Feisty Bento #184: Back from Stay-cation

Today's bento.  There was supposed to be meat in there but I opened up my turkey slices and they'd gone slimy and bad.  So... no meat.  Haha.

Cucumber slices; whole grain bread with cucumer slices and basil leaves (fresh picked from my plant!); dipping sauce for the cucumber slice (actually I probably won't use this, it just fit so perfectly and was a good gap filler...).

Anyway, it's almost time for lunch and I'm starving.  Will probably have to get something to eat in addition to this, but ah well.

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #183: All veggies, but not vegetarian

Got a package yesterday... squee!!! 

Can't tell you what's in it... Let's just say, I spent a lot... and hopefully these things work!

Today's bento, all veggies: top tier is the remains of the green beans with ground pork, and the bottom is sauteed mustard greens or something..

I will probably need to get something to fill in the gaps for protein, but yummy!!!

Happy bento!  I'll be off next week, so don't expect any bentos till I come back.

Feisty Bento #182: Back to Bento for Me

I have been super remiss in bento'ing. Guess why? Oh, irony.

I think I've mentioned before that I started bento'ing when I was really depressed. Life was wearing me down, I'd made a bunch of huge life choices extremely recently, and I needed something to lift my spirits. Well, bento was it, and it worked!

... except now, I've stopped bento'ing because I'm a bit depressed again. I don't really like to share the more intimate details of my life here, but, just there are a lot of life changes going on again, and everything is just that bit too much stress for me. I've stopped sleeping and though I continue to eat (I'm not sure I'll ever be able to stop...), I've just been eating super crap that I pick up nearby. Loathe, loathe, LOATHE doing this, but...

Anyway, hopefully this may make up for it a bit. I've been taking pictures of what I've been eating instead.

Niko Niko on Wall and Pearl Streets - zaru soba (cold and plain soba), eel/avocado half roll, and a beef onigiri I didn't eat. It's awful how much food prices have risen; shrinking portions, higher prices, ugh.

Sophie's Cuban on Fulton Street - Spanish rice with black beans; pernil and onions. Way too oily and kind of bland - though the meat was super soft, it was pretty much tasteless, so unfortunate, and may have been the cause of my stomach issues before attending this :(

Random street meat from cart on Wall & South Streets - lamb kebab, fries, onions, lettuce, extra white sauce. This is the first time I've ever had street meat, which is kind of amazing considering I was born and raised in NYC and have worked in the city for 6 years now... went to high school in the city... hung out in the city... lived in the city... I just never ordered any! I don't know why, this was really delicious and soft, not gamey at all, and very tasty! Though the lack of fries kind of annoyed me. Next time I'm getting rice.

Yesterday's lunch... yummy sandwich! At $8.50, dang what a steal (there's still a half left in my fridge, waiting to be eaten as dinner)...

And... surprised? Today's bento!

Despite having walked 5k last night in the pouring rain for this year's Corporate Challenge, and waking up sore, miserable, achey, and wanting nothing more than to turn over and go back to sleep, I forced myself to rummage in the fridge and whip this up. So it's not pretty but at least I ate much less than I've BEEN eating for lunch...

Top: sliced chicken fingers (served with oh-so-bad-for-me KFC dipping sauces that I found in my fridge) Bottom: sauteed mustard greens (I think?) - I sauteed them in a spoonful of um, bacon renderings :D

Happy bento!!!

Edit (7/29/08): Entering this into Bento Pet's competition! :)

Feisty Bento #181: Local Bento

As local as you can get for me! 

My Basil plant.  If you look closely, you can see a few places where I've been tearing the leaves off.  (In the bottom of the pic, you can see part of the Mint plant, and to the right, you can see part of my Tomato plant, which, as someone pointed out, means those tomatoes are definitely safe.  Except there are no tomatoes and probably will never be...)

Small container of hummus for veggies
Baby carrots; celery stick (tucked underneath); smoked almonds
15 whole grain bread; mayo; smoked chicken breast slices; homegrown basil

Woohoo, I'm eating up my basil like mad.  I hope it all grows back!!!  Next time: homemade pizza :)

Happy bento!!!

Feisty Bento #180: Tenmari Bento

This is a completely ridiculous picture that BF made me take last night.  I'm faking the smile (although I do actually look quite happy) because I'm actually quite grumpy.  It was 7:35 and our movie was at 8:10 but we were still waiting for a seat.  We got to the theater at 8:21 and managed to only miss the teensiest bit.  I don't think it hurt our enjoyment (or lack..) of the movie, either.

I look so farking tan, though...

Yet another new bento set.  This one is in an insulated bag- well, so they said, but the bag is pretty thin, just seems to be lined with tin foil looking material.  We'll see later if it kept my warm pasta warm and my cold hummus cold ;)

What's inside...?  Too bad I don't have the matching fork for this.  Oh well.  Yes, I'm a sucker for matching things; it means I don't have to think!

And here's my bento for today.

Top tier: Hummus; baby carrots; smoked almonds tucked along the side
Bottom tier: green beans; more pasta

Yep, I made a huge container of the beans and pasta, so expect to see it a few more times.  I haven't been eating dinner at home, so tons of leftovers solely for bento :)

HAPPY BENTO!!!

Feisty Bento #179: Calming bento

My lunch from the cafeteria yesterday: marble rye, pastrami, mustard, lettuce/tomato, and cole slaw/mac salad with a small root beer.  $5.15 for all of that.

See why I bento?  If I didn't, I'd eat so much on a daily basis, I'd be about 20 lbs. heavier than I am now!  Or more, since I just lost that by bento'ing

My pathetic dinner.  Inside the bag is some onion rings, no burger for me.

And bento!  I used this box!

Top tier: green beans sauteed with ground pork; more pasta
Bottom tier: grapes, lots of grapes

HAPPY BENTO!!!

Feisty Bento #178: More Leftovers

Last night's food blogger potluck was a lot of fun... people seemed to like my salsa... so that's good... I only snagged one picture of a dish, but then gave up as I just decided to eat... food was good of course !!!  I hope everyone posts their recipes soon !

The one dish I managed to take a picture of, which I also surprisingly really liked.  YUM.  (Beet salad)  I was surprised because, well, I'm not a huge fan of beets...

Yet another new bento...

Pink again...

Top Tier: Gemelli with fire roasted tomatoes, ground beef, etc.; sauteed green beans with ground pork
Bottom Tier: Golden Rainier cherries; grapes; grape tomatoes; baby carrots; cucumbers and tzatziki

Have a FANTASTIC WEEKEND EVERYONE!!!  I know I will, tons of good food this weekend, hehe!