Back into Bento

[moonshae]

Wow, that isn't a lot of food. Are you coming down with something?
My bento today was planned with finger food in mind. Lots of bits to pick at because I have a looong lunch break at the moment and if I get caught up in my book I forget to eat big things.

[varenikje]

Well, I did eat a nice dinner (lunch) today, steak, potatoes, cucumber salad, tomato salad. But I do tend to not eat sometimes. I don't know if it is because I am old (51) or what, but I have to remind myself to eat or I don't. That is part of the reason that I fix bento lunches: I tend to eat better.

[moonshae]

Bento #4 rice, chicken, last of the organic ham, carrot and capsicum and little pot of kecap manis (sweet soy) to add to the rice. Baby spinach smooshed into any gaps. Boring yes? No! You didn't know that the chicken was smoked by my friend. Oh wow is that stuff good! I may bribe him to get more. I'm being spoiled this week with home smoked meat and backyard fresh eggs. Too bad I'm out of everything else practically.

Bento #5 is waiting for tomorrow already. More carrot and capsicum (seriously seriously need ot do some shopping tomorrow), rice, some thai marinated tofu (from the supermarket preprepared), a hard boiled egg with a itty bitty tub of mayo, and a few edamame sprinkled around for some colour.

Not very exciting bentos. And since it's a full week followed by a full weekend I'm not expecting awesome just yet. But hopefully the BF will get his butt back into the kitchen soon and braise up some meat or something. Or soup! It's a very damp start to spring in Melbourne and soup would be excellent.

[moonshae]

I love bento because when you really need to go shopping because there's "no food in the house" you can still generally rustle up a bento.

Bento #5 dinner leftovers, 1/2 a steak sliced up with a dob of seeded mustard, the very last of my frozen beans (I did have to shake out the bag to get enough!), an egg (i will never run out of eggs I swear), some mayo (must put that on the shopping list too!), a packet of miso soup, one pork dumpling, and a few almonds in the gaps.
Maybe I should be challenging myself to shop less too, given the theme of my first week of bento. But farmers market is on on Sunday so I'm hoping for a nice load of fresh veg and fruit to spice things up. And some time this weekend to cook a few bits and pieces. Even if it's only some sorboro!

[moonshae]

When does a bento cease being a bento? I pretty sure it's been decided that the container doesn't matter. Disposable tupperware, fancy wooden box. It's all bento! Right? Is Bento #6 a bento at all???

"Bento" 6 - 3 fresh dates, a banana, a pack of seaweed snacks (basically crisp nori sheet things), and a tub of yoghurt.

[varenikje]

That sounds like a bento to me! It even sounds pretty good. Those individual nori sheets are yummy and the combination of dates, a banana and yogurt is making me hungry.

So, how is the bento-a-day thing going now? It sounds like you are keeping up! Do you work every day from Monday through Friday?

[moonshae]

Yup. Every single day Monday to Friday. It's so unfair. *sigh*
Posting them on here is making me feel guilty if I don't make one up, so hurrah for lunckinabox!

I really hope I get some motivation to make awesome things soon. Not charaben, but... interesting things.

[moonshae]

Bento 7 is not really my lunch. I'm working at a different site office today and they have a sushi place downstairs. I'm treating myself. I did however grab snacks of fruit and yoghurt. I got some lovely free range pork mince to make into sorboro for the rest of the week.

Do you guys make anything up and freeze it for bento? If so, what? I have frozen veg and dumplings at the moment. Soon to have pork sorboro.

[varenikje]

Yes, I guess I freeze things like taco meat or I currently have chunks of ham sliced up and also some hamburger patties. I don't usually do hamburger buns, since they would have to be non-gluten (they exist, but are expensive) so I just eat the meat and maybe the condiments but not the bun. Now that you mention it, there is a nongluten lasagna in my freezer wrapped up in individual servings. The taco meat, I have in small plastic containers. I don't often do frozen vegetables, because raw veggies seem fairly good to me. I love salads. When I used to have a 9-5 job Monday through Friday, I used to make up 5 salads on Monday and they lasted just fine through Friday. I just added things like chunks of meat (which I kept frozen). And I took along crackers to have with it. I really miss Rye Crisp, but it has that dreaded gluten. :::sigh:::

[moonshae]

I used to be gluten free, luckily only an intolerance and it faded over a couple of years. I had to give up bread, the gluten free stuff just was nowhere near the same. And ate many Corn Thins instead. I'm guessing they're similar to Rye Crisp? It's always strange what foods make it around the world and which don't.

Today! Bento 8! In a bright pink and purple box with a fork that clips into the lid I got for free. Its sized for sandwiches, but has that fork. It's a little tall for bento I think, I'm hoping it won't move around too much and leak. I have no idea what you're "supposed" to put in there. I put in pork sorboro with a smidge of pasta and froze some extra pasta in muffin cups (I was out of rice so the BF got it), carrot and capsicum (as is traditional it seems), and LOTS of broccoli because without the bulk of the rice I had this huge void.