Dad's bento (#53)

Today is the last day of play testing on the sub ride.

Even though he has plans to take a bunch of co-workers out for pizza, I put together a chicken nugget roll-up meal for him to construct later. I crammed in the last of the cut-up watermelon from earlier in the week.

Of course, I put the bento together and realized that I'd packed the top lid of the Hakoya box and had to REMAKE the lunch properly moments later.

Hubster's Long Saturday bento (#52)

Loooong day for the Hubster today as he preps for the last play testing tomorrow. (Hopefully, the ride will ship next week!)

It's a ham and cheese sandwich, cheeses and chocolates. More of yesterday's watermelon sits in the tight upper container.

Since he needs lots of sustenance to stay awake into the wee small hours, his bag also included some homemade hummus, crackers, dried fruit, and extra chocolates.

Family bentos (#49, #50 and #51)

I was up stupid late last night doing what turned out to be the less important of two writing projects for my overworked hubby.

Six AM came verrrry early today and I had to not only drag myself out of bed to get going, but had to motivate The Boy with some intense hollering.

Yes... it was definitely hollering.

While he got showered, flapped his hair into True Awesomeness, and discarded two sets of shorts before hollering back that he didn't have enough shirts in his drawer FULL of shirts, I got his breakfast and lunch ready.

It's just a ham and cheese sandwich, some pretzels and cheese. The time-consuming addition was a watermelon that I cut up to include in the sealed container of this Hakoya box.

I packed two identical lunches for myself and the Hubster:

A big container of watermelon, some turkey sausage I fried up and let cool, leftover quesedillas, some cheese, some crackers and my favorite cookies from Ikea.

I really liked these boxes I got at Ikea yesterday -- they washed well in the dishwasher without warping one iota. They are quite deep and, since this lunch didn't have a ton in it, I know my food will shift around a bit. (I realized now that I should have added some veggies to tighten it up!)

In all today's lunches, I used the "vegetable" picks I got from Daiso and they looked really adorable without being cutesy.

Ikea products for bento

We had several doctors appointments today (still no definite Celiac diagnosis, but we've scheduled the endoscopy for late June.) As we left the last one, I realized that we'd be passing an Ikea on our way and that would be a great place to check for some interesting containers to use as bento boxes.

I liked this interesting cookie cutter set, but didn't get it.

Raritet containers are nice, sturdy and rather "manly." I bought the large rectangle because it's a great size, has a steam vent in the lid, and has a small, sealed container within. They are dishwasher and microwave safe. The larger box was around $10 and the smaller one was around $6.

These weren't marked with a name, but they were on display in the pre-check out area. They are three hinged boxes -- but one of the hinges snapped as I was putting it together once I got home. OY! They are rather deep and will be good for sandwiches. Even though I wasn't sure if they are food containers, they have markings indicating that they're food safe, as well as dishwasher and microwave safe too. They were $3.

Distans - sold as a 3-pack for about $6. I like that they seem very sturdy with a tight lid. Again, they are dishwasher and microwave safe.

These were actually my reason for shopping -- I'd seen them listed on eBay and knew they'd be great for making Jell-o Jiggler shapes!

Family bentos (#46, #47, #48)

Okay... I'll admit it. The only bento I actually spent more than a half second on this morning was my own.

This is some boneless chicken nuggets I got from the grocery store the other day. I'm still not sure of the flavor as I think they were mismarked as being "Buffalo chicken" flavor. In truth, they taste like they were basted with baked bean sauce. But... since I **lurv** baked beans, I'm happy with that.) I made a wall of edamame pods to separate it from the mashed potatoes and -- even though I don't like cherry tomatoes -- I stuck one in there to bento-ize it a bit.

Unfortunately, I forgot to zip up my lunch bag and the whole thing hit the floor later when I grabbed my bag's handle to pull it off the counter on my way out the door. Luckily, the bento landed on its bottom and only the lid flew off. (And, also luckily, I had just washed my floor!)

The boy's bento is a standard PB&J sandwich, some skewered grapes, chips, chocolate and a G2. He's working on a project at school for a favorite teacher during lunch and needs something simple.

Of course, after I'd stuffed his lunch bag in his backpack, he revealed to me that his lunches can get "complex" again because the teacher has asked that he come at Advisory (last period's study hall) instead of lunch time. *oy!*

But, hey... I did remember to buy marshmallows for French class! In all seven years of my own study of the French language and culture, I never learned that mashmallows go great with crepes. (*gag*)

I had zero energy left for the Hubster's lunch -- plus, I think he could do with a hot meal and he finds it a pain to have to deconstruct his bento box to heat things up. So... this is just leftover spaghetti and meatballs from dinner the other night. I made a side salad in a lockable bento box to make sure I could "count" this as an official bento and not just a packed lunch.

I added chocolates, some bread (Hubster likes to soak up sauce!), and smooshed lots of love into his lunch bag.

I also remembered to zip his bag up, thereby negating the need for a clean floor. *smirk*

roses and rhododendrons

The zepherine roses are going full tilt today and, backed by the rhododendrons and a birdhouse covered in pale purple clematis, it's quite a delicious display.

Dad's and Boy's bentos (#44 and #45)

The Hubster is still hard at work on his thiiiiiis-close-to-finished ride. His days continue to be incredibly long and stressful, but play testing is shaking out fairly well (some bugs, some fixes that need to happen, but generally good.) I'm doing what I can to help by sending massive amounts of food to work with him to keep him going.

This bento is basically leftovers from last nights "non-Memorial Day" dinner of falafel. (It's not that we're not totally in favor of Memorial Day, just that I'd forgotten to get propane for our new grill and ... well... I also forgot that we didn't have any steak in the house.)

I had to use two Leaflet Tight boxes to hold it all, but they fit in his lunch bag stacked on top of each other. I included some tomato cous cous, fresh hummus and crackers to go with his tortilla (we ran out of pitas last night), tomato and lettuce. In the cup is some greek yogurt.

The boy only has about 18 days left of school and is counting down every minute!

For his lunch, he got a turkey and cheese roll-up, some TastyKake cupcakes (trying to cram in all the gluten-containg treats now, as our GI appointment is later this week) and a few grapes tucked in for some token fruit in this bento. (Oh wait, I packed a banana too!)

I included a bottle of G2 (low-carb Gatorade.)

I have a dental appointment that should be grueling today (two fillings have to be replaced!) and I decided to push my in-office day to tomorrow. No bento for me.

Not bento - ROSES!

My garden is really starting to ramp-up and it's well on its way to the standard "Victorian Lady of Easy Virtue" look that it takes on in May. Seriously, there are so many blooms in my yard that it actually gets to be a bit MUCH!

This is a 'Zepherine Drouhin' rose -- thornless and lovely. Over Mother's Day, my husband installed a climbing frame that extends over the arch of our porch.

This "lamp post bed" is full of red Knockout and pink Carefree Wonder roses that are *just* beginning to show. Yum... the Carefree's have such a lovely sent.

I'm a sucker for irises and these 'Batik' ones are my absolutely favorite color. Behind them is a small stand of two-tone bearded irises. (The deep red ones are just coming up, but not yet ready to blossom.)Behind them is a large baptisia autralis (false indigo.) This beauty grips my heart every year and doesn't let go until the last bloom drops. (I have some in my big back garden as well.... sigh.)

My "hostafarian" bed along the side of the garage was designed by my "enabler" and wholesale plant dealer, Emanuella. She loves BIG plants and this bed really has her flare.

It's full of lots of varieties, plus ferms, tradescantia (spiderwort), heucheras (coral bells) and alchemilla mollis (ladies mantle.) On the two trellises are climbing hydrangea to match the two mop cap varietals in the back corner. (I'll include better pics later.)

Dad's and Boy's bento (#42 and #43)

For the Hubster, I cooked up some chicken nuggets and chopped them up so he could make his own sandwich roll-up. Lettuce, tomato, shredded cheese (in silicon cup) and ranch dressing were included for him to put together with the tortilla I tucked into his lunch bag.

Cherries, a cheese wedge and carrots filled out the box.

For the Boy, I made a sliced turkey and cheese rollup:

Some chips, carrots, chocolates and fruit cup balanced it up a bit. I added a bottle of G2 (low-carb Gatorade) for his drink

Mom & Dad bentos (#40 and #41)

We're still busy, busy, busy and the bento count shows it. All our other meals were general leftovers and I didn't even bother to present them nicely. This is the first TRUE bento I've made in a bit.

I cheated, though -- the chicken isn't homemade. I got it at the grocery store and just gussied it up in the Leaflet Tight box. Cherries and carrots rounded out the box and I added containers of yogurt and jello and some candies to the lunch bags.

Dad's bento (#39)

More stick-to-your-bones meals for the hard-working Hubster.

A slice of meatloaf from the freezer, fresh-made mashed potatoes, and some edamame to round things out. (There's home-made BBQ sauce in the cup.)

The edamame from Costco comes with little packets of salt, so I tucked one in when I added the tomatoes, mini Reese's cups, and cheese.

The boy just had a regular PB&J sandwich -- so no bento pics.

Boy's bento (#38)

I've been packing us lunches every day, but haven't had the time to photograph them (even in my "quick and dirty, stick it on the kitchen table in natural light and shoot it with my cell phone" fashion.)

There were a lot of spaghetti leftovers and sandwiches in regular plastic storage containers, with little or no thought to presentation, so... I guess they weren't really bentos and I'll have to let them slide and not get counted.

Here, however, is The Boy's bento from today. Since it's just yet another "decontructed" PBJ, I'm not sure that it's worth a picture, but... gosh darn it, I took one anyway.

Family bentos (#35, #36 and #37)

I stopped at Sam's Club and picked up a rotisserie chicken for a quesedilla dinner last night -- with the intention of having leftovers for our bentos today.

I added a lining of lettuce and some picks, but neglected to add anything to make the now-dry chicken at all appetizing. (Yuck!)

The rest of the bento is rounded out with cheeses, crackers, tomatoes, nuts, and grapes. I added frozen berries to vanilla yogurt, but had to wrap it all in plastic wrap when I overfilled the container and worried about spillage.

Note to self: the Hubster doesn't like honey-roasted peanuts. They all came back in the otherwise empty bento.

My bento was pretty much the same...

The Boy had another "deconstructed" PB&J sandwich:

There's waaaay too much of the same pale green in this bento, but he doesn't like many veggies that aren't green. I'm having a heck of a time explaining that green bell peppers and red bell papers are essentially the same thing, only less ripe. Oh, well, it was nutritious and he ate it all. (Note the TastyKakes! Aaaaargh, how can we give these up?!)

Dad's bento (#34)

I had picked up some boneless pork shoulder ribs (sometimes called a "picnic" shoulder) on sale at the grocery store. They had to be cooked last night so I browned them in a dutch oven and covered them with barbeque sauce before popping them in the oven for 90 minutes. I pulled the pork apart and let it sit and cool. (Hubby had to work late again, so it was his dinner at 10PM last night before getting put away for leftovers today.)

The veggies are propped up on a bag of airplane pretzels.

The other tier of the bento box includes his rolls and treat. I wish I'd had coleslaw...

Boy's bento (#33)

We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner last night and I made sure to cook extra meatballs -- the boy loves those bone picks and thinks this presentation is a hoot.

Those are Tasty Kake peanut butter "Kandy Kakes" -- something that makes me ache when I think of my son facing a lifetime of not getting to eat these, still warm from the factory.

This was my one last attempt at offering cheese in his lunch. Let's just say the dogs were happy when the bento box came home after school.

Dad's bento (#32)

Yeah... so when I said the grocery store had pork cutlets on sale, I meant the "value package" size. I made a boatload of tonkatsu and still had leftovers.

Not that the Hubster seemed to mind. He liked having the California roll parts again too.

But, I'm unhappy that I left a gaping hole in the bento. Why didn't I tuck one of the Rollos in that spot?!

Mom's bento (#31)

I was rushing to make dinner for my son on Sunday (while still enormously full from Korean barbeque) and resorted to packaged noodles (not GF) and octodogs.

I packed up the leftovers for my own lunch the next day... and then ended up not going to work.

Noodles and octodogs

Dad's bento (#30)

A local grocery store had pork cutlets on a big sale so I bought some to try tonkatsu.

It was pretty straightforward -- season the cutlet before coating it with flour (a GF alternative would be corn starch), then dip it in egg, then dip it in panko crumbs (the GF version is to dip it in crumbled Chex cereal.) Then fry it in a skillet with a 1/2 inch of oil until golden brown on one side, flip it and fry the other side. Drain on some paper towels before slicing and serving.

I had some home-made teriyaki sauce from a previous meal and I'd already put the leftovers into cute sauce bottles.

The garlic knots were left over from dinner the night before.

I'd tried to make California rolls but it was my first attempt and they were rather crap-like. Not to mention that I discovered that the smell of warm nori was not something I fell in love with right away. I did try the rolls and thought the taste of nori was something I could quickly learn to love -- if I could just get past that initial smell. (I think I need to find some "fresh" nori to try again.)

Anyway, I had leftover celery and crab sticks to add to the bento -- and it was A.L.O.T. of food -- the Hubster barely finished it and was, I think, a little uncomfortably full for the rest of the day.

Our Assi Plaza adventure

My travel-lovin' husband is stuck with a wife and son who only want to go to Disney World anymore, so he tends to flip over opportunities to experience the "other" in our little suburban haven.

Whenever I can muster the courage to pull myself out of my comfy cacoon, it makes the Hubster incredibly happy to check out interesting venues with flavors of faraway places.

I pass by the Assi Plaza every time I go into the office, but I never gave it a second thought until I started getting interested in bento a couple of months ago. I finally worked up the nerve to stop there in early April, but was so overwhelmed by the packaging and the foods I didn't recognize, that I basically looked for some bento boxes and tools and then left, my xenophobic tail between my legs.

But this bento obsession is strong and worked and worked on me until I finally brought up the idea of going for an outing with my husband the moment our son was invited to hang out at a friend's house. (I almost typed "play date," but had to revert to a more teenagery term.)

I'd checked out the Bento Store Locator over on Lunch in a Box and people had given good comments to the Korean barbeque place in the same complex. We had a plan -- a quick stop in a fabric store (for me), a lunch at the Korean barbeque (for him) and a lengthy perusal of the offerings at the Assi Plaza (for both of us.)

The Korean barbeque was actually amazingly cool, even if I did get most of the smoke coming right into my face. We had sliced short ribs and tried all the great side dishes -- despite the fact that we didn't know what any of it was! Our waitress was very sweet and explained what she could and we just tried everything, hoping that we weren't committing any culinary faux pas by eating how and what we did. (I'm sure I did crack the servers up with the face I made as I tasted the green tea -- which I'd first assumed was some bad, green-tinged well water. Hmmmm... I'm no fan of green tea and this tasted just like grass clippings.)

Afterwards, we headed into the Assi Plaza and just explored and explored. I loved seeing all the incredible seafood and very fresh-looking produce. I was mighty tempted, but my fridge is currently full, so I resisted. We were both charmed by the candies and selected a few to buy and try.

I have to say the gummies were very good, with great "peachy" and "true strawberry" flavors -- not that processed "strawberry-like" crap most kid candy is flavored with in the US. But, the mochi and the sweet buns with anko bean paste? I liked the flavors, but the texture and the gumminess will take some adjusting to for me and I'm pretty sure my son won't be a fan. I did like the sesame mochi -- but again, the texture was odd, even if the overall taste reminded me, oddly enough, of peanut butter.

I was delighted to find that they had a few bento boxes on offer that day:

The Leaflet Tight boxes are nice, perfect for a sandwhich and a treat. I also got another tight box with 4 individual lidded boxes inside -- it'll be great for traveling.

One of the nicest things for me was seeing how inexpensive the specialty flours and starches used in gluten-free cooking were -- significantly less expensive than I'd seen in Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. I'll definitely be back to Assi Plaza for those when (if) we get the final word on my son's Celiac diagnosis.

I was also excited by the labeling on the packages as most were either printed with English as well as their native language or had a sticker with nutritional information added by the importer. I was afraid that the GF shopping needs would make it impossible to find "safe" foods at a place like Assi Plaza.

Phew... I was much relieved. And, now that I've been there and really allowed myself to explore without fear, I don't think I'll need to drag my hubby along to give me courage.

The problem is more likely going to be keeping him away from the place!

Dad's bento - 5/1 (#28) (Mom's bento #29)

I picked up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store the other night (to make chicken quesadillas for dinner) and decided these would be perfect for a leftover bento.

I whipped up some mashed potatoes and steamed the edamame, letting them cool while I skewered grapes and lined a box with lettuce for the chicken.

I had the same bento for my lunch.

Boy's bento 5/1 (#27)

Just a simple PB&J rollup lunch with skewered grapes.

He liked the grapes presented that way and promised me that he wouldn't try and stab anyone with the picks! [o(

I know the box is pretty empty, but he doesn't have that big of an appetite and this bento box (one of the Hakoya boxes from Ichiban Kan is probably a little big for this type of presentation.

I wanted him to try some cheese sticks -- as cheese is a great low-carb item for Type 1 diabetics -- but, alas and alack, he didn't like this Monterey Jack/cheddar blend and gave it to his buddy. So, the current score is: strike one for string cheese and strike two for Monterey Jack/cheddar.

Sheesh.