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!

Two days in a row

I was teaching yesterday and today so I bento-ed up. Considering that I didn't have much in the freezer, I'm pretty happy with myself!

It's nothing overly impressive, I've been extremely busy, but it held me through full days of teaching. :o)

Here's yesterday's boxes:


We both had the same thing:

Bottom tier we had couscous with a little container of steamed lentils.

In the top tier we had steamed broccoli with home made Garam Masala, falafels and diced apples.

The apples I simply diced and coated with lemon juice, then I drained them well and sprinkled them with cinnamon. Simple and very tasty!



Today I didn't make a box for my husband, but I did make one for myself:



I had leftover roasted chicken, steamed broccoli in the top tier.

In the bottom tier I had couscous, lentils and lettuce.


So that's my "back to work but not ready for it" bentos! ;o)

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!