Lunch for Friday, April 30, 2010

Well...
...
I went out for lunch.  I had a chopped brisket sandwich (which the bun was dripping in butter) and a side of BBQ beans.  It was very delicious but swimming in sugar & calories.  I had planned on taking a photo of it but... I remember that just about when I was done eating it.

I did pack a lunch that is missing a vegetable, but it was easily placed in the frig at work and I can eat it later.  Again I am stressing the point that I NEED to go grocery shopping.  My son asked for spaghetti last night and that is what I packed.

The would have been lunch...

Top: Spaghetti noodle with pepperoni
Bottom: marina sauce
Right: apple

Lunch for Thursday, April 29, 2010

Today’s lunch is almost an exact copy of yesterday but just looks a little different. Wasn’t that the point of this, to have different meals? Sigh Maybe next week. I did go through Just Bento's weekly planner they have available and made my list of what I would like to bring next week. Now I just need to go grocery shopping. Seriously need to go grocery shopping. But onto today’s meal. I had used my heart shape cookie cutter to shape my rice and it felt so spring like. I got out my small flower cookie cutter and make myself some flowers. I used a lemon zester on the carrot to help shape it. This made me smile as did yesterday’s. It’s just so happy!  I do need to add something to my rice.  It seems kind of bland.  hmmm

Left: boiled eggs; white rice with pepperoni/carrot flowers
Top Right: red kidney beans
Bottom Right: lettuce with flower carrots, eggs and tomato

My First Bento

A couple of months ago I was just surfing the web and came across an ad/story about Bento Boxes. A cute way to carry your lunch. Or as Wikipedia says “a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine.” I thought those are neat. I didn’t think too much more about it at the time. But then a couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to look a bit closer into it. WOW was I surprised at all world of Bento. There are so many website, blogs and books devoted to this old but growing again trend.

I pack my lunch everyday for work. And I had been growing bored with the same ‘ol thing, either leftovers thrown together, a can of soup or a microwave dinner that is WAY too high in sodium. And with the Bento box it seems easier to control your portions and hopefully waistline. A great website that proves you can do both that I found is Just Bento. There are some great articles, resources and recipes there. I know I will be referring to it often.

I purchased my first Bento box this week. I do know that it is not necessary to have one but I thought if I am going to do it I might as well do it right. While I am waiting for my international purchase to come to America I started thinking about what I could do with what I had in my refrigerator and pantry. Rice is always a good start so I boiled up all the regular rice I had. And I always have eggs so I boiled some of them too. Now I have always tried to use my cookie cutters on foods or like in the case of Valentine’s Day we had red heart shaped pancakes. So I got those cookie cutters out to help shape my rice. And I happen to have some food markers as well. I had fun with my first Bento attempt.  When I got my lunch out yesterday it just made me smile.  Who wouldn't like pepperoni spiked hair eggs?  LOL

Top Left: lettuce with carrots and tomato
Bottom Left: red kidney beans
Right: boiled eggs with pepperoni hair; white rice