I'm not particularly excited about lunch because it's a repeat and yes, I actually am a little tired of eating the same 3 things every day.
So I stuck some picks in it which you can't really see.
BBQ pork country style ribs, pickled daikon, carrot kinpira, sauteed beansprouts
Happy bento!!!
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!)
I got home at a reasonable-ish time last night, a little before 11, and managed to whip up two batches of veggies for the week (for both dinner and bento), bean sprouts and carrot kinpira. Pleased with myself, I went to sleep and plotted out today's bento... spaghetti in a lunch jar, veggies, and some other stuff.
Well, I woke up a little bit late and then didn't start packing my lunch immediately because I knew it should be quick. I was heating the spaghetti, went to pre-heat my lunch jar, then opened it up and...
this is gross, ok?
Apparently, the last time I'd used that jar, I didn't wash it, and just put it to the side. I thought I'd washed it, so I had it on the side for a while, still in the bag, still just sitting there, patiently waiting for me to open it... *grimace*
So I panicked and threw the spaghetti in this take out container because the other lunch jar (I have two, excluding Mr. Bento, which is too big for everyday use) was in the sink - I know that one is unwashed, because I haven't had any TIME... and I figured at least this way, I can microwave my spaghetti. But of course, this means no veggies with my lunch... sadface.
I did make a slightly better dinner bento, which won't be heated because no microwave at school (that I know of... in fact, I don't even know if we have a cafeteria...), but whatever. I'll have real food.
Sauteed bean sprouts, carrot kinpira, and BBQ country style pork ribs
I'm exhausted still... and I have a mountain of dishes in the sink that need to be taken care of!!! Ack!!!
Happy bento!!!
I'm stressed. Why am I stressed? I've been trying to deny that I'm stressed, but the signs are all there, so I guess it's time to 'fess up: I don't have enough time.
Sure, you may think, most people don't have enough time, that doesn't mean it's a big deal. No, you don't understand. I don't have enough time to eat if I don't really make an effort to do so. I don't have enough time to pee. Or sleep. Or shower. (Don't worry, I still do the last 3, because I have at least some concern for my health if I don't. And how other people will react to me if I stop bathing.)
So yesterday, a Sunday, I should have had plenty of time to cook some stuff and be able to just whip stuff out of the containers I keep my bento stash in for the week, but alas, t'was not to be. I won't go into the dirty details of what went down, but suffice it to say, I spent a day cooking and in the end, just felt like a total a-hole. Which adds to my stress. You see where this is going?
This morning, no direction, no planning, nothing, led me to be late for work as well. Planning is REALLY. A. GOOD. IDEA. I did manage to slap together two bentos though.
Above:
Top tier: BBQish country pork ribs
Bottom tier: marinated spicy cuttlefish; pickled daikon; grape tomatoes
Not the greatest or most interesting, but it'll do. Right? It'll have to.
Here's the second bento, for dinner. Not well planned at all either, but at least it's mostly different from the one before.
Black bean & balsamic vinegar dip in the mini cup; Mandarin oranges; one pita cut up into 8ths; grape tomatoes; pistachio & pepper dip.
Why do I need a second bento/bento for dinner? Well, you may recall me mentioning that I was going back to school. Tonight marks the first class, and it's probably a good idea that I don't pass out from hunger. I haven't met my professor yet, so I'm not sure his/her policy on eating in class, but I chose all non-crunchy foods so I don't disturb people in class. I tried to pick non-smelly foods, and I think I succeeded, so we'll see. Honestly, class is 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, so I doubt it'll be a full class anyway, but again... we'll see.
Do I sound grumpy? Probably because I am, just a tad bit. There's a lot going on at work and I've been unable to concentrate because they're doing construction on my floor as well. Joy.
But you know, still, always: happy bento!!!
Last night's dinner, more of the same, see the rice this time :)
Today's lunch, again more of the same, finishing up the veggies before they go bad (woohoo! I never do that! I mean I'm never able to!).
Top tier: last of the rice with red steak/onions/sauce
Bottom tier: last of the bean sprouts, last of the cabbage, pickled daikon, marinated cuttlefish
So happy with lunch today. Have a great weekend everyone!!!
Happy bento!!!
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~!!!
Breakfast this morning... I've been making myself a breakfast sandwich, wrapping it in tinfoil, then eating them at work. Partially because I don't want to eat and then get on the bus (after the infamous incident of '95 where I um... on a rude passenger on the subway... more on that later, after the food), but partially because this brand of sliced American cheese sucks and doesn't melt. Well, today was the first time it melted all the way, but probably because after I sealed it in the tinfoil, I plopped it into my insulated lunch bag for transportation with my bento, so maybe that's why. I'm a big Kraft singles girl (individually wrapped slices of American cheese are great to have in the fridge because they take ages to go bad - I've actually never seen any go bad, and I keep them forEver - and because they're handy for a quick grilled cheese sandwich), but these were purchased by someone else and given to me at the end of, um, a ski trip last February... we didn't use all of it for our burgers. To be honest, though, the expiration date still hasn't passed, so I don't feel too crazy for keeping the cheese. Oh, the brand is Borden - I'm going to stick with Kraft from now on, because it melts up much more easily. Yums.
Oh, the sandwich is a toasted English muffin...
I melted butter in a small heavy bottomed skillet, then added some diced red onions I had hanging out, then 10 washed grape tomatoes, letting them heat until they burst into deliciousness, added one beaten egg with a dash of salt and some hot sauce, scrambled it all together, then added fresh cilantro (YES SKIPPYMOM I STILL HAVE, and there's another bunch in the fridge that hasn't even been touched yet!... told you, I have issues with fresh herbs!)... then topped my toasted English muffin with a slice of cheese and the hot eggs. Yummers!
Now, here's a silly question about English muffins I actually asked a few days ago in a private conversation, but Laura brought my attention to it again:
Why are they called English muffins? What makes them English, exactly? Wouldn't an English muffin be a scone? (Though she mentioned crumpets, I don't really know what that is or anything.)
Again, 7 different kinds of [food] (I wrote veggies yesterday, but two of the 7 were not veggies, lol)!
Top left, going down: pickled daikon; marinated spicy cuttlefish; sauteed cabbage
Next to that: a line of sauteed mungbean sprouts
Next to that: spicy chicken
Next to that: 3 pieces of Woorijip gimbap, and a broccoli floret
Seven different kinds of food! Hehe yes I'm a dork. And yes, it's from "You, Me & Dupree" although I don't think that movie's target audience is teenage boys, it's a romantic comedy! My favorite fluff movie style, hehe, it was on TBS this past weekend :)
Nom nom nom... happy bento!!!
Oops, forgot the story I alluded to earlier; it goes like this, and it's a FeistyFamily favorite: I used to commute to high school, about an hour and a half each way. One day, my lovely father decided I should be eating breakfast, since I was a growing child in his eyes and it was good for concentration or something like that. He made me a delicious breakfast of bacon, sunny side up eggs, and toast or maybe hash browns, I don't remember, but this was basically my favorite breakfast at the time. So I devoured it and got on the subway. Now this heavy meal is fine and dandy on a weekend morning, afterwhich you just laze about and watch Saturday morning cartoons or do chores even, but something gurgled in my stomach as I boarded the 2nd train at my transfer point. I began feeling sick and the train was especially crowded - more so than usual - this morning, so I finally asked the man seated in front of me, a businessman in a business suit no doubt on his way to Wall Street, which was the stop after mine, if he would mind giving me his seat for a stop because I felt sick. He laughed in my face and said no. I don't recall why I didn't ask someone else, or why no one else offered because at this point, I turned a bright shade of green (I'm assuming) and proceeded to throw up on this businessman.
Normally the story would end here, and it does except he started screaming at me (do you blame him?) and my stop came so I got off the train, and he was yelling for me to pay for his dry cleaning, which I couldn't afford anyway. Oops :X
