Lunch for Tuesday, February 15, 2011

For today's lunch I have frozen chicken nuggets that will thaw out by lunch, carrots, broccoli, grapes and yes folks those are Girl Scout cookies.  Yum yum!  And hopefully soon I will get to making cuter lunches again.  I received some money for my birthday and I purchased a few items from my bento wish list.  Can't wait until they arrive!

Lunch for Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Being snowed in sure has taken a toll on my bento making.  I missed 4 days of work and we are suppose to get another snow storm this evening.  Ugh!  But for today I made it into work and I took the kid with me.  And I made us both bento's.  We have dumplings, red wine vinegar chicken, carrots, broccoli, grapes and strawberries.  Hope everyone stays warm!


my lunch



the kids lunch



Lunch for Friday, January 28, 2011

More leftovers for today's lunch.  Only difference is these are a lot less in calories and no pasta.  So for today I have roasted chicken, cut green beans, mashed potatoes with a cheese rabbit, a few grape tomatoes and some diced peaches.  The cheese is actually lactose free from Borden.  I was so excited to see this in the store since I am lactose intolerant.  And it taste just like regular American cheese.  Yipee!!  Now if they would just come out with some Swiss cheese that is lactose free.


207 Calories - 3.7g Fat - 23.2g Carbs - 16.6 Protein



Lunch for Thursday, January 27, 2011

Today for lunch I have leftover pasta bake, a salad and some sugar free jello.  This is a lot higher in calories than I like but if I don't eat the leftovers no one else in the house will.  I would love to get away from eating pasta for dinner but the rest of the family has been complaining about eating so much chicken.  Oh how I wish there was more support at home for my diet.  It wasn't even my idea to start dieting at the beginning of the year.  Oh well, at least I am the one following through with it and didn't give up after two days.

406 Calories - 15.7g Fat - 44.7g Carbs - 19.1g Protein

Lunch for Wednesday, January 26, 2011

For today's lunch I have frozen chicken nuggets (these will thaw out by lunch time), broccoli, grape tomatoes, grapes and a small container of Bar-B-Q Sauce.  I was tempted to make some faces and put on some of the grapes but I would have had to hand cut them.  I really need to get some nori face punches.  sigh

267 Calories - 10.3g Fat - 35.7g Carbs - 11.1g Protein



Lunch for Tuesday, January 25, 2011

For lunch today I pulled out some Balsamic Sesame Chicken from the freezer and made a tamagoyaki using egg white mix.  I always use the recipe from Just Bento but I think next time I make it using egg white mix I will omit the extra water.  It seemed too runny.  Oh well, I tried a little piece as I was packing it and it tasted just fine.  I also put in some grapes, grape tomatoes and a piece of broccoli.  It's been a long time since I had broccoli in my bento.  I think I was getting burned out on it.  But it has been a while so I'm ready for more. 

I will start posting the calorie count of my lunches.  I have been trying to lose some weight since January 1st.  New Year resolution and all.  I realized my lunches are not very many calories and I have been proud of that.  Even when I was not trying to diet they were nutritious.  Now I am sure some people will find flaws in my calorie counts but I measure, weigh and figure EVERY thing I put in my mouth.  And the calorie counts are as accurate as I can get them.

So far I have lost 13.2 pounds and I have been exercising every day.  A little at first and now I am working my way up to more a day.  I have lots of trouble with my legs so it is hard but I just keep going no matter how bad my legs hurt.


171 Calories - 4.5g Fat - 18g Carbs - 14.2g Protein



Lunch for Monday, January 24, 2011

Today for lunch I have salad, baked chicken and some Sugar Free Starwberry Jello.  The salad and chicken are leftover from last nights dinner.  YUM!

Lunch for Friday, January 21, 2011

There was no bento for me yesterday since it was snowing.  I knew it would take longer to get to work so I opted for a beef pot pie that I could place in the microwave at work.  But for today I have leftover spaghetti, chicken breast marinaded in 7UP Citrus Marinade and a cake ball.  The cake balls were made with the leftover scraps from when I made cupcakes last week.  I used Bakerella's recipe for them.  They are yummy little treats.  I just can't believe I got 12 cupcakes, 2 mini cakes and 25 cake balls out of one cake mix.  Score!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Lunch for Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Last night I made chicken nuggets using panko bread crumbs.  OMG they were so good!  What I have here is all that was left of a whole pan of them.  I also have some carrots and a boiled egg.  I had boiled a whole dozen eggs because Mr Man said he wanted those for breakfast.  I think there are still a half dozen left.  So I have been taking them for lunch.  How long do eggs last after you boil them?  Gonna have to look that one up.

Lunch for Tuesday, January 18, 2011

No leftovers from last night.  So for today I have teriyaki chicken, boiled egg and chicken dumplings.  I need to make a bento grocery trip.  I feel like there is nothing to put in my lunches.  sigh

Lunch for Monday, January 17, 2011

Leftovers again and that is OK with me.  For today I have Balsamic Vanilla Chicken, Steamed carrots, mashed potatoes, grape tomatoes and sweet gherkin pickles.  Mmmm...  And this meal is only 317 calories!  The other day I took one of those Lean Cuisine meals to work since I was in a hurry and it was a whopping 380 calories for 9 ounces of food!!!  I was so disappointed.  I knew that I could make a meal and it would be more filled and a lot less calories.  I was right!  No more grabbing one of those for lunch.

Lunch for Friday, January 14, 2011

Nothing special just leftovers.  But they were very tasty.  Today I have brown rice, spring rolls, green beans and some grape tomatos.

Dessert for Thursday, January 13, 2011

No lunch for today but I will post about some cupcakes I made for a friends birthday.  One of my friends that I work with is celebrating her birthday tomorrow and I was asked to make a cake.  Well I have been seeing all of my friends on Facebook post cupcake pictures and I wanted to make some too.  And I was trying to not have to make a trip to the store.  So I knew I had a box of red velvet cake mix in the cabinet, some cool whip in the freezer and some candy melts left over from Christmas.

I mixed all the ingredients for the cake mix and poured them into twelve cupcake liners and took the leftover mix and poured it into a 9-in round pan.  After they were cooked and cooled I took the Cool Whip and added some powered sugar and a unflavored geletin packets and whipped it up.  Once it was firm enough I piped it onto the cupcakes.  Then stuck those in the frig and started melting the candy melts.  I put the gooey mess into a pastry bag and piped designs onto some wax paper and stuck that in the freezer.  About 10 minutes later I pulled the candy melt designs out of the freezer and stuck them in the whipped topping.  Then I sprinkled them with cocoa powder.


Very cute, don't you think?

With the leftover round cake I cut it into circles.  I was able to get five circles out of the 9-in cake.  I took two of them and stacked them up and crumb coated the double stack and placed it in the freezer for a little bit.  Then I pulled them out and put the final layer of whipped topping on.  And of course I added a candy melt design and cocoa powder to the the top.


A baby cake!

Then I placed them all on a cake carrier.  And it actually looked like that when I arrived at work.  No disasters of smashed cake.  Yippee!


All together now

And I also made a card for the birthday girl.  I was going to match the card to the cake but I like this just as well.  Happy Birthday LaRinda!

The card I made.  Details for it can be found at http://www.paperscraping.blogspot.com/



Lunch for Tuesday, January 11, 2011

So I finally put my leftovers in a bento box instead of the gladware containers.  I have gotten so lazy about making bentos.  I really don't know why, it was easy to just put leftovers from dinner together as I was cleaning up last night.  I promise I will try harder.

For today I have a mini meatloaf, steamed carrots, baked beans, boiled egg and sweet gherkin pickle.

Lunch for Saturday, December 11, 2010

This last weekend we celebrated Christmas with my family.  A couple of my children asked for bento boxes.  And they received them.  I wish I had taken pictures of the outsides of the boxes but what was more important is we made bento lunches using them.  All three kids got bento lunches.  I didn't have much in the refrigerator as far as veggies but we were able to get some cool looking boxes done.

This bento was made by hand shaping some green rice into frog face shapes.  The white part is provolone cheese and the teal green is an egg sheet.  We were trying for a blue egg sheet but with a yellow egg it tuned teal.  There is also a egg molded to the shape of a bunny using an egg mold.  We were going to have a bear one too but I kind of murdered that egg when trying to crack the shell.  Also in this bento is roasted chicken, spring rolls, tamagoyaki and a checkered apple.

This bento has a black cat on the lid so we made a black cat to go on the inside.  We used purple jasmine rice, provolone cheese and more teal egg sheet.  Also in this box is roasted chicken, tamagoyaki and diced apple.

This bento was made using more of the green rice and I shaped it into a Christmas tree by using a cookie cutter.  I just added provolone cheese circles and picks to make the balls on the tree.  Also in this bento is spring rolls, tamagoyaki, ham, a rabbit apple and a couple of oreo cookies.

We had lots of fun making the bentos.  And I hope they enjoyed eating them too.  Now if I could only get the energy to make my lunches again.  It is just so much easier to pop open a can of soup.  Especially when it has been so cold lately.

Lunch for Friday, November 19, 2010

Yesterday's cabbage salad was so good I decided to repeat it again today.  I also added a leftover piece of chicken from dinner last night.  Mmmmm....  Hope everyone has a great weekend.  Mine will be filled with Thanksgiving prep.  I've got to get the house clean and grocery shopping done.  Can't wait for all the yummy food and time with family.

Lunch for Thursday, November 18, 2010

I can't believe it's been over a week since I made a bento.  I'm even falling behind on my blog reading.  I have been busy with preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Which I enjoy this season.  I get to decorate, cook and get really creative.  Hmm maybe I need to make a bento with my Christmas theme this year.  We'll see.  But for today I have leftover fried rice that I had made for dinner last night.  I also put in some shredded cabbage with some onions, tomatoes, pecans and noodles.  I made a quick red wine vinegar dressing to pour on it.  And since it has gotten chilly here I added a packet of miso soup.  Sadly this is my last packet and I can not get this brand around here so I will have to order some.

Lunch for Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Ever since the kid said he didn't want me to fix his lunches I have just been grabbing a can of soup or whatever leftover there is.  So there have not been any pictures.  On this day I did put together some dumplings, chicken nuggets, corn, grape tomatoes and some grapes.  Those frozen pre-cooked chicken nuggets come in handy.  Now if I could only convince myself to splurge on some cute nori cutters to make faces on them.  But alas, Christmas is coming up and I need to spend what little money I do have on others.

Lunch for Thursday, November 4, 2010

For lunch today I took a couple of raw biscuits that were leftover from last nights dinner and filled them with ham and cheese.  I cooked them in the toaster oven with the spring roll.  I also cooked up a tamagoyaki and threw in some carrots and broccoli.  To complete it I added grapes and a couple of sweet gherkin pickles.  After the kid saw my lunch he was complaining that he wanted a lunch like that too.  SAY WHAT?!  He complained the first of the week and now he wants lunch!?  I told him too bad he had to eat a school lunch.

my lunch

Lunch for Monday, November 1, 2010

I know I am posting this late but I am finally over my cold.  We had taken a little vacation to Branson, MO and when we got back I was feel very icky.  So there were no bento's since I was eating soup for lunch.  And the kid told me AFTER I fixed this bento that he didn't want me fixing his lunches anymore.  UGH, kids!  The kid has leftover beef ribs, a spring roll, grapes, carrots and broccoli.  When I cleaned his box he had only eaten 3/4 of the ribs, the spring roll and all but one grape.  Fine, no more bentos for him.  For my lunch I have leftovers from Ted's Cafe Escondido.  Chicken tamale with green sauce, a mashed potato dish they call papas and a creame corn type dish.  I always substitute the regular rice and beans for these side dishes.  Every time I can only eat half of the meal because of all the free tortillas, chips, salsa, queso, relish. etc.  I also added some grapes.

my lunch

the kids lunch