Feisty Bento #404: Yes, even more chili

Today's lunch - the LAST of the chili.  I brought it in separate containers and all but took a photo after I'd put some of it on a plate to microwave. 

Here's a photo pre-heating: chili, slice of pepperjack underneath, and it's all on top of 5 small boiled potatoes. 

After heating.  So much better, right?  Melted cheese, hot chili that isn't retaining the shape of the container from which it was dumped...

But best, topped with sour cream, raw chopped onions, and tons of cilantro.  A delicious meal.  Fabulous.

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #403: More Chili!

A repeat of yesterday's lunch but this time no salsa (that's a mini-cup I bought a two-pack back like 3 years now and just now opened...) and a slice of pepperjack on top of the chili.  I'm a funny kid, aren't I?  It was delicious anyway.  No chips today. 

Happy bento!

Feisty Bento #402: Nommychili

Sorry for the crappy picture!  It's a container of homemade chili on the left and the right is salsa topped with sour cream, chopped raw onions and cilantro. 

When I ate it, I put the chili in a bowl and heated it up, and ate it with Fritos... check it out.

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #401: Delicious Cruciferous Veggies, Roasted

I've somehow managed to throw out all of my disposable containers... don't even ask.  I'm struggling here with more stuff... personal stuff... it is what it is.  I have an exciting announcement though!  Click here to find out what!  :)  It's a doozy but a good one! 

Roasted cabbage with bacon and roasted broccoli.  Delicious, I tell you, abso-friggin'-lutely delicious.  Mmm baby.  Maybe not a bento but definitely what's for lunch ;)

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #400: Milestone?

I had a choice. 

Not pack bento because 400 should be special - so I should wait until I could pack a monster awesome bento, or pack a bento that I would eat, enjoy, and would suit the real purpose of bento for me - to feed me lunch in a healthy, portion-controlled manner, even though it's not the awesome that it could be for #400.

I chose the latter, because honestly?  I am so happy to have gotten back into bento, that to have a bento two days in a row is great, regardless of the number it happens to be.  Instead of dropping right back out of bento, I chose to move forward. 

500 will be doubly awesome for it, I promise.

This bento is the same as yesterday's - miso salmon, bean sprouts, and in the foil, roasted broccoli and garlic cloves. 

Happy bento everyone!!! 

Feisty Bento #399: Back to Bento (again)

Whoa!  A bento! 

New box - bought it during my last trip to SF - isn't it cute?  Looks small, but it holds 555 ml.  Not bad.  It didn't seem to leak but I was careful with it today and I didn't have much liquid in it anyway. 

Roasted broccoli with garlic cloves, bean sprouts, and a piece of miso-glazed salmon.  I need to tweak the recipe, so I don't have anything to share right now. 

Brief background on this bento: I went grocery shopping and and managed to get some stuff together, cook a bit on Sunday, and packed myself a bento for Monday.  Unfortunately, I'm so used to leaving without anything from the fridge, that I wound up leaving it at home on Monday, sadface.  So I brought it today.  Don't worry - I know it's fish, but I usually eat fish for 2-3 days after I've cooked it (using the smell-test too of course), and I've been fine thusfar...

I'm so happy I had a bento today! but now the next one is 400 which requires a little extra advance planning... ;) which means tomorrow I can't pack myself a lunch.  Unless I go back and not-count 398, which you can see wasn't really a bento anyway...?  Haha, I didn't plan this very well, did I?

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #398: To Bento or Not to Bento

Does this even count as a bento?  I just know it was labeled as 398 on my hard drive, so it's going up as the last bento I made before I dropped off the face of the bento-world.  Well, actually, I made a 'bento' last week (late December), which was a leftover slice of lasagna on its side, with two pieces of fried tofu crammed next to it.  And I didn't take a picture of it because I was in a rush.  Hmph. 

In any case, the above is BBQ beef from Hill Country, with a side of corn pudding (SO GOOD MMM I NEED THE RECIPE) smashed in next to the green beans.  All of it yummy... oh so good. 

Anyway, now that I'm all caught up, let me catch y'all up!  It is January 1 as I write this, though I will backdate this to when I had this lunch (November 2, 2009).  Finals ended on December 19 and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  I waited to get my grades back and... four classes (full time school), plus working full time... begot me a 4.0 this semester!  (Yes, second in a row.)  Well, honestly, busting my ass studying every Friday night at Panera instead of going out is what got me that 4.0 - history is my hardest subject, but an excellent professor and a lot of hard work really paid off big time.  I actually scored a 99 on that final exam, which I would have told you was impossible until I actually did it - I almost cried from how happy I was.  I don't know, nerdy, but also... it just felt like, so validating, like it was so worth those nights of not hanging out, to get that grade.  Really, really rewarding.  I wouldn't change it for the world. 

Now, two weeks after finals ended, I'm done with the holiday swirl and really hope to get back into bento'ing.  I'm not making any promises, but I really do hope to get back in the swing of it over the course of the next few weeks, then it'll be time for more announcements and more changes... wink wink.  Stay tuned for that... I promise, it'll be a doozy!!!

I hope you are all having a lovely holiday season and the happiest of new years to you all. 

Happy bento, everyone!!!

Feisty Bento #397: One Last "Real" Bento

 I couldn't get the light right or something... not sure why I am holding it in my hand.  Also, I'm amused that I'm wearing a sweater... it was pretty mild weather until mid-December! 

I took another picture once I got to work, even though it all got smushed, and I don't know why there's a napkin underneath.  Anyway,

Mini-pita-pocket egg salad sandwiches with baby carrots, extra egg salad topped with cilantro.  Yummy!

Happy bento!!!

posted on 1/1/10, backdated appropriately - the last 'real' bento for a very long, long while... it's like I knew, so I put in extra effort - three days in a row!

Feisty Bento #396: Leftovers of Leftovers

More of the same of yesterday's rice... and a hard boiled egg. 

Happy bento!

posted on 1/1/10, backdated appropriately - I can't believe this is what I ate on my birthday... how depressing!!!

Feisty Bento #395: Leftovers

This bento actually contains leftovers from this meal at Sripraphai in Williston Park.  Yup, it's been so long that I am able to link to the respective meal and review. 

Top left corner: shrimp ball
Bottom left corner: the remains of roasted duck salad
Right side: special house rice mixed up

It's been a long time, yes?

Happy bento!!!

posted on 1/1/10, backdated appropriately

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 Bento #389: Just call me blonde and get it over with

Left to right: grilled soy-garlic wings; sauteed bean sprouts; baby bok choi

Entirely comprised of leftovers from my nephew's birthday party on Saturday.  My sister made the wings so I don't really have a recipe, I think she marinated it in soy sauce, garlic powder or salt, maybe onion powder as well?  I don't know, but her hubby grilled them and they were good. 

SO.  Let's talk about The Beast (what I named my vehicle because of its hulking size and because it's funny to me and because of all the issues). 

And how I may just have to dye my hair blonde to match my intelligence...

I failed to mention yesterday, because I failed to see the significance, that I was parked on a steep hill on street over from my street. 

I live on a somewhat steep hill, and the street over is even steeper.  When you park on my hill, the front of your car is raised; when you park on the street over, the back of your car is raised.  I've noticed in the past that when you park on my hill, the gas gauge reads higher than it really is.  I rarely park on the street over, by luck, mostly, and being able to find a spot on my block or along my own street, in any case. 

Being that the gas reads higher on my hill, it reads lower on the other hill.  This means that the gas, being a liquid (it is, right? despite its name, it's not a gas, right? LOOK I NEVER SAID I KNEW ABOUT CARS AND THEIR INNER WORKINGS OR SCIENCE AND JUNK, ok?!), has shifted one way or the other.  Right. 

When I parked my car on this very steep hill last Friday, I made a note that I was low on gas - a little less than a quarter tank - and that I needed to get gas the next morning before class.  I planned to leave a bit earlier in order to do so, and I did.  I challenge any of you to tell me you would have chosen to pump gas at midnight, given the choice between then and early the next morning.  I was tired, it was cold, and there just didn't seem to be a good reason to put gas in the car at close to midnight, when I could easily do it the next morning. 

Ahem.

Do you see where this is going?

Apparently, the car being so drastically tilted, the bit of gas I still had left was pooling to the front, and not enough gas was reaching the engine to start the damn thing.  (I'm no engineer or design person, but wouldn't it make sense for the tube to be in the front & bottom of the gas tank?  Or at least at the front [to prevent sludge and sediment from rushing into the engine at every chance, bottom might not be a good idea] - I'm just saying.) 

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you... easily one of my stupider moments.

I MAINTAIN THAT I DID NOT RUN OUT OF GAS... THERE WAS ENOUGH GAS FOR ME TO GO THE NEXT MORNING TO GET GAS.  It is just the whole hill thing screwed with everything!  I'm not that blonde yet! 

Sigh.

Of course, the tire is now going flat again, slightly more slowly, but still. 

Hi, my name is Yvo, and I am a car jinx.  If I have to choose one problem between the two, I would prefer the tire require pumping occasionally versus the engine not starting.  Thank you.

Also... now that one bit of stress is eased off my shoulders, I have more transportation woes.  My morning bus has decided to stop showing up on time.  That's going to be one angry letter I pen to the MTA later today.  Stay tuned.  I might post it. 

think outside the lunchbox~!

Feisty Bento #388: The Beast

Top tier: stuffed peppers (recipe to come on Feisty Foodie)
Bottom tier: watermelon; peas; roasted zucchini salad

(There's actually more roasted zucchini salad just hiding under the peas, ha.) 

So, this was going to be a happy post, bento #388.  Unfortunately, I wound up not packing lunch on Friday, so it got pushed to Monday, and stuff happened that turns this into a tearful, unhappy, mess of a post. 

I said almost 3 weeks ago now that I'd stop complaining about the car.  I'm not here to complain about the car.  However, I am going to update you with what's going on because some of you are incredibly, incredibly helpful and knowledgeable about cars, and because I need to let it out before I scream. 

Last week, my lovely, loving boyfriend took the car to get inspected, and to figure out why the tire insisted on leaking all its air, to look under the hood as well and see what was going on with the battery.  It turns out that the tire is fine; the rim was rotted (don't ask me, I don't really know how a metal rim rots but I'm not going to argue) and needed to be replaced.  His father, who has been absolutely amazing to me the entire time I've been with my boyfriend and accepted me as family pretty much right from the start, went to the junkyard and found me a new rim, replaced it, so now the tire issues have been fixed.  That made me happy enough as, let's face it, now I don't have to pump the tire everytime I want to use the vehicle.  Yay!  HOORAY!!! 

At the same time, they took a look under the hood and decided to install a new battery.  Remember that I was having trouble starting it?  Honestly, it was still having trouble starting, but after a good 2-5 minutes of trying (not just holding the key in start position! but trying, trying, then trying again, waiting, trying again), it would turn over.  Yes, this was annoying, but dealable because if my try/try/try again method failed, I had the jumper that I mentioned last night to help it start.  It would start.  So, new battery in place, ostensibly, my car should be workable and running well as can be considering the age and wear on the car.  It should be good. 

The post I'd been planning on making on Friday would have explained all this, and told you how unbelievably THRILLED I was to have a working car.  Would have said how happy I was for such a "small" thing in other people's lives (some people, not everyone); how I am not taking for granted having a vehicle, when I have lived the by and large majority of my life without a vehicle and done just fine, thanks. 

Of course, on Friday, I hadn't picked up my car yet (I was temporarily using my boyfriend's car).  So, Friday night, after a lovely party at Robicelli's, I headed over to pick up my car from my boyfriend.  I got in the car, turned the key, and the most beautiful thing happened: it turned over in one shot, and I drove home, parked, and went to sleep in anticipation of my 9am class the next morning. 

I wrote about what happened next on Facebook in great detail, but you can't read it (or you shouldn't be able to, I have my privacy settings pretty strict) unless you're my FB friend.  The basic gist is... the car wouldn't start on Saturday morning, and the jumper I had before wasn't in my car.  I cried.  Yes, I cried.  I took car service to my class, and on the way, I saw a highway accident where someone must have died (they shut down part of the highway), and I reminded myself, "It isn't that bad." 

My boyfriend lent me the jumper again, and we tested it together last night.  He stood in front of the car, and I turned the key. 

But even with the jumper, the engine would not turnover.

I could complain here, instead of just telling you the facts.  But the facts speak for themselves.  I've sunk a good chunk of money into this vehicle, and I need it to work.  It isn't a matter of convenience.  It is a simple matter of needing it in order to do the things I do.  Hey, I went to school last semester Mon-Wed, without a vehicle.  I can do that (although my CSA pickup is on Tuesdays, so actually, I need the car for Tuesdays as well this semester).  It's Saturdays that are freaking me out.  Trains and buses run funny on weekends.  It may take me 2 hours or more to get to school... a school that is, by all accounts, only 15 minutes away by car with no traffic, 30 with traffic.  My first class on Saturdays starts at 9am.  Do you really mean to tell me that I need to leave my house at 7 - a full hour before I leave for work on weekdays - in order to get to school on time?  A school that is closer to me physically than my office is, but my work commute only takes me 50 minutes???

The thing that I find the most frustrating is that I'm doing well in all of my classes - this is strictly a transportation issue.  Despite taking two writing intensive classes and my third class being my worst subject, I feel like I have a firm grasp of the material, and that I have lucked out with good professors.  By "good" I don't mean easy graders, I mean good professors from whom I will learn a fair amount.  Maybe even more than that, which is awesome.  I've never been able to get really into history, and this professor just really is so passionate about the subject it's hard not to catch that passion just a lil bit by proximity. 

So basically, I am standing at a fork in the road, with a few options, none of which appeal to me as much as the impossible shut down road that is "keep doing what I am doing with the same vehicle because the thing will start."  Because it doesn't start.

Here are my choices:

1. Buy/lease a new car -
   Pros: brand new car shouldn't have issues and if it does, proof that I'm a car jinx.  (But then what???)
   Cons: I don't want to (read: really can't/shouldn't) take on that financial commitment. 
2. Buy a used car -
   Pros: I'll have a car that works... maybe... and I would only spend $2k or under, as much as possible under.
   Cons: No guarantee that car will not have issues, if not now, then in a month or two, and then I'm back where I started.
3. Start taking public transportation only -
   Pros: Save a little bit of money (gas, tickets, repairs).
   Cons: Waste a LOT of time (sleep less = more grumpy); push CSA pickup duties entirely to partner, which is unfair to her, even if she doesn't mind. 
4. Drop all of my classes for now until I resolve this transportation issue -
   Pros: No longer need a car and can stop stressing over this.
   Cons: Really, it just prolongs the whole getting-my-degree thing, and puts off this stress/worry since I have to go back eventually anyway.  Plus I may lose my tuition assistance if I drop classes now - definitely won't get back all of my money, not sure if I can get back even some.  Also, who's to say that I'll get as good professors again as I did this time? 

Wow, when I began listing out the choices, I thought I knew which one had the edge; then I added the pros/cons portion and it seems things have changed.  I'd be most interested in hearing anyone else's thoughts, whether you've been in a similar position or not, because I am sure you have invaluable insight into all of this. 

Thanks for reading... and always

think outside the lunchbox~!

Feisty Bento #387: Chili!

I'm just pushing my luck with the lunch jars this week ;)

Jar: CHILI!!! :D I've been dying to make some... and it's pretty cold out, so there you go.
Cups, from top right on down and around: lime; green onions; chopped raw Vidalia onion; cilantro; shredded cheese

I should have a 4th cup but when I went to open a brand new container of sour cream, I discovered mold on it, so I decided to skip it.  But I WILL be buying some sour cream tonight because chili deserves sour cream when I eat it.  Yes.  Yes it does... ;) 

Oh, and I added a ton of bell peppers - green, yellow, red, orange - to the chili, so that's something slightly different.  Yummm!  And I made a ton of it by accident - sort of - so uh, expect to see this again.  I'll probably wind up freezing some for later... mmm! 

Think outside the lunchbox!!!

Feisty Bento #386: Magic Soup

My entire weekend in three pictures:

studying while the furbaby tried to distract me...

a very early birthday present from the bestest.boyfriend.EVER (not just for this alone, but this definitely goes in the "Reasons" column!)...

and our (our being used to indicate BF & I) last game at Citi Field for the '09 season.  The very horrible '09 season.  But we won, 6-2 (grumble should have been 6-0 but Stokes grrr). 

Yes, I studied on Friday night and almost all day Saturday before allowing the boyfriend to come over with part 1 of my birthday present in tow.  (My birthday, by the way, isn't until late October.)  Then we played Rock Band, ate dinner, played Rock Band some more, and I discovered that I don't know the names of many, many Beatles songs... and out of the 5-6 chapters we've completed, only one song had I ever truly never heard.  (I would see the name of a song and say, "I've never heard this song before," and then it would start and I'd say, "Oh, okay, I know this song," and do fine.  But that one song I never heard really threw me and I scored wicked low... haha!) 

Sunday was the last game to which we held tickets, and I'm glad we won.  It was a nice way to close out my season.

But let's talk food.  So when I say I "studied" on Friday & Saturday, well, my creativity kicks into full gear when I'm supposed to be studying... and I finally discovered how to motivate myself into cleaning the kitchen. 

Find something else I want to do even less.  So I cleaned and washed dishes instead of studying because I was just sick and tired of reading about the industrial revolution already (which, by the way, apparently in Europe / in college history, didn't start the same way it did in America / in elementary & high school history; that cotton gin thing and all those inventors really didn't mean squat in the larger sense of the time period, who'd have thunk?!). 

And I cooked.  I whipped up an apple dessert thing because I had two apples on my table that were going soft and I'm tired of wasting food.  I made stock (which I still need to strain and reduce a bit more... from a 12 quart pot!).  I roasted bone marrow.  I roasted zucchini.  I made soup.  Ooh, did I make soup. 

Saturday, after cleaning, studying, going a bit stir-crazy, I discovered my nose running like it was Forrest Gump and I couldn't stop sneezing.  It wasn't "there's too much dust from cleaning" sneezing, it was sneezing "I'm about to be full blown sick" so I did what any normal girl does when she's about to get sick. 

I made soup. 

You know that soup I've been making all summer?  I did that, with extra garlic, extra red pepper flakes, and I drank it, sweating a little from how hot I'd made it - both temperature and spiciness - and sweated out the toxins.  I went to sleep and woke up refreshed and not even close to being sick anymore.  (I changed up the ingredients a little, so I'll be posting a new recipe eventually... titling it "Magic Soup" or "Healing Soup" or... any suggestions?) 

I took some of the soup in my thermal jar, in the side cup is roasted zucchini salad (not the ultimate one! just a new random thrown together concoction), and in the star baking cup is apple... betty... sort of.  I haven't decided on a name for it yet, and I really need to tweak it slightly (but now I need more apples!) and then you'll have the super simple method for that. 

I'm kind of pissed about the thermal jar though.  I got to work and opened up my bag and it was LEAKING everywhere.  Isn't this supposed to be watertight???  I even removed a bit more of the soup because I tend to overfill this container, which is okay when it's rice, but this is soup so I emptied it a bit.  BOO.  Why do jars keep leaking on me???  Zojirushi, wtf?!  It got ALL OVER my stuff and ALL OVER my bag!  Not cool.

In any case, I'm still looking forward to lunch, although I'm wondering a bit just how MUCH soup was lost (seriously it was pooled in the bottom of my lunchbag)... will I need something else to eat?  Hmmm...

Think outside the lunchbox!!! let's hope not 'get soup outside the lunchbox' though!

Feisty Bento #385: Spinach

Today's lunch!  You may find it gross.  Sorry.  I like cheese.  A LOT.

Top: slices of local/organic tomatoes from my CSA; stuffed zucchini (recipe to come on Feisty Foodie) (zucchini also from CSA!); more sliced tomato and a grape tomato - also from my CSA!  Yum, deliciously sweet!
Bottom: quick creamed spinach I whipped up in about 5-10 minutes after class last night, lol

Different angle, so you can see the stuffed zucchini better. 

You might wonder what's with the ginormous amount of spinach... well!  I bought 40 ounces from Fairway on Sunday for $1.99!!!  I'm trying to use up a lot of it before it goes bad, so it's been spinach non-stop.  I was going to stuff some manicotti with a spinach+cheese mixture, but I didn't have much time so instead I just made a sort of creamed spinach.  I haven't decided yet if I'll post the recipe, as I'm not entirely in love with what I've made so far (twice).  A few tweaks with the rest of the spinach and I should have a workable recipe for y'all, if you're interested! 

Think outside the lunchbox!!!