Bento Catch Up



Pancake Face for Pancake Sunday



Time has been short of late.  My husband and I are trying out some changes to our family's life.  One change is that our weekly menus are following a theme per day:  Pancake Sunday, Meatless Monday, Yummy Tummy Tuesday, Wokking Wednesday, Tex-Mex Thursday, Pizza Friday, and Grammie's Saturday.  Pizza Friday is actually going to become something else though.

We've also been buying produce, meat, eggs, and some dairy at local farms and local farmers markets.  We buy certain essentials at the grocery store, but our trips there are far fewer and much more controlled.  We are also eating healthier and adding more beans to our diets to compensate for the proteins we used to get from meat.  (We've reduced our meat consumption by well over 50%, and we weren't even eating much meat before!)  Last week, we only bought a small pack of ground beef from the local dairy farm and 2 chicken leg quarters from a poultry farmer at the farmers market and that did us well in the way of animal protein for our week's menu!

Another change is that my mother and I have started a Health and Fitness blog together in an attempt to live healthier lives.  This has benefited us in many ways and is actually part of what finally got me to stop thinking about buying local food, and actually start doing it!  My mother has had amazing results with her own endeavors and I'm excessively proud of her!

So here's a post to "Catch Up" on the bentos I've made and ate (that I actually took pictures of).

Peanut noodles w/ peas and sesame seeds
Sweet-n-spicy cabbage w/ cherry tomatoes
Mango pieces w/ blueberries
String cheese

Peanut noodles w/ peas and sesame seeds
Sweet-n-spicy cabbage
Hard boiled egg w/ salt and pepper
Peach
Mango slices

Lentils and rice (w/ veggies) topped with
corn-black bean salsa and chipotle sourcream
An orange

Sour lime pickles, celery and radish slices
White rice w/ garlic scapes, Furikake on the side
"Cherry" made of pickled beets and celery
Pickled beets (snack) and peach

Close up of the pickled "Cherry" bento.

Dill pickle, pickled kielbasa sausages, cherry tomatoes
Stir fried veggie rice w/ seasoned spinach
Four pickled beets

1 stuffed tomato (cut in half, filled w/ GF bread bits,
shredded sharp cheddar, 1 diced smoked lit'l sausage)

2 smoked lit'l sausages, cut into hearts
Carrot sticks w/ bacon-ranch dressing
2 aburaage (fried tofu skins) filled w/ leftover veggie
stir fried rice (carrots, celery, onion, fresh garlic
from the farmers market, seasoned spinach)
1 sour garlic pickle
Kale chips

2 small baked potatoes w/ butter, salt, pepper
Leftover spaghetti
Zucchini sticks
Baechu Kimchi