Pizza Bento (aka: Junk Food Friday)

Today was definitely a Friday "junk food" lunch. Behold:

• pizza bread
• thin mints

This makes up for all the brown rice and grilled chicken I have on other days, right?

Happy Bento! (And happy Friday!!)

Pun Sandwich

After my bento from yesterday, I was a bit puzzled as to what to pack for lunch today. So I settled on a sandwich:


Hurray for being "back in the box"!


Happy Bento!

Believe it or not: Bento!

Hi everyone!

I know it has been an age and a half since I posted any bentos, so here is one for you:

Top tier:

• sliced turkey
• sliced roast beef
• carrot shapes

Bottom tier:

• brown rice w/ pineapple
• carrot stars
• celery slivers
• teriaki sauce
  

Please note the collapsible fork, donated to my bento stash by my friend Matt. Thanks, Matt!

All ready to go:


Happy Bento!

Shiny Sink

It is easier to cook in a kitchen that is clean. In fact, the first thing I want to do when I see my kitchen sparkling, is mess it up again by baking tasty things.

Fortunately, my kitchen has been clean more often lately, thanks to FlyLady's encouragement. those of you who have not heard of FlyLady, you may want to check out her site. It is for those of us who need a little extra help being organized and tidy. She breaks everything into "baby steps" to make things manageable. There are daily missions (should you choose to accept them) that make cleaning almost fun.

If the website is too much to take in all at once (I must admit, you can kinda tell reformed-disorganized women are in charge of putting it together) then head to the library and pick up her book, Sink Reflections, instead.

Enjoy (your sink will thank you)!

Pecan Sticky Buns

Here is another recipe that I tried from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Which really, if you haven't checked this out - you should. The recipes are straight-forward, and you can't beat the method for convenience. With the dough made up and waiting in your fridge, anytime is a great time to bake!


The sugar/butter topping goes on the bottom of the pan, and then the rolls get flipped over to serve.


It said to sprinkle the pecan halves in there, but I placed each one carefully, because that is how I was feeling at the time.

Here is my rolled out dough, with the spicy/sugary/buttery mix on it.

I did sprinkle the toasted pecan pieces. Incidentally, this is the first recipe I've ever made that called for toasted nuts. So I had to look up a YouTube video on how to do it.

Then I rolled up the dough. I used the very last of my dough for this recipe, and wish I would have had a bit more. Oh well, no one ever complains that their sticky bun has too much sticky on top, right?

And here is the final result:

Enjoy!

Lunch

This is the most visually appealing lunch I've had in some time. Today one of my students asked if I ever decorate my lunches. Then she suggested that I should do that again. I will have to plan something here pretty soon and get back toward bentos.

Anyway, this salad came about because Bryan had asked me to cut up some lettuce ahead of time for the next night's dinner. But once I saw it all cut up and washed, it looked so much like a tasty salad that I took it for lunch, instead!

Oh well... I can cut up more.

Homemade Pizza

I made homemade pizza tonight.

I baked the pizza crust using the dough I mix up and keep in my fridge. I baked it first, before adding toppings, and that worked out really well.

I also decided to try a new cheese tonight. What is special about the soy cheese pictured above is that it does not add the milk protein casein (which I'm allergic to) in order to make it melt like most alternative cheeses do. But it still melts! Watch:

I was able to grate it easily onto my pizza.

I put on the other toppings, turkey pepperoni and olives, and then transferred it directly onto my pre-heated pizza stone in the oven.

When it was done it looked like this. And the best part is, it tasted good too! So I give two-thumbs up to this fake cheese. Now I just need to branch out on my other toppings...

Enjoy!