Insert clever title here

No water-based catastrophe today, I'm happy to report. Also? Organics 2 U wins the universe.

• macaroni salad (I heart you, New Seasons deli!) with a ring of green peas to mix in
• spinach wraps with herb roasted turkey and cream cheese; small container of honey peanut butter in the center for the apples
• Enterprise apple chunks and green grapes, which kind of look like little jewels

Hideway lunch break

This is a "Cleaning Out The Fridge" lunch if there ever was one. Well and also, I wanted something hot and comfort food-y because it was supposed to be raining all day and I wanted to take it with me to my little secret park. I went there yesterday for lunch for the first time in forever (with the big work project, I hadn't been leaving the office at lunchtime because I was only in the office one day a week as it was). Which was one of my main reasons for wanting the Ms. Bento -- being able to take a hot lunch to the park without first having to stop by the office kitchen, unpack everything, heat up whatever, and then repack it all and go to the park.

• leftover homemade chili -- can't get much more comfort food-y than that
• chicken basil sausage in a hot dog bun (cut up in thirds, obviously), with carrot sticks as gap fillers -- I had this one lone hot dog bun to use up, and just happened to have a single sausage that needed to be eaten up, so
• Marcott tangerine, with a small container of sour cream in the middle; dark chocolate almond clusters in the other half

I'm pleased to report that my plan worked really well, the Ms. Bento did great for exactly what I wanted, and as you can see from the pics taken on the passenger seat of my car, I was able to retreat to my little hideaway with my lunch and a book.

Going viral

Here's something my mom wrote me last night about my lunches:

...it reminds me somehow of when we used to have tea parties when you were little. We didn't spend much time on the food because you insisted on fussing over the place settings and presentation. I think the little tupperware dishes had everything from washminnows to petrified halloween candy put in them. There were a few things that grew mold and a few that became unrecognizable and play dough that crystallized. So here you are playing tea party again.

And now I want to do a bento tea party.

• tri-color radiatore pasta with more of the marinara Sal made over the weekend
• salad of red leaf lettuce, rainbow carrots, celery, and dried cranberries (not pictured: simple homemade vinaigrette)
• strawberry slices on one side, dark chocolate covered raisins on the other

So the infection appears to be spreading. One friend started a bento wish list about a week and a half after we met for coffee and she asked me about bento. Another is back on the bento wagon thanks to my continuing obsession. Or in her case, bike. And a third reports that she looked for bento items whilst perusing a kitchen store because of my recent purchase of bento gear.

You could be next.

Busy week ahead

It's going to be a full week here at Hall House, as I'll be in the office through Wednesday and then scrambling to make up for lost time on the Project From Hell Thursday and Friday so I can hopefully wrap that damn thing up in the next couple of weeks. Which means maybe not quite so much prettiness as, say, Friday's (which the more I look at, the more those carrots look like kazoos...hee), but at least I'll be eating well despite the craziness.

Breakfast:

• strawberry yogurt
• Pink Lady apple slices
• kishu mandarins

Lunch:

• homemade spaghetti pasta with a yummy marinara thanks to Sal
• salad with red leaf lettuce, red onion, celery, the last of the rainbow carrots (hopefully more in today's delivery!), and grape tomatoes with vinaigrette on the side
• whole wheat naan strips with two kishus in the side container and macadamia nuts underneath/around as gap filler
• almond crunch Pocky



Back to work

Just kind of threw things together since we got home late and I didn't have a lot of energy after unpacking and whatnot. Thank goodness we came home to a clean house! I love that, and we usually try to leave the house all nice and tidy when we leave, but aren't always able to. I'm so glad we were this time, though.

 

Breakfast, using my new 320 mL box:

• Greek yogurt in one of my new silicone cups
• a few mandarin segments (sadly, not the kishus, which met their end -- deliciously -- in Seattle)
• the ubiquitous Sauvie Island blueberries (for the yogurt)
• one of my new little spoons -- the handle has a turtle on it :)
• see my pretty purple napkin napkin/furoshiki in the background?

Lunch, using Ms. Bento:

• the last of the crockpot chicken soup sauce thing from the week before last
• cut pieces of whole wheat naan, the last bit of Cotswold cheese, and a few straggler baby carrots that were lurking in the crisper
• first half: two of the little blueberry mini muffins I made last week with a few sesame sticks as gap fillers; second half: more mandarin segments
• background: my new pretty green drink bottle!

Not very pretty compared to some previous lunches, but still very welcome on a day when I really needed it -- in the midst of dealing with having our webhost account hacked by some miscreants in Romania, our entire server, network, and phone system went down thanks to the electricians in the office next to ours accidentally shutting off our circuit. (Yeah, I don't even.) Oy vey, this day is not my best day ever.

Experimenting with two boxes

I won't be eating dinner until late tonight, so I packed myself two bentos today, the 500 mL box with breakfast and an afternoon snack, Ms. Bento with lunch, with the Ms. Bento not packed as densely as I would normally to make sure the overall eating portions for the day are normal. (at left: bento box in its little furoshiki :)

breakfast/snack, clockwise from right:

• strawberry yogurt with bits of banana mixed in, as well as banana slices for decoration
• kishu mandarins (OMG SO CUTE) that Sue brought to Second Saturday with honey-glazed peanuts as gap filler
• sweet pickles and two mozz pearls for snack

closeup of one of the sections of the kishu mandarins for size comparison. Were these made for bento or what? They're jam-packed with flavor, too. And here I thought nothing could beat satsumas...

lunch/afternoon snack, clockwise from right:

• more of that crockpot chicken soup thing I made last week with a few carrot shapes for garnish -- ran out of broccoli and didn't feel like making rice, so I'm just eating it as a soup today
• rosemary and water crackers with sesame sticks as gap filler for a snack
• left half: carrot sticks with the last of the green beans in the center; right half: animal crackers

Back to normal, sorta

So the verdict from all of you on my continuing descent into madness? GOOD TIMES THUMBS UP. Duly noted.

Back to Ms. Bento today because I had hot food on deck. No molded eggs today; I need to use up the almost 2 dozen eggs in the fridge before I can justify getting a new package of the extra large to really make the molds come out the way they're supposed to. Hmmm...perhaps I can make some cookies to use up those eggs.... Anyway, at least there'll be molded eggs to look forward to in the coming week or two.

clockwise from right:

• chicken crockpot dish I made yesterday for dinner -- This was a new recipe I was trying out from a crockpot community and it makes a kind of thick soup/sauce with chicken breasts that you serve over rice or pasta. I added broccoli to the recipe, which I steamed separately so it wouldn't get mushy and discolored in the crock.
• jasmine rice to mix with the chicken stuff, with some broccoli mixed in
• first half: apple slices (more slices hidden underneath) with a tiny handful of raisins on one side; second half: carrot sticks with honey-peanut butter dip in the center (more sticks hidden underneath) -- The dip is in a steel pinch bowl, which are the small (usually ceramic or silicone) bowls chefs use for small quantities of ingredients, like spices, herbs, etc. for their mise en place. These are the most adorable steel pinch bowls my mom got us when I took her to IKEA (where she proceeded to go completely bananas). They're a near-perfect half-sphere and I've been wanting to use them for awhile in a bento as a sauce cup.

Bento 2010

Woohoo, first bento of the New Year! To celebrate I made my bento extra special by...doing absolutely nothing special whatsoever. Eh, first day back to the office since a week at the coast, whaddya expect? It's amazing I came back at all.... :)

clockwise from right:

• beef stew -- Our patented Coast Crockpot meal, which Sal made the last night we were there. If you can make them out, those eensy weensy orange bits are carrots cut into 1/8" cubes. Not created by some special contraption found in 2 AM informercials and dubious mail-order catalogs, but diced by the chef and his Knife O'Doom into the cutest pile of wee carrot cubes you ever saw.
• flour tortilla, with maple-smoked cheddar slices on one side and sesame sticks on the other side
• Pinova apple slices and in the side container, half dark chocolate-covered raisins and half yogurt-covered raisins

*True story: when he was in culinary school, his Knife Skills class required what are called proficiencies in a whole list of specific shapes and sizes. Grades were given based on accuracy, precision, speed, efficiency, and consistency. For weeks, everything in our fridge was cut into all kinds of shapes and size whether it needed to be or not. :)

Fun Fact: The 1/8" dice cut is called brunoise. There is a smaller dice that was a proficiency requirement, called a fine brunoise, which is a 1/16" cube. Get out your ruler and look at how small that is. On a regular ruler, it's the smallest tick mark on there. Yes, that one.

The coast was fabulous. We had great stormy weather for three days, though it cleared up enough late Thursday evening (very light sprinkles, light wind) that we could head out to the beach to greet the New Year. There was fog and the moon peeked through enough to light up the waves a bit, the waves themselves were still pretty sizeable, and it was chilly but not miserable. Magical, in other words. And I needed that. Don't we all?

Got some writing done (including 6 pages on [spoiler]), did some reading, watched lots of shows/movies, ate some great food. Saturday was beautiful so we got a chance to spend some time on the beach and takes lots of pictures to add to the hundreds (thousands?) we already have. And of course Sunday it was even more beautiful just as we were leaving. We lingered a bit to soak it up before driving off.

It was hard to leave, as always, but we were glad to get home to our beloved house, cozy bed, and snuggly kitties. They make us completely crazy most of the time, but we miss the little bastards when we're gone. And thanks to our very good friend, we don't have to worry that they're going to set the place on fire, which is only a slight exaggeration of their diabolical tendencies. If Hobbes ever developed opposable thumbs, we'd start sleeping in shifts.

A case of the Mondays

Late lunch today, thanks to meetings. The story of my Mondays.

We're headed to the coast on Wednesday for our (somewhat new) tradition of Winter Vacation. I have been looking forward to this trip for months now, and in the last 6 weeks, the thought of it has gotten me through many a long, hard day. This will be the first year we're able to be there for New Years', and I'm so excited about that I can hardly stand it.

Anyway, I don't expect to be in the office tomorrow, so this will probably be my only bento this week.

clockwise from right:

• risotto made with chanterelle mushrooms and peas
• Daisy tangerine wedges and a bit of sour cream chocolate chip cake (a holiday treat in my family)
• BBQ meatballs -- my grandmother would make these on Christmas Eve

I have to do something about the way the lights in my office completely wash out the light-colored food items. I mean, it's really my phone that's the problem, obviously, but still.

Bare fridge

Guess it shows that I've pretty much cleaned the fridge bare. And that I was putting this together at the last minute last night, after a very long (but fun!) day.

clockwise from bottom:

• Niman Ranch ham wrapped around havarti dill cheese, with some cut pieces of naan to make itsy little sandwich wrap thingies
• blanched broccoli and Daisy tangerine wedges
• Pinova apple slices with a wee satsuma at the center

This will be my only bento this week, as Sal is now on his winter vacation (YIPPEE!!) and I'll be home the rest of the week, so we'll be able to eat together. Plus, there's not likely to be leftovers with him eating (and cooking :). Influx of goodies coming from New Seasons on Thursday for our annual LOTR Extended Edition Christmas Marathon -- a holy holiday in this household -- so you may see a few odds and ends in next week's from that.

So anyway, not as exciting as previous bentos, but still delicious. And even on my worst day, I think it's safe to say my bentos will always be better than this. idek, you guys.

Any guesses about my favorite veggie?

Last of five days of trainings today, which I'm be glad to be finished with. I don't mind holding trainings for people, but it takes so much time and energy while the rest of my work pile continues to grow. Stressful enough regularly, more stressful since I'm still working on that big project with deadlines looming. (I can't remember if I said what the big project is, but basically, I'm completely rebuilding our billing system. So it's...kind of a lot of work.)

clockwise from right:

• hard boiled egg, carrot sticks, blanched fresh broccoli
• leftovers from dinner: part of a baked potato with broccoli and cheese
• left half: Pink Lady apple slices with Daisy tangerine wedges tucked under and around to keep things snug; right half: 3 sugar cookie halves (larger versions of the ones Sal made for Monday) with dark chocolate chips as filler...okay, not so healthy, but we all deserve a treat sometimes, don't we?

Needs some green

Another mishmash, trying to use things up. That, and I was super tired when I got home, though I didn't work late. Instead, a friend and I went to the movie (more below) so I didn't get home until late. Fun times, but still feeling ick, so I just don't have a lot of energy right now. Meh.

But a good lunch is more important than ever, so. Kind of an inadvertent color scheme going on here, with all the orange/cream/brown going on. Random!

clockwise from right:

• two of the adorablest satsuma oranges that arrived in our latest organics bin and a teensy bit of Sal's most perfectest carrot cake (it has walnuts, coconut and pineapple, and sometimes raisins though not this particular cake, with cream cheese frosting and a wee marzipan carrot)
• organic vegetable soup*
• apple-spice chicken sausage, the last of the jasmine rice made in broth, and carrot sticks

*From a can. I keep a couple of cans of organic soups on hand for times like this, when I don't have the time/energy to make something for dinner, let alone lunch. Especially when I'm sick and there's a downpour outside -- soup is just the thing. Well, and I just eat a lot of soup anyway. God bless my Ms. Bento.

Italian birthday dinner

Definitely an Italian theme today, thanks to the (if I may say so myself) delectable dinner I made last night for ProcrastiGirl for her berfday.

clockwise from right:

• Spaghetti with a damn fine red sauce made by yours truly: caramelized tomato paste as the base, to which I added caramelized onions and garlic, sauteed mushrooms, tomato sauce, onion, green pepper, and toward the end, fresh basil and sea salt. The caramelized tomato paste turns a deep, deep burgundy, so the overall sauce looks more like a BBQ sauce than a marinara, and it has a little sweeter flavor, too.
• fresh mozz on a bit of romaine with a few slices of baguette
• simple salad in homage to the Italian flag: green=romaine lettuce, white=Marcona almonds, red=dried cranberries
• off to the side is a teensy container* of balsamic vinegar mixed with olive oil for a simple vinaigrette for the salad -- can't get more Italian than that!

*I know everyone uses those special sauce/condiment containers made specifically for bento, either the squeezy clear animal-shaped ones or the colored ones in the shapes of animal faces. They seem to take up way too much valuable space, imo, and I rarely need a sauce/condiment anyway, certainly not in those quantities. Instead, I went to Storables and got a couple of teensy containers from their bath sundries travel section meant for pills and small quantities of liquids. The one shown here is perfect for things like a vinaigrette, since I can just make the exact quantity I need right in the container and shake it up to emulsify, or squeeze ketchup into it or whatever. I have another even smaller one for sea salt or other seasonings. Both of them together cost me less than a buck.

Prettier in person

Wow, my camera phone just doesn't take good food pics. Well, it doesn't take good pics, period, but especially doesn't take good food pics. This was bright and colorful on a bright surface, but it sure doesn't look it, does it? Oh well, trust me, it was quite appealing in person. :)

clockwise from right:

• wraps -- turkey (still working through those leftovers), romaine lettuce, fresh dill aioli (made it myself! sort of), in a sun dried tomato wrap
• carrots, broccoli, and fresh mozz
• fruit salad (same as yesterday's, still delicious)



Summer in winter

Lots of color today. The beautiful clear skies must have me in mind of summer, though of course that biting chill wouldn't fool anyone. :)

clockwise from right:

• jasmine rice made with broth instead of water (so lots of yummy flavor!) with cubes of leftover turkey
• fruit salad: Rainier apple, D'anjou pear, banana, tangerine, and Cara Cara red navel orange, tossed with a bit of pineapple juice to keep it from going brown
• caprese salad: fresh basil, mozz, and heirloom variety cherry & grape tomatoes

Late getting to eat today, so I'm glad I had this to look forward to!

This may or may not be a good thing

I was in jest about doing bento for the days I'm working from home, but I've decided I'm going to go ahead and do that as a regular thing. It made such a difference Monday and I noticed the difference even more yesterday when I didn't do one. Especially because yesterday was so lovely, and it would've been perfect to take a break from work, walk down to Cathedral Park, and have a nice little lunch break, which I hardly ever do at home (I have lunch, and I may even be away from my computer during that time, but I'm still within hearing distance so I can listen for an email ding; I think I shall be changing that habit, however -- it's become a tad too Pavlovian for my comfort level). It's another pretty day here, so I'm headed out to eat my lunch. ;)

clockwise from right:

• small baked potato with a lattice of colby cheese strips and maple-smoked cheddar shapes -- my lattice doesn't look quite as nice as it did at first since I put it on while the potato was still warm, so it melted in the middle
• peas with a border of pickles; carrots would've been better contrast than pickles, but I'm out and have held off buying any groceries for awhile in anticipation of Thanksgiving, since we'll need every spare inch of space to store food (Hall-Smiley Thanksgiving Extravaganza WOOT WOOT!)
• left side: strawberry yogurt with little flowers designed from pomengranate seeds; right side: mango slices with pomegranate seeds as gap fillers

The pomegranate in our last organics bin was ginormous. Took me about 40 minutes to seed it. What's in the container is less than half of what I ended up with. No complaints here because I lurve me some pomegranate, especially juice, but it's no wonder pomegranate-anything is so freaking expensive -- seeding the darn things is labor-intensive!

Someone asked me about the container sizes* and overall between the three containers, the Ms. Bento holds about 710 mL to 770 mL**, depending on how full you fill it.The soup container, which is the smallest (the one with the potato in it in this pic), holds about 6 oz. The large, middle container (peas) holds closer to 11 oz., but the way the lid works you can't fill it to the brim because the lid is insulated (thick) and sits down inside the container, so you lose volume to that. Generally, I think you can fit about 9 or 10 oz. in it. Then the divided container holds about another 9 oz.

*Read here for the whole philosophy of sizes for bento, if you're not familiar. Hence, the Ms. Bento packs about a 710 calorie meal if you follow the 3:2:1 guideline. (I play kind of fast and loose with that guideline since I tend to have more fruit/veg and less protein in mine than called for.)

**The specs from the booklet put it at 840 mL (soup bowl: 6.8 oz; middle bowl: 10.5 oz; divided bowl: 11. 2 oz.) but I measured it when I got it and it came out closer to 710 mL to 770 mL (24 oz to 26 oz) if you measure to the levels you can actually fill it. Also, since lunch is my main meal for the day (when I've packed one), I treat it as my food for the majority of my day. That means a snack and/or breakfast/morning meal. Oftentimes, I don't get an opportunity to eat more than once during the work day, but I do spread it out if I can.

Late lunch

Meetings all morning, and one right before lunch that ran 2 hours instead of half an hour, so I'm eating late today. But at least I'm eating, right?

clockwise from right:

• pomegranate seeds, macadamia nuts, and chocolate chip banana bread (that I randomly decided to make at about 10:30 last night -- no wonder I'm so sleepy!)
• broccoli cheese soup (my favorite!) that Sal made for Second Saturday this weekend
• wraps made with honey-glazed turkey and maple-smoked cheddar (would've been even better with my sun-dried tomato or spinach wraps, but alas, I didn't have them defrosted; still delicious, though!)

Bento Note To Myself Today: "Hope has two children: Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are and courage to make them better." ~ St. Augustine

I tried using a piece of paper to provide a bit of shade, since I always get so much glare off the light-colored items from the overhead fluorescents, and I'm using my camera phone, so the quality's no great shakes. Hence the shadow across the food. The foil baking cup that the macadamia nuts are in is my first "disposable" item in my bento, which I really didn't want to do. But I'm still searching for the right size containers and/or silicone cups I want and I figured since it's a foil cup with only nuts in it, I can reuse it for a bit.

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.

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.

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.