Clean the Fridge Salad

Thursdays were, until this week, a little challenging. I worked from 11am to 3 pm. Now 10:30 is too early for lunch, and by 3 I'm ravenous!

This week my schedule changes and I get out by 1:30 so it's not an issue anymore, but all summer I had to make it work. This last week, I decided to just make a "clean the fridge" salad and to put it in one of my stainless steel boxes.

I do that often, but generally it doesn't look as good as it tastes, so I don't bother posting about it. This time I thought the colors were pretty. :o)

Here's my box Thursday August 25th:

Salad: Baby spinach, a chopped carrot, 1/2 cucumber peeled and chopped, mini bell peppers thinly sliced, a little minced red onion, 1/2 cup precooked lentils (from Trader Joes), salt pepper and a little cumin.

In my little heart shaped container I have eggplant hummus (Trader Joes) which I used instead of dressing.

The lunch was very satisfying I must say, and it felt good to be back into my routine of bringing lunch. It was my first real packed lunch since being back from vacation.

So there, sometimes the simplest are the best!!

Happy Bento everybody!!

It's been over a year!

Knock, knock! Anybody still looking in here?

I have been so busy during the last year that not only bento-making, but even cooking took the back seat.

Since January, I've slowly started getting back into my good old habits of actually cooking food, preparing ahead, and making a bento every once in a while. Most of them were very rudimentary, certainly not worth a picture or a blog post.

A few weeks ago, I had an activity with my members at work about packed lunches (I work for Weight Watchers) and I asked them to bring in lunch to show off. That week I decided to bring in bento boxes to show them how neat it can be. I caught the bug all over again.

How could I have forgotten how fun this is??

I don't prepare a bento every day because I don't always eat lunch at work. Very often I come back home to eat. Most of the time when I do eat lunch out I bring my bentos now though!

Here's a few examples of what I've been putting together since February:

OK, lets start simple.

I put down a bed of lettuce and spinach, in the yellow silicone container, I have some leftover roasted chicken (from Safeway!). In the stainless container, I have bulgur with cumin and raisins.

It was very filling and actually pretty darned good!

In this bento, I have a mix of bulgur, pinto beans and chopped carrots and onions in the insulated tier (top center). I also have chopped celery and red onion topped with chopped cherry tomatoes (left front) and plain chopped carrots (right front).

It was all bright and colorful, as well as filling and tasty! I know it's weird to have plain raw carrots in a bento, but I like the crunchiness. If I have nothing to crunch into, it's not a real lunch!

This is leftovers galore!

On the right, I have spaghetti squash leftover with Spicy Barley Pilaf leftover!

On the left I have roasted chicken leftover... and strawberries!

I was wondering how to two sides would go together since they were leftovers from different meals, but it was just delicious!

This is from the following day, leftovers again! Here I have Peppercorn pork tenderloin with Spicy Barley Pilaf and a spinach - carrots salad.

I'm not yet up to the cutsy curse attack, but I think this bento is esthetically pleasing. I love the contrast between the orange of the carrots and the bright green baby spinach. It ties in well with the little bits of carrots in the barley pilaf.

The peppercorn tenderloin was pre-marinated. It's the easiest thing to put together and the taste is very strong. It could be over-powering, but for a bento it's perfect since a little bit goes a long way.

Ok, this is what you call a desperation bento!

I had about 1/4 cup of cooked red quinoa in the fridge, and a few veggies. I chopped carrots, cucumber and red onion very finely, 1/2 apple chopped even more finely, 1 slice of black forest ham, and mixed it all up with the quinoa. I added salt, pepper and a little bit of lemon juice.

Et voila! It turned out to look very pretty and you know what's even better? It was delicious!

Finally, another fairly simple (and sorta lame if you ask me) bento.

Roasted chicken (I know, again, but it's easy for bentos...) with cup up apple and cucumber (lower tier) and simple bulgur with chopped apple (top tier).

I don't even remember eating this bento. It was rather boring, both in looks and in composition. I shall do better from now on!

So there you have it, the boxes that I bothered take pictures of recently. I am hoping to have more time for pictures from now on since my schedule is slowly getting a little more sane.

Check back with me for more bento adventures!!!!!

Happy Bento everybody!!

Didn't go fast did I?

Ok, ok, I'm back to blogging. It's been a long time, and I blame it on not being able to figure out "Gimp" my picture fudging software.

Truth be told, I was a little burned out on talking about food. I work for Weight Watchers, I cook for a hobby, I do bentos for the fun of it... food food food! So I got lazy, and a little heavy, and here I am! Back to my bentos. I missed them!

This doesn't mean I didn't do ANY bentos. I did, but generally they weren't very good looking, or I didn't have the camera around, or it was in the living room and I didn't want to walk that far (AH!) you know...

Here's the bento from April 24th. They were my last "custy" bentos made with the leftovers from the Chicken Wrap with Mango, Basil, and Mint that I had made the previous night.

So I had the chicken/mango mixture, with I think brown rice, steamed peas, cut pepper and raisins. Simple, and I remember it being very good as a cold leftover. :o)

My husband had the same thing exactly.

The rest of April and all of May were very sad "bento-wise" so I won't bore you with any of it. Fast forward to this week:

Monday June 8th:

I have discovered that our favorite Indian place, Great India on Geary st at 25th Avenue, not only makes great food and delivers for free, but they also will sell you a full Tandoori chicken for less than 15$! The half is 10$, so for 5 more you get double! AH!

Tandoori chicken is perfect bento fare, so that's what I did. Tandoori chicken with cucumber and tomato salad (also leftovers from Great India). I cut some extra cucumber because I didn't have enough food.

The little bottle has extra dressing from the salad which I didn't need.

I would have done better with some grains to be honest, but there wasn't enough rice left, and I didn't really have time to make anything. I was working in Santa Rosa that day. At 7:45am!

In case you didn't notice, my box is brand new! From Daiso, it's the same as my "basic boxes" but square! I can't wait to play with foods in there. Monday's lunch was more about throwing the food in there, than about making it cute.

Since I was out all day, I also made a snack box:

Blueberries on the left, cantaloupe on the right, and the two little containers have honey. I ended up using only one. It was plenty!

I don't use my snack box very often, but I love it. Isn't it cute? It's very small so it fits pretty much anywhere.

Dan had more to lunch with than I did, and it gave me the occasion to use my other new box. I've been drooling over that set since I first looked at the Lunch In a Box Blog. I couldn't find it anywhere. This weekend we went to Ichiban Kan and there it was! But it was 22$.

I promised myself a while ago that I would not put more than 10$ on a box, and even that would have to be a really special one. I was totally torn, but my enabler husband told me to get it since he could see that I really liked it. So I did!

Here's his Indian Bento:


In the insulated container (middle) he has Chicken Makhni with a "rice lid". I've seen other Bento-makers do that and wanted to give it a try. As you can see, seepage occurred, but I think it still kept the curry from drying up.

In the little containers there is the rest of the Jasmin rice (left) and tandoori chicken (right).

See how it all packs up perfectly? It ends up packing quite a bit of food, but it looks tiny. I love it!

And all closed up and everything, it's very cute, but not "girly" so my husband can use it. Not that it bothers him, happy to say that he's confident enough in his "manhood" to take my custy attack with patience if not enthusiasm.

Today's boxes:

We didn't have any leftovers, though I did soak some bulgur last night to use today.

Left: I have bulgur (simple with salt and pepper) with tomato-cucumber-lettuce salad, and clover sprouts.

If you made a face reading sprouts here's something to think about: Alfalfa sprouts taste like you're chewing on the lawn. That's the one that turns off most people to sprouts. Clover sprouts are a lot tastier and sweeter. Taste different kind before you write them off!

Right: Steamed lentils (TJ), a boiled egg (showing only the good side of it, I can't cook eggs... how lame) and a mix of strawberries and blueberries.

My husband has the same foods, just a little more of it:


He has bulgur and salad (minus the lettuce and the sprouts, he's not crazy about either) on the left side. On the right he has lentils, an egg, strawberries and blueberries. I added a Mini Babybel cheese as always.

So that's that. I'm excited to be bento-ing again. It doesn't take much really, it's to get started that is the hardest.

Happy Bento Everybody!!!!

Ending the week well

Thursday I had the day to myself along with Grace (my dog). I decided that it was more than time to get outside and play together. We both needed it.

I was going eat at a cafe somewhere, but realized that I had plenty of leftovers to work with, so I made a bento out of odds and ends I had in the fridge.

Here's my box:

Grains: I had cinnamon scented couscous.

Vegetables: I had steamed broccoli stem, and precooked edamame (Trader Joes). I added steamed lentils (Trader Joes) to that.

Proteins: I had the rest (finally) of the pork roast. It was delicious, but I was getting very sick of it!

Others: I cut up a pineapple Wednesday to put in the chicken salsa dish and had leftovers. I put those in as a "side dish/dessert".

I went to a Weight Watchers meeting, and then to the dog park. I ate my bento there, and had a few dogs roaming around me. Apparently, there were volunteers to help me out with my pork if needed. ;op

Today (friday) I made Sushi Bowls for dinner (see my Lifestyle blog for details) and with the leftover rice I made Broiled Onigiris:

Those are now in the freezer ready for a coming bento! I hadn't made those in a while, and they are goooood!

Happy Bento Everybody!

Don't tell me I have an hour!

This morning I'm not working, again. Kinda depressing, but it gives me time to do useful things, like... well, useful things!

I didn't have anything prepared really for the bentos, just leftover pork roast. As I made a comment about "Gee, i need some time this morning" my husband said "Well, I'm not leaving for another hour".

Oh yeah? Cutsiness attack! I took out some vegetable cutters and had some fun:

Grains: I have about 1/2 cup of the quick couscous I made with chicken broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder and cinnamon. I love Couscous for those "I got nothing" mornings because it's so fast. I added a cut out red bell pepper flower to make it look cute.

Proteins: I made little sticks with 2oz of the never ending pork roast. It is delicious! I had sushi last night so I'm not tired of this pork yet.

Vegetables: I have steamed broccoli. I put some mirin in the water, we'll see how it goes. I had orange blossom water in the water last time, but my husband thought it was a little too strong (I love it so there!).

I also have red pepper and cucumber salad. I cut flowers out of red bell pepper and out of cucumber, and diced the "leftovers" to make the main salad. I covered it with the flowers. Cute huh?



My husband has the same foods, but a little more. The only difference is that I added a leaf of lettuce under his pork sticks to make it look better.

He has twice as much couscous, and about 3.5 oz of pork. He has a little less vegetable though so I added a little bag of baby carrot and a banana to his lunch.

I used a bento cloth to hold everything together. The cooler bag with the bento is in there as well as the banana and the baby carrot bag.

There you have it, another day of bento!

Happy Bento Everybody!

Loving Leftovers!

Today is another leftovers day. As I explained in my Lifestyle Blog, I'm trying very hard to simplify my life by cooking once for 2+ meals. So far, it's pretty darned tasty!

Here's today's boxes:


Grains: I have leftover Chicken-Sausage-Rice casserole. It will need to be reheated, which is not usual for me since I like to pack cold lunches, but I knew I was not teaching today so it's ok. ;op

The grain is Trader Joes frozen brown rice. The whole process from the pouch to the casserole is explained in my Lifestyle Blog.

Proteins: I have the chicken and sausage in the Rice casserole, I also added a little be of edamame and steamed lentils. Both sold fully prepared at Trader Joes.

Vegetables: I have steamed broccoli, lettuce and baby carrots.

Others: I'm having a blueberries-apple butter phase. What can I say, it's delicious! The apple butter is in the little yellow bear container.


My husband has exactly the same foods, so I won't bother to repeat myself. His portions are bigger because, as stated many times, he's 6'2", he needs food!

I tried to play with colors a little more today to have the boxes more visually interesting. Of course that rice casserole is not pretty, I noticed, but it's good!

Happy Bento Everybody!

Breakfast Bento and a New Start!

I started 2009 running backward due to a flu that hit me between the eyes on the way home from my vacation. I'm feeling better now, and am ready to get going.

So, today was weigh-in day (down 2.8 lbs YAY!) and my first breakfast bento:

Proteins: Last night my husband hard boiled 2 eggs (well 3, but one exploded Woah!). This morning I removed the yolks (to cut down on fat and calories) and chopped the whites. I salted and peppered, et voila! Proteins for few calories!

Fruits: I washed about 3/4 cups of blueberries.

Other: In the little yellow container I have apple butter that we bought at Costco. It's 60 calories for 1 Tablespoon, but a little goes a long way. It's delicious!

My breakfast is lacking in grains, but I had enough to last me until noon. I was working my Sunday meeting today so I didn't have time to get hungry.

It was actually a simple but very satisfying breakfast.

Happy Bento Everybody!

Quick Leftovers Bento

Today I made a box only for myself. I had leftovers to work with and it was really a "throw it in the box lunch.

Here's what it looked like:


Grains: I have Bulgar with minced vegetables. I minced the vegetable in the chopper, sauteed them, added Indian spices, a little broth and threw the mix in pre-soaked Bulgar. It was delicious!

Proteins: I have leftover roasted chicken (from the deli) mixed with cilantro.

Vegetables: I have steamed broccoli and red bell pepper strip with cilantro.

Others: I added a clementine for dessert.

It was very simple, and I was surprised by how delicious it all was. The combination of taste and texture was perfect. The Bulgar recipe in particular will be made again!

Happy Bento Everybody!!

2009 is There!!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!

I was all excited to start 2009 after a difficult year in 2008, but I've got a bad case of the flu, so I'm "crawling" into 2009 rather than jumping in. Still, I had to get my Bento-ing going and get myself on track!

One of my goal is to simplify things for 2009. I get grand ideas and expand them until there is no way I can get it all done. That is not working for me. I have a full very challenging year ahead of me (but exciting!!!) so I need to keep things simple.

So, hopefully, I'll be able to bring in simpler, easy to make bentos, that can be done quickly. Don't worry though, the cutsiness isn't dead! It will come around when I have more time (and more energy).

I also plan on weekend cook off in which I will cook for the week, for both lunch and dinners, so that would be cool "Make ahead posts".

So, after all this blah blah blah, here's today's fare:

Grains: I have the Weight Watchers Side "Zesty Spanish Brown Rice" that I cooked following package directions and then threw over sauteed vegetables. We had leftovers from last night.

Proteins: I have Trader Joes steamed lentils. They are sold precooked, so you just open the pack and dump them in. I really like the taste of them!

Vegetables: I have cut up carrots, red bell peppers, and cucumbers. It's very simple, I like raw vegetables by themselves without dressing.

Others: I'm going to have a small flavored non-fat Greek yogurt (from Trader Joes) with that and most probably a clementine.

Note: I loaded my box with raw veggies because they don't have weird taste when I'm sick.

My husband's box is a little different:

Grains: He has the leftover rice I have.

Proteins: He has lentils also, but I added 4 falafel (bought at Costco and frozen).

Vegetables: He has red bell peppers and cucumber pieces.

Others: I gave him a clementine, but also 2 pieces of Toblerone Chocolate. I thought the two would go well together!

Note: My husband is 6'2" so he needs a lot more calories than I do. He is also taking along foods for the whole day so I added a banana and a whole grain crisp snack (new at Weight Watchers, they are delicious!) so that he has other snacks than the junk from Costco at work.

So that's our lunches for today. I'm thinking that describing the foods by "kind of food" rather than by "top tier, bottom tier" would be less confusing. Let me know what you think!

Happy Bento Everybody!

Shame shame shame...

Ok, I flaked! This fall got out of control, and I haven't posted anything since mid-October. I did make bentos here and there though, just not everyday.

Here's 1o of the bentos I've made since October 17th. That's the ones I had decent pictures of!


October 18th
Top tier, I had cut up cucumber and red bell peppers, baby carrots, mango skewers over cut up strawberries.

Bottom tier, I had sauteed beans in salsa, 2 falafel over a bed of lettuce.

My husband has about the same thing, with couscous and mini Babybel cheese added.

October 21st


Top tier, I had rolls made with a tortilla, lettuce, deli turkey and a red bell pepper stick. I put a small tomato to keep stuff from moving around so much.

Bottom tier I had zesty Spanish rice side (WW), sauteed beans and salsa and cut up cucumber and red bell pepper.

October 22nd

Both boxes have the same: Steamed broccoli and peppers, cut cucumber, hard boiled eggs (on each). Dan has a mini Babybel cheese.

Zesty Spanish rice (decorated with red bell pepper shapes), falafel and a tomato on a bed of lettuce.

I remember scrambling that morning to get "something"... didn't turn out bad now did it?

October 25th


Again a "Oh my, now what do I do?" morning.

Leftovers! Roasted chicken (bought precooked), bulgur and steamed veggies. I added a little container of Spicy Hummus to give it all some taste.

I always put a little bag of baby carrots with my husband's box, this time I put them in.

Of course he's got his mini Babybell light cheese.

November 1st

Just whatever I could find, last minute sub call.

I have a turkey wrap, 2 broiledOnigiris (that I had left in the freezer) and cut up orange and strawberries.

November 4th

Doesn't that look fuffy?

I sauteed frozen spinach, frozen pepper strips (TJs) and put that in with falafels (bought at Costco by the way, a big bucket of them, separated and froze them!) and the last of the Onigiris. It's all served over a bed of lettuce with clover sprouts.

November 9th

Finally, the last one, I have a tandoori chicken breast (leftover), cut cucumber, clover sprouts (much better than alfafalfaf whatever you call that stuff).

In the bottom tier I have some sort of grain (I don't remember, I think it was bulgur with garam masala, but I couldn't swear to it), carrots and red bell pepper strips.

So that's about a month of bento in one post!!

I will post whenever I bento up, but until January it might be rare. I'm on vacation from the 18th to the 3rd of January, and until then I'll be super busy with the new plan at WW and all that.

Sooooo, keep an eye on me until then, but the big comeback will be in January!!

Happy bento everybody!!!

Yoooooo hoooooo, Remember me?

Again, major catch up post. I will get myself organized, I promise! We've been taking a lot of shortcuts with food these last few weeks, and didn't have as much leftovers. I'm working at reorganizing myself so that I can cook more everyday.

This is two weeks worth of bentos, but with a 5 days vacation in the middle.

Sunday October 5th:

I had to bring breakfast/lunch to work, and I had leftover Cinnamon Apple-Pear Kebabs, so I used that.

So on the right you have the apple and pear pieces, top left there's a hard boiled egg that I sliced (somehow they taste better sliced ;op) and in a little cup, I have a bit of Quaker Life cereals. That was a very filling breakfast!

Monday October 6th:

I was working in Sonoma, so there was no way I could come home for lunch.

Top tier : I had Turkey meatloaf (frozen leftovers) with Zesty Spanish rice (Weight Watchers).

Lower tier: I had steamed broccoli, a sliced tomato (a member at WW gave me some veggies from her garden, OMG sooo tasty!) and 1/2 sliced apple that I coated with lime juice (it works!).

It was a fairly long day and I was afraid of getting hungry before this end so I added a soup to my bento and a yogurt for snack.

That little Lock & Lock container is perfect for soup, leak proof, it holds about 1/2 cup!

My husband had a similar lunch that day:

I added a pack of carrots to his box and his faithful Mini Babybel light cheese. I also sent him off with a soup:

The soup is a leftover from the previous night, the Spicy Black Bean Soup found in Best Eat, the latest Weight Watchers cookbook. It is DELICIOUS!

The rest of the week, I didn't make any Bento. My husband took Thursday, Friday and Monday off, so we took the week easy.

Tuesday October 14th:

I was subbing again, here in town. I had a "custy curse attack so I played around with my food a little.

Top tier (shown at the bottom of the picture): I had left over steamed veggies from the night before, I added to that steamed shrimps (with Mirin in the water, try it, it's worth it!) under the whole thing there's a bed of lettuce to make it look more full. That box is a little big, so I cheated.

Lower tier (shown on top of the picture): I had leftover couscous, which I put in the smaller tier of a different bento box (cool huh?) and I added baby carrots around it. I used heart and star cut outs that I had made in a Nori sheet.

The whole thing is awfully simple, but I like the look of it. It also tasted very "fresh".

Dan isn't a big fan of seafood, so I had to come up with something else:

On the left: He has steamed broccoli, a clementine all segmented out, baby carrots and his trusty Mini Babybel Cheese (I think he might be getting sick of that one. I'll have to think of something else).

On the right: he has couscous and falafel. We bought those falafel at Costco and they are very tasty! We ate a few and froze the rest of them in packs of 4. Bento ready!

Wednesday I worked morning only, no need of Bento.

Today 10-17-08:

I'm not working today, but I'm planning on a shopping expedition. Since I didn't know when I was going to start, I made a bento for myself and for my husband. I had leftovers, so I got 2 bentos made, pictures taken and everything in 9 minutes. Am I a pro or what?

I was looking at my box collection, wondering which box I hadn't used in a while, so I picked this one:

Top left: I have couscous (just plain ol' couscous) and lentils.

I had leftovers steamed lentils (TJ) that had been in the fridge just a little too long, so I decided to cook them last night. I sauteed onions, added curry powder, broth and the lentils, boiled for a few minutes, et voila. Delicious!

Top right: I had leftover roasted chicken, so I shredded some in there. The container has some store bought hummus. I know, I'm getting lazy, it's been a weird few weeks!

Bottom: I have cut cucumber and red bell pepper, and leftover carrots that were sauteed with a little garlic oil, whole cumin seeds and honey.


My husband has the same exact lunch (plus the Mini Babybel light cheese) :

He does have a little more of everything. He's 6'2", he needs more calories than I do!

So that's my Bento making of the last 2 weeks !

Happy Bento everybody!

Leftovers Attack! (#177-#178)

I had yummy leftovers today, so I just had to throw it in a box. Good thing too, I got a last minute call to sub. It was a race there for a minute!

Here's my box:

In the lower tier (left) I have leftover bulgur, red bell pepper pieces, and cut strawberries.

In the top tier (right) I have left over Green Bean Salad Vinaigrette (recipe to come later) with Red-Rub Chicken breast (recipe to come later). I put a sushi grass in the middle cause the beans were a bit wet!

As always now, my husband also had a similar lunch:

On the left: Green Bean Salad Vinaigrette and Red-Rub Chicken breast.

On the right: Left over bulgur, strawberries, 1 Mini Babybel light cheese, and a peanut butter bliss mini bar (Weight Watchers).

We both had a little bag of baby carrots to go with that. I had a cup of flavored greek yogurt (FF, TJ) and my husband had a little cup of jello. :o)

It works so much better to have the food prepared ahead. I like to box in the morning, but with working out and different work time (depending on the school) it's hard to cook in the morning.

It works! Happy Bento Everybody!