I'm sorry

I have been subsisting on leftovers or buying lunch. It's awful and I can't even tell you how much weight I'm gaining all back (remember: in the first 3 months of bento, I lost 16 lbs.). I hate it and I hate being just short of 400 bentos but I can't even find time to cook for myself much less pack a bento. I am stressed and time crunched out the wahoo... I hope you understand and will still be here when I'm able to return to bento. <3 Yvo

Feisty Bento #394: Bronx Zoo Woo Bento

What is that!

It's a bento I made to take to the Bronx Zoo this past Sunday.  I took my nephews (along with their mother and my boyfriend - I was actually there to be on stroller duty, for the exhibits you can't bring a stroller into, I stood outside and kept watch on the crammed-full-of-stuff strollers) and we really lucked out, because out of the two days this weekend, clearly only one was suited for the ZOO!!!  (It poured on Saturday.) 

Hard boiled egg; carrot sticks; dressing
Hidden under the horrifying ;) cilantro is mini banh-mi pitas. 

Yep, I stuffed mini-pita-pockets, that I snipped open with scissors, with pate, cha lua, pickled carrots/daikon, a schmear of Vietnamese mayo, and ate them with bites of the cucumber and the cilantro pieces. 

That's a close up. 

Envy me, I'm food's MVP :)

(Although I will point out that the pita bread doesn't quite have as much oomph as a good, crisp baguette does.) 

*I brought a bento to the Zoo because the Mommy packed ham sandwiches for everyone, and I decided that I would be good and eat some of the food in my fridge.  Plus it saves a ton of money - though we did 'splurge' and get fries for everyone, and nachos for me, we still saved a ton from buying the crappy pizza at the zoo...

Feisty Bento #393: CSA Delicious

Holy deliciousness, Fatgirl!

Roasted some-sort-of-squash-from-CSA mixed with kielbasa, garlic & onion; bacon & roasted broccoli salad with awesome dressing

It was delicious.

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Bento #392: Repeats

More of those weird noodle-cakes that I made... and sauteed bean sprouts

*I'm not dead, I'm just super busy with exams and all.  I still manage to pack a bento or two a week (saddd)... but posting is crazy difficult :T

Feisty Bento #391: Carnivore

Local/organic Romaine lettuce topped with local/organic cherry tomatoes that taste like candy, topped with the sirloin half of a porterhouse

I also packed two small containers - one with Italian dressing for the salad bit, and one with blue cheese for the steak, hehe. 

Yummm...

think outside the lunchbox~!

Feisty Bento #390: Weekend of FAIL

Yeah, that's my bento.  It's a standard secret of bento blogging that Jenn so kindly decided to share with the world last week that if your bento is ugly or less-than-amazingly-cute-and-colorful, just tilt it or the angle of the camera and voila, many problems disappear.  Well, no amount of tilting would help this - I almost slapped the lid on for the pic, because that would DEFINITELY help! - but eh.  It's still going to be bicolored and that's it. 

This was a weekend of FAIL... I made magic soup - well, no, I refuse to call it that in this instance because it wasn't that great, and magic soup is ALWAYS great - that just ... FAILed... mostly cuz I opted to use beef broth instead of chicken, and I realized beef broth and I don't get along when that's the base of the soup.  It's too strong for my palate (I know, shocking, when I salt things to high heaven and back) to drink as soup - for noodles, that's fine, and risotto, awesome, but as the broth I'm drinking straight... not so much. 

Then, I attempted to make stir fried udon (picture will come in a few weeks on Feisty Foodie - since I used a ton of CSA veggies for it), which tasted good - sort of, some of the veggies I added didn't quite go right, but I expected that - and was totally ugly. 

Of course the final FAIL was the above - not the bean sprouts, which I make all the time (well, I kind of overcooked part of it, but whateverrr, stop nitpicking!) - but the rice cakes. 

For those unfamiliar, Taiwanese (or are they Shanghainese?) rice cakes are basically rice noodles, except instead of rolling them thin and slicing them into broad white noodles, they've been rolled and then cut into coin-shaped/sized slices.  (Correct me if I'm wrong, because I could be, but that's what it looks and tastes like to me.)  They're like Korean dduk (I think...) but sliced instead of left in fat tubes. 

Anyway, it tastes mostly fine, though it turned out horrendously ugly because of the dark soy sauce I was using.  Whatever. 

That's today's bento, to cap off a weekend of FAIL.  Tonight, I plan on making something I won't mess up just to make myself feel better.  (Watch me mess it up anyway.)  I eat my failures, because I'm cheap/broke/poor and I really hate wasting.  Which means expect to see this again in a few days' time. 

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Lunch

It looks like I took this photo at night, but I assure you, it was something like 7:30 in the morning.  Yep, that's how dark it was this morning.  It's so difficult to wake up in the morning when it's dark out and chilly - my building hasn't yet turned on the heat, and I don't really blame them, since the temperature is at that point where it's a delicate yo-yo; it might be 40 tonight but tomorrow it will be 70.  As a shareholder with an actual vested interest in our bottom line financially, I don't want the heat on if it's going to make my apartment unbearably hot on days that are unseasonably warm! 

In any case, I know I just said yesterday that I wouldn't have bento this week - and I don't! - but that first pic is my lunch for today.  An awesome Greek salad from my local diner ... so, last night, I had barely any time between work and class, and I needed to eat (long story but I basically forgot to eat lunch...), and in a fit of inspiration, decided to utilize Tower Diner's online ordering system to its utmost potential by placing an order before I left work at 5:30 to be picked up at 6:45.  This all worked out great and I had dinner in my grubby lil hands easily, but I took it a step further by ordering the above salad for the specific purpose of bringing it for lunch today.  Even better!!!  Perfect.  I've had their Greek salad before - in fact, easily a dozen times this year alone (BF really likes this diner so we go there pretty often) - and really really like how they do it, except for two things: they use very fishy anchovies so I always request it without the anchovies, and they use olives with pits, which means I eat one or two and then leave the rest out.  (When I make Greek salad, I use pitted olives!)  Otherwise, they have a great version here.  Yum! 

I also just really wanted an excuse to post these pics of Keywee. 

The bestest boyfriend in the entire whole world did me the greatest favor the other night.  I'm a ball of stress lately (not to be confused with a stress ball; if you try to squeeze me, my latent violent tendencies might rear up and poke out and b*tchslap you...), with having no time, and very little time to spend with my absolute darling puppy (okay, she's 7 and a half, but still will always be my puppy), and just... feeling guilty... well, I had no time to take her to get groomed because I was either at work or school during their business hours.  So my boyfriend picked Keywee up at 11pm on Monday... took her to her 2pm appointment on Tuesday... and dropped her back off at 11pm on Tuesday. 

Yes.  Yes, he did.  Yet another reason why I love this man.  Yes indeed. 

And can I tell you?  24 hours without her and I missed her more than I thought possible.  Missed her climbing into my lap while I studied, her trying to convince me that I only need one hand to study and that I should use my free hand to pet her; missed her following me around as I went from room to room looking for something, or just following me around in general.  Missed her snuggling right into my belly when I lay down to sleep, missed her climbing up my chest when I'm half-lying down watching TV.  Missed her. 

Now she's back where she belongs, with me, in my arms, and I can't even enjoy her that much because it's been rush, rush, rush, everywhere, all the time.  Ugh.  I realized, however, that she is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE photography subject in the world.  Even though she wiggles and sometimes won't stay still for my non-flash photography.  Even though she's not something I photograph then immediately consume in deliciousness.  Even though sometimes she just doesn't want to photograph. 

She is my absolute favorite. 

Baby I love you, and I'm sorry I waited so long to groom you and made you all uncomfortable.  You smell delicious and look wonderful, and Mommy will always, always love you best out of anything in the world.  Always. 

Ahem. 

Also, those photos were indeed taken directly after the salad photo.  Still so dark, right?  Ugh. 

Think outside the lunchbox!