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 #311: I am a strange, strange girl

So here's the story.  Well, it's a lot of stories.  I didn't plan my week very well last week, and wound up not having anything ready to go for lunch on Thursday... so no bento (but a delicious sandwich I will be posting about eventually over on Feisty Foodie). 

I took off from work on Friday to show a friend around town, so obviously, no bento, and the weekend was cram-packed such that I wound up unable to do much in the way of making food for the week.  (And yes, I make food for the week of bentos; it makes my life so much easier to be able to just pull out containers from which I pack my lunch!)  I did, however, manage to roast 3 heads of broccoli... and take leftovers from my sister's, cabbage boiled with butter.  No, no corned beef, don't be a jerk and remind me what I passed up...

Anyway, that's why there has been a bit of radio silence for the past few days.  (If you want to know EVERYTHING I ate over last week during the challenge, click here.)

My bento above is... cabbage boiled with butter, roasted broccoli and what I am dubbing: random rice concoction. 

And the other story is... well, last night/this morning, I decided I was going to bring bento today if it killed me, damn it (it just made me late for work). 

A week or two ago, shortly after I'd given up meat temporarily, I spent a day cooking before the BF came over to watch TV with me.  I was rushing around, and decided that though I'd be eating salmon (of which he isn't exactly a fan - I've seen him eat it raw once or twice, but cooked is an application which I'll let him approach me to try), he would need something for dinner as well.  So I made some stuff, and made a really fast pasta sauce, a recipe at which I am quite adept, thanks very much.  Unfortunately, if you clicked over, you'll notice that I most certainly use meat to start that sauce, imparting a distinct umami taste about the sauce, which I was stupidly in too much of a rush that night to realize would not fly over without it, and didn't think to use some mushrooms to replace some of the lost flavor. 

The result was a sauce that, well, put it this way.  While the item I sauced with said gravy received high marks from BF, he hesitated before remarking, "Where did you get the sauce?" 

I knew right away there was an issue, but simply said "I made it... pretty much the same way I always do, without the meat."
The response nearly broke my heart, "Oh... it kind of tastes... well, jarred."

Some people would take this as a compliment.  Some people would think that's awesome, that the sauce proffered was good enough to be jarred. 

Some people clearly don't date an Italian American. 

I tasted the sauce myself and realized there was just this flat sweetness to it, nothing rounding it out or giving it that special tang, a background smoothness.  At the same time, it tasted tinny, metallic, slightly sour - the tomato flavor - which makes no sense, because to combat the sourness of tomatoes, I tend to add a teaspoon of sugar.  It was like... it needed a splash of ground beef to make it taste right.  Grrr.

I chalked it up to being in a hurry and threw the sauce into the fridge, where it sat, unloved, for little bit.  (I'm done admitting to how long things sit in my fridge before I chuck them - people are constantly horrified by my timeframes, but hell, if I don't get sick, then why is it awful?) 

This morning, determined to have bento, I pulled out a Ziploc bag of cooked spaghetti, which I'd been smelling everyday for... a little while... that never smelled off.  I knew in my mind AND heart that it had been in the fridge way too long to deserve to be eaten - surely it was past its prime - but there was no visible mold and it really smelled FINE.  I even pulled some out and it felt fine, but I couldn't bring myself to taste it.  I'm still uncertain why.  Finally I began mushing it around in the bag and decided f* it, I'm not eating it, and chucked it.  Hahaha.

Meanwhile, I had the sauce in a pot on the stove, bubbling a bit, and I began adding a ton of freshly grated Parmagiana-Reggiano.  Yes, the good stuff.  I figured the saltiness should cut the sweetness, right?  But it was still missing something... so I added some frozen mixed veggies, figuring that would cut the sweetness, too, right? 

But ... what starch am I supposed to top with this??? 

Luckily (?) I had a container of a quick fried rice I made last week - that I also hadn't liked that much - but whatever - and I mixed that all into the sauce in the pan and out came the above.  Which wound up tasting quite nice!  Nothing I'd actually post a recipe for because it really is luck of the draw to mess something up that badly and then fix it somehow with random things tossed in - but hell, it was pretty darn tasty, and I may top it with some mozzarella for a repeat tomorrow!  We'll see! 

Yes, I'm a strange, strange girl... who will eat nearly anything.  Hahaha. 

Think outside the lunchbox~!!!

Feisty Bento #300

Well, it's here.

#300.

Nothing as elaborate or fancy as some other bloggers might do... but it will be delicious, and I'm still proud of my creation.

I did a throwback to #100 by using my Mr. Bento again.

And a throwback to #200 by creating "food art" and the number of my bento in the bento.

Combined the two.  Here we go~

Here is my appetizer and dessert.  Watercress soup for the appetizer and half an orange sliced up for dessert.

Main course and side dish: soy-glazed salmon and soba salad (recipes to come this Friday on Feisty Foodie!). 

Close up of the soba salad reveals:

"300" cut out of seaweed!  Well, sort of.  I ran out of seaweed a LONG time ago, so I went and bought some quickly, but I bought the wrong brand.  I mean, I knew it wasn't the brand I normally buy, but I couldn't find the brand I liked and figured this would be placeholder.  Anyway, cutting this Korean brand of seaweed... well let's just say I don't think I'll be cutting seaweed anytime soon.  It's so fiddly!  The 3 is made of three (hah! I just noticed that) separate parts and sticking them down was hard work!  The hearts serving as 0's were done using a cutter of course.  Hahaha.  Simple enough, right? 

I am embarking upon a challenge that will affect my bentos, so stay tuned to find out what it is.  (Here's a hint: it's both terrifying and exciting at the same time for someone like me...) 

Happy bento!!!

PS I leave you with this, a video of my dog with the new toy Daddy bought her.  She does not like sharing.

Feisty Bento #299: Oh my, a recipe

That, my dear friends, was last night's dinner.  (No bento yesterday because Wednesdays are gym days; didn't have class so no dinner bento!  Tomorrow is Friday which is another gym day, no bento tomorrow!) 

So, I'm actually going to post the recipe here, because I don't have any more pictures of it beyond that, and it turned out much better than I'd really expected.  I mean, I didn't expect it to turn out yucky, just that I wasn't expecting much for the first time out.  I had a bunch of chicken thighs in the fridge defrosted and needed to use them, and I was bored of everything I've ever made in the past, Google'd up some recipes and decided upon one called "Spanish Style Chicken Stew" and promptly ignored most of the recipe.  (Even though I had all the ingredients on hand, I just didn't feel like a stew, oddly enough.) 

Here's what I did~

A bit of olive oil in the bottom of a heavy bottomed skillet.  Two small onions diced in the bottom of the pan, along with 3 cloves of garlic minced up.  Once that was going for a little bit and softened, not browned, I added one sliced chorizo link (I'm sorry I don't know if it was Mexican or Spanish chorizo, I'm pretty sure it's this kind as I did buy the pack at Murray's Cheese a few months ago and froze what I didn't use last time), taking care not to burn or overcook that, since last time they came out a bit dry for my tastes.

At this point, I added a lot of red pepper flakes because I wanted some heat to my dish, then covered the whole thing in a thick layer of paprika (it smelled sweet after I did this, so that may answer the question as to whether my paprika is sweet, smoked, or what). 

This entire time, I was chopping up 5 boneless/skinless chicken thighs.  After I'd added those to the pan, I added another generous layer of paprika, kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper, and then let it start browning.  I stirred it all up in the pot a bit to evenly coat it with the seasonings, mmm smell that?  That's what "delicious" smells like on the stove. 

After the chicken was mostly cooked through, I added a box of frozen chopped broccoli and half a lb. bag of frozen carrot coins.  Mostly to get rid of them and also because the colors were pretty; had I been thinking more clearly, I'd have added some of the fresh celery I have in my crisper.  I wasn't thinking clearly enough though so this is what you get. 

The recipe I found also added a can of tomatoes, a can of beans, and some potatoes, so you can totally do that (it also included an oven step, which I wasn't interested in performing).  Perhaps next time I'll follow the recipe more closely, but I was pleased with the results - it was spiked with heat, a bit of sweetness from the veggies, and very meaty.  But loaded with veggies and packed with flavor!  Love it! 

I chose to serve it above with a toasted, buttered English muffin and an intense dollop of sour cream (with parsley flakes for color) on top to temper the heat.  The heat seems to get worse the more days it is since I made it - I may need to go buy another container of sour cream to finish this off, eeps.  It was absolutely delicious with the sour cream mixed in, a bit of a sour tang, but creamy, coating each piece of chicken... yummm!!!

Enjoy~!

And today's bento:

Left cup: yu choy (some may say broccoli rabe?), cut up to fit (stems AND leaves are in there, I don't waste)
Right cup: two Ajinomoto pork&chicken gyoza, with gyoza sauce in the little bear cup
Jar: Spanish style chicken "stew"

The gyoza sauce leaked out of the bear.  Ah well, it stayed in the container at least.  Mmm... delicious.

Happy bento!  As tomorrow is another gym day, don't expect a bento from me... which means #300 will be on Monday!  Gasp!  300 already?!

Feisty Bentos #294 & 295: Egg foo young... I think?

Ooh, another doozy of a post!

First, I totally missed National Carrot Day!  Thankfully, someone (from the Carrot Commission?) emailed me to let me know and also sent along this little video to celebrate.  Check it out, it's really cute!

There's also a $2 coupon if you go to Yes to Carrots!  You do have to install that coupon printer thing that a lot of websites (including Hershey's... yes, I know this from experience, haha) use now, unfortunately I only have a printer at work and I can't install that... boo :( 

Oh, and how is this related to bento?  Um, duh?  Who has NEVER used carrots in their bento?!  :)  It's such a common bento food!  We should all praise the carrot!  Hahahahaha.  (I did not get paid for this post, I just find this really funny and cute!)

Moving right along, we've got some interesting things today! 

So, if anyone's been reading my bento blog lately, you'll have noticed I've been eating a lot of bean sprouts.  That's cuz they're cheap (59c a lb.) and super easy to prepare - I make a big container of it and then take from it throughout the week.  This is probably Week 3 of such a preparation making it into bento.

Unfortunately, because I haven't been eating dinner at home, I haven't been eating bean sprouts at night, so they've been going bad and I've been kind of getting bored of them.  This will probably be the last I eat of them (maybe?) for a while.  So I was trying to come up with variations or ways to use them to make them something different, something I won't mind eating or rather that doesn't taste like the same gently sauteed bean sprouts! 

Therefore, I came up with this... and later realized it might be similar to egg foo young (a dish I've never eaten but I think is like this?).  Basically, I put some bean sprouts in the bottom of a small skillet and when they were nice and hot, I poured 2 beaten eggs over the top.  I covered it and when it was mostly set, I flipped it once to fully cook the top and voila!  What you see above, with some hoisin sauce squirted on top.  Quite tasty if you ask me ;)

... and perfect for bento.

You might remember today is my "running instead of eating a big lunch" day... well, I get really hungry after I run.  The top is slices of a Harry & David Royal Riviera pear (I bought 10 lbs. at $2.79/lb, whee! - gave a bunch to my mom & sister), to be eaten before hitting the gym.  The bottom is one dumpling and another egg-foo-young-ish thing, cut into quarters and stacked, with a bit of hoisin sauce over the top, to be eaten after the gym.  Yum! 

And here's dinner, to be eaten before class tonight!  Top left cup is more slices of a Harry & David Royal Riviera pear (these are sooo good), the right cup is three dumplings (yes I smushed them in!), and the jar part holds udon mixed with Japanese curry.  From my freezer stash... mmm, I am excited.  It looks so delicious... I bet it will be!!!  Ahhhhhhh! 

Happy bento~!!!  (The weather here is gorgeous and it is working its magic to cheer me up...)

Feisty Bentos #289 & 290: Yumms Secrets

So, if you're on my Facebook (which some of you are! but not all, so add me!), you know that Friday night, I was looking forward to a steak for dinner, and wasn't sure what to make to go with it. 

Scott Gold (The Shameless Carnivore) suggested a Caesar salad, and I was like, oh, that is perfect.  I'll explain why it was perfect in a minute, but the above is my Caesar - dressing from scratch, homemade garlic English muffin croutons (to use up the English muffins, k!), Pecorino Romano cheese grated on top, and this hit the spot.  Delicious - my Caesar dressing tends to be lemony so this was bright and not heavy at all.  Yum, leading the way for my main course...

my medium rare rib eye.  Delicious.  Perfectly cooked, even though I didn't have my cast iron skillet (lent to my brother, but retrieved on Sunday).  Ahhh, I love me just a little too much sometimes, yes?  (The side is a random can of "Mexicorn" I found hanging out in my cabinet.  Whatever.  Tasty but nothing amazing.  I was hungry and didn't want to wait any longer to eat.)

So, this is why Caesar salad was perfect.  I already had all the ingredients for such in my fridge because... I'd planned on making a big batch of Caesar salad to bring to a SuperBowl party on Sunday!  ("Something healthy, maybe a salad" was the request.  I heard "salad" and went with it.  Healthy vegetables are kind of an oxymoron in my household.)  Pretty good, I think it was a hit, people were eating it anyway.  The wings were from Bon Chon, which... well, let's just say this was my first time eating them and probably my last time, especially after hearing how horribly they treated my friend and her phone-in order.  Whatever. 

Lunch today!  We have four pieces (stacked) of vegetarian duck (it says in that post I wasn't sure if I'd like it; I love the stuff now!), the rest of the carrot kinpira, sauteed bean sprouts, and some more country pork ribs.  Saucy!  I'm hungry.

And here's dinner.  Half an orange that I took from my mom's yesterday, sauteed beansprouts and more vegetarian duck (a package is quite large, so this is good that I'm eating it quickly), and in the jar... "it's a secret" meaning the recipe will be posted on Feisty Foodie soon enough but for right now, I don't want to tell you what it is lest I get harassed for the recipe, plus I just don't feel like it.  Suffice it to say it's delicious and I'm looking forward to eating it tonight before class ;)

Alright ppls it's Monday and we're trying to keep our heads up!  Happy bento~!!!

Feisty Bento #286 & 287: I don't do sadness

Improving a bit here... even though it snowed overnight and was up a good couple of inches this morning, trudging in the snow was not fun... Ah well!  I managed to clean out half my sink last night (and it was all stuff from the past few days... just NO TIME!) and I just need to put together some extra stuff tonight, should be golden!  I'll get the hang of this.  Just... make the weather be nice, please?!

Left to right: country pork ribs with BBQ sauce on top... carrot kinpira... sauteed bean sprouts. 

Not particularly interesting but delicious and filling nonetheless.  That's what's important right now.

 

Dinner tonight.  From my freezer stash of recent slow cooker items...

Jar: ribollita
Left cup: sauteed bean sprouts
Right cup: carrot kinpira

Something different and still yummy.  I'm also keen to see if it'll still be at least warm 10-11 hours after I packed it.  Hahahaha.  What do you think?  I'd be really happy if it were!!! 

Happy bento~!!!  (and thanks for dealing with my grumpiness the past few days!)

Feisty Bento #280: Dinner for lunch or lunch for dinner?

That was part of my dinner last night... and basically what I had for dinner last night is what I have for bento today! 
From the top/left: sauteed cabbage; marinated cuttlefish (spicy); sauteed mungbean sprouts; picked daikon; spicy chicken; Woorijip gimbap
Not pictured: bowl of rice mixed with red steak and onions, sauce

Repeat! 

Left cup: spicy marinated cuttlefish; pickled daikon; sauteed cabbage; mungbean sprouts
Right cup: spicy chicken; gimbap; takuan
Jar: rice mixed with steak, onions, sauce

It's not like it's hard to smush that stuff in there, but it's fiddly and I lose patience with my less-than-excellent chopsticks skills.  (Despite growing up in an Asian household, my parents found it incredibly frustrating to make me use chopsticks properly for two reasons: I am left handed, so they had to constantly think how to reverse the instructions, and because I simply refused, preferring forks and spoons.)  So my chopstick skills to this day are laughable; most anyone I know has a better grasp than I, including every single non-Asian friend I have that I have eaten at an Asian restaurant with. 

So the rice?  It's not a new thing - I've posted about this restaurant leftover before - but I made my life even easier than frying it last night.  I just made fresh rice (in my rice cooker), and when the rice was almost but not quite cooked all the way, I dumped in the cut up steak.  When the rice was finished, I stirred it all around, adding the onions and sauce from the carton, and let it sit for a few minutes to warm through (while I prepped my side dishes in the first pic), and voila, delicious and filling dinner! 

... and delicious, filling leftovers for lunch today :)

Happy bento~!!!

Feisty Bento #276: More Mess

In the cup: sour cream topped with lots of fresh cilantro, for mixing into the jar
Jar:  chili topped with shredded cheese (recipe to come, it's a new version of my previous chili recipes)
Frozen individual portion of Mandarin oranges - I have to check on the brand for these, but it's 80 calories a cup, not sure if that includes if you drink the juice - ummm, who said I do that?!  :P

Okay.  I am not having good luck with the lunch jars lately.  The frozen cup of Mandarin oranges - I froze it because I wanted to keep my sour cream cold, right?  But when I took everything out to have lunch, the plastic part of its cup had broken, I guess during the freezing process, and it leaked juice all over my thermal insulated lunch bag!  WRAGH!!!  Since it's just juice, luckily,that'll rinse right out, but still, I was NOT happy!

Also: thanks for all the tips about the other lunch bag!  I wound up soaking it with some dishwashing soap and then rinsing it off, letting it dry.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do this right away since I had to rush out to take care of a semi-emergency the other night, so I don't think all of the oils came out.  Thankfully, the bag is a dark maroon, so I guess it won't look too bad with a stain... I'll let you know how it looks once it's fully dry (it wasn't dry yet when I last checked).  Boo. 

Sorry for not updating - I actually was out sick the past two days, had some... issues.  Blegh.  I'm back now... and it's snowing!!!

This was the view while I waited for the bus this morning.  BLEGH.  Perfect day to stay in, I tell you!

The view from my bus (of another bus) so you can see how much snow it was.  Sigh.  The downside of living in NYC.

HAPPY BENTO~!!

Feisty Bento #275: Lots and lots and lots

Ok, to make up for my lack of real posts lately... sort of... I'm going to post a couple of big things.  Hehe! 

So as you may or may not know, I have a dog whom I adore and cherish and she is my baby forever and ever.  Her name is Keywee (pronounced kiwi - I could bore you with the story of why it's spelled that way, but you might realize just how incredibly vain I really am then, hah).  Since I adopted her almost 7 years ago now, I have not eaten kiwis at all.  It wasn't a conscious decision on my part - and I didn't eat many before then anyway - but in the past 2-3 years, I've noticed that the sight of them on a cake or anywhere makes me cringe.  Thankfully, they're not too common in the things I eat, but that's just an odd thing about me.  Why does any of this matter? 

... meet Sandwich.

Yes, darlings, meet the latest addition to our family.  Sandwich aka Sammy... a French bulldog + Beagle mix.  Isn't he ADORABLE?!  I will have better pictures of him eventually, but for now, this will have to do - he was pooped out from his exciting day! 

Will I stop eating sandwiches?

NOT BLOODY LIKELY.  Hahahaha.  I love sandwiches!  I may stop calling them "sammies" though ;) 

Today's bento:

Jar: ribollita - made with Italian sausage instead of bacon
Side cup: grape tomatoes

I also have an individual cup of Mandarin oranges on the side for dessert.  I would have put some more crushed pineapple, except I discovered the little cups on the side of this aren't quite leakproof when I last put crushed pineapple in there - the juice leaked out a bit and got all over the inside of my insulated lunchbag.  Boo. 

So LitVit asked me recently about lunch jars aside from Mr. Bento.  The above lunch jar set is this one, which I spoke briefly about in that post.  Over a year later, here are my thoughts on this jar...

I love this set because it's perfect for packing soups, stews, curries, whatever that you want to keep warm.  I run my hot water tap for a minute or so, then fill this and set it aside while I prepare everything else.  Things stay hot in it, especially if they're very hot when I pack it.  Once or twice, they've actually remained hot enough to almost burn my lips when I first open it, and they stay warm throughout my lunch.  I did notice, however, that the more liquid an item is, the hotter it stays - for example, I've packed regular rice (mixed with other stuff) in it before, and it did not stay hot.  It was warm, sure, but not hot-hot like a stew would be, and like how I expect my lunch today to remain. 

I also love this set because it's metal - which means it is super easy to clean (in my opinion - I obviously hand wash my bento items because I have no dishwasher, and they are mostly plastic, but I really do dislike washing plastic items because once oily, they are a PAIN to clean properly, and sometimes they stain).

HOWEVER, the largest downside I've found to this set is its size.  At 560 ml total, it's respectable for a woman my age, height, and weight, and perhaps not bad for losing weight, but the main jar is only 240 ml, which means you aren't getting a ton of stew or soup or whatever it is you'd like to pack, and in fact, the bulk of your meal is really coming from the side cups (160 ml each x2 = 320).  As I'm trying to lose weight, this isn't necessarily a huge deal, and for me, the pros definitely outweigh the cons, hands down. 

Having said that, there are also several alternatives if you want larger bento jars - the JAR portion itself, not just the entire capacity.  You may have noticed that I do have another bento lunch jar (again, besides Mr. Bento).  The jar of this one clocks in at approximately 290 ml, with the side cups coming in at 165 ml and 200 ml.  (Since the Zojirushi website uses ounces, the conversions might be slightly off, give or take .5 ml.)  So the total is approximately 655 ml, again with the side cups bearing the most of the food, and that's a bit more than I might want to eat on any given day.  I occasionally pack this accordingly - using only one cup, or packing something that's light on calories, high on nutrition, etc. 

One other major problem with this set that I've found is that with the exception of last week's pasta, I've had general issues with keeping things warm in this jar.  Interestingly, that pasta was not liquidy at all... but the set itself is very different from the other one.  It's larger not just in capacity, but in size - the jar is a metal exterior shell that I pre-heat with hot tap water, and then has plastic insert that you place inside the empty metal shell with the actual food in it.  This goes to my dislike of plastics because they stain, and a lot of the soups, stews, curries I make are tomato based or - well, curry! which is also staining.  So far, I haven't had any issues because I wipe the jar out when I'm done eating, but I could see this being an issue with other people.  Or not.  Depends on how anal retentive you are, I suppose.  So I can't really recommend this set based on my own experiences with the heat retention so far.  I do admit that since I first began using it, when I reach for a lunch jar, I always reach for the smaller red set first.  Not just because of its physical size, but because of my past history with it, the weight of the Zojirushi set (which is quite heavy), and the amount of food it holds (too much).  I tend to only take this one out when the other one is dirty, so perhaps my limited experience with it has also tainted my view of it - maybe it holds heat just fine, just that I did it wrong the first few times and it's actually a great set.  I mean, it is a great set, just that I mis-used it initially.  I don't know. 

So, let's say you really want to pack almost entirely soup/stew/curry and just a little of a side dish.  My brother actually has a solution for that sort of lunch (scroll down past the first bunch, that's just a review on the entire thing, till you get to where it says "Modded Mr. Bento") - without requiring you to buy a new lunch jar whatsoever.  He has had excellent results with using a quart container - one of those cheapy plastic numbers you get at Chinese takeout all the time - slipped inside Mr. Bento with hot food.  He says that the Mr. Bento keeps that hot as well!  How awesome is that?!  That totally makes the Mr. Bento worth the $40 USD or so that it costs, right?  I mean, personally, that's still too much food for me, but my brother is a big guy, and you don't have to fill it all the way to the top, right?  ;)  This also works for my problem with plastic - if it stains or is just too greasy to wash properly - just throw it away!  (Well, in light of our environment, I hope you use it a few times first, but you know.) 

I hope this helps LitVit and anyone who was thinking about lunch jars, pros, cons, etc.  These are just some of my thoughts on the containers I've had experience with - I've actually only used my Mr. Bento once because it is way too large for me to comfortably eat in one sitting, but I did find that my food stayed warm with it and if you pack half of it with snacks - or perhaps pack two meals in it - it's not that bad. 

And if you want a lot of in depth examination into heat retention, Biggie has a great post about that specifically, but also lots of information about lunch jars in general over her entire site. 

--- What, you thought I was done rambling on here?  I've got one more.  It's not a big thing to me, but while I was doing it this past weekend, I thought, "Oh hey, maybe people will be interested in this."  Sometimes I find myself casually mentioning something I do to make my life easier, and the response is usually at least one person will be surprised and happy that I shared... so I thought I'd do that here.  Maybe you all already know it and I'm building this up.  Maybe it won't help any of you.  BUT IF IT HELPS JUST ONE PERSON, I'll be happy I shared :)

As you probably know, freezing food is a really big help.  And I've mentioned that I have not mastered the art of cooking for one - I grew up in a family of 5, and cooked for 5 people always with the intention of having a little bit leftover (my family is big on excess - which you know, if you read Feisty Foodie at all, we do our meals up big time - I mean, I grew up being taught-by-example that it is ALWAYS better to have leftovers than to run out of food).  SO, as such, I've been freezing a lot of food lately instead of cooking something and eating it for two weeks straight.  Not that I would mind, but this helps me also on weeks when I'm just not feeling the cooking thing, I'll still have something to eat for dinner or lunch, right? 

I've frozen Japanese curry with great success before, so I've been thinking of what other kinds of stews/soups/curries that might hold up well to freezing.  So I froze some leftover beef stew in individual sandwich bags/serving sizes, and some of that creamy chicken stew, and I made a ton of that ribollita above so I'll be freezing the leftovers of that as well.  What's my point, you ask? 

It's not that easy ladling these liquidy items into sandwich bags without getting it everywhere.  The first few times I tried, I got curry all over the outside of the bags, the part where you "zip" the bag, the part where you open the bag... it was a mess.  I was pretty pissed (even though I realized later that once you freeze it, it'll peel off so no curry will be wasted, hehe).  I really hate getting my hands messy when I'm doing something that, by all accounts, shouldn't be messy!  And I really hate getting the outside of containers dirty because it gets everything else dirty too (I do wipe them because I'm very anal retentive about that). 

So I figured out one day that instead of holding the bag with one hand and trying to fling stew into it with the other... I could just hang the bag inside my mug and it would keep it open for me!  Easy, pour one two three and then zip, it's all clean and can just be popped in the freezer straightaway!  NICE! 

I literally just open the bag, push my hand in to open it up, then push it into the mug, push down the top of the bag so it doesn't get in the way of the ladle, and then I take it out, push excess air out and freeze. 

Maybe it's not a stroke of genius for you, but it's made my life so much easier since then; now the bags stay clean on the outside, and stew/soup/curry only goes on the inside of the bag where it belongs! 

Alright, I've probably rambled on enough here, so I'll let you go.  Oh what a coincidence, it's now lunchtime ;)

HAPPY BENTO~!!!

Feisty Bento #273: Winter Wonderland

So I decided on a total whim to try adding crushed pineapple - that's what's in the cup - to the beef stew.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly the oomph I was looking for... but then I gave up, and ladled out the rest of the stew into sandwich bags for freezing and eating at a later date.  Maybe it's just me.  I'm sure it tastes good, just not as good as I'd like.  Ah well!  Can't always hit a homerun! 

Jar: beef stew
Cup: crushed pineapple
Not shown: a pudding cup I had as dessert.

You like the background?  My sister gave me a bunch of nifty kitchen items for Christmas, including this trivet/cutting board/decorative piece.  (I normally don't liken trivet to cutting board, but the package it came in said it could be used as both!)  It's tempered glass and so far, it's taken up a permanent spot betweeen my bamboo chopping block (on which I do not chop; I put other, smaller cutting boards on top of it to prep veggies or meats) and the stove.  Cute, right?  Also pretty fitting as it's meant to snow between 4 and 7 inches tomorrow.  Are you reading???  Unless you're in a colder climate than me, stop complaining about the weather!!!  *shakes fist*

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #272: New Stew

Jar: beef stew (recipe to come; needs a little tweak)
Cup: broccoli stem and shredded carrot kinpira - the last of it, unfortunately :(

This first attempt at stew (I've made beef stew before... it's hard to explain... whatever!) needs a little tweak.  I want a slight sour tang to it, since the flavor is smooth and rich.  I'll have to taste it more when I get home tonight to really play with the flavors.  Maybe it just needs more pepper?  But when I eat it, I just want it to have a slight sourness to it that is missing.  Hmm.

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #271: Delicious Leftovers

Jar: leftover pasta from dinner last night (review to come on FF)
Cup: Broccoli stem & shredded carrot kinpira - yum yum!!!

It's delicious~!!!

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #270: It's a secret

So, I said that wasn't the last of it, but this is, I promise.  My Friday night - a cold Stewart's Birch Beer (zOMG, delicious, dare I say - better than their root beer?!), the last of the pulled pork, sauced with my spicy BBQ sauce, the last of the flash cooked broccoli, and... well, boxed mac & cheese.  There are all these boxes hanging out, getting in the way - purchased for my non-cooking boyfriend, who actually prefers this to real mac & cheese - so I made it really quickly.  I didn't have all the ingredients on hand for the real deal, anyway, so this came to be a really quick meal... I overstuffed myself on everything and enjoyed a quiet night on the couch with my bestest cuddle buddy in the whole world, Keywee.  Mmm.

The rest of the weekend, spent cleaning, cooking up a storm, just relaxing... so I won't share pictures until those recipes are up on Feisty Foodie ;)

Today's bento:

The unfortunate thing about bento'ing (and making lots of food with lots of leftovers all the time) and posting immediately... while posting on a delayed schedule on Feisty Foodie... is that a lot of times, I don't want to tell you all the details of what's in something until I've posted about it over there.  Sigh.  That makes it really hard to post my lunches here as quickly as I like to! 

So... here we go:

Left cup: it's a secret, but if you don't know what that is, there may be something else for you to read elsewhere, lol
Right cup: shredded carrot & broccoli stem kinpira (love this, easy to make, slight heat at the end, and great way to use up the broccoli stem that I didn't use already...)
Jar: it's a secret

Yup, that's my secret lunch.  Hahahaha.  Sorry!

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #262: Let it snow, I've got Japanese curry!

Dinner last night - I managed to get home closer to 6 than I'd ever thought possible, so I quickly made Japanese curry.  This was the apple curry by S&B that I adore, medium hot; at the last minute, I decided to be cute and add some sliced up Fuji apples.  I left them big, thinking that would be better, but after tasting, I think next time I'll grate them so instead of just smelling them in the sauce, I'll actually taste them... I actually ate two bowls of this, it was SOOO good!!!  *tears of joy*  I love when things come together properly :)

Of course that means I had to have some for lunch today...

Left cup: miso mushrooms; sesame sauteed cabbage with some sesame seeds sprinkled on for looks
Right cup: peeled and halved small navel orange - look, I actually have fruit today!!!
Jar: curry on the bottom, rice lid on top to keep it warm and not get soggy :)

Oh, that hit the spot.  Especially considering this, which was the view out the window while I ate my lunch:

Yes, it was snowing crazily and hard today, but doubtful it stuck.  Fluffy flakes coming down fast is all.  But hot Japanese curry while watching the snow fall?  AWESOME.

HAPPY BENTO~!!!

Feisty Bento #255: Green Onions & Scallions

Ahhh, my stove is so dirty! 

I actually have more turkey to eat, but this morning I was in such a frantic rush, this seemed to be the easy way out. 

Left cup: sour cream with cayenne pepper sprinkled on top for color - I didn't think this would make a difference, but it added a nice spicy kick to the cool sour cream
Jar: chili with cheese on top (I tweaked the recipe a little bit; instead of using a package of taco seasoning, I added ground cumin, turmeric, paprika, and cayenne until it smelled, looked, and most of all, tasted the way I thought it should taste.)

Not pictured is the baggie of corn chips I brought along to eat with this.  And it was soooooooo good~!!!

Oh, and I thought this was interesting.

You see those three green onions/scallions?  Ummm... they were in my fridge for a couple of weeks before I took them out, rinsed off the yucky leaves, chopped the tops off for stock, and then decided to throw the roots into dirt in the windowbox I have for my basil (see it in the background, thriving?). 

Bear in mind, I did this on Sunday, and took that pic this morning.  I had cut them down to the white part.  That darker green part is all new growth.  From Sunday.  How ridiculous is that?!  (I know, the one closest to the window is struggling, but I looked at it this morning, and up close, you can see something is growing a bit, it's just having trouble since I got dirt on the cut part before planting it.) 

Now I don't have to buy scallions at the store anymore!!!  :D  Well, I may go buy some to plant some more, but basically... how cool is that?!  :D

HAPPY BENTO and have a great weekend!!!

Feisty Bento #253: Thanksgiving in a Jar

Please ignore my messy/dirty stove... It's been a crazy hectic week...

I am in love with my Thanksgiving, can you tell?

Left box: Brussels sprouts with bacon; carrots sauteed in butter
Right box: Sweet potato with marshmallow topping; sauteed mushrooms
Jar: Mashed potatoes on the bottom; dark meat turkey shredded on top; gravy slathered all over that

Oh my gosh, I'm so happy that lunch is shortly, because I am starving and this lunch is going to be sooo good.  I know it.  I'm happy about it.  <3  Happy squeal.

Happy bento~!!!

Feisty Bentos #249 & 250: With Apologies

I've been a bad hostess, and I am so, so, so sorry.  I got really busy at work and things haven't slowed down and in my free time, the last thing I wanted to do was sit at the computer more than I humanly had to... so I just vegged and well I had a bento last Thursday:

Top tier: marinated cuttlefish; fried rice; spanokopita, truffled risotto puff, cranberry/goat cheese empanada (these last three were all in the same frozen appetizer box I mentioned before)
Bottom tier: last of the kickin' chicken; peas & carrots with butter; Shanghai bok choi sauteed with Shiitake mushrooms and garlic

but then I got to work and everyone at work was buzzing about the cafeteria's special of the day, which was like $6 for:

Cup of cream of chicken (or butternut squash soup), mashed potatoes/stuffing/maple glazed salmon/roasted carrots/broccoli+cauliflower with cheese sauce (choice of that or other stuff, turkey/stuffing, ham, etc.), cheese, slice of pie (pumpkin shown).

So I went with that instead and neglected the above bento, boo.  (T'was a little protein-light for me, anyway.)

That was Thursday; then Friday I didn't go to work because I had some stuff to take care of outside of the office; Monday came and I had this bento:

which I was also still busy at work and didn't want to post because well, I didn't want to reveal what an upcoming Recipe Friday MIGHT be about ;)

Left cup: fruit cup! banana chips, dried apricot pieces, and dried cherries
Right cup: potato "chips"/fries, corn fritters
Jar: clam chowder

Then we come to yesterday and today.  No bento because I was mad at myself that I'd made TWO WHOLE BENTOS and not posted about them.  Plus I'm going nuts and stressed out about making the turkey tomorrow, so... I dealt with not having a homemade lunch for two days (and I SUFFERED, I tell you that, I SUFFERED HARD...)

I hope you all can forgive me...

HAVE A FANTASTIC THANKSGIVING to my stateside readers, always HAPPY BENTO and remember Thanksgiving meals are totally bentoable.

Back on Monday!!!  (Hiatus on FF as well!)

Feisty Bento #241: More, more, gimme more!

Wow, I actually went home last night, started to prep dinner, went back out (which I NEVER do), voted, came back home, made dinner, cleaned all the dishes from the day including my lunch jar, ate dinner, watched the poll results as they came in, and then passed out, really exhausted.  It's been a really exhausting 21 months during this election time, and once I got caught up in it, I was going nuts... now I feel a little ... well, relieved, and yet empty.  I need something new to obsess over!  ...oh right.  It's me.  I have tons of things I obsess over... ha!

Lunch jar: chicken korma mixed with rice (semi-recipe to come on Feisty Foodie)
Left side container: edamame
Right side container: two gyoza (pork/chicken) and a gyoza sauce fishy

HAPPY BENTO~!!!