Bringing Back the Bento

I HAVE been Bento-Making for work and school, but I am starting full-time at work and I placed THREE (3) orders to CaseBento, J-List, and Bento and Co.

I ordered 19 things - yikes! Most are accessories and mini-things - but wow.

I ordered them on the same day and with the same requests - for Bento's to be sent in more than one box. Lets see who delievers first, adheres to my request, and gets customs flagged. (I hope none get stuck in customs getting taxed)

Let the race begin!

Great Big Test

Cake

Happy Easter and Exams!

It's Exams, and I am not really Bentoing at the moment, but I did unleash my creativity and make this Easter cake!

Bento 22

Symmetry

Exams are on their way - Yikes! I may not be prepared for my Biology Exam - but I am prepared for lunch! Today we have, leftover bread with a smear or butterfly shaped creame cheese and butterfly shaped salmon spread. A divider of green beans, some blueberries and 2 wonderful little cheeses. This was a great tide-me-over, now that my days are short (No more LABS!) my lunches are pretty small.

Bento 21

A Cupcake a Day

Alright, I just fininshed by Cake decorating weekend course, and I have loads of cupcakes. So to get me through the last weeks of school, I have cupcakes. Exams are comming, deadlines are mounting and lately I've missed the bus and been late. Cupcakes are the only answer. Everyone ready for the last push before the end of the year?

In this Bento, we have of course a chocolate mini-cupcake with buttercream flowers on (unfortunatly the quality of my digital camera is terrible), some leftover chicken, a cup of berries, a mini-cheese square, and that bright white thing in the corner, is a heart shaped mini-sandwhich made out of a single slice of bread. Yum. This was great in geography, made the morning zip by.

Bento 20

Reading Week. A.K.A Working Week

Wow. It has been some Feburary. I worked all reading week, and wow did I ever eat alot of Bento. And then after no rest, leaped right back into classes with more Bento's. And worst of all my digital camera is currently in B.C. with my mother so she can document her trip, so, stand-by I do have some a few photos ready.

This was a strange little Bento. Monday, the first day back in class. Yogurt filled waffles and sliced peeled apples. Tasty, if nothing else, because it sure isn't pretty. This got me through film class. Nothing like waffles and yogurt to distract you from a subtitled film then the srip of strawberry yogurt all over your jacket, it was a good thing my jacket need cleaning already.

Tea for Two? Anyone?
This was just pure fun. This is every type of tea I own, and every mug or cup I could find. I did a taste test with my mother to find our favorites, I didn't realize how different they taste - Yum, Irish Breakfast Tea. Can you guess which cup it's in? I couldn't.

Bento 19

Bento in Bed.

Alright, Post-Mid-Term, Post-Friday Night Scrapbook-athon, Post-Cake Decorating.

This is a little something I prepared for Sunday Morning. I have to hit the gym early, and study for 2 more Mid-terms and finish a weeks homework, and clean. So. This is going to be a little Brekkie in the morning so I can eat and well, run.

We have Banana slices, Cheerios, a wee tub of maple syrup and mini-pancakses with a topping of blackberries. Is it morning yet?

X-Posted to http://community.livejournal.com/bentolunch/

Bento 18

Bento Basics

This was a simple Bento. A cut apple put back together into an apple shape. I peeled orange and a cup of frozen pinappple. A mini cup of olives, 3 leftover breakfast sausages and a viva puff.

I have a Biology Mid-Term approching and I need the easy fuel for study.

This is barely a Bento, it's more of cut foods in cups. But it sure was tasty.

X-Posted! http://community.livejournal.com/bentolunch/

Bento 17

BENTO + THE FLU = Mini -Pancakes

Yuck. Eww. Gross.

I have been sick for a week (Feeling 100% Now) and while I still made it to most of my classes without coughing over everything and contaminating other people, I still made my Bento's. When you're sick, you need them even more.

This is comfort food. Tasty Breakfast with all the toppings perked me up during Geography and was I ever thrilled to have a hot Thermos of Tea. Sometimes being sick is a blessing in disguise (I felt no guilt in scorffing down the whipped cream and maple syrup)

Alright, We have a mini-stack of Pancakes and between them is a frozen disc of maple syrup. I have it timed out that I make a bunch of panckes, pour syrup between two and then put them in a container in the freezer. Then when I want one, I just pull them out and by mid-day the syrup has thawed just enough to be a liquid and not enough to run into everything else. Oddly enough, I worked out the timing perfectly and yet still have no skills in math, hmm?

There is also a strip of bacon that was leftover tucked between the grapes. In the little red cup is some dried cranberries and in the other tub a serving of sweet whipped cream. Yum. Best Lunch/Breakfast yet.

Cross-Posted to bentolunch.livejournal.com/

Bento 16

Oh Bento.

My apologies for the dark photo, but rushing around in the morning is hardly condusive to good photography. This was a bit of silliness.

I hardly meant for it to look like a face but when I was finished packing it, I just had to put 2 raisons on for eyes just for the photo.

On to the food. For my tasty lunch I am having 1/2 an unidentified lunch meat sandwhich (post-new years), a serving of riccotta, and veggies with dip. Very simple, very fast.

This is going to be my inbetween meal for my 'layover' between classes, fuel up for film class, or it will be lights out before the Prof. can dim the lights.

Crossposted to http://community.livejournal.com/bentolunch/

Bento 15

Hold On, Here it Comes.

New Semester, New Courses. All New Bento's.

Here we go, Picture the first day of a New Semester, Fresh Start. It should be joyful and revitalizing, a motivator to succeed, waking up early prepared to start the day...

Too bad my Monday morning wake-up call was unwelcome and less then timely. I was rushed into my morning routine at the sound of a late alarm, and had to rush to throw cloths into the dryer and to pull the curlers out of my hair (think a bed-head of Grannie-Curlers toddling round a mess laundry room) and was glad to find my Bento from the night before waiting for me to fetch it for lunch (unlike the city bus).

Here it is, in the blue cup we have carrots and celery. Under that is a red cup of shredded pinapple (leftovers), a tin of butter-flake-cake, in the green cup a riccotta serving with tiny cheese cube. Wedged in between things are blueberries, a piece of leftover chicken, raspberries and the piece-de-resistance, Apple Bunnies! These are just apple slices with the peel turned to look like ears, then I tried to give them eyes, and as you can see, one looks rather evil and the other rather nice.

Happy new Year! After a fantastic month of Christmas Break(and little Interent Access at my Great-Grannie) I have finally updated. I am charging the batteries in my camera as I type this, and later tonight, I will have a tasty sample of the weeks Bento's. I had 5 for the week, and it looks like I'll need to make more, 6 courses and 3 labs, a shift or two at work and I am eating out of my home more than in. That's the beauty of bento, I save loads of money on take-aways and when I do takeaway or go to a restuarant I really enjoy it.

Bento 14

Been Busy, But Still Bento-ing

This was a very busy Bento, The patio door at my place shattered and I had to leaf through Emergency Glass Repair People and eat my lunch.

Okay, For the stress, I had leftover homemade Pizza/Calzone/Pocket of delicious cheese and green peppers, and for spice a mini Tabasco for flavour. Also some Orange segments for, well, nutrition and a few mini iced cockies and a serving of dried fruit.

This lunch was a blessing in disguise, it's not every day your glass doors crack, you need a little boost to get through the telephone estimates and my mystified expression of 'Just How Much Is This Going To Cost!' Made Tuition seem like a chump change.

This is just a close up of all the cracks that spread over the entire door.

Yes, Exams are over and I can stop procrastinating, today I am making my New Year's Resolutions, to not Procrastinate!

Later today, the Bento Blog will continue!

Bento 13

Compartments.

(The day I had this, I just couldn't stand food touching other food)

I, like many young people, grew up in a world where food didn't touch other food. Mothers carefully plated peas a great distance fromt the mash potatoes and I was spoiled. As I got older, to the Rip Old Age I am at now, I taught myself to eat mixed foods, I tolerated it for years, but have come to love my Bubble-and-Squeak (That's British for, Carrots, Peas and Potatoes all mashed together). The day I ate this was an off day, I was feeling icky and all I wanted was to stay in my warm bed, eat Chicken Soup and watch the Price is Right. But I couldn't, it was a Tueday, and I have class all day.

So, this became a quick comfort, that and my Thermos of Chicken Soup.

We have Bananas, Oranges, Berries, Walnuts, Dried Cranberries and a mustard and white bread sandwitch. Easy to digest and nothing was touching. It was heaven. How will I ever go back to my haphazard Bento ways.


Comming Soon : That Bio Bento, I am working out the details, I have a few planned study sessions, and I need to make a few study Lunches.

Sorry.

I have been stressed over biology mid-terms, assignments, presentations, just like everyone else at Nipissing. It is no excuse for my terrible neglect for this blog. I need to pull everything together for the end of this semester.

My plan for the end of the week.

Finish Presentation
Start Film Paper
Do 2 Film Journals
Re-read Bio Lecture (X2)
Review a Ensc. Article
And...Bento Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Bento 12

Yes, This was Halloween, I know, that was Weeks Ago

(I am a terrible, terrible person for not updating)

Halloween, yes, this is up late for Halloween, but I did eat it on the Halloween Friday.

We have, in the centre, a Rye Bread Coffin, with cheese inside. It has an authentic cross and crack for aestetics. In the bottom Left Corner, a meriange ghost with chocolate chip eyes, underneath are some peanut butter bannana rolls (nothing scarier than peanuts in public, no boby wants to be around them) We have in the top Corner a Bat Cookie I made, and a cheese tombstone, again with authentic Halloween R.I.P. And for added nutrition, raddish flowers, grave sites need flowers. Ooh, and candy corn, yum. Yes, Halloween, very spooky. Very tasty.

I wish I had dressed up for Halloween at the University, absolutly noboody did, well escept for Oscar the Grouch, if any of you saw him. If I had had supportive friends (you know who you are) we could have gone, but we are talkers, not doers when it comes to things like this. It is probably for the best, I really wanted to go as a box of kraft dinner.

Comming Soon: Next couple of weeks I have my Bio Exam, how convient, so I will need a tasty pre-test bento breakfast to get me through the stress and maximize on sleep. I'm thinking, since it is on enzymes and DNA structure, what about a tasty Double Helix or maybe The Krebs Cycle is organge segements? Why leave the books on my living room floor, who said I can't have a study session in my kitchen?

Opps, I missed the Lunch

Okay, I Pride myself on my Love of Lunch, and I, of all people missed the Blogger Lunch. If only I read my e-mail, this has got to be a message to make me read my e-mail regularly, anyway thanks to Holly, who told me about it, I hope we have another one so I can bring a Bento Buffet. Hopefully we can have another event. Plus, even if I had known, I would have been in my Midterm.

Alright, so onto the post.
BENTO CHIC VS BENTO CHEAP

Obviously, I did not make the fantastic Bunny, it is a picture from a Book called Food Face. I WISH I had made it, but then again it would be a shame to eat, my counterpart, the not-so-chic Bento Cheap, comprised of leftover Chinese Food. I want to discuss the differences and similarities beween what I do and what others do. Alright, this is going to be a long post.

I get most of my boxes, at yard sales, or in department stores, they are just regular containers. I get the cute assesories from the Bins and Bins, I walk past it on my way home from the University and find myself in there looking at everything and wanting them all. If I wasn't on a students budget I would be swimming in Bento items I'm sure.

Okay, so Bento, in short is about, well, bringing your lunch with you, taking the time to appreciate making and eating it, two things we probably don't do alot of with the billion dollar industry of single serving microwave meals and fast food.

To Bento, you don't need Fancy tools (But it sure is nice). This is going to be a comparison mostly between my own Bento's. What is Chic(I work I hate, but ryhmes nicely with Cheap) and what is Cheap.

BentoBoxes

These are terrible photo's, but from left to right it chic to cheap. Obviously, I do not own the fancy red Bento Box with the decorative pattern and little lids, but I want to. Alas, I have the Box in the middle, a Lock and Lock, with little square compartments inside. And on the end, that's a plastic takaway, y'know, if you have these containers, you can just rinse them and use them a few times when you get a takaway. Re-using the container even once is a great way to start Bento, (Maybe if there is another lunch or Blogger meeting of some kind, I would bring Bento's in these for disposability.) Size wise, there are Bento guidlines for the amount of ml a Bento should hold for your age and gender. For me, I make about 500-700 calorie Bento's, but depending on my activity levels and stress that number changes. (I had a mid-term quick Bento that just had cake..hehe)

FOOD

Food wise, anything goes. This was Monday's lunch. I think it is a combinatin of Chic and Cheap. Grapes, cheap and easy, just wash and eat. I had some mini-meatballs leftover which aren't that chic so I just put them inside a cookie-cutter to make them more appealing. The little added foodpick adds a little more fun too. Pick up some mini-sword picks the next time you go for mixed drinks if you want them for free. And the yellow object is actually a tub filled with mustard for dipping the meatballs. The long pastry-looking thing is a cabbage roll, not everyones favorite, but this could be a slice of pizza or a sandwich. The chicness I added was the mini-bottle of soysauce for the cabbage roll, honesty this is the cheapest thing in the Bento, but is so cute. It was an empty food dye bottle. Last but certainly not least is the cookie. A tiny Giraffe I coloured with food dye pens. I don't expect anyone else to do this, but decorating cookies with my little cousins when they visit for the holidays is so much fun, so I always make a tonne and put them in the freezer, these are so tiny, proably no bigger than an inch so I have hundreds of them. Yes, I know, I'm extreamly obsessed.

ASSESORIES

Okay, these are mini-assesories Bento's.

Alright, I have mini spoons and other cutlery, honesty, these are those souviner spoons you see all over the place, when I eat, I am reminded of places I've been so I get to enjoy the memories of those places while I eat. If you don't have tiny spoons use plastic or a regular sized one. We have the sword food picks that come with those fancy mixed drinks. These are a collective bunch, not only my own, don't think I'm drinking myself silling for cheap Bento assessories. And finally, the mini-bottle and some fancy shaped corn holders I use for bigger food picks.

Alright, so here is another. We have fancy mini-muffin cups that make great dividers, little takaway tubs I got at Tammy's and a bunch of little condiment packets and of course other fancy picks. If you like condiments with your lunches, just save them from restaurant visits and you'll always have quick things to add to your lunches.

I want these so much. They are the cutest, little mayo tubs with clovers on them. I want them so much, but the shipping and handling kills you on orders, so I will proabably never own them. This is just the tip of the iceberg for cute Bento assesories that I don't own, I won't show the other to you, there are just too many.

This will be the final idea for today, I think this is going to be an epic post. I could write so much more about Bento, but I will just keep it to myself before the entire University thinks I'm unbalenced (I think it may be too late) Anyway, these are tiny cookie-cutters I use to shape foods for extra fun. Very Chic. And some more adorable pics and a mini-bottle of Tabasco. It is so tiny, it only hold 10ml. I love it.

Bento 10

This was Reading Week.

These would be merangue ghosts. Adorable and delicious and so simple.
3 egg whites and 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar and 1/4 cup of sugar. Whip it all up and pipe in ghost shapes. Bake and 200 for about 45 min and put chocolate chip eyes in. Tasty, though I did burn my just a bit, kinda like toasted marshmellows.

I had to work long Thanskgiving shift work, find time to vote, and prepare for 2 midterms, an in class assignment and cleaning my space, but I did find the time to sneak in a tasty Bento for a day I dedicated to study (yes I actually study during study week). On the tray are many leftover Thanksgiving scented candles I thought I would enjoy the ambient light on the stormy day. I giant mug of tea, a plate of tortilla crisps, and a side of ceasar dressing for dipping.

Yes, Readinng Week, in sneaks up on us all, some of us begging for it, others dreading it. I am particularly happy for the break and time with my parents over the Thanksgiving Weekend, but then again I work and I have mid-terms after this. Who scheduals these things? I use my reading week for catch up, I'm sure most of us do. I like to sleep in late, talk to old friends and even do some reading I should have done weeks ago.

In the actual Bento, I have olices, cheese cutouts, dried fruit, a ghost merengue (see top for pic) candy corn, leftover turkey and a leftover waffle cut into squares filled with homemade jam.


This was a relief from Biology textbooks and dissapointing plans with friends.

Bento 11

Simple. Tasty.

Alright, in the big divider, leftover chicken breast strips with carrots and baby tomatoes. I must Remind myself that I will need my KFS (Knife, Fork, Spoon, mine is an old military set that clips together and attaches to my bag, maybe I should take a photo of them.) I wonder how everyone else packs their lunches, that is if they do. Do you take silverware? I feel weird sitting in class or in the Caf or even in the Owl's Nest with metal silverware. Oh, well, they are just so nice to have, durable re-usable and unique.

Anyway, in the left side, a mini-cheesecake with a green merichino cherry. Delicious. Made them myself, well I make most of it myself. If anyone wants a hot tip, don't open the oven door when making cheesecake, I did and now they are cracked, so I had to top them, oh well, happy accident. Oh, it is surrounded by strawberries and raspberries.

And in the last compartment, we have leftover meatloaf chunks and a muffin-liner with blue cheese chunks and a Babybel laughing cow cheese square. Oh, and a pick for eating!

This one was quick too, but I have a plan for my next few Bento's, (I can't wait for Thanksgiving).

I was also wondering if anyone out their would be interested in doing some sort of lunch swap or meet-up, I'd love to share some of my food and tips with others, y'know I figure student's would show up, free food and all. Maybe a Cooking Club? Any thoughts?