11/5 to 11/9/12 Bento Pic Challenge
SaharaZaraMorocco
Posts: 136 Member
This week's bento challenge pics! Woot!
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Welcome to Day 1 of our first Bento Challenge!
Today I will be sharing a picture of my new Hello Kitty bento box as well as a picture of my Monday bento.
I used a mixture of fried rice, sauteed brussel sprouts, edamame, a boiled egg, and breaded chicken breast. There is a lot of protein in this bento, and very little carbs. This is good for weight loss, but I think I need to try to get a larger portion of veggies in.
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Your bento looks really good! Yummy! I wanted to have some more exciting rice for today, but just ran out of steam cooking yesterday. I'll get to it later this week, I think!0
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Monday Bento!
I did a bunch of recipes from Skinnytaste's asian inspired section. I have turkey meatballs, a lime soy sauce to go with it, steamed rice, asian mango slaw and cauliflower fritters. Yum!
Bear with me while I figure out the pics. Sigh.
Here's my bag and bento box!
My pics are a little small!0 -
OMG! Your bento looks and sounds SOO wonderful! The box and bag are so cute! I just used a bunch of leftovers (except for the eggs, which I made enough to use throughout the week). I had a migraine most of the day yesterday, which squashed on my cooking plans...all my plans to be more specific! :sad:
I did want to make a cauliflower dish this week too
I posted a recipe for curried cauliflower on Pinterest and might try that. Your fritters sound awesome! I also need to use up zucchini, so I will probably be making tots at some point. I'm not sure how practical bento making is supposed to be, but do you think it's okay to make exactly the same bentos for multiple days? I would think you'd try to switch it up a little, especially for our challenge week!
And I know it's a probably defeating the purpose, but I also have some frozen food (like firecracker shrimp) that I bought from TJ's that I was planning to use. How do you feel about premade food for bentos?0 -
Just a note, my bento lunch for today ended up right around 700 calories.0
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Bento for Tuesday, 11/6!
This is another Skinnytaste special: Filipino Adobo chicken, rice, the Asian Mango Slaw again and Zucchini tots! I made my zucchini tots mini, so there's 6 in here and that about half a serving.
Edit: I swear I tried to make the pic bigger. Grr. So, since it's so little, a description: the steamed rice is under the mango slaw, there are two drumsticks as a divider and the tots are on top of each other.0 -
OMG! Your bento looks and sounds SOO wonderful! The box and bag are so cute! I just used a bunch of leftovers (except for the eggs, which I made enough to use throughout the week). I had a migraine most of the day yesterday, which squashed on my cooking plans...all my plans to be more specific! :sad:
I did want to make a cauliflower dish this week too I posted a recipe for curried cauliflower on Pinterest and might try that. Your fritters sound awesome! I also need to use up zucchini, so I will probably be making tots at some point. I'm not sure how practical bento making is supposed to be, but do you think it's okay to make exactly the same bentos for multiple days? I would think you'd try to switch it up a little, especially for our challenge week!
And I know it's a probably defeating the purpose, but I also have some frozen food (like firecracker shrimp) that I bought from TJ's that I was planning to use. How do you feel about premade food for bentos?
So, I'm definitely going to have doubles in my bentos, because that's normally how I cook for the week. I tried to come up with a couple of things that could be a little versatile, but in the end, it's going to be a little bit of a repeat. So, I'm really okay with multiple day stuff. I also think it's totally fine to use premade food for bentos - it's doesn't have to be freshly homemade, in my book.
Thanks for the compliment on the Chococat! Susie totally at the last minute remembered she had that one, and even though it doesn't have dividers, I'm cool with it! It's bigger than the other ones (except one set) that she has. I'm so lucky she has so many to choose from!0 -
Just a note, my bento lunch for today ended up right around 700 calories.
My bento for yesterday ended up being about 340 cals. About where I am for lunch on days when I eat AM and PM snack. But not on days when I just eat 3 meals a day. No wonder I was hungry afterwards! LOL. I need to work on building up my cals a little.0 -
Last night I tried a new recipe, Curried Cauliflower "cracklins". This seemed to be very similar to other curried cauliflower recipes, and I had everything on hand. Actually, I think I ate about half of the recipe last night, it was so good.
Today's bento is: Trader Joe's firecracker shrimp and sauce, TJ's frozen jasmine rice, lettuce cup, and curried cauliflower. I couldn't fit the sauce container in the box, so it's on the side.
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Oooh - that looks good! I must find a recipe for curried cauliflower - that sounds delish! And the shrimp looks really good. I almost chose shrimp for one of my meals this week and rejected it. But now I'm thinking I may want to do it. Of course, I have next to no time to cook during the week, so it would be a miracle to get something new in for the week. 0
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I totally thought I linked you to the recipe I used...I intended to anyway, so here it is
http://pinterest.com/pin/184929128420359076
The shrimp were very good, but there is a trick. I cooked them last night while preparing the cauliflower for roasting and thought they might be soggy today. I put them in the microwave (along with the rest of the bento, minus the cup for lettuce). They would have been okay reheated that way, but I decided instead to throw them into the little toaster oven I brought to work...which was much better. If you have access to a toaster oven then this is a good quick prep food. Plus, you get 9 shrimp per serving (there is only one sauce packet, so I put the rest of the packet in a ziplock and back in the freezer) and 3 servings per container. I basically had 1.5 servings because I know I require more protein in the middle of the day. The shrimp were Trader Joe's so all I had to do was pop them in the oven. This is easily recreated however, with a dusting of flour, sauteed in a little oil until shrimp are cooked through. Here's a good light version: http://jcocina.com/spicy-bang-bang-shrimp-tacos-a-lighter-version-for-sundaysupper/
While searching that I also saw a recipe for BangBang shrimp lettuce wraps!! Good idea! While I like the rice, 1 cup is a lot of calories, so replacing some of that with lettuce is a good idea!
Everything complimented the other very well. I thought I'd miss having a sauce for the lettuce, but I didn't. The blog the cauliflower recipe is from says they got the idea from Whole Foods' salad buffet, and that they are chilled there as a topping. I warmed mine up, but it worked very well with lettuce anyway. Sounds like its a good bento food though.0 -
Ooh -thanks for the link - looks really good!
So, I'm in an all day conference tomorrow (today), so I'm not going to be around much. But, here is my bento for Wednesday:
It's my first attempt at making sushi - it's tuna salad sushi. With my traditional Asian Mango Slaw and two mini cupcake sized servings of tomato mac and cheese. It's a weird combination, I know, but I was really interested in making the sushi and needed to finish off this mac n' cheese. This is the recipe I made from the slow cooker recipe and froze many moons ago. Woot!
Edit: maybe I'm doing something wrong with the sizing of the pics? Are you doing anything special to get the larger pics to show, or are they just that size when you take them and pull them over? Tiny pics are not fun. :grumble:0 -
Good morning! I had a hard time thinking of what to put into my bento last night because we didn't cook and I didn't feel like cooking (though I wanted to try to cook 1 thing each day this week). So last night the challenge was actually a challenge for me...feeling the midweek lazies setting in.
So, I started off with a salad, and decided to use my geisha for that. I used some leftover bread to make croutons (I rebaked the bread over the weekend, so I just had to cut it which now I know should be done before baking, haha). They are under the yellow cup, which is filled with feta cheese. The second layer is a lettuce mix, and a boiled egg. Sadly, the hat/lid doesn't contain anything today, though if I had sauce bottles I could stick one in there.
I realized that the salad wouldn't be enough food, so also packed extra stuff in Hello Kitty. I see the reason for different size boxes (if you don't want a half filled box) because I think I'm a little over prepared for lunch
I packed leftovers from dinner on Monday, not very Asian tater tot hot dish, asparagus (left over from Brad's Ruby Tuesday dinner) curried cauliflower, and pears (in silicon cup for easy removal due to need to microwave the other foods).
Thankfully leftovers make bento prep way easier, if one is willing to compromise the complementary aspect of lunch
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Edit: maybe I'm doing something wrong with the sizing of the pics? Are you doing anything special to get the larger pics to show, or are they just that size when you take them and pull them over? Tiny pics are not fun. :grumble:
Are you taking pics from your phone? I know on my phone I have the option to upload "thumbnails" and upload from the "camera" folder. Where are you uploading your pics? Do they look larger once they are uploaded and get smaller once you put them in the comments?
I took a look at your code yesterday, and it doesn't look like you have any sizing stuff going on.
I'm not doing anything special, but am uploading to Flickr.0 -
It's my first attempt at making sushi - it's tuna salad sushi. With my traditional Asian Mango Slaw and two mini cupcake sized servings of tomato mac and cheese. It's a weird combination, I know, but I was really interested in making the sushi and needed to finish off this mac n' cheese. This is the recipe I made from the slow cooker recipe and froze many moons ago. Woot!
Tuna salad sushi! I've never heard of that! Do you have seaweed on it? I don't know if I like seaweed. The one time I had real sushi I liked it while I was eating it. Then the taste stuck around in my mouth, and I've been turned off of it since then. I probably would eat California rolls, but I think they have seaweed. I should probably give it another chance tho'. I thought I didn't like milk tea because I had some at the state fair a couple of years ago. The pearls tasted weird and I decided I didn't like it. This made me sad because it seems a pretty basic part of Japanese culture. I gave milk tea another try at the Mall of America last weekend and turns out, I do like them after all even if the tea didn't have much flavor. I'm thinking the State fair has it's own set of weirdness that could negatively affect the pearls, so it probably wasn't the best place to try it.
I read that if you freeze pasta you should try to use it within a few weeks otherwise the consistency may change. I actually was victim to this with some chicken noodle soup I'd frozen. I brought some in for lunch one day, and my noodles had disappeared, haha. So I hope your macaroni is good, let me know because I'm curious.
Hope you have a great day!0 -
Is bubble tea the same as milk tea? 'Cause I tried that on my very first trip to L.A., and it was awful. I just couldn't drink it - something about the bubble pearl things having a weird consistency.
I didn't eat the pasta today, and think I will throw out the rest. It wasn't so much that the consistency was off, it's just that I have this emotional guilt related to it. I remember at the time I made it thinking that it was way too many calories, so I tried not to eat it. This time I just was wrapped with guilt. Besides, I didn't heat it up, so I felt like it was weird. I know, crazy.
My sushi making skills have a long way to go. So, I don't have a bamboo mat to do the rolling, so it was a total failure when I went to eat it today - completely fell apart. And my rice wasn't sticky rice, so I'm sure that contributed to it. It still tasted good - it was just in pieces! LOL. There is a restaurant here that does tuna salad sushi, which I have never had, but which I felt good enough about its existence to make some for myself. I did wrap it in seaweed, which I really like - it tastes just a little salty to me. I was thinking that I would just put some broken up seaweed in my faux fried rice, if I make some tonight.
Your geisha is so cute! I'm so glad she finally was delivered! And I think leftovers are a saving grace for bentos, you know? Otherwise, I would never get through this week, I tell ya! And the mis-mash of all kinds of food works for me, too, as evidenced by my craziness!
I was taking the pics with my phone, but then started taking them with my camera. I upload to Picasa before uploading here; there must be some way to change the size on Picasa. I've got to do some investigating.
Also, great bento by the way! It looks yummy to me.0 -
Bento for Thursday is not very exciting - it's a mishmash of stuff from earlier in the week: Adobo chicken, Asian turkey meatballs, zucchini tots and the ubiquitous Asian Mango salad. After I took the pic, I threw in 4 strawberries, as well. I was afraid the lack of rice would leave me too hungry.
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Thursday's bento is made entirely of leftovers We made this fried rice last night. We buy it at Sam's Club, it's rather good, but does have bacon in it, so you wouldn't want to try it. The egg rolls are another Sam's Club find, but they aren't as good as the rice, there's a possibility it could be because I've only tried baking them instead of frying...to be fair. Finally, the last of my curried cauliflower.
I think there should be more color, I should have added some extra edamame, but I was just happy to put this together quickly. I'm calling this my golden bento, haha!
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Bento for Thursday is not very exciting - it's a mishmash of stuff from earlier in the week: Adobo chicken, Asian turkey meatballs, zucchini tots and the ubiquitous Asian Mango salad. After I took the pic, I threw in 4 strawberries, as well. I was afraid the lack of rice would leave me too hungry.
How do you like the zucchini tots? I really want to make them but need to stop and get a mini muffin pan and just haven't had the time/energy this week. Also, the chicken sounds really tasty! Would you recommend it?0 -
I really like the zucchini tots - but they are best hot and straight from the oven. I couldn't stop myself from eating them! Room temperature they are still good - just not kryptonite, you know? :laugh: The one thing that I need to do better the next time I make them is really squeeze all the moisture out of the zucchini. I wrung quite a bit out this time around, but it wasn't enough, and they were still a little watery.
The Adobo chicken is good. I'm enjoying it, but not over the moon about it simply because of salt. Even using the lower sodium soy sauce, things are too salty to me. Of course, I'm sensitive to salt taste - especially after having done the 6 Week Body Makeover a couple of years ago, where all salt is strictly prohibited - so it's likely not going to taste too salty to you. Suz just brought a bunch of sweet soy sauce packets back from Asia - I'm wondering if they would make a good substitute. But I definitely would recommend the Adobo chicken.
Actually, I would recommend every single thing that I have ever made from Skinnytaste. So far, everything has been tasty! I'm quite pleased with this week's selection.
I was looking at my bento this morning and trying to think what about it seems to not be working for me. It might be the proportions or the lack of variety in color that's doing it. Maybe next time I try this challenge, I really work on having sections and the balance in color and proportion.0 -
The final bento of the week!
I had to use a different container because I was lazy and didn't do my dishes last night. IDK why, but I've been super tired this week. Anyway, it's another do over, with Asian Turkey Meatballs, Asian Mango Slaw, Rice and -something new: Grapes! Ha ha. Contain yourself - I know it's shocking. :laugh:
Edit: I know it something to do with how I am uploading these pics because I had to use a friend's phone to take this one, and it is a larger photo to start with. There must be something over at picasa, but I can't find it. So sorry for the tiny photos!0 -
YES! The final day of our challenge.
Honestly, this bento was the most challenging of them yet! I had a friend over last night, so didn't have time to cook anything. I had to throw this together this morning.
I separating the microwavable portion of the food from the cold portion with saran wrap. Again, it makes sense to have dividers or stackables. Since I have neither I had to be clever
So, tater tot hotdish with a sprinkle of Cajun seasoning (I put it on everything) and lettuce, and egg, a little feta, and a red sweet pepper.
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HOT DISH!!
So, what did you think of last week?
I know I felt like I wasn't really doing the bentos justice. I definitely wanted to do some cut outs of things and make cute decorations, but in the end just didn't have time to do that. And, it felt a little like cheating since a lot of it was the same thing every day. I'm okay with same stuff for lunch since I try to make it yummy and something I'll look forward to. Plus, that's part of cooking for one - lots of leftovers. I generally try to do a "Serves 4" thing. Some weeks are "throw some chicken in the crockpot and work with it everyday" weeks; those are probably better for bento-ing, because then while the basic components are the same, the dishes are slightly different.
Also, since I made a lot of new dishes last week, I had a ton of dishes!
Yikes. Took me a week to get through them all. Not cute. I definitely should have started cooking earlier in the weekend so I didn't have that problem. I'm just run off my feet during the week and then so exhausted at night after classes and whatnot that I just cannot face washing more than a few dishes at a time. LOL. That's never good. 0
