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

 

Bento Meals: 5/5/11

It's been a while, yet again, since I've posted my bento meals here.  Many apologies.  We moved in March, so a lot was and still is packed in boxes.  We had to find our cameras and are still missing the wires for one of them (our better one, at the time).  I did take a few pictures of meals over the past month or two, both bento meals and cute foods.  I hope to share them soon.

However, I finally broke down and bought a nice DSL camera.  I'm totally and completely in love with it!  Finally, I can start getting the types of photos I want!  I tend to have a strong love for macro images, so it's nice hanging a camera that can really handle them to the level I desire.

Anyways, here are the first bento images I took with this camera.  It was a rush job, just before work, taking just enough time to wipe down the counter.  :-p



Breakfast:
Banana LaYogurt
Coffee
Lunch:
2 gluten free burrito halves (my son's leftovers)
Layered - refried beans, burrito meat, raw onion bits, mexican cheese blend, sour cream, and "sweet & hot" peppers

Snack:
Hummus (Tribe 40 Spice)
Celery sticks
"Baby" carrots

I'm really trying to get back into bentoing, if for no other reason than to make sure I eat enough at work.  Since my move, I would grab a cup of coffee and maybe a string cheese.  I may or may not take a lunch, and if I took one, I may not eat one.  I did grab some hummus and a bag of 'baby' carrots to be my lunch for a week, but that didn't settle well for every day as it hurt my stomach.  I also had packets of oatmeal that I also picked up.  Some days, I would just have tiny pickles with GF crackers and peanut butter.  These aren't the worst things to eat, but definitely not the best especially when it was all I'd have for a full day at the office.  Combine that with several cups of coffee... just not good.  Usually, I'd end up noshing on anything I could the moment I'd get home, my husband making me a pre-dinner omlette a number of times because he's sweet and loving.

Today's full meal plans (yes, I'm counting the yogurt as a full breakfast!) was one of the few I've had at the office for about 2 months!  And it's actually pretty nice.  Granted, there's an awful lot of protein, but that's fine.

I do want to lose weight, but not by starving my body.  Nutrition is very important right now because I'm nursing my daughter and she's just barely starting on pureed foods, so most of her nutrition is coming from me.  I hope that a number of my physical ailments will subside by doing this (like the migraines and nausea) while also helping with my grumpiness and melancholy.  What is sad, though, is that I've lost interest in food in general.  To alleviate this, I am trying to really start cooking again.  I haven't done more than just roasting and such since the move... so I bought supplies to start making simple Korean banchans (side dishes) and I'll go from there.

Finally back!

It's been a while since I last posted here.  I can't believe 3 months have already gone by!

The last part of my pregnancy was difficult, but the delivery was surprisingly easy.  My daughter is beautiful, though she brought a lot of changes with her, as every new child does.  My son adjusted to her and accepted her pretty quickly.  He's great with her and I hope this is a sign of how things will be between them.

I returned to work a couple weeks ago, and am slowly readjusting to the schedule.  I'm also slowly getting back into putting together bentos.

So... today I hope to post the bentos and fun foods I've made thus far this week.  Each will have it's own entry, most likely, so bear with me.  I'm still trying to get this blog's new settings.

Thoughts on bentoing in my family

The Sunday before last, my younger brother gave his fiance a nice Zojirushi Mr. Bento Lunch Jar and Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals On The Go (a cookbook for practical foods that are easy to pack into bentos, with little-to-no emphasis on the cute stuff). The package actually arrived on Thursday, when my husband, son, and I routinely visit my mother.

I thought it somewhat neat. I've been working with bentos for over 6 years and got my older sister and mother packing bento lunches as well. My mother even started buying a number of the cute bento box recipe books (having several in her collection and possibly her first repeat purchase of the same title). It's not uncommon for my husband or me to pack a family bento to take over to my mother's house or on trips. We have several different types of containers, ranging from the small cute children's bento boxes (snack and meal) to large picnic tiffin sets. I actually bought a Zojirushi Classic Mr. Bento Stainless Steel Lunch Jar (before it was called "Classic") and a cheaper version from another company (which I forget the name of) for when my husband was working as an auditor, which kept him on the road and in remote locations with little chance of stopping for food or heating up what was packed.

I'm left feeling curious why my younger brother suddenly found this an interesting idea. Surely, he's seen my husband and I pack them, but he's expressed no interest. Surely, he's heard my husband, sister, or I talk about them, but again, he's expressed no interest. I asked him if his fiance is into making bento lunches (because she too has not shown anything that would say so, but there's admittedly there's only so much people get to talk about when time is so limited and she doesn't really post much on Facebook). My brother responded that he likes to buy her a new cookbook each year and that she likes asian cuisine. Ah... that explains it. He saw the book, thought it an interesting idea, and bought her a container to go with her. She seemed to think it nifty (my mother also got her compact chopsticks, with a container, that unscrew into four pieces for ease of travel... something I've been wanting for a while because they are pretty cool). Her response to him was, "So, you are going to pack my lunches for me?"

My older brothers were confused by it all, but that's okay. Everyone acted like this was a cool new concept... and I thought, "Wait a second... I've been doing this for years, guys!" But that's okay. Admittedly, even though my family (siblings, parents, etc) are not what you would call "normal", we all have our oddities in different directions. Mine is things like artistic endeavors, bento packing, cooking Asian dishes (mainly Korean), going to steampunk events (and helping create a steampunk larp), and so on. I would say that I don't really fit, because it's true. My brothers have their little grouping of oddities. My oldest sister is the most normal, which actually makes her a bit more odd in our family. My older sister is very heavily into middle eastern and belly dance things. I don't even really know what is considered "normal". The other things is that I tend to be more laid back about the things I'm into... I don't discuss them much because in my mind, they just "are". There's no reason to point out the bento meals or go into details about a particular design of steampunk attire I'm figuring out. I don't bring these things into the limelight. Perhaps it's because I'm somewhat humble, or perhaps I don't see them as all that special because they are normal to me. I don't know. I just know that the reaction to the bento gift to my youngest brother's fiance caught me off-guard.

Bentos are definitely spreading, and it's nice to see it catch the attention of yet another member (and soon-to-be member) of my family.

Thoughts inspired by processed foods in bentos...

First, I wanted to mention that we found out the gender of our little Pinto. It's a girl. The running joke with everyone we've told thus far is that we now have "A Perfect Match". One of each and the oldest being a boy... not what we expected when we talked about having kids (before we had our son), but nice nonetheless.

Now on to the main point of this post.

I've been looking at a number of really nifty bento blogs. One of my favorites is E-Obento, which is run by a woman in Japan who is apparently very well known over there for her creative meals. The webpage is written completely in Japanese, but I've learned a lot from her blog by simply looking at the photos she posts (both of completed meals and of the prepping pictures). Heck, the broccoli "flower" I made recently was inspired by her carnations. Granted, mine was a "quickie" flower, but I still like how it turned out and owe the credit for the idea to her.

However...

After a while, a few things have become more and more clear, the more I look at most bentos...
1. There is a disturbing amount of highly processed foods used, especially processed meats.
2. A goodly number are unbalanced in their food choices (like providing mostly proteins, bread and cheese in a given meal, especially noticable on E-Obento).

For many parents, the processed foods aren't that big a concern, but unfortunately for my family it is. We seriously monitor how much processed foods we buy/eat and are slowly cutting out more and more, the main ones we avoid being most junk foods and processed meats. This isn't hard to do since we have to avoid so many foods due to my husband's issues with gluten. Sandwiches and wraps are nice treat for us, which means the need for sandwich/wrap fillers are far less. Add to that my limitted intake of red meats and poutry, and you cut out many deli meats. Bacon, sausage, and hotdogs are rare for us as well. (And I do see the irony that my banner here features octi-dogs.) Even before I started cutting back on meats, we were careful with these items when we purchased them, buying ones that didn't contain sulfites, nitrates, and other particular chemicals.

I'm not saying we don't eat any processed foods. We definitely do! We just try to limit them and we definitely read the labels to try to make informed decisions. We rarely eat ketchup or salad dressings, but I use a decent amount of soy sauce and red pepper paste. We avoid buying potato chips, but do buy tortilla chips (which I love to melt cheddar cheese on them with salsa... delish but I rarely do this now). We don't have a lot of condiments compared to most people I know, but I do try to always have one (and usually only one) container of icecream in the freezer and have been buying cereals more often rather than making oatmeal (cold breakfast is nice in warm weather). Donuts, cakes, breads, pastas, and the like are also considered treats (either being very time consuming to make from scratch, semi-expensive as a pre-made mix, or darned expensive as ready-made).

There have been many times that my typical diet (ie. the foods I eat regularly, not "diet" to lose weight) has been described to me as very healthy. I tend to agree. At the same time, I'm not sure how one doesn't eat healthy because I'm not sure what people usually eat. My family doesn't eat out often, and when we do eat out, we typically choose healthier places or make more balanced choices (substituting fries for a side of veggies and so on). It's just second nature to us because of years of avoiding gluten. Currently, I've been eating gluten because of this pregnancy, but still try to limit it and will continue decreasing the amounts more and more.

I'm not passing judgement on people who choose to each the items my family doesn't. It's not my place to... though I will if the parents are only offering their children junk food. We all have our pet-peeves. I really do feel that each family's dynamic is different and accept that mind is different. After all, how many middle-class caucasian families serve their children a diverse menu of foods, which regularly include Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Tex-Mex, Italian, French, and more? How many kids in a standard American family rarely has burgers, meatloaf, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni and cheese and so forth, and never even had fish sticks? We also tend to allow our son sips of our coffee (which is normally decaf but sometimes "caffeine-lite") rather than allow him to have sodas. Like I said, I know my family is not the typical when it comes to food. I also understand that you really can't get a real idea of the family's diet by just looking at one meal or one meal per day. How many people eat cereal, yogurt, a bagel, or oatmeal for breakfast without anything else but then eats full meals the rest of the day?

So back to bentos... I've just been noticing that so many people seem design their bentos with processed meats and the like and it's been making me think...

Bento Meals: 7/19/10

I decided to start trying to incorporate red meats and poultry to my meals again. The reason I gave them up was mostly because they were making me sick, but that very likely could have been due to the pregnancy. The other reason was for the treatment of the animals and the right to live vs. die, but that reason is harder for me to justify... since fish and shellfish have as much right to live and the same applies to plants. I don't plan on becoming a fruitarian though! (Fruitarians are a group of people that eat only vegetation that doesn't kill the plants; their diet mostly consisting of raw fruit, nuts, and seeds.)

Today's lunch looks so lovely and yummy. Sadly, my belly isn't really cooperating today, so I'm not sure how much I'll actually eat.

On to the details!



Lunch Bento:
Thai coconut meat patties
dolmas (cut bite-sized)
potato-broccoli gratin (with Guyere, Parmesan, and Romano cheeses)
flower made of broccoli and green pepper


Snack Thermos:
Korean cold cucumber soup (Oi Naengguk)

Another close up of the Lunch Bento. I love how it looks. :-)

Savory Spinach Ricotta Crepes

The crepes that are seen in my bento today was made by my husband. He wanted to make crepes for a dinner, to test out a recipe in one of our gluten free cookbooks, and I wanted something that would be fast for him to make and which our son might actually eat. My poor boy is teething again, so something soft would be great, but preferably not too mushy or hot. (He's also been steering away from cold things, so obviously we needed something just warm enough.)

So I figured, why not make some spinach-ricotta crepes. While figuring out our grocery list the other day, I did some research on different savory crepes. I didn't want nutmeg in it and wanted a decent amount of spinach AND ricotta.

There's a few factors to keep in mind:
1. My son has entered that stage of not wanting to eat most green veggies.
2. My husband and I aren't into the idea of "Sneaky Chef" type recipes. We want our son to be aware that he's eating veggies and fruits and get accustomed to their look, texture, and flavor in different dishes.
3. I wanted it to be quick and easy, regardless of whether my husband made the filling or I did.

All in all, the crepes were a success. My son devoured his, as long as they looked like they were coming off of my plate. After all, the food on Mommy's plate must be better. We were relieve and excited that he not only ate a decent amount, but he knowingly ate green!

This is definitely a family favorite now. The recipe below was written up by my husband.


Savory Spinach-Ricotta Crepes
1/2 pound frozen spinach, thawed, and finely chopped
1 cup ricotta
3 tbs grated parmesan
3 tbs grated romano
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbs olive oil
Crepes made from recipe in "Gluten Free Baking Classics" by Annalise Roberts

Cook onions in olive oil until translucent, add garlic, add spinach and cook out majority of water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix ricotta, romano, and parmesan together then add spinach. Mix thoroughly and spoon about 3 tbs into crepes, roll, place in microwave safe dish and heat until crepes are warm.

Today and Fun Egg Faces from BentoLunch Blog

First, here's a link to a Egg Faces Tutorial. Shannon from BentoLunch shows how to make these without the use of nori. The picture is from her tutorial.

Second, I didn't pack a 'real' bento today, per se. I grabbed one of my bento containers and put a bunch of cantaloupe in it for a snack. My lunch is going to be a packet of ramen noodles (drained and mixed with less than half of the seasoning and maybe some toasted sesame oil). I didn't pack my lunch last night because we didn't have any leftovers from our meal and I didn't get around to prepping food. This is all probably for the best because my tummy isn't too happy today. I think the coffee (decaf) isn't settling well, given that I almost never drink coffee now and I have an extra large cup I've been working on since this morning. Ugh... (I be a glutton for punishment, me thinks.)

Tomorrow, I might not have a bento either since I have the day off of work and will be going out to lunch with my mother and nieces... and I almost never pack bentos over the weekend (though we have a small Renaissance Faire we'll be going to, so I might actually pack us some stuff to nibble or have a picnic with).

Bento Meal: 6/23/10

Another bento made of leftovers*. (See note after this bento's details.)

I tried to make the lunch tier look a little like a garden, with grass (scallions), ladybugs (nori), roots (zucchini noodles), dirt (zucchini-turnip side) with underground worms/bugs (dried shrimp), and a fence (nori strip). The yogurt was decorated to go with the theme, like a mosaic sun. My hubby thought this was a really cute bento, though I'm sure it could use some work. One thing he pointed out was that the bugs also looked like a ghosty face from an angle... Now I got that stuck in my head too!

Not a bad bento job for another quick throw together, though this time it was packed after dinner as I put our leftovers away. :-)


Snack Bento
vanilla yogurt with dried fruit (apricot, cranberries)
4 Hershey's Kisses (2 peppermint, 2 mint truffle)
Honey Nut Chex

Lunch Bento
risotto balls (3 cheese, shrimp, sun-dried tomatoes)
mashed potato balls w/ nori punchous and scallions
zucchini noodles w/ butter and garlic
steamed turnip slices cut as flowers
sweet turnip-zucchini side with three tiny dried shrimps


*Note:
On June 16, a member asked the BentoLunch LJ community, "Who has a bento stash and what is in it? Also what are your bento must haves on your shopping list?" The answers have been interesting to read, but mine seemed quite different. I was hoping a little that someone would also have the same idea or practice I do, but I didn't see any. That's okay though, because it reflects how diverse bentoing can be, from very practical to very artistic to both!

Here's what my response was: "I'm one of the strange ones that doesn't really have a bento stash in the way of food. I pretty much have whatever I bought from all of us to use for various meals, and I take pieces for my bentos. Or leftovers... especially the nummy leftovers. :-) I will admit that certain things are bought with bento packing in mind (like grapes). Usually, though, I do try to keep some sugar snap peas in the freezer and carrots and nori in the fridge for quicky bento sides and fillers. Rice is not uncommon to have at ready for general meals, so I don't really count that. ;-) Hm... maybe my bentos reflect this... heh heh.But this week, I did buy some broccoli, turnips, zucchini, avocados, and grapes with bento making clearly on my mind. (Though they will likely show up for dinner first...)"

But it did get me thinking about food stashes and such... and I find myself boggled. I don't think I can imagine having a food stash in my fridge or pantry that is mainly for bentos. I'm not sure why it's so hard for me to wrap my mind around. :-p

Bento Meals: 6/17/10

Today's bento came together much faster. I believe this is due to my getting back into the swing of my bento making and because we had some leftovers from dinner that I felt I could stomach today. I used my Laptop Lunch box (okay... the blue one is technically my husband's box) and put both my snack and my lunch in it. I also packed my breakfast in my Hello Kitty Thermos container.

Lunch and Snack
shrimp Enchiladas with Tomatillo Bean Salsa
avocado half with sour cream
"hint of jalepeno" tortilla chips
yogurt with mini grape and dried fruit (apricot, cranberries)
halved seedless red grapes

Breakfast
unflavored soy milk

Steel cut oatmeal with:
dried fruit (apricot, cranberries)
walnut pieces
seasoning (brown sugar, vanilla extract)
a splash of unflavored soy milk (for creaminess)

I also have leftover fruit from yesterday's snack bento which I'll probably eat tonight or tomorrow morning along with any leftover fruit from today. I've been packing large bentos just in case I have a "big appetite day". I definitely don't need the strong urge to go get a snack or hit the vending machine at work.

Hopefully, I'll start packing most of my bento stuff at night and can get my bento boxes in order, to save time. I noticed today that I would find parts to my boxes but would be missing other key parts. Luckily, today the Laptop Lunch was all together and ready. Whew! I wonder if my son has been wondering off and hiding my bento box pieces in his secret treasure chests and hiding spots...