Tentpoles and teepees

I'm starting a work project that's going to require me working from home a whole lot more in the coming weeks, so I won't have occasion for bento 3x a week, but I'll continue posting about them when I do.

clockwise from right:

• homemade vegetable stew
• ham & cheese wraps [ETA Note to self: good idea putting these in the main container above the soup -- everything is warmed through and delicious!]
• left side: carrots & celery; right side: fresh mango!
• not pictured: dipping sauce for the carrots/celery -- peanut butter mixed with honey again, which is kind of the best invention ever, and I got to break open a new jar of honey that we bought at the St. Johns Farmers' Market this summer -- the honey is from a little mom & pop apiary that's just a few blocks from the house, and I think that's kind of pretty much fabulous

I put notes I've written to myself in my bento sometimes, like a fortune cookie kind of.  Today's:

Sometimes, support isn't a tentpole, but a teepee.

Be reminded that it isn't always necessary to be the person that everyone leans on, that sometimes, everyone leaning together is a stronger support system.

A little more color...

Today's bento is a little more colorful than last week's were:

clockwise from right:

• gala apple slices
• smoked mozzarella ravioli in a garlic & chanterelle marinara
• carrot sticks with a teensy container of Italian sea salt on top (for the ravioli); the smaller container has a dipping sauce (for the apples) of peanut butter and honey, and the foil packet along the side of the container has a few bits of Green & Black's hazelnut and currant chocolate
• wraps made of tortillas spread with cream cheese, some slices of Black Forest Ham, and barrel pickle spears...oh, and a cat hair I just found that looks like one of Smaug's, so...protein, I guess

Happy Guy Fawkes Day, everyone!

I wish I'd thought to do a cool "Remember, remember the 5th of November" theme for my bento today....

clockwise from the right:

• leftover soup again -- this is the same soup from Monday; still delicious
• simple fruit salad -- anjou pear, honeycrisp apple, and banana
• ciabatta pieces for soup dipping on one side, and carrots and cheese sticks on the other side*

*ETA: note to self -- make sure carrots are completely dry before packing next to cheese...slimy cheese = ew

Also, this isn't technically part of my bento since it doesn't fit, but I have a little bonus treat today. Sal began teaching the chocolates and candies portion of his class this week, so he spent some time over the weekend practicing his chocolate tempering. These are chocolates with chocolate ganache centers. You may commence hating me now.

yellow & white

Laptop Lunch today -- I ended up with an inadvertent white/yellow theme today.

clockwise from right:

• pasta dish Sal made for dinner Sunday night: chicken, shitake mushrooms, brussel sprouts braised in cream, w/a sauce made with the braising liquid
• dobos torte, which is thin layers of spongecake between layers of chocolate buttercream, iced with more buttercream and then topped with these caramelized sugar wedge cookie-type things that are like creme brulee, but crunchy, not soft; also, small wedges of ciabatta that were the tops of the slices from yesterday that I had to cut off to make them fit in the bento container
• cheese strips, hard-boiled egg, and the small container inside has macadamia nuts
• asian pear pieces
• drink bottle: pomegranate juice

Let's talk bento!

I started getting interested in bento several years ago when we made the switch to organic/local/non-processed food and fully committed to a more sustainable lifestyle. What originally got me interested was the elimination of packaging and waste, but the more I learned about it, the more fascinated I was.

I've been doing bento-style lunches for work for quite awhile, but I've just been using a conglomeration of containers we already had on hand (mostly Rubbermaid Foodsavers meant for storing leftovers).  Well, I do have a Fit & Fresh, which I love, but it's more for salads or sometimes sandwiches, since it's meant to keep the food cool and the lids aren't tight enough to prevent leaks if you have a soup/stew in it. (The other thing I've noticed is that the bread on sandwiches gets a little dry in it if you make your lunch the night before, which I do.)

I don't do the bento art/decoration thing (though I LOVE looking at  pictures of people who do!) because I'm too lazy, but I do like to have some sense of order or presentation. Presentation is, after all, what makes bento so fun. I realize it seems silly to get this excited about packing a lunch, but that's why bento is the raddest invention of all-time, because it magically turns what could be a rather unappealing assortment of random stuff out of your fridge and cupboards into the highlight of the work day.

Recently, however, I decided to step up my bento game in three ways:

1. Go ahead and splurge on the two bento systems I've been lusting after for a few years now. The two systems I got are the Ms. Bento and the Laptop Lunch. I originally had the Mr. Bento on my list even though it had the four containers, which is just too much food for me. But then they came out with the Ms. Bento last year, which has three, smaller-portioned containers, so I was really glad to put that on my list instead. And the Laptop Lunches people recently came out with the 2.0 version, which includes space for a small water bottle and an insulated case for the whole system, so I'm glad I waited to get mine. The reason I wanted two systems is that I like the tiffin-style for more liquid types of foods like soups and stews, and the Mr./Ms. Bento systems are particularly designed for keeping foods hot/cold. I frequently take my lunch to a park near the office, and don't want to have to mess around with heating up my food, packing it back up and then going to lunch. (You can put soups/stews in one of the covered containers of the Laptop Lunch, but it won't still be hot when it's time to eat.) The Laptop Lunch is more similar to conventional bento-ware, it lends itself better to things like sandwiches and wraps than the tiffin style does. Plus, I like the pretty colors. :) I figured with the variety and flexibity of the two systems, I'd be more likely to stay with it.
2. Try to incorporate some new recipes/influences in my evening cooking, the leftovers of which are generally the main part of my bento lunch the next day. Since I'm eating alone on weeknights, it's very easy to do fall into a pattern of cooking something very simple and quick that doesn't really generate leftovers (ex. scrambled egg sandwich, or cheese and crackers). And since we stay away from processed foods, it's a bigger challenge throwing together something for lunch the next day. I've managed it, but as part of my new plan, I've decided I'm going to keep this in mind when I'm ordering groceries, so that I include extra quantities of stuff like carrots and eggs that can round out a bento box nicely.
3. Start taking pictures of my bento as an incentive to do it every day I'm in the office (M, Tu, Th) and to keep it fun.

I call my new lunch plan "Bento 2.0, baby!"

So as part of #3 of Bento 2.0, baby!, here's today's bento:

clockwise from the right:

• leftover soup  Sal made Saturday night -- base made of the last of the tomatoes from the garden combined with chicken stock and cream, with fresh carrots, celery, onion, garlic potatoes from the garden, and chicken (this could've easily been a vegetarian soup with the chicken left out and the chicken stock swapped for vegetable stock -- very yummy and highly recommended)
• ciabatta, also made by Sal -- one of the (many) nice things about having a Real Live Chef in the house who teaches baking and pastry is that your freezer is always stocked with delicious handmade artisan breads; there were also slices of cheese, which melted from the heat* so you can't see them
• grapes from the last of the week's Organics 2 U bin (new delivery tonight, woot woot!) and a small bit of lemon cheesecake, another nice thing about having a Real Live Chef in the house who teaches baking and pastry :)

*The nice thing about the Mr./Ms. Bento is that it's designed to keep the bottom container hot, which in turn warms the middle container while the top container is just a little cooler than room temp. I wanted warm bread and softened cheese for my lunch, so I refrigerated the bread and cheese in their container overnight, thinking that by the time I was ready for lunch, the differential between the hot soup container and cold middle container would be just right. Turns out, it ended up quite a bit warmer so the cheese melted together before it cooled. It still made a nice snack with the bread, which was nice and warm, but I think next time, I won't put cheese in that middle container unless I intend for it to be melted.