Feisty Bento #159: Back 2 Bento

I forgot my camera at home yesterday, which is why there was no post.  Also, Feisty Bento #158 forever will be lost to y'all; it wasn't a real bento and I didn't take a picture.  I slipped a container of Greek yogurt with honey, a freezy pack, a Crunch dark chocolate stick, and a small bag of potato chips into an insulated bag.  That was it.  *shrug*

The view out the bus window when I was going home on Monday night (around 7:15 pm).  Can't really see the rain pouring down, but this is along the FDR Drive, looking out over the East River.  Dreary... but the sun is sort of out today!  I jumped the gun and wore heeled sandals, a skirt, and am freezing.

My dinner on Monday night.  Yea there're noodles under there, udon, perfect in the rainy weather.  Something about ramen/udon in soup that I just love when it's rainy and chilly out.  (Trader Joe's "boolgooki" as they call it [sesame etc. marinated meat that I threw on a hot pan to quickly cook through, so soft and sooo flavorful!], baby bok choi, and XO dumplings, which are a mixture of pork, cabbage, and spicy chiles, I think that's a Taiwanese dumpling? my brother buys these by the frozen bagful and a while back, I took a bag for myself, over frozen udon, cooked in a broth with Shiitake mushrooms, a bit of soy sauce)

And now, some funny pictures for you guys...

At NY Comicon 2007 - it's not the greatest picture of the hat, but my bunny hat! 

I am the Bunny Ninja!

You know... this hat.

The hat I bought at NY Comicon 2008... lol.  My eyes are a little unfocused because I took my glasses off to take the picture (I usually wear contacts, but this was late at night).  And if you recognize the pose, umm... stop stalking me!  (That was my birthday/Halloween costume last year - see link - and when I got drunk, I kept imitating her because I thought it was so hysterical.)

What you're really here for, though, is bento!  I should stick to just bentos, I'm sure you guys are getting bored of everything else... right?

Two maple honey turkey sandwiches on 15 grain bread (Arnold's; the label swears that it's whole grain, not just 15 grains! something you should check for when you buy multi-grain bread) with cilantro mayo, cut into dinosaurs and hearts.  Mini orange bell peppers along the top with grape tomatoes, baby carrots on the bottom, and in the middle, one wedge of Garlic & Herb cheese for the veggies, along with three Laughing Cow light swiss cheese cubes (there's one hiding underneath the wedge that you can't see). 

I actually have been really remiss with bento'ing, which you guys know very well and I feel kind of badly about it.  I've been struggling to juggle sleeping enough with waking up in time to walk the dog before I leave with a lot of things, and my bentos were the first to suffer as a direct result of my inability to juggle all these things.  In any case, today's bento makes me feel really happy because, well, it seems like a step back in the right direction.  Hopeully it will continue in this fashion. 

A nod to Not Exactly Bento combined with my old standby - BE THE HAPPY BENTO!!!  Hahahaha... that makes me giggle like a fool.

Feisty Bento #157: Rainy Day Bento

My weekend in food... and fun!

Mmm... bacon and mounds of finely grated hard Italian cheeses...

On my homemade pizza, that's where!

PASTA... more cheese... but vegetarian!

The now-famous frittata... why famous? CUZ I BURNED MY HAND WHILE MAKING IT...

Yet another Sunday spent doing what I love best...

Watching my DW wind up... that cute lil ass... that hot body!!! and, of course, what a gentleman he is... I just wanna scoop him up and hug him when he's mad... awww...

And my bento for today. Absolutely perfect on this rainy shitty day.

In the jar: chicken curry under a rice cap, of course! In the left cup: three pieces of vegetarian duck In the right cup: two creamed corn croquettes and a lil ketchup bottle of tonkatsu sauce

The pizza - I took bacon, chopped it up, crisped it, then drained and set it aside (I reserve bacon fat for my own cooking purposes... yum!). A while back, I'd bought Trader Joe's Parmesan Garlic flatbread with the intention of making a pizza... unfortunately, somehow all of the mozzarella in my fridge went bad (while none of the other cheeses in my cheese drawer were affected, thankfully!), so I just plopped the bacon on top with tons of grated Romano and Parmesan... yum!!!

Happy bento! (Details on the pasta, frittata, etc. to come on Feisty Foodie)

Feisty Bento #156: SPEEDy Bento

In lieu of bento yesterday!  I only ate half.  This entire sandwich cost me $8.50.

The other half, for dinner, eaten in front of both my laptop and the TV (watching Scrubs & The Office).

Super hurry this morning, so not a great bento.  I had nothing in the fridge!  I actually randomly pulled out the carrots and with only 20 minutes to go until I had to leave, I yanked frozen croquettes out of the freezer and fried them really quickly.

Potato croquette; baby carrots (will grab dressing in the cafeteria later); two creamed corn croquettes; tonkatsu sauce (there isn't that much in there, but since I like dipping, it seemed like a good idea to use a bigger container, plus my stuff fit exactly right with that container in there!).

Have a FANTASTIC weekend and a happy bento to everyone!!!

Feisty Bento #155: Yummy yummy

Top tier: sadly, the last of the pasta...
Bottom tier: BBQ ribs pulled off the bone

Oh I cannot wait until lunch time.  I've been lazy with what I'm packing, and just sticking it in cute boxes, but ... oh my yummy stars.

HAPPY BENTO!!!

Feisty Bento #154: Lather, rinse, repeat.

Pretty boring, right?  Well, I have lunch plans today but I've learned that I should always bring a bento just in case someone bails, because if they bail and I have to eat cafeteria food, I actually get really mad/upset about it.  Not at them, but at not having food.  I know, I'm weird.  Anyway, I'm eating it right now cuz I'm hungry and because lunch is still on.  Haha.  Ooh, I just remembered they're giving away free stuff in the cafeteria today... doh!  Hahahahahaa...

It's the same as yesterday, minus the garlic bread.

HAPPY BENTO!!!

Feisty Bento #153: Back to work

Dinner last night.  Can you tell what herb that is on top?  If so, props.  It was a yummy dinner.

Piece of garlic bread on its side; leftover pasta (recipe here, along with answer to what herb is on top of the pasta!)

Can we say yummy?  I love this pasta recipe.  It's horrifically filled with calories, as there's a whole container of ricotta mixed in, but also for me, since I don't quite digest dairy properly and therefore become quite gassy... hehe.  Oh well.  It's worth it.

HAPPY BENTO!!!

Yay...

I have the flu. No bento until I'm all better... maybe a cracker-and-water bento? We'll see when I'm finally up to going back to work. Boo.

Feisty Bento #152: Courtesy of My Brother-in-Law

Have you ever jabbed yourself in the eye really hard while trying to push up your glasses, because you're not wearing glasses, you're wearing contacts for the first time in ages? 

... yeah, me neither...

In a much better mood than yesterday, which was a horrible day, totally crap.  My neck tensed up and I've still got this weird knot in my neck - if you look at it, it's a bright red spot about 2" x 4" (a rough circle).  It hurts and I can't really turn my head to the right.  Yowch.  But still, in a good mood.  Amazing what being productive does for me; last night, I managed to (this list is not intended to impress anyone, but for my own journaling purposes): walk the dog, put away the laundry!, wash all of the dishes and completely empty the sink (which I filled again this morning making lunch), wipe down the countertops and scrub the sink, make myself dinner with enough leftover for lunch today, chop the green onions into a container (so that I'll use them instead of forgetting I have them or being too lazy to take them out to chop), clean up the living room a bit, respond to side-job-related emails, and watch a little TV.  Phew!  That makes me happy!!!

Dinner last night. I did the portobello mushrooms the French way- with half a stick of butter (there were more mushrooms than that, don't worry, I am not THAT insane!). 

My breakfast... the reason I'm a fatty.  Actually, when I was losing all that weight, I reversed my meals and started off with a huge breakfast (usually dinner items, which you may find gross, but I didn't), had bento for lunch, and then a small dinner... I've gained back some of that weight I fought to lose, so I have to change something.  Boo.

Top tier: portobello mushrooms sauteed in a bit of butter; cabbage stir fried with garlic and onions (courtesy of my brother in law); carrots cooked in I think butter (also courtesy of my brother in law) with green onions sprinkled on top - see, using them already!
Bottom tier: hummus; cucumbers; sliced rib eye (courtesy of my brother in law)

Can you tell I went to my sister's house on Sunday and took home lots of leftovers?  Hahaha.  I love it.  Expect to see more of the same veggies the rest of the week :P

Happy BENTO!!!

Feisty Bento #151: Weekend Recap & Cheap Food

Friday night: hit up Chinatown with Cookie to find bento stuff, had shabu shabu (YUM!) at Quickly, then back to my place to give her all of my empty boxes. Woohoo! She also showed me a couple of awesome places in C-town, including the cheap tofu/soy milk/and surprise, ha-mai-cheung place... and a Chinese bakery that has all the bao for 3/$1 after 6 pm! w00t w00t, perfect snacks!

Ha mai cheung makes an awesome breakfast! (Dried shrimp rolled in rice noodles with scallions, that I dip into a combination sauce - you steam the noodles and they are oh-so-good!)

My Saturday consisted of waiting for Crate & Barrel to deliver (which they never did), attempting to go outside as much as possible to enjoy the weather, eating from the nearby pizzeria just to see if it's any good (not bad, though we didn't have pizza, haha), and then going to see Superhero Movie (which SUCKED ASS, omgs we hoped it would be a good mocking of all the superhero movies lately, but the jokes were lame and uh they basically took the entire plot of Spiderman 1 (and part of 2, sort of), and used no-name actors with a sprinkling of really bad jokes. Oh, and a teensy bit of X-men references were added in, but not very funny ones. BOOOOO).

Sunday!!! I froze my ass off for this:

(I took out any identifying information for very good reasons: paranoia. I'm going to be there every Sunday we've got a home game, y'know! Trust that I have good seats, though!)

Got this sweet picture of David winding up and Suppan throwing the ball. Unfortunately, this was not right before David's solo homer, and we lost after being up 4 runs... really disappointing. And really cold! I may bring a blanket to the next game...

Afterwhich, went to the sibs house for a late bday dinner of Kyochon chicken... more grease in my tummy...

Lunch, courtesy of a place next to the bus that I took to get to Shea Stadium (then transferring to the 7). The reason I've got a rock in my stomach: I packed some of the noodles (which were $1.25 for this HUGE container! gosh I love buying cheap food in Chinatown/Flushing, I almost forget why I hate going there... oh, right, the people who won't MOVE out of my way!) and what wouldn't fit went right into my belly for breakfast. Eesh, very oily these were... and a bit soft, which sucks. I love a good takeout lo mein, even with the oil/grease. The dumplings were $1/4, which isn't the cheapest there is, but oh well...

Left to right: veggie lo mein; fried dumplings (I think it's pork/cabbage inside)

Terrible picture, but this is what I walked up to this morning - right outside my office. I'll see if I can snag a better picture while I'm out for lunch.

Feisty Bento #150: Friday Lunch Bento and Bento for Blood

My friend's sandwich yesterday.  Yes, I took a picture of my friend's glorious lunch.

MY glorious sandwich yesterday (the reason why I didn't post a bento).  The weather was so nice we went outside for sandwiches and to bask in the glorious sun!

Ok, so does anyone know what the hell?  I bought these for what I thought was super cheap at $1.49/lb. and decided, since (my dog) Keywee's 6th birthday is on Sunday, I would roast them (and eat the marrow), use them for stock, then give her the bones.  I roasted them, the marrow came right out and I put it in a container, and will make stock tomorrow morning, but now I'm reading that you're not supposed to give cooked bones to dogs.  I ALWAYS give her cooked bones!  Should I not fill the hollow with peanut butter and give it to her then?!  WTF? 

***I would go buy her some raw ones but I got these at Stew Leonard's which is not very closeby to me.

Another something I picked up there on Sunday.

Dinner - the other half of my sandwich from lunch, a half glass of Silk SoyMilk, and a bowl of lobster bisque.

BBQ short ribs (see previous posts this week!), rice, cucumbers, baby bell peppers with hummus...

Snack bento - because I was going to give blood today (but they wouldn't let me, again, because I went to Argentina this time!) - one chocolate chip cookie, broken in half, half of a sugar cookie, chocolate covered peanut butter pretzel, and a dark chocolate covered marshmallow...

Look at my baby tomato sprouts!  They were white, now they're green and growing as fast as they can.  No- they're not hairy, though the seeds were!

No real change for Mint & Basil... doesn't look like I'll be eating fresh basil anytime soon.  Boo.

Seriously, help me with the beef marrow thing.

Have a great weekend everyone and as always, HAPPY BENTO!!!

Feisty Bento #149: Graffiti, Sprouts, and Bento

Walking to the bus stop this morning, I saw this, and was annoyed.

Stupid punk @$$ teenagers!  (If you don't see it, look again.  No, look again, I'll wait.  It's THERE.)

Look closely!

Look at those things shoot up!  I tried to count and there's like 20-30 little things sprouting up in there (I admit, I added some extra mint and basil seeds I had lying around... hehe).  Dang.  There's barely any light in my bathroom except when I turn on the light, because the window is in the shower and I keep the shower curtain closed so the plastic liner can dry while I'm at work... but tons of heat because the steampipe produces like mad.  I'm so excited!  I only planted these lil suckers, what, on Saturday or Sunday?  It's Wednesday!  Works fast...

And you know what?  It makes me happy to see them sprouting up like that.  My Easter lilies died and I feel so bad about it.  The plant is fine, but the flowers just went poomph and died.  It actually makes me feel badly that they died.  That's the kind of person I am.  So I'm super excited that I just brought all these other little baby plants into the world!

Left to right: steamed spinach with a lemon "twist" on top; rice pilaf I picked up from my office cafeteria last night (I worked until 8:45pm); the last of the BBQ chicken, with a cucumber star for garnish.

I'm so hungry, I think I'll go eat this now!

HAPPY BENTO!

Feisty Bento #148: The FBI wants MY opinion

This is turning into a straight out photo-blog...

On the bus home last night, I saw this.  Note the old man carting a TV behind him.  That's a Sony Bravia 32".  Those things are NOT LIGHT.  ***OK... I just looked it up... I have the 40" and I thought it was like 100 lbs. when I tried to lift it... but these things are only 50~ lbs.  FINE I AM A WEAKLING OKAY.  I still thought it was funny that this old guy, clearly on his way to Chinatown, was carting his Bravia (from, presumably, J&R) like it ain't no thang...

My plants are doing fine; when I got home, though, this was stuck to my door.

Because I don't want to get arrested or anything, I removed all of the identifying information from it (thus the ugly black blotches because I suck at editing photos).  So apparently someone who used to live in my apartment building is applying for a position with the FBI!  No, I don't know if it's FBI, but how cool and weird is that?  I don't know the guy, so I'm debating calling back and when I should... I'm a little freaked out that I'll be talking directly to a Special Agent!  I think it's so cool!!!  (I actually don't know why I got this - it hasn't my name on it, so I guess these are the random background checks as opposed to the people s/he listed as references.)  I know so many people who want to be in the FBI, too! 

(Mint & Basil are doing fine, but not much progress to report, so.)

Also waiting for me in my mailbox was a package from someone, inside which were these two boxes:

Hmm.... and inside each box were the cutest little business cards!  www.moo.com - I may want to order business card holders for these, they're so cute!  Each one has a different picture on the back - you can choose your own or choose from theirs, though since someone else made these for me, I don't know where the photos came from - it's an entire assortment, though I chose which to photograph.

It was a sweet surprise, but unfortunately my last name was included, so I have to seriously consider how I will use these cards, or if I'll just start using my full name as my parents intended. 

Dinner!  Couldn't resist picking up a container when I was there on Sunday.

It was actually really, really good, and you know how picky I am about my clam chowder?  (Though that post doesn't tell you about my love of clam chowder, not really anyway...)  I ate the whole container, even though it's about 1,000 calories, and I had some toasted baguette to dip in it as well.  Oh well, I will have to start running again to work this fat layer off.

I finished off the night, while watching random TV shows (does anyone watch Dirt, with Courteney Cox?  I just started it, even though it was the 2nd to last episode of the 2nd season, and really like it; I think I'm going to rent it to watch from the beginning, it's pretty good/interesting), drinking a glass of Silk Chocolate soy milk (I didn't fill the glass because the glass is HUGE and I try not to drink more than one serving of caloried drinks, at a time or per day...).  Wow, talk about rich, creamy and smooth.  Seriously, I really like the stuff, though I find it pretty expensive (I had a coupon for it).  Try it!  It's super chocolatey but not in an overpoweringly sweet way... just right for a nice little snack by itself or maybe with some potato chips... even, if you're into sweets, with some cookies or such!

Another half glass for breakfast this morning.  Yummy!!!  My doctored bottle of water - I've been buying and loving Lipton Green Tea To Go (Citrus); I'm not a fan of drinking plain water, so this adds a bit of flavor, anti-oxidants, and makes the water taste good so I can drink my 4 bottles/8 glasses a day!  So far, I'm up to 3 bottles... which is close, but no cigar, boo.  (I've already drank 1.5 bottles for the day, though, and the 2nd bottle that I'm halfway through is plain water, so yay me!)

And of course, here's my bento!

Top tier: steamed spinach with a bit of lemon; three slices of Fuji apple (last time they didn't brown much, and I really don't mind, so I don't bother with dipping them to prevent browning); three chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels
Bottom tier: cucumber hearts; BBQ chicken (same as yesterday's), and underneath, a slice of white bread soaking up all the excess sauce, so yum!

Happy BENTO! still the main focus of my site!

Feisty Bento #147: Weekend in Pictures

My weekend, in pictures:

Special event @ Megu

Pretty presentation, but not one I haven't seen or tasted before at other restaurants

"Kobe" beef lit on fire

Overall, a hugely mediocre dinner.  I probably will not review it because it was a sake paired dinner, the pictures are all crap, and the food was barely mediocre, really disappointing.

After I'd loaded up on sake, though, and headed home via subway, I waited a long time for the train and thought to snap a phone pic of this:

Ignore the passengers, look at the guys on the tracks!  What if you're super fat?  Does your belly get grazed?  (The train was approaching after an interminable 20 minute wait, which is why they stepped back, but before that, they'd been cleaning the tracks.)

If you compare with the pictures on Friday, Basil is shooting up already (they are now both in the living room since they've sprouted and don't need excess warmth).  These are from Saturday afternoon; I was amazed since Basil was barely sprouted on Friday.  Maybe that's why Mint has a wistful look on his face?

Dinner on Saturday night; I hadn't the time to make some veggies or starch to go with it (struggling to make do without a rice cooker for now, even though I didn't think I ate that much rice...).  Left is short ribs, right is chicken thighs cooked in some of the same sauce.

After a long day of shopping on Sunday, dinner: fried chicken and

lobster bisque.  They hadn't any (hot) clam chowder unfortunately (they only had containers for you to buy and take home to heat up yourself).

Taken this morning.  Look how much Basil is shooting up, and there's more sprouts coming!  AWESOME!  I will be eating fresh basil soon enough... my preciousss....

Basil close up

Anddd... surprise!  In the space on my bathroom shelf left vacant by Mint & Basil's move to the living room, this box now sits next to my steampipe.  Qu'est-ce que c'est? 

I went to CVS and saw these on sale for just under $4, and supposedly tomatoes will sprout.  So I put it in the warmest spot in my apartment, next to the steampipe in my bathroom, and we'll see what sprouts up, whee!!!  So cute, right?  It came with the lil rake looking thing next to it in the first picture.

Bad weekend for my wallet.

Yeah...

This terrible picture doesn't do the bag justice.  It's gorgeous.  *happy sigh*  My first large fashion purchase, anyway, and as my sister said, "Well, you bring lunch to work every day, you deserve a treat!  What's the point of all the money you save otherwise?!"

And now, no eating out for a month; great way to lose weight.

Well, here's today's breakfast, purchased 5 for $5.  Not a bad deal, eh?

And for lunch! 

Top tier: steamed spinach with a lemon slice on top; BBQ chicken adjacent with a piece of short ribs on the bottom right
Bottom tier: French baguette toasted (stacked two deep) with roasted pine nut hummus in between

Happy bento everyone!!!

PS I hope you guys enjoy the extra pictures - I wasn't sure if I should start including them but when I did, a few people said they like them, so why not?  It makes my life seem slightly more exciting ;)