from top left: veggie couscous; green grapes; two gyoza with gyoza sauce in mini bottle; mango & pineapple; chicken stew with pecorino romano on top
top: na mool; grape tomatoes; two gyoza with piggie gyoza sauce; spinach with garlic
bottom: veggie couscous; chicken stew with pecorino romano
HAPPY BENTO!
mango + pineapple
na mool, gyoza, and a chicken stew of sorts, sprinkled with pecorino romano
Happy BENTO!
left: mango + pineapple
right: homemade pickled veggies in heart cup; homemade onigiri with tuna/masago/pickle combination, and excess filling surrounding; steamed spinach; na mool
Happy Bento!
Top : na mool; takuan; gyoza with piggie (yes, I wash and refill him); edamame
Bottom : homemade onigiri with canned tuna+dab of mayo+pickle relish+MASAGO... so good, tamago (tiny fish eggs) add a nice "crunch" and slight saltiness to it; one stip of bacon; three small laughing cow cheese bites plus one wedge of garlic & herb (I may not eat the cheese; it was just to fit in the empty space, honestly); steamed spinach which will get a squirt of lemon later before I eat it; mango & pineapple; more na mool
As you can see, I was struggling to fill blank spaces- those cups and onigiri are such odd shapes to work around! Ah well. And I'm trying to be healthy... I miss my greens/veggies!
I actually woke up early to make the onigiri "fresh" this morning (and made one for breakfast, too!). I made the rice last night and put the Zojirushi rice cooker on Extended Keep Warm. (I added the vinegar last night, too.) Yum. None of this freezing-reheating... though that does have its good side of course. It just takes some time to make them in the morning.
Oh, and I went to Sunrise Mart (on St. Mark's Place) last night to pick up the masago, and noticed that they have bento there! Single tiered Vive brand- they're like my green one, without any design on them. They come in black, dark blue, white, and possibly some girly colors but I didn't pay too much attention except the prices are really good (all under $20), though they don't come with a kinchaku/bag to hold them in. These also appear to be microwavable, actually, which is a big bonus to some people. Oh, and some of them have removable cups like mine, but most of them had a single straight divider to split it into two sections, adjustable. Hope that helps some people 
(They're by the check out counter, directly to the left.)
HAPPY BENTO!!!
I'm on a diet. I've been bento-ing in hopes that the portion control nature of bento-ing will help me lose weight; plus they gave out pedometers at work, so I've been walking a lot lately too. I've lost 5 lbs so far over the course of 3-4 weeks :D
from top left: two gyoza with gyoza sauce; takuan; two homemade onigiri with tuna; mango
Happy Bento!
top (smelly row): takuan/pickled radish, edamame, gyoza & gyoza sauce
bottom: grape tomatoes for stability; homemade tuna onigiri; one slice of bacon, broken up; laughing cow cheese bites; mango in heart shaped cup
I didn't know what to stick between the mango cup and the onigiri, so I was like, um, okay, bacon + cheese + tomatoes will be tasty, right?...
Happy Bento!
Gyoza with gyoza sauce in a piggie; edamame; frozen mango chunks (Trader Joe's)
I wasn't sure if I was eating lunch today with a friend (we'd made plans over a week ago) but luckily I decided to pack bento anyway since I just got an email canceling. Oh well. Since I just got to work, anyway, I am going to work through lunch. No sense in coming in at 12 and then going to lunch...
Happy Bento!
Bear in mind... be nice... I just spent 48 hours in Vegas, flew back on the red eye, and am still dead tired... sigh. So it kind of sucks, just leftovers and not packed particularly adorably or anything.
mini-Vitasoy, Crunch dark stick, beef chow mein with red vinegar in the container, and watermelon
Ok, I'm exhausted and have work to do. Sigh...
Happy Bento!!!
I have lunch plans today... so no lunch bento.... so instead, I packed myself a snack/breakfast bento!
Made more sickeningly cutesy by the tablecloth. Don't look at me, I didn't put a red one down.
I didn't buy another bento set. This one doesn't "match". I'd bought last week, in my excitement and hurry to get bento-ing, a couple of smallish Lock & Lock containers that I've seen often on bento sites, you just mix and match. So after I'd bought them, I quickly abandoned them to use all of the bento sets I subsequently purchased, especially because those came with their own matching bags.
I did, however, use one for the tortillas on Monday (seen here). Obviously it doesn't quite match that bento set, but it served its purpose. Anyway, once my Mommy saw me with a bunch of small containers and all these kinchaku, she was like, "Oh, do you want a small bag, it has handles, look, it's a toy." I was kind of like 
when she said it was a toy, but that's what she handed me. And it fits the Lock&Lock perfectly!!! Of course, with only one box today, since it's only a snack/breakfast.
Mmm... yummy.
Almond Crush Pocky (courtesy of big bro's stash of Asian snacks); grape tomatoes, grapes, crackers and garlic & herb cheese
Perfect snack or picnic pack!
Happy Bento!
Hmm...
Today's lunch... what's inside?
My first time using this one... this is my 3rd and final bento purchase... there is one more bento set I plan to buy, but it's in San Francisco and I'm not going out there until September, so.
Mmm, Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, real grapes, and a leftover half-wrap... chicken Caesar! Yummy!
Can't wait for lunch!!! I forgot to pack dressing (that container on the left is super shallow!) so I will pick some up in the cafeteria later. Yummy.
Happy Bento!!!
Potato salad, edamame, 5 gyoza, block of garlic & herb cheese (which I wound up eating with toast for breakfast), piggie sauce bottle, watermelon.
The colors of the Italian flag on the left there- Giada would be so proud!!!
What's this?
A present... for me???
What's inside???
Meow? Yumminess peeking out!
Ta-da! Revealed!!!
From top left: salsa; black beans; sour cream, shredded cheese, steak, peppers & onions, homemade tortilla chips + two Laughing Cow cheese bites
This is yet another great example of rebadging leftovers. Saturday night found us hungry, so we ordered from Taco King - the "pound of steak fajitas" dealie, which comes with a pound of steak, peppers & onions, black beans, homemade salsa (which I think is more like a tomato puree with onion and some hot pepper, but not salsa the way I like...), and 10 freshly made tortillas. I kept thinking how I could package this and finally wound up cutting the tortillas into 8ths and toasting them to make them... tortilla chips! I put some cheese in there to keep the chips stable for transport, as they say. The sour cream and cheese were store bought- I like my fajitas a bit gooey- and I added extra beans because I think I can count those as vegetables, right? Yum, yum.
Clockwise, from top left, left box: edamame; canteloupe; gyoza with pig shaped sauce bottle; Asian style potato salad Right box: three homemade onigiri, two with salmon, dab of mayo, wasabi, and one with eel; inari sushi with masago; three slices of takuan (pickled radish)
I think this one was a bigger success than yesterday's because of the color scheme. I was full after lunch, but not as overstuffed as yesterday. I may have to start mixing it up and using a smaller container on top because perhaps 720 ml is just too much? I don't know. Or maybe my ratios are off; I really do prefer to have more protein than grains. (Japanese bento guidelines state that bento should be packed with a 4 part grains, 3 parts vegetables, 2 part protein ratio, and 1 part fruit/dessert.)
Well, I don't know. What do you guys think???
My first ever attempt at bento was pretty much a huge flop. In the back we have some homemade pickles along side a few green grapes, then pita chips and Asian-style potato salad. In the bottom box, we find homemade kalbi, tzatziki sauce for the pita chips, and watermelon. Why is this a flop? Well, I didn't really think much before packing it and so I didn't cut the meat, which made it difficult to eat neatly. Worse, I didn't heat it, you definitely can't microwave metal containers, and it was hard to chew and... solid oily feeling. Gross. Lesson learned, though.
