easing back into the pool with some easily-constructed old favorites. I will be having the same bento Monday-Thursday, because it would be a huge waste of food to make a different one every day, as well as exhausting to my imagination. Friday I will treat myself to something less healthy.

• Octodogs (catsup in the orange container)
• Grapes
• Chocolate cake
• Orange bell pepper flowers (Russian dressing in the monkey container)
• Grape tomato, basil, & jalapeño havarti skewers
• Melba sea salt snacks

When I was shopping I discovered that Rouses has a fairly well-stocked sushi section, for people who want to make their own. They have fresh tobiko! As well as gyoza and a few other goodies. So I will not be totally bereft of more Asian-y bentos, should I desire them.

bento #97: buffalo wings

I’ve been lazy lately and I don’t even know if you can call this a bento. It’s in a bento box, damn it!

• Buffalo wings. Tiny chicken drumsticks? I guess that qualifies.
• Celery sticks.
• High lycopene tomatoes. In all honesty, I don’t even know what lycopene does or why we’re suddenly supposed to eat more of it.
• Celery sticks.
• Cheddar cheese pita chips.
• Ranch dressing. Should have been bleu cheese, but Trader Joe’s didn’t have any.
• Cherry sours.

bento #96: mini turkey meatloaf

Part of my back-to-normalcy: bento! I haven’t made one for the past few weeks. This was originally going to be dinner; but then I unpacked my sandwich griller, which I haven’t used in a while, and decided I’d rather have a grilled sandwich and soup for dinner. (Roast beef with white cheddar spread and black olive slices, and tomato bisque, to be exact.) So I decided to make individual mini meatloaves, instead of one big one.

• Turkey meatloaf. It’s the Williams-Sonoma recipe. It uses tomato paste and rosemary and is very yummy.
• Mashed parsnips. Usually I mash them with potatoes and carrots, but decided to mash them solo this time.
• Sugar snap peas.
• Cherry tomatoes. The silicone cup is convenient because I can lift it out, heat up everything else, then pop it back in.
• Sugar free black cherry Jell-O. My parents love the sugar free pudding cups (my stepdad is diabetic), and they got me addicted. I have a dark chocolate and a chocolate and vanilla swirl package in my fridge right now. But I think the the gelatin is more suitable for lunch, I don’t know why.

bento #95: pan-fried artichoke ravioli

I’m somewhat discomboobled by the whole moving thing, so I didn’t put a lot of thought into this week’s bento. It’s just stuff I happened to have.

• Giant pan-fried artichoke ravioli.
• Artichoke lemon white pesto (for dipping). Normally I am skeptical of white pesto, but this stuff is like CRACK.
• Garlic & herb goat cheese balls.
• Chicken crackers.
• Pearl tomatoes.
• White peach jellies.
• Not pictured (because I didn’t think to add them until this morning and there was no time for another photo): Baby spinach leaves, which I ate by wrapping several around each cheese ball. OM NOM NOM.

bento #94: post-vacation staples

 

The bento-making part of my brain is still on vacation, so I fell back on some stash here.

• Spinach noodles, pan-fried with egg. Like fried rice, but with noodles. Basically, I was too lazy to make rice; noodles are faster and require less clean-up.
• Some short rib chunks with ponzu shoyu.
• Edamame.
• Honey tangerine.
• Egg tart. These are a little bland as is, so I like to squeeze a few drops of lemon juice and sprinkle some sugar on them before popping them in the oven. They come frozen, you bake them at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

bento #93: mini buns

This week’s bento isn’t terrifically exciting. I’m dealing with pet bereavement and my upcoming trip to the homestead, so I just dipped into my freezer stash.

• Mini pork & leek buns. They’re not pretty; I steamed too many of them at once and they kind of smashed up against each other as they cooked. But they taste fine.
• Fried rice with shitake mushrooms.
• Edamame.
• Giant red grapes.
• Mung bean paste cake.
• White peach gelatin.
• Also a tangelo that didn’t make it into the photo.

bento #92: octodogs & other tasty stuffs

I didn’t feel much like cooking anything complicated after my latest head injury, so I just threw some tasty stuffs together for this week’s bento.

• Octodogs with catsup. Quatrodogs, really: Kosher hotdogs kind of fall apart if you cut them too finely. But they aren’t made of snouts and assholes and rat carcasses, so it’s a fair trade.
• Hummus with wheat crackers.
• Hardboiled egg.
• Babybell cheese.
• Baby carrots and sugar snap peas (leftovers from last week’s bento).
• Champagne grapes.
• Chocolate-dipped madeleine.
• Pearsauce.

bento #91: ham, cheese, & pickle rolls

Cold bento for a hot week! This is a lot of food, but a lot of it is raw veggies, which I swear sometimes actually make me hungrier.

• Ham, Havarti cheese, and kosher pickle rolls.
• Chicken crackers. I don’t know why they claim to be chicken-flavored; it’s really just a vaguely savory, cracker-tasting cracker.
• Baby carrots, sugar snap peas, and cherry tomatoes with ranch dressing.
• Cherries.
• Mung bean paste cakes. “Mung bean paste” never sounds very appetizing, but it is.
• Lemon yogurt. I don’t like this brand, it’s way too watery. WTF, Trader Joe’s?

bento #90: boneless short ribs

Boneless short ribs are quickly becoming a bento staple, especially for those weeks when I’m a little short of funds. I can get enough for a whole week’s bento for about $5.

• Boneless short ribs marinated in ponzu shoyu. There’s a little bottle of ponzu shoyu, too. I would probably eat an old shoe sole if you poured enough ponzu shoyu on it.
• Underneath is some fried rice and edamame.
• Sidecar has a sliced white peach and some panda shortbread cookies from Sogo Bakery (they supply 99 Ranch’s bread, cookies, and cakes).

bento #89: baked lobster ravioli

It’s going to be a stressful week — registration week for summer semester. I have some old faves to ease the pain.

• Baked lobster ravioli with marinara dipping sauce.
• Mozzarella-proscuitto-basil roll.
• Chopped endive with red wine vinegar & olive oil (there are fishie bottles of each somewhere in there).
• Clementine.
• Chipotle-chocolate hazelnuts.