Bento #24

Wanted something different for dinner. Made Tempura Shrimp. SO GOOD! Leftovers are for lunch tomorrow. (Sorry about the picture. Something is wrong with my camera and it won't let me see what I'm taking a picture of.)

Top tier: Tempura Shrimp; small container of shrimp sauce

Bottom tier: Broccoli; Cucumbers; Carrots; the chick is from All Things for Sale and has dill dip in it for the veggies. She (the chick) is guarding her Cadbury Mini Eggs. I'm not a big chocolate eater, but Cadbury Mini Eggs are my most favorite chocolate around! Thank goodness it only comes out during the Easter season!

I'm hoping the shrimp is as good for lunch tomorrow as it was for dinner!

Enjoy!

Bento #23

Had a sick baby home from school today, but ate my bento for lunch anyway. My Black and Bleu salad was YUMMY! Here's hoping my lunch tomorrow will be just as good.

Top tier: Broccoli Slaw; Garlic and Herb Mahi Mahi

Bottom tier: Strawberries; Grapes; and an Egg Fish! (My first time it didn't come out so well. Had to get bigger eggs. Now, I need to work on trimming the edges a little more. But, I think it turned out well for my first official one. My son wanted to color it, so I obliged!)

As I was assembling this tonight, my daughter (who will be 10 in a few weeks) told me that she would like for me to fix her bentos! Woo Hoo! So, when I make hers, I'll post both our pics! I already "bento" my son's lunch a little. Usually just cut his sandwich into shapes, or put faces on his chicken nuggets. Just things to surprise him, but nothing picture worthy. So, now I have to get creative times 2!

Enjoy!

Bento #22

I'm quite pleased with tomorrow's bento! It's not to fancy, but still looks nice and colorful. We have a restaurant called O'Charley's and they have the BEST salad called the Black and Blue salad. A bed of lettuce with blackened steak and bleu cheese on it. YUM! So, this is my rendition of it:

On the left: Fajita Steak, cut into cubes; containers of Italian dressing; bleu cheese crumbles; strawberries

On the right: Tossed Romaine lettuce and my try at an egg mold of a rabbit. (My Mother-in-law raises chickens and we get fresh eggs from her weekly. I thought they were big enough for all the molds I received for my birthday, but this was THE ONLY mold that turned out! So, I went to the grocery and bought some XL eggs there and will try my hand at the molds again.)

When it's time for lunch tomorrow, I'm tossing it all together in the lettuce container. Maybe not the strawberries. The original salad doesn't have them on it, but I have had other salads that do. So, we'll see what kind of mood I'm in tomorrow!

Since this was so yummy, I'm posting it over at What's for Lunch Wednesday!

Enjoy!

Bento #21

I don't know about you, but I had a great weekend! Spent yesterday with some girlfriends shopping, walked today (Sunday) with another good friend and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! I packed my lunch for tomorrow in my Laptop Lunchbox and used my smiley face pics to show my attitude of this past weekend! Here it is:

Top blue container: Strawberries

Green container: Pickled cucumbers from the Just Bento Cookbook (loved them!)

Bottom Yellow container: Leftovers! Had a Chicken Bacon Artichoke pizza for lunch today, so leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Purple container: Almonds and in the blue polka dot container is blue cheese crumbles for my strawberries.

On the side: South Beach bar for breakfast

I looked through the recipe book and found some more recipes for later this week. Hope they are as good as my others were!

Enjoy!

Bento #20

I used the Just Bento Cookbook that I got yesterday for my birthday to inspire a couple of things in my bento. Here is my bento for lunch today:

On the left: Ham and Cream Cheese Vegetable Roll Ups (from my new Just Bento Cookbook, page 20); Strawberries

On the right: Instant Cabbage and Cucumber Pickles (from the Just Bento Cookbook, page 15); Bleu Cheese for my strawberries; and a few animal crackers for dessert.

Both recipes were really good and will make them again!

I'll post this over at What's for Lunch Wednesday.

Enjoy!

Bento #19 and IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!

I didn't have a chance to post my bento for today last night, so here's what was my birthday lunch for today!

On the left: Turkey roll ups with some of my smiley face pics. (They're happy because it's my birthday!)
On the right: Babybell cheddar cheese, carrots, and a southwest ranch dressing for me to dip my turkey roll ups in.

Very good!

Now, I am blessed with some very awesome girlfriends in my life. I got to work today and had several presents on my desk...and I loved and appreciated them all! Some of them put a lot of thought into their gifts. (One of my closest friends made me a bucket FULL of my favorite Fiber one/Fiber plus bars and stuff. IT was HUGE!) My other favorite gift was this:

One of the bento cookbooks I wanted (The Just Bento Cookbook) and 4 egg molds!! I was SO excited, and touched, that my Thelma got me some bento goodies (and supported my new habit!).

SO, what did I do all day at work, you ask?! Well, look through my new bento cookbook and make myself a shopping list, of course! I made the pickled cucumbers and cabbage for tomorrow and the ham roll ups with cream cheese and carrots and green beans. I'll post a picture of them tomorrow, as the ham roll up had to chill overnight.

I also got a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com from my sister. I'm going to get the Yum Yum Bento book and there's a bento box I'm eying on there. I'll post when I get them.

Have a great day! (I know I have!)

Enjoy!

Bento #18

Back to school tomorrow! Here is my bento for tomorrow packed in my Laptop Lunchbox.

Blue container: Marinated Garlic and Herb Pork Tenderloin left over from supper. SO GOOD it's a treat to have it again!

Green container: Watermelon! Let's see how it tastes when it's not in season!

Yellow container: Cucumber stars; Edamame; Blue cheese dip

Side: Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheese and a Fiber Plus Caramel Coconut Fudge bar. (Have you tried these?! They are new! They taste like a Girl Scout Samoas cookie!! SO GOOD!!!)

TGIF, people, although tomorrow will be a late night for me. We have our 8th Annual Daddy/Daughter ball. It's one of my favorite things of the year! All our girls come looking so pretty. So, I'll be at school until 9:00 - 9:30 tomorrow night...but it will be worth it!

Enjoy!

Bento #17

I used another new bento for my lunch today. This one is a one level bento. I took another picture of it in my hands, so you can see the actual size. I am loving these size bentos! Here you go:

From the top with the lid on...

Lunch, in my hands!

On the left: More chicken curried salad (had it for lunch on Monday)
Top: Seriously sharp Cabot Cheddar Cheese
Right: Grapes
Bottom: Carrots

Perfect sized lunch! I will be putting this up at What's for Lunch Wednesday over at Bentolunch.net. Love Wednesday's! I go over to Bento Lunch every Wednesday and look at everyone's ideas.

We got some snow today, so I'm thinking no school tomorrow. Probably won't be making a bento tonight. Everyone stay safe and warm!

Enjoy!

Bento #16

Freakin' LOVE my new bentos!! Carried my red one today to work. It was the perfect size! So, tomorrow, I'm bringing my blue one. I had lots of comments at work about how small it was. Here is a couple of pictures of me holding it so you can see the size of it compared to my hands.

And here's what's for lunch tomorrow:



Top box: fresh pear and a radish rose

Bottom box: Steamed mixed veggies with basil; Teriyaki chicken wings

Simple, but yummy!

That's it for tomorrow! Enjoy!

Bento #15

Packed tomorrow's Bento in one of my new Bento Boxes. I LOVE IT! Perfect size and holds just the right amount of food. My other bento box that I've been using (the round one I own) is really big. I also like my Laptop Lunchbox. I can fit all my food and snacks in that for work.

Anyway, I need to go to the grocery, as I feel like I was looking for something to pack with my chicken salad. Here's my lunch for tomorrow.

View from the top!

View from up close!

Bottom cup: Ranch dip for the carrots. Curried Chicken salad (almonds, grapes, chicken, curry powder and Fat Free Mayo)

Top cup: Light Cool Whip (for the berries), Cabot Extra Sharp cheese, Mixed berries.

My daughter picked out the food picks. Penguin in the berries, because the berries were frozen...penguins (she told me) like the cold! Ha! The dolphin and fish are swimming in the blue cup and the turtle likes lettuce, so she put him in the lettuce cup. Love her!

Have a great day! Enjoy!

Today is my BIRTHDAY!! (Well, not really...)

Remember a week or so ago when I told you that I had THE BEST husband in the world?! He had ordered me a bunch of stuff from www.allthingsforsale.com to help start my Bento Adventure for my birthday. (It's coming up on the 15th.) WELL......MY BOX CAME TODAY!! Here is my entire contents of the box:

Lots of stuff, huh? Here, I'll break it down for you:

Different pics (Apparently, I thought the 2 bottom pics were a good deal. I ordered 2 and didn't realize it!)



New Bentos and a lunch box! The red, blue, and yellow matching ones were (what I thought) a great deal. All 3 for $10.99.




Other stuff: an egg mold, face punch, decorative cups, bento straps, ham and cheese cutouts, grass dividers, sauce holders, and some leaf pics (which are my most favorite things that I ordered.)

Now, guess what I just saw posted?! Bentobloggy (the blog I went to and found out that if I entered Bentobloggy on the AllThingsForSale website, I got an additional 5% off) is having a give away!!! She just posted it today! How crazy is that?! I get my box, and she is having an AllThingsForSale give away!! Here is the link to it:

http://bentobloggy.blogspot.com/2011/02/allthingsforsale-bento-pack-giveaway.html

Get over to Bentobloggy right now and read about how to enter! There are 6 different ways to win! And, if you don't want to win any of the AWESOME prize packs...enter anyway! And if you win...SEND THEM TO ME! (My birthday IS coming up, after all!)

Now, off to figure out where I'm putting my new Bento goodies! (And I have to go and enter Bentobloggy's giveaway! Who COULDN'T use more Bento stuff?!)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!