Potatoes Please

The featured ingredient in this bento is potato. Yum!

Contents:

• potato salad
• mashed potatoes
• shake n bake chicken breast
• broccoli
  
• baby carrot
  

Happy Bento!

A Couple Bentos

Here are my bentos from yesterday and the day before. Yesterday I had spaghetti and fruit:


The fruit was a mix of cantaloupe and green apple:



The day before that was a simple sandwich bento (PB&J) with carrots and an oatmeal raisin cookie:


Happy Bento!

Bento #108

It has come to my attention, that my favorite food of all time, spaghetti, isn't particularly photogenic. But it is so tasty, I will continue to pack it for lunches quite often. My apologies.

This bento contains:

• spaghetti with lots of olives
• baby carrots
• kiwi fruit

Happy Bento!

Delicious Smoothie

The weather here has been so warm lately it feels like summer has started already. And when hot weather is here, what better way to cool off than a nice cold fruit smoothie?

This simple smoothie recipe is one I invented when I didn't have the ingredients on hand for the recipes I was finding online.

You will need:

• a blender
• 1 banana (fresh out of the freezer, if you've got em)
• soy milk
• ice cubes

and the secret ingredient?

• TANG

Here it shows that I started with a handful of ice-cubes. Don't. Start with the other ingredients and add the ice last. Trust me; it will blend better. (I ended up having to stop the blender and stir the contents about four times - a pain, and totally unnecessary.)


Darn those ice cubes right by the blades! But, moving on...

I used about 1/3 to 1/2 of the little scoop that comes in the TANG.


Ah... delicious, sweet orange flavoring. Adds a nice color, to. And I won't go into the vitamins it contains, but in our house, we look at TANG as a very good thing.

Next comes the soy milk. Pour it in. This is where the recipe is very adaptable. Start with a little soy, and if you want the consistency more fluid later, you can add some more.


Be careful if you are cutting up frozen bananas like I am here. (I only ended up using one, by the way.)


Looks kinda unappetizing just sitting there in the blender... but here is where the magic happens.


Set your blender to "smoothie" and blend until smooth.


Lookin' good!

Enjoy!

Cucumber Bento (and a question)

Another simple bento for me today.

I was showing it to a student and asking if I get points for having lots of vegetables (this is the same student that consistently asks me if my lunch is decorated - she also checks in to make sure I have veggies and fruit).


I told her I had carrots, cucumber, and even more cucumber in my sandwich.


This comment got a reaction from one of my co-workers.

"What kind of sandwich do you put cucumbers on?"
"It's a ham sandwich."
"Ham and cucumbers, huh?" (Now that she said it out loud, it did seem like an odd pairing.)
"Uh... yeah. I put cucumbers on most any type of deli sandwich."

I started doing this after realizing how much I enjoy them in my Subway sandwiches. The nice people at Subway wouldn't steer me wrong, now would they? But then again, I don't go around adding jalapeños (another Subway option) to my ham sandwich.

So I'd like your input. Do you put cucumbers on your sandwich? Does cucumber go better with a certain type of sandwich?

For myself, I will continue adding cucumber to just about whatever I like. It is so summer-y and delicious. But I am still curious if that is an oddity.

Happy Bento!

Shooting Star Bento

Every day one of my students asks, "Did you decorate your lunch?"

Finally, today, I was able to answer, "A little."


Bento # 106 contains:

• salad
• cucumber
• carrot
  
• broccoli
  
• tri-tip steak
• brown rice

Although this isn't near as fancy as the last time I brought brown rice, my student seemed contented.

Deep Fried Sturgeon

Well, my bentos may have lacked inspiration lately:


...but dinner is another story. Not that I can really claim any credit for the idea... it was my husband's. He wanted to serve his mom deep fried sturgeon for mother's day.

So we cut up the fish, dipped the pieces in an egg/soy milk wash and then shook them around in a Ziplock with the breading (which was a pre-seasoned mix we bought in the seafood section). We popped them into our little deep fryer, and about ten minutes later, we emptied the basket onto paper towels. Here's the result:


Finger food... yum!

Barbeque Season Begins

I am so happy that the weather has warmed up a bit and my husband has taken his place at the grill again. We eat such tasty food when he is in charge of the meat. *grin*

• cucumbers
• carrot stars
• mashed potatoes
• grilled chicken (with a baja citrus marinade)

Happy bento!

Bento 102

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted anything!

Here is a quick bento:

Fruit salad on top, mujaddara on bottom. Yum!

Now that Once Upon a Palace Purple is over, I have plenty of time to get back to packing bentos.