Backlog of Bentos

I can not remember when this was but this was my lunch. carrots, sweet peas, crackers, cheddar and ravioli.

J had fried rice and gyoza in a microwave safe box. Bottom is apple sauce, yogurt
almonds, carrots, and cheddar.

J's fruit cup. Mine was the same but in a different container.

Hubby's lunch

Hubby's lunch all packed up. He likes a separate fruit cup and i try to accommodate him.

He has chicken, cheddar, cheddar, broccoli, carrots, and sugar snap peas. The top has something covered in coconut I'm not sure what! Bottom fruit cup has half and orange and strawberries.

Foster care

The reason I haven't been making bentos is last friday we received a placement call. First call in our age range in almost a year! The placement would be a foster placement not adoptive which we're fine with. M has a lot of medical needs, that is intimidating. But we want to help him, and I think it would be fun. Its been back and forth for over a week now and I think we're on the cusp of meeting/bringing him back home. But its hard to know for sure! I'm been a bundle of anxious nerves for over a week and its not going away any time soon. I hope we have the honor of caring for him, at least for a little while.

Bento for Big and Little

Life has been crazy here the past week, and I haven't made many Bentos. I'll get to the reason later. For now my Hubby had his first activity with his 'little' from big brother. The two of them are going Frisbee golfing. Its important that the activities stay 'cheap' at first. That way the little doesn't expect/want pricey activities. We already own Frisbees, backpacks, and bento gear for lunch. We did buy a $7 water bottle for D because we weren't sure his parents would think about it. I was VERY excited to pack their lunch, I get to use my bento gear on a kid! I have no idea what he likes so I packed a variety of stuff.

Peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread cut into dinosaurs. The dinosaurs are standing on chocolate covered almond 'boulders' and broccoli 'bushes'. Behind them is a 'bamboo forest' made from pretzel sticks. And carrots lol!

Two ranch cups and animal crackers to share. J's fruit box grapes and peaches.

D's fruit cup, grapes and peaches.

Bento dinner

Pretty bentos all ready to devour:

This bento was for dinner last night. We were running errands in the evening, i made dinner in a bento so we didn't eat fast food. J found me a new brand of dry ravioli, I still like Costco's much better but we can't find it. I swear every time we go and can't find it I add another bag to the bags I plan to buy when its in. Right now I'm up to 4 bags! Yum! We did find a 3 pound container of chocolate almonds for $9. I don't care for the yogurt variety, the chocolate will act as a gap filler for me.

On the left side hubby has peanuts, cheese cubes, avocado, sunflower seeds, broccoli and half a chocolate covered granola bar. On his right side he has the cooked ravioli.

Top tier has cooked ravioli. Bottom tier has avocado, sunflower seeds, cheese, broccoli, half a granola bar, two yogurt almonds.

Bento Backlog

Yummy lunch!

My lunch from a few days ago, 1 cup fried rice in the fruit box. Pot stickers, grapes and a babybel. Fruit cup with applesauce and grapes. I LOVE this brand of pot stickers so fragrant and delicious!

New box style

Man I'm behind! I've been working on setting up an online bento store. I'm surprised by how much work that is! When we were in dasio I found a bento I haven't seen before. I bought one to sell in my online store, and I figured I'd better try one myself! Total volume is 470ml.

The blue section seems quite water tight. I filled it with water and shook it around, only a few drops escaped. It can sit lid down in the yellow compartment or snap lid up on the yellow section. Definitely need a belt to hold everything together but I like it. Its weird to be sure. But I like the options.

Blue section snapped lid up on the yellow section.

Weekend Bento

This is the first time J and I used the tiffin my dad gave us. It works well for wraps. This tiffin is a bucket with a small metal shelf on the top.



Yesterday Hubs and I packed up a lunch. My wrap had rice, salmon, cucumber and a sesame dressing. Hubby made himself a turkey thing.

The tiffin's shelf holds a good bit of grapes, and a few Babybel cheeses.

More grapes, banana muffins. Bottom has goldfish and 2 granola bars cut into pieces. Not pictured is the box full of carrots.



Some of this was lunch, the rest became a snack on the way home.

Bento backlog

This is Thursday's lunch. Hubby took his lunch money to use, and I was not feeling well. I prepared a super simple lunch for myself.

Top tier grapes and a banana muffin. Bottom tier crackers, swiss, cheddar and half an avocado.

Yesterday's bento

All packed up and ready to go



Ready to eat!

J's blue top tier, 2 pirogi, hard boiled egg, 2 chicken nuggets and some cheddar. Bottom tier banana mini muffin, carrots, and cheddar. Bottom box holds broccoli, ranch, grapes, blackberries and pineapple. My pink top tier has 3 chicken nuggets and cheddar. Bottom has ranch, carrots and a mini muffin. Bottom box holds grapes, blackberries and pineapple.

I really like my Cheshire cat box. The white cups come completely out for cleaning. It makes a great fruit box! Plus its cute.

Major thrift store score!

J and I have been casually searching for a living room chair for several months. We sat in millions of chairs and he declared every single one that did not recline, uncomfortable. Now that is impossible.Every single chair is not uncomfortable. But he really wanted a recliner and I really did not. I find them rather ugly. We kept looking. Yesterday we went to out local market for their stellar produce deals. Right next door is a little faith based thrift store I love. Sitting out front was this baby.

For $100. WITH TAGS. Brand spanking new! J waited in the car while I asked the owner the price. He said he could tell from my face I wanted the chair, but I also didn't. $100 for a brand new recliner is a steal. And it would please my husband. But it would ruin the look I wanted in the living room. hmm. I'm a sucker, and its an easy thing for me to give up to make him happy. The chair came home with us. Of course I had to re-arrange the ENTIRE living room, that i had JUST re-arranged the day before. By myself because hubs has back problems right now. Now I have back problems too! lol. I keep telling J that is the last recliner we'll have in the living room. He looks at me with a twinkle in his eye and replies 'we'll see.' Mmmhmmm.

Yesterday's bento

My lunch

My lunch Top tier: Pumpkin seeds, garlic triscuits, cheddar and 2 pierogi. Bottom: Carrots, blackberries and banana mini muffin.

J's after work snack

J eats his lunch far earlier then I eat mine and is usually starving when he gets home. We were heading out to do some errands so I whipped up a quick snack. Banana mini muffin, carrots, generic ritz, turkey and cheese. This box works well for a car snack. Its one tier, and about 500ml.

Frugal baking pans.

Two days ago I made some banana bread. Because:

1. Weather was cool enough I wouldn't melt in my very hot kitchen.

2.We had some bananas that needed to go.

3 I was able to use my new pans.

The mini muffin pan was mention here. The pan I haven't talked about I found at a yard sale for $1. Its a Nordic Ware very heavy lemon pan. Our specialty kitchen store carries it for $30! So pretty!

The recipe came from the Betty Crocker cookbook. My go to manual. I did make a few changes, instead of 1/2 a cup of butter I used 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup of applesauce. I'm out of whole wheat flour. Instead of using the whole 2 cups of white flour called for I filled the measuring scoop half way and added several spoons of wheat germ. I can't tell there is applesauce and wheat germ in there. Neither can Mr J, and he's picky.

Pretty bread!

I am pretty impressed by how well the bread un-molded. I did grease it VERY well, but still. Many a baker knows the sadness felt when a hot delicacy falls apart on your kitchen counter. Coming out wonderfully? Priceless! (lol) It is hard to see the design, I wonder what would show better in the pan. Cake maybe?

The mini muffin pan works great. The tiny muffins fit perfectly into our bentos. I'm defiantly going to look for another pan.

My bento for yesterday.

Yesterday's lunch

Honey turkey, swiss sandwich on wheat. Yellow box has carrots, ranch, and goldfish. Fruit box holds kiwi and grapes. I finally decided I just don't like kiwi often, I cant get myself to eat it. This was a large amount of food, I ate slowly and snacked for awhile. I don't plan to buy deli meat often, its expensive and not healthy. Its a treat and we're enjoying it.