Far too much food

Bento #55 (Mine) :

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A really full box of stuff. lol. rice ball(Kodoma) with nori faces, 6 gyoza, narutomaki slices, fried teriyaki tofu, mushroom chunks, daikon pickles, and romaine lettuce. Packed in 1 of 3 tiers from my Korean picnic bento set.

Sidecar: Kiwi butterflies and slices, navel orange segments and the last of my rambutans.

This is waaaay to much food for me. I usually only eat(and really only should eat) about 800ml. This lunch is well over 1000. However, at school, a lot of my friends mooch off of my lunch so I decided to pack a little more and it worked out pretty well. Although, I still had enough left over that my bento tomorrow is going to be a not as nice looking repeat of today. :P

Fishy Print Kinkachu Bag

It's Sunday! Which means I didn't make bento, but I made something for it! :D

I bought this fabric over a year ago at a cute little store in downtown Seattle. It was going to be for a purse, but I never got around to it. And then, yesterday I found this tutotial.

Here are the results:

It's hard to see the handles in this one. But they are there.

A view of the inside lining.

This bag is HUGE compared to my other bags. It holds my big ol' purple lidded fit'n'fresh AND sidecars at the same time! I'm so looking forward to using it. ^_^

And now time for some faces

I just love my onigiri mold! It's basically my most useful and most used tool. *hugs*

Bento #54 (Mine) :

Left: Rabutans, red and green bell peppers

Right: White rice onigiri with nori faces and handles

Tiger: Leftover "Fiesta dip"

Another thing I love is my nori punch. I think lunch is so much better when pieces of it have faces. XD Some of my friends make fun of me, others are in awe of my lunches. They really shouldn't be though. Seriously, this bento was another speed one. Took about 10 minutes. This was a great way to finish off my Friday. First week of school is over and I finished all my homework for the weekend! :D

First day of school and the first day of Fall

Hello! I've been gone for so long! Just haven't had time to post. Now that school has started, I'll be making lunch pretty much everyday again. Yay! I missed my bentos.

Bento #52: (mine) First day of Fall

It's hard to see but we have: Turkey and pepperjack on maple leaf shaped skewers, bird shaped onigiri sprikled with umeboshi furikake, maple leaf/acorn shaped mushroom slices, romaine lettuce, and a small bottle of italian salad dressing. Everything packed in a Hello Kitty lock-and-lock style box.

My phone camera pretty much sucks. Even though I got a new and nicer phone. Anyway, although this may look like it took a while, it actually was a speed bento. 10 minutes total. I cut up the mushrooms and put together the skewers while the rice was reheating. The cheese was pre-cut from dinner prep so less work at the time of packing. Score! I threw in a flag with the encouraging word: FIGHT (がんばりましょう) on it because school has been pretty overwhelming. Even on the second day. Mostly because of Japanese class. Oh, I wish I remembered everything from the Spring. D:

Bento #53 (Mine)

Left: Fried rice with tofu, edemame, corn, narutomaki, and mushrooms

Right: Green and red bell pepper slices, rambutans

Tiger container: Fiesta dip for peppers

Brought out my good ol' lock-and-lock set for this lunch. The bag fits in my backpack so nicely! The rabutans are a new thing. just picked them up yesterday at the Great wall mall. They're really tasty! Kinda like Lychees, but not quite as sweet. The fried rice was made with a bunch of leftover vegetables as well as some tofu and Narutomaki (Steamed fishcake). Narutomaki is great because it can be frozen forever. Plus it makes ramen so much better! :D

I sort of got the recipe for the dip online, but I changed a lot. Mostly because there was hardly anything in the house to make it out of. I actually only put a little bit of mayonnaise in this batch. (I had to scrape it from the container.)So I'm not sure how it would be with more of it.

Kaitie's Fiesta Dip

1/4 cup light sour cream

Less than 1/4 of olive oil Mayonnaise

2 Tbsp cayenne

2Tbsp Chili powder

1Tbsp taco seasoning

Mix together and add more of the cayenne, chili powder and taco seasoning until you like the level of spiciness.

Packages Galore

I finally decided to order from Ichbankan. Everything is so cheap and the package came very quickly! I got a nori face punch, Mink the monkey bento belt, chopsticks and chopsticks case. The wall hooks were a free gift they threw in.

This week also brought 2 packages from bento swaps This swap was just for the 3 mayo cups and she surprised me with the rest-which includes homemade greeting cards. :D
The bowl I got in this one makes me laugh so much. XD But the real prize in this package was the Totoro chopsticks and case! Totoro = <3

On to the bentos.

Bento #52 (Mine)
top tier: Rice with nori face, zucchini and fried tofu in korean barbecue sauce.
Bottom: Shrimp and krab salad and grapes.
Top of box had pocky and a milk candy. And there was a sidecar of mandarin orange segments.

Bento#53 (mine)Top tier: Zucchini with Korean barbeque sauce, cornbread and mini flan pudding cup.
Bottom: Hamburger, and garlic mashed potatoes.
Sidecar of mandarin orange slices.

Both lunches were made mostly from dinner leftovers. The Zucchini was cooked for 2 minutes in my microwave steamer and then tossed in the sauce. Both were also packed in a two tier Clickety click Mink the monkey box.

Freezing Cornbread Muffins

I wake up at around 6 and have to get to work at 7 so I try to get my lunch packed up the night before. But sometimes, I forget or I'm very tired so I don't have a lunch. Which is very bad. Because I end up buying something in the break room which means my lunch consists of: a hot pocket/burrito, a granola bar, and some fruit snacks. Not the best. It makes me pretty mad at myself because I have to spend money and I don't feel as good or full for the lack of good food. So (enough with the rambling back story :P) Any way that I can get lunch together faster is great. I get so much inspiration from Biggie at Lunch in a box.

I love cornbread. So I made 3 dozen mini cornbread muffins-from a mix, this week. Then I wrapped them in plastic wrap (To prevent freezer burning) and into a Lock and lock container in the freezer they went. You can't really read it. But I have a piece of tape stating: "Cornbread muffins 9/22/08" This is because things need to be marked in our freezer or people ask you repeatedly what it is. Also, dates are a good idea so it gets eaten up. These should last for a few months though, and I'm sure they'll be eaten by then.

Here's more of the inside. You'll also notice the divider in there. 12 of the muffins have cheese in them so that let's me know which is which.

Freezer foods are a great way to make a fast lunch. I usually have edamame(Soy beans), Gyoza(potstickers), An pan(Red bean paste buns. Yum!), and rice, fried tofu in the freezer. Because I have a microwave steamer-which I picked up at Ross for $3, it's easy to throw a handful of beans or some dumplings in it while I'm getting things together to go. Only takes about a minute to cook. Or I pack the dumplings in the steamer and take it to work to cook it. Then it's nice and hot at lunch time.


Real bento post coming tomorrow!

It's Friday, Argh!

Yes, Sadly I made a pirate bento last week and today happens to be "Talk like a pirate day". Oh why didn't I realize? :O

Anyway, I didn't get a picture of my nice bento this week because I was running out the door whilst packing. So here are two summer bentos.

Backlogged bento #50: (mine)

I had: Tamagoyaki(Japanese rolled omelet), sushi rolls(Just rice and furikake in seaweed.), Sugar snap peas, edamame, Mr. Tomato stuffed with cream cheese and parsley, gyoza(dumplings) and ginger scallops.

This was a massive feast for a lunch and I didn't quite finish all of it. But it was delicious! I packed it in one of the three tiers of my Jyubaku, purchased at Daiso for $4.

Bento #51:(Mine)

Top tier: gyoza, broccoli beef, chow mein, orange chicken, musroom chicken.
Bottom tier: Fried and steamed rice.
Side dish: Blueberries and musk melon (Cantaloupe)

This was an easy bento. Leftovers from Pandaexpress...or safeway..I can't remember-dinner And just cut up the fruit in the morning. Packed in a two tiered Clickety Click Mink the Monkey box and 260ml Pink "Comment vas-tu?" side dish.

Phew! Glad I got on here. I just made a trip up to Daiso and H Mart and came back with lots of goodies for my Bentoswap partners. I love seeing all the new things at Daiso every time I go there. :D

I'm getting new bento things in the mail from Ichiban kan and swaps so I'll be sure to try them out with new bentoing! Toodles!

~Kaits