Spaghetti bento!

Om noms nom nom! Anyways, I really like how the bread and pasta fit together.

Corn & quinioa bento

Raw corn off the cob, quinioa, carrots, fried & battered sliced egg plant, grape leaf filled with noms. Home made dipping sauce.

Back to Work Bento

Well, labor day is over, so it's back to work. Today's bento is 2 hardboiled eggs (salt and pepper), some scones with honey, baby plums, fruit salad, 2 laughing cow cheese wedges, and two thin slices of a baguet. Almost compensates for having to be back at work ;-)

 

Guest Post- August Foodie Pen Pals

I sent my package to Leigh-Ann, and she wrote a guest post :-)

               Hi readers! So glad to be doing a little guest post for Jordan today J So, while I was deciding on something to post about, I decided I’d share a little bit about the “Foodie Pen Pal” program and why I decided to join it!

               I am a lover of health/fitness/food blogs! It is definitely my favorite pastime. I love to get new ideas and to “meet” new people. Through reading one blog that I loved, I got to learn about others and now I have several that I read on a daily basis-yes, it is an obsession. Well, at the end of every month I would see everyone post about their “Foodie Pen Pals.” They all had cute little boxes come in with all of these wonderful treats that looked amazing and honestly, most were healthy…which made me super excited and intrigued to find out about this program! I went over to Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean’s page and read up on it a little bit. Basically, every one is paired with someone different each month. Someone sends you something and you send someone else something. Awesome! I love giving people presents and doing anything to help someone smile. I truly feel it is one of the best things we can do as humans, to pass the feelings of love and happiness along to others.

               August was my first month doing the foodie pen pal program and I enjoyed it so much. I was able to send someone a gift and they ended up loving it, which in turn made me so happy, and my first pen pal-Jordan!!- sent me a lovely box of goodies! I was in the midst of moving back into college for my last semester and felt so overwhelmed with the unpacking, when a package came to my door!! I was so overjoyed, and knowing that thousands of people get that same joyous feeling every month because someone thought about them makes me so happy and so excited to have another foodie pen pal in September!

               I thought I’d share a pic of the box of goodies that sweet Jordan sent me!

I try to eat all organically and can’t have any refined sugars, flours, etc. so I definitely give Jordan major kudos for putting together a box of wonderful things that all taste delicious!! J

August Foodie Pen Pal

My first Foodie Pen Pal sender is Karen from karensip.wordpress.com I gave her very vague guidelines because I'm a noob, but she rose to the challenge! I've loved everything I received. I actually received the box the night before leaving for a road trip, so we had yummy nibbles for the trip.

Here's the box:

She intentionally sent me little things to go in my bentos; so that's really awesome.

 

You can actually see in the past few blogs small little parts of it. I had never had the nut-thins before and BOY AM I IMPRESSED!! These are really amazing because 16 crackers is a serving, at only 130 calories each. So if you add maybe 6 crackers to a laughing cow cheese wedge you have less than 100 calorie snack! My favorite part, I tried them right after working out and the saltiness really satisfied my salt craving. It's actually surprisingly hard to find healthy foods that satisfy my salt cravings. I typically end up with some cool ranch Doritos instead.

I was plesantly surprised that organic choco animal cookies taste so good. I have this idea in my head that healthy food is usually devoid of good flavor. Of course, pirates booty is always yummy, and was nicely timed before the road trip. Mini butters are perfect for adding a touch more protein to a tiny bento box, or stuffing into my camel back on a hike to re-charge.

Lastly my all time favorite....... home made toffee. AHH! I could just die. Unfortunately the shipment arrived in 100 degree weather so the chocolate melted, but I mushed it all together into a large block and chilled it. LOL, I'm such a dork, I ate it like a huge brick of toffee. SOO GOOD.

You can see how I used some of this in a bento here:
http://sloaaa.blogspot.com/2012/08/2-minute-brie-bento.html

Thank you so much Karen! You're the best :-)

For more information on how YOU can be a foodie pen pal see this post :

http://www.theleangreenbean.com/foodie-penpals/

Pastrami and swiss sandwhich

See what I did here? I deconstructed a pastrami and swiss sandwhich and packed it for assembly at work. SO excited. We had these for dinner, super noms. Basically its some sort of artisan bread, mayo/horsey sauce, fresh basil, tomato slices, pastrami, all topped with swiss cheese, salt and pepper. Its meant to be eaten open faced.

I also put the picture of dinner so you can see what it looks like all put together. Then I placed a few choco animal cookies in the silverware compartment ontop of my bento, and some ontop of his tomatoes and basil, in a baggy. And the fruit is figs. They've got some amazing colors going on.

2 minute Brie bento

Brie, crackers, grape tomatoes, and choco animal cookies. Tossed together in 2 mins!

Chicken salad lunch!

Chicken salad, thin carrots, squares of lettuce and flat bread= mini chicken salad wraps to go! Also hummus for the orange grape tomatoes.

Chinese food leftovers!

Sweet and sour pork, bok choy and mushrooms, rice, and walnut shrimp!

Tortillini lunch

This day was blue cheese tortilini with pesto sauce, pesto hummus, carrots, and purple radish. Yum!

Thai red curry, seaweed and nigiri bento

Pot roast bento

Pot roast and fruit salad bento

Pasta, tuna, fig bento

Scallop Onigiri Bento!

Today I went to Sawtell street in L.A. OMG I went a little crazy buying all these cute little boxes and accessories! Wow. Such a great deal too. I'm thrilled that I am no longer limited to the 700-900 ML boxes of the lock and lock set (way too big for me, but great for him!).

I was inspired enough to try to make onigiri!  I used a rice press to make filled onigiri. Mini scallops inside! He is going to be so stoked when he sees it. He really loves scallops! Unfortunately, no bento for me because it's lunch with the family day. But that's fine, I made myself a fruit snack box instead. There are radishes, corn, cucumber, purple radish, papaya and blue berries. I put the extra scallops around the onigiri like hair. Is that enough meat you ask? Well, it's exactly the recommended amount... 4 oz. :-)

Lemon chicken & rice bento

Lemon chicken, rice instant miso ball.

Homemade lunchable

I was feeling lazy this morning... crackers, salami, lunch cheeses, laughing cow cheese, and a cut orange (from his parents yard)

Mac and cheese with hot dog squids.

I was gone camping all weekend, so I turned to this proven last minute no grocery food.. Kraft macaroni and cheese, with hot dogs!  Yum. I played around with the hot dogs and they were pretty easy to turn into octopus.
I used standard sized hot dogs, but I cut them into 2" lengths
I cut about an inch down, turn, cut, turn about 4 times so the legs were skinny. Toss into boiling water and viola!
And theres little ketchup too!

Fajita bento!

Below are my breakfast bento (greek yogurt, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, yogurt, and honey) and my lunch bento... FAJITA bento. Caramelized onions, sauteed bell peppers, marinated steak, and cooked shrimp. The little cups have homemade grilled tomato salsa, cut limes, guacamole, and one has sour cream. Looks pretty good! Can't wait until lunch.

Pesto Salad & Breakfast Bento

I was at Fresh & Easy (local grocery store) and I saw this amazing pesto pasta salad with mozzarella and cherry tomatoes, I was totally wowed. I was just given a basketful of cherry tomatoes, and have fresh pesto sauce, so I grabbed a bucket of fresh mozzarella and viola! SO excited, I can't wait for lunch time :-). I ate a fresh mozzarella ball last night. OMG! Best thing ever. Also, have baby carrots, some are sliced, with some delicious pesto hummus for dip.

Another breakfast bento with greek yogurt/honey/blueberries. He LOVES blueberries. Also added some melon stars this time. Typically I have a problem cutting produce to make stars because of the waste. I've come to terms with that when I realize that because of the CSA box (and local family members giving us tons of cherry tomatos etc), I have far too much produce to eat naturally. I might as well enjoy cute little stars!

CSA Box... a budget tool?

3 weeks ago my boyfriend and I decided to make the plunge and subscribe to a CSA (community supported agriculture) program. We now get a weekly box of seasonal veggies. In just 3 weeks it has revolutionized my food budget. I spend 23$ a week on veggies, now I can round out the rest of my meals with quality meats and some sort of starch (potatoes come in the box too!). My weekly food budget is $100 for 2 people. So do the math, if we spend 23$ on veggies, and starches are super cheap (bread, pasta, rice), let's say we spend $20 a week on starch, that leaves us approximately  60$ a week to spend on meat! That's crazy! In reality, we don't spend $60 a week on meat. But we do eat out once a few times a week.

So, this subscription vegetable service supports the local economy, reduces waste (gas for delivery truck, packaging for food), and saves ME MONEY. It's also exciting because you don't know what you're going to get each week. Wow. Cool.

You should do it too!

Spanish makeral and leotian sticky rice bento

American BBQ bento!

Tri tip, baked potato, grilled corn, grilled zucchini, and a small plum.

Lunch and breakfast bentos 7-9

Breakfast:
The cupcake like thing is pancake batter with strawberryz baked in a cupcake tin (350 untill golden touched, like 25 mins). Hard boiled eggs... one broke, so its in a plastic container, the other I used this cool egg mold http://www.amazon.com/Kotobuki-Plastic-Mold-Rabbit-Bear/dp/B002TZ04J6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341849177&sr=8-1&keywords=egg+mold
It worked pretty good, the problem was de-shelling the eggs. Apparently the best for you eggs are the hardest to peel (also crack open I discovered that a few days ago). Two mini oranges that came in my CSA box. Then some flower cut jicima.

Lunch:
Grapes, string cheese, PB & strawberry sandwhich cut into triangles. Mini bun sandwhich, peperjack cheese, salami inside. He's going to love it!! Spiced Edamame.

The two squirt bottles I found at big lots for 1! Super exciting. Inside is a mix of mayo and spicy mustard.


Did some prep yesterday, then combined it all this morning. Maybe not as pretty as the last one, but I'm sure it's tastier, and just as fun to eat!!

Breakfast and snack bento

Just got this awesome lunch box for bento making on Amazon. Problem is that it holds 3 trays this size!! Okay, to acomodate space I made a breakfast/snack layer. There's greek yogurt with honey on top, blueberries, 2 strawberrys, a babybell cheese and some grapes.

Bento boxes first attempt!

Left side (my lunch)
Salad of romaine lettuce, star cut beets, green beans, cucumber star hell and purple carrot inside.
Lasagna style roll, 1/2 only because its waaay to big!

Right 2 (his lunch)
Salad of romaine lettuce, grated Parmesan cheese, star cut beets. Dressing in a packet from something leftover.
Rolls, tortilla with cream cheese spread on it, with salami, romaine lettuce and a green bean center. The other type is just American cheese and salami (melted in microwave 5 seconds to soften). Cup has salsa in it, covered with plastic wrap. More purple carrots, star cucumbers, both inners and outers.

Feedback: Coworkers are awestruck :P