More Bento

So lately I've been sticking with the Babybel-matzo-koala snack. Pretty tasty stuff. My main-dish has varied though. Yesterday, getting tired of the nutty pork stuff, I brought some pork-cabbage dumplings I bought at the Asian market, along with organic vichysoisse and edamame. (And forgot my pineapple juice because I was rushing due to cat piss on my backpack, but that's a story for the other blog.) The vichysoisse was a little more leek-y than the stuff I make at home, and very mild-tasting but otherwise not terrible. The dumplings, I was surprised to discover, taste exactly like my husband's mom's pyelmeni! Except less peppery, which is good for me, cause she puts WAY too much pepper in hers. I just ate them plain yesterday and found myself yearning for some butter and salt to put on top.

So today, more of the same. Probably not the vichysoisse today. Maybe some grapes or something. We'll see.

Also I have found I bought too many things that may go bad before I get a chance to use them, such as mango, grape tomatoes, a loaf of bread (we don't make sandwiches very often!), and a tub of roasted deli turkey. I must expand my horizons! Well, Labor Day is this weekend, and we both have arranged 4-day weekends for ourselves, so I may eat some of that stuff then.

Quasi-Bento

Is quasi-bento somewhere between "proto-bento" and just plain "bento"? I'll pretend it is.

This weekend we went out and got cupcake cups so yesterday I brought:
Brown rice w/ leftover sweet and sour pork on top (the pork did not taste right, it was all nutty and it hadn't been the night I cooked it)
Babybel gouda (does NOT taste like the gouda we usually get, tastes more like string cheese!)
Canned pear half in juice (in cupcake cup to prevent leakage)
About 2/3 of a salted matzo cracker.
3 Koala March cookies.

Had the gouda, crackers and cookies as a snack. The pear juice didn't LEAK, like out over the top of the cup or anything, but it did soak through and make the bits of matzo directly underneath a little moist. So today I arranged it differently and we'll see if it makes a difference. Also today I brought rice/pork again but rather than stacking them I put them side by side, it's more artistic and hell maybe it'll change the flavor, or something. Also EDAMAME!!!! today. Also I almost forgot to put the koala cookies in! I'll have to remedy that as soon as I finish this post which would beeeeee now!

Ravioli and Garlic Bread

I really need to get around to getting an actual bento and some of those mini-sauce holders shaped like fish and elephants and stuff. We're going to Ho's again this weekend (I hope) but I have no idea if they have them or not (we didn't have much time to really explore last time).

Today I'm taking storebought fresh 4-cheese ravioli, with Prego sausage-garlic tomato sauce, and homemade garlic bread (toast one slice of bread, slather it with margarine the second it pops out of the toaster, realize the margarine is not melting fast enough and microwave it for 10 seconds, then rub with a cut garlic clove and slice into quarters). Yesterday I was bad and had taco bell because I was really not in the mood for cooking and all my nice snacky things (grapes, grape tomatoes) were all gone. Also I'm all out of deli turkey now.

We should be going to the grocery store this weekend (the regular kind, and HOPEFULLY Hen House if I can convince Alex that the increased cost is worth it) and I intend to pick up lots of bentoriffic things.

Organic Soup and Brown Rice

For lunch today I poured a cup of the organic butternut squash soup I bought, and cooked some brown rice in the microwave. Both were crap. The end.

Nah. Well, the rice was annoying. I didn't want to make it stovetop because it would take too long, so I microwaved it, and our microwave is retarded when it comes to rice. Even at 50%, the water evaporates out long before the directions say the rice is done. So I had to keep constantly checking on it, and even had to add more water at one point.

And the soup... I'm sure it was fine, but this is the second butternut squash dish I've had (the first was a risotto, and coincidentally the first and only risotto I've ever made) and I have to say that so far, I am not incredibly thrilled with butternut squash. Too sweet.

For dinner we had Panda Express, which was satisfactory. I had chow mein (it had bean sprouts in it!), mushroom chicken, and broccoli beef. Would have gotten an egg roll too but they were out (and closing in like 30 minutes).

Dishes still aren't done, sigh.

BLTs and lunches

I haven't done much cooking lately. Well, that's not true, it just for some reason feels like I haven't.

Saturday night I was up until 2 making a corn salad, green beans w/ bacon, and corn muffins. The corn muffins were quite tasty and very corny (I put them in the fridge to prevent spoiling like happened with my last uber-moist cornbread), the green beans were, well, probably underdone (also my virtually brand new big wide deep frying pan has a dent in it! what the fuck!), and the corn salad I didn't end up trying. Alex didn't either, when I took it out of the fridge in the morning he went "ew." It had roma tomato, corn, jalapeno, roasted orange and green bell peppers, shallot, and a lime dressing.

Also that night I threw together beef fajitas-out-of-a-bag, which were quite underwhelming.

Travel was moderately acceptable for the picnic (the reason I did all that cooking), although about 1/3 of the muffins got smushed cause stupid me just tossed them in a ziploc bag and then set the green beans on top of them, and nobody ate the muffins because the fried chicken Dad bought came with biscuits. Also ants got everywhere, guh.

Beyond that I haven't done much in the way of cooking. I attempted to assemble a small bento for my 6 PM Monday class, since it's 3 hours long and I assumed there'd be a 15-min break or something, but all we got was a 5-minute break, which is not nearly long enough to eat a muffin, grapes and some cherry tomatoes, especially when eating is not allowed in the classroom.

Yesterday for lunch I took leftover udon noodles with a muffin and some deli turkey, and finished off the udon for dinner. Today I took deli turkey with olive oil-garlic whole wheat penne. Not too exciting. I haven't felt like cooking, mostly because the sink is overflowing with dirty dishes and it's intimidating, to be honest.

But tonight I knew we had bacon and romaine and fresh tomatoes we needed to use before they went bad, so I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and picked up a loaf of bread for BLTS. ...and a bag of mallowcreme pumpkins, and a few boxes of organic soup (butternut squash, sweet corn, and vichysoisse), and a box of brown rice, and a pack of fresh 4-cheese ravioli. I'm a terrible person.

The BLTs were good by the way.

Oh and Alex's work is having another chili cook-off next Wednesday, which I will of course be making my world-famous chili for, since I have an imaginary title to defend. (I didn't even place last time, but my chili got eaten way more than the winners' chilis so I figure I won the People's Choice Award)

Herbed Mushrooms/Proto-Bento

Tonight Alex did Parmesan-herb-encrusted Cornish game hen halves, which were actually QUITE tasty, and I napped and at the last minute threw together some steamed broccoli in the microwave and sauteed button mushrooms. The mushrooms actually turned out a little MORE intensely-flavored than I would have liked, because I cooked them at pretty high heat and they got quite browned (not burnt but yeah). After they had cooked for about 5 minutes in butter and olive oil, with me constantly stirring them, I added some minced shallot, cooked for another minute, and then sprinkled with dried parsley and tarragon (we actually did have fresh tarragon but I didn't want to mix and match and we didn't have fresh parsley... or actually maybe we do but if so it's close to a month old and it's the crappy curly Italian kind).

Also today for lunch I created a proto-bento. I sliced some English cucumber and romaine lettuce and arranged it neatly in a plastic container with a slice of lacy swiss cheese, a few thin slices of roasted turkey breast, and a few slices of dill pickle. I also brought in a pita (bread, not pocket, because I am an idiot and bought the wrong one), a light string cheese stick, and a roll of Smarties, as well as my usual can of Coke Zero. I learned some very valuable lessons.

1) Bring less toppings. I sliced WAY too much cucumber and lettuce.
2) Get a condiment dispenser. I had nothing to put mayonnaise in, especially since I don't like a whole lot of mayonnaise, so I ended up just squirting a few little dots over the top of everything, and when lunch rolled around and it was time to assemble my pita I had mayo all over my hands. Not cool.
3) Lacy swiss gets almost melty at room temperature.
4) Pita was the wrong choice, a whole wheat tortilla would probably have been better.
5) Get a real bento box!

I really like the idea of doing bentos for future work lunches, because up till now 90% of my lunches have been fast food or frozen Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice/Smart Ones dinners. (I did bring a container of leftovers in when I made cod chowder... I had cod chowder with a side of applesauce... that was an easy-to-chew meal.) And finally I am getting sick of it. Especially now that we have found a good-sized Asian market nearby.

Also there is the rest of that bag of frozen tortellini in the freezer that is sitting there begging me to take it to work (cooked, of course). Problem is, I don't want to eat it plain, and while we do have a half-used jar of spaghetti sauce in the fridge I'm not sure that would be incredibly good for me.

Also I keep seeing pictures of bentos with gyoza and grape tomatoes and berries and spinach pasta in them and they look SO GOOD. I saw a recipe for a cucumber-radish-feta salad today and thought "Hmm I bet that would work well in a bento." I have become such a nerd. Also that salad is something I would never have considered eating a few years ago.