1st pic
Top box: really sad looking broccoli (I didn't cook it); red sauce for calamari (it's NOT marinara, it's homemade red sauce, courtesy of PopPop)
2nd pic
Top tier: salt & pepper pork chops
Bottom tier: calamari and three baked clams
I'm in a rush today so that's all I'll say, and have a happy happy new year!!!
Look! I actually have dessert today! And I didn't even realize I did this till just now but eclairs were one of my Dad's favorite desserts- fitting on what would have been his 62nd birthday...
Lunch jar: egg noodles with cod roe spaghetti "sauce" (courtesy of S&B brand, and the last remnants of taramasalata from the jar I'd bought a few months ago)
Left side dish: mini-eclair
Right side dish: broiled/roasted asparagus with sesame oil, sesame seeds, salt and freshly ground black pepper
Onwards to the main event: all the wonderful bento stuff I got for Christmas! Normally I'm really wary of people who ask me, "So what did you get?!" because either they just want to talk about what they got (which is totally fine by me; I don't mind listening) or they are really that materialistic and give a crap that so-and-so person got me this while other-person got me that. But in the case of bento, I want to show off my goodies, and I've tried to post fairly consistently about my bento supplies/gear as I've bought it, so I figured, why not?
My darling coworker buddy C (whom I am waiting for to start her own darn bento blog... come on already, I know you're reading!!!) saw this and thought of me. Isn't it sweet?! It's much bigger than the one I already have (pictured here), and it has a little silver tag with my full first name engraved on it!!! (Don't you worry about what it is if you can't read it clearly, mm'k? Haha) I love it!
***it's probably not that obvious on this blog, but if you ever saw me, you'd know pink is easily my favorite color. I wear it everyday; yes, every single day.
From my coworker buddy Orzo's girlfriend~ (she doesn't have a nickname yet, sorry!) I'm not sure if she saw this in the Phillippines or Taiwan (I'm guessing, she just came back from a trip to both, maybe she got it here, I really don't know), but how adorable! A set of four microwaveable side dish containers! (The graphic on the back shows them being put in the microwave; otherwise I can't read a damn word on there...)
More adorable side dish containers that are microwaveable, from my brother this time. Brightly colored and actually... these are from Tupperware; stain resistant and you can keep the lid on during microwaving, since there's a steam vent! Freezer, microwave and dishwasher safe. About 1 cup capacity each, I think that's 250-260ml for those of you counting calories (as I am).
Strange looking thing that I'm claiming is for bento, huh? Well, actually... it's for oshibori or wet cloths to wipe your hands with after you're done eating! This is an 8 pack of baby washcloths that also comes with a "terrycloth toy" as they refer to the frog. I haven't thought of a good use for the frog yet, but I'm sure I will. Maybe a dog toy? From my sister!
Also from my sister... remember this post about BuiltNY gear? I showed it to her back then and raved about how adorable the Meadow Munchler (the green bunny) bag is, and she saw that there was a dog option as well. So when she saw it in a store, she had to buy it for me... how cute is it?! It's an insulated lunch bag... in hot weather, I might slip an ice pack in there to keep my lunch cool... lovely. For purchasing information, click here! And if you're not packing for a child... and you're a more serious adult than I... well, check out Built NY's line of insulated lunch bags here. They have a lot of great bags that are inexpensive and will hold your lunch nicely!
Last but not least, the motherlode... my brother got me a Mr. Bento!!! He has one himself actually. But as his company currently provides him with meals every day... he never uses it... (In fact you're probably wondering if he wrapped his to give to me! To this I say: impossible. Why? Because his came with chopsticks, and this one has the dreaded spork combo.) I didn't have time to open it up and take pictures of each component, but coincidentally, one of the bento blogs I read just posted about her own receipt of Mr. Bento for Christmas, so go over here to see the full deal of what's inside! I've been drooling over one of these for well over a year- since before he got his- but wasn't into bento before, and then it just is way too much food. I'm going to have to either put my breakfast in there as well, or I'm going to have to leave parts of it empty... I don't know, really, but I'll definitely have to do something because the total capacity is something ridiculous like 1230ml. That is just way too much food for one meal. I think I will wind up putting my breakfast in there; I've seen some people put vitamins in one tier, but even so, I feel like that's just way too much food!
(He didn't get me Ms. Bento because the new one is just like my current lunch jar- a food jar and two side dish containers that don't go inside. I wanted a lunch jar where all the containers go inside the jar. I'll figure something out to make this work, it's no big deal... I can't wait to use it!!!)
As always, happy bento and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and got everything you wanted- and more! I sure did :)
A few months ago, I announced my first ever contest, "Does this make my lunch phat?" Unfortunately, the holidays caught hold of me and not that many people entered (boo...), so I'm extending the deadline (and finally announcing the extension!) to... February 29th. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the new year will bring exciting news and an exciting plan (the 2nd solely regarding cooking!), so I expect that I'll need some time to get back into the swing of things and get everything together. Also, I like the idea of making the deadline a day that only comes around once every four years. I'm quirky, sue me. :)
The rules and requirements remain the same, with one large exception: the green box has been promised to someone, so don't request that one, please!!!
Also, Allison of SushiDay has generously offered a SushiDay t-shirt to the first place winner, in addition to their choice of bento set! Thanks Allison! I wish I could be the first place winner... ;) She'll be posting further details shortly, so be sure to head on over there to take a peek at what she's got for you. Awesome site with tons of great pictures and all sushi tutorials, and even the nutritional info. Totally awesome! And much of her stuff is bento-friendly!
Good luck and as always, happy bento!!!
crossposted to Feisty Foodie
Hmm... these leftovers are actually from Christmas Eve dinner, I hope I don't get sick! Haha, I doubt it. Also, this is post #100, even though I'm only up to Feisty Bento #94! I better start thinking about what special thing I could do for #100.... *wink* We'll see!
Top tier: poached/baked/fried (I'm not sure what he did!) salmon with ginger, scallions, cilantro, and a sprinkling of roasted sesame seeds on top; broiled asparagus (the tips were soft, so I had to throw them out, and wound up not really filling the box, oops)
Bottom tier: gyoza, I'm going to need a refresh of my supply soon!, gyoza sauce in the little teddy bear
Happy Bento!
At least it's a short week, but I'm so exhausted. Too much running around and non-stop motion just gets to me, y'know?
I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas/holiday and they got everything they wanted. I got a ton of cooking stuff, yay! and some bento stuff, double yay! I like the theme- my family's been focusing on my hobbies for gifts. I guess I didn't have hobbies before or something because they seem to never have known what to get me ;p Or rather, I had more expensive hobbies. I did get a lot of great gifts, thank you to everyone!!!
(I got two new Wusthof knives, which adds to the two I got last year for Christmas, and the two I got for my birthday, bringing my knife block to a grand total of... 6!!! w00t! I'm getting there!)
Here's how I packaged the rest of my goodie bags:
the glass of wine I had at the "holiday lunch" with my two buddy/coworkers, DD & Orzo, and Orzo's gf- the wine really wanted to be in the picture
Also, pictures of how I've been sort of bitten by the Martha bug, because I actually wrapped my presents then decided I could make them look even better by... well, adding stuff, frills, ribbons, taping stuff to the package...
BF's wrapped gifts: Transformers chess, Transformers rock'em/sock'em robot-style toy/game, and a bottle of cologne.
(I didn't wrap his other four gifts: two original pages from the Wolverine/Marvel Knights series, signed by Darick Robertson, his favorite artist; the comic series from which those pages came, all 43 issues, bagged and backed; and the Mel Brooks' boxset of DVDs- think it was 10 DVDs? plus Spaceballs since that wasn't in the box set. Yeah, I know, I'm an awesome girlfriend.)
For my cousin: Friends SceneIt DVD game- she loves board games, maybe as much as if not more than I do- we even played, finally (after she's brought the board game to the past 3-4 family events! I felt so bad!), Settlers of Catan on Monday night. And I like the game, but I am biased since I won and any game I win is fun. The two little wrapped packages on top are Sephora lip balm and a Sephora French manicure set.
For my sister, two cookbooks- she loves cookbooks though I'm positive she never uses them, haha. She just emails me and asks for recipes. I got her "Country Pork" because as she said when she opened it, "I don't know how to cook pork!" and "30 minute meals" NOT Rachael Ray, just a random cookbook that had the same title. And as her husband said when she opened it, "HAHA that actually means 60 minute meals when it comes to Vivien!" Well, he's right, so that's why she should start shorter... *wink*
Gift for my brother in law- 50 pack of DVDs, war movies and documentaries- some from the enemy perspective (Germany and Japan). I thought it was cool so I snagged one. One of the movies stars Ronald Reagan, hehe. He seemed to really like it- I know he loves war movies, historical novels, war documentaries...
For my brother: the small package is a USB drive- you plug it in and it reads nearly any memory card there is, basically you can use it as a thumb drive or... as I do... as a portable drive I plug into any computer I want to put pictures on, so I don't have to lug my camera cable back around or leave it at work (my laptop has an internal/integrated SD drive, so I don't need the cable at home). The box is filled with DVDs he requested. Every single one of them.
(These are only the gifts I wrapped; I gave most people more than just what's pictured.)
And today's bento is a lesson in "Why I should sometimes just let go and not make bento (and sleep the extra 15 minutes)
I burned the gyoza! Can you tell?
Top tier: hummus, toasted pumpernickel cocktail bread, roasted baby bok choi
Bottom tier: gyoza and gyoza sauce in the little bottle
Remember this bento set? It was the first one I bought. I'm only using it because something's wrong with the water and it comes out screaming hot only, so I can't wash my bento gear and this one was clean, obviously. Blegh. I really think I should have just slept the extra few minutes today. Haha.
I hope y'all are having a great time off or an uneventful week at work!!! Happy bento!!!
So I did about 8 of them last night. The candy canes just are looped loosely over the top; this is the easiest way with the ribbons. I ran out of ribbon, too. *sob* It's okay, I don't really care, I'd like to have gold ribbon instead actually. Hmm I wonder how much ribbon I have left. I also ran out of stuff- apparently I cannot count, the sad thing being I keep track of these things in Excel and it was a simple matter of ordering xx number of each item but I chose to order different numbers for each item. I still cannot fathom why I would do such a thing. My only guess is that I hadn't intended on giving to my groupmates at work (just a few select people that I'm friends with), but my groupmates started giving stuff out everyday since Tuesday (!) so I felt like a tool if I didn't reciprocate. That was an extra 5 that I'd intended to just distribute amongst the females in B's family... but ah well. (We have a rule/deal: I buy the presents for my family and stick his name on there, and vice versa. So basically, my family loves him, and his family thinks I'm an asshole. They get gift cards from him! I put thought into my gifts. Ahhh... what a shit deal, and I made it [because I used to go bonkers thinking of gifts for his family and he'd still give them gift cards with my name on it, so I felt like it was a waste of money plus no one seemed to appreciate my gift. Fuck'em.] but oh well.)
So the title of my blog today. I was just asking someone yesterday how to get other people to stop touching me. I believe I blogged about this months ago when she first did it, but the woman who sits next to me- a slightly older woman who is so well-meaning, I genuinely believe that- she once came over to me when my hair was loose and started stroking it, exclaiming how nice my hair was (it's only okay; I don't lie to myself about how nice it is, just what color) and how her son loves Asian hair. SKEEVE. She continued to stroke it and talk about her son. GROSS. She did this at least one other time while I kind of sat, frozen and uncomfortable.
She's a groupmate, so of course she got a goodie bag. And after she opened it, she exclaimed "Oh you're so sweet!" and then said, "I just have to give you a hug!" and started to approach me, which was the perfect opening for me to blurt out...
"Oh please don't!" with this apologetic tone and look on my face. She stopped, looking uncertain, so I felt the need to explain, "I appreciate the thought but I really don't like being touched," and she just said "Oh... okay," looking confused and retreated to her desk.
This is perfect, but WHY do I still feel like an ASSHOLE for having said it? For having said outright how I feel and getting what I want: to no longer be touched?
Top tier: lots of hummus, sprinkled with parsley and sesame seeds for color; toasted pumpernickel cocktail bread
Bottom tier: yay! kickin' chicken, and marinated artichoke hearts on top of pickled radish (I thought the color contrast would be nice but it didn't show up anyway)
Happy bento, and have a great holiday! I'm going out with friends for lunch tomorrow, so my next bento will be next Wednesday. Have a wonderful and safe holiday, everyone!!!
Okok so last night was supposed to be the big to-do with the goodie bags and whatnot. Well I didn't do it. Why? I wound up working OT until 9, got home at about 9:30, jumped in B's dad's car at 9:40, and we zipped off to Roosevelt Field so I could help him find some stores to buy stuff for his wife. I got home at about 11:30 and proceeded to tear through some dumplings (I hadn't eaten dinner yet)- 14 in all, actually *shame* and play Onslaught until 12:30 then I went and passed out. Sigh. I HAVE to do them tonight- no dawdling now- because some people won't be in on Friday so I've got to get them together and give some out tomorrow.
Bento for today. Packed awfully- I worked the color scheme great but the stuff jumped around in the container. Oh well, it'll still taste good.
Top left: hummus, cucumber slices;
bottom left: corn relish and whole wheat orzo (from the cafeteria last night for dinner);
right, from top: toasted pumpernickel cocktail bread; grilled chicken breast (bland, very bland, also from the cafeteria); in the little cup, a marinated artichoke heart
Less food than usual. Why? On purpose. As I mentioned before and above, I've been not losing any more weight and it's the holidays and I've been eating more and there's always goodies around and and and... well no more excuses. I have to curb my eating and the easiest way to do that is to pack less lunch. Kick start my weight loss and get going again on this. But super flavorful foods will hopefully keep my interest and prevent me from eating my face. I hope. I think I should try to get a smaller bento as well... but then I'd go hungry and that just makes me binge, wah.
Happy bento!!! Tomorrow will bring pictures of all of the completed goodie bags, I promise!!!
