Japanese Dinner Bento 31/7/12

Actually a bit of a Japanese vibe to my bento today! Due to the always unreliable ocado it had a bit of a store cupboard vibe with a tub of noriben (http://justbento.com/handbook/recipe-collection-mains/noriben-a-true-japanese-classic) made with tinned tuna and some tamagoyaki (http://www.justhungry.com/tamagoyaki) - both using recipes from just bento/ just hungry, the go to Japanese eating sites. It may have been the best tamagoyaki I've made to date. I also had a tub of healthy nibbles that included cucumber, sweet pepper & radishes (from an interesting waitrose selection of mixed types) and there's some Japanese pickles too (thanks to the Japan centre http://www.japancentre.com/ ) in the chick. I'd amazingly already eaten my apple but I also had a couple of figs and a chocolate pudding. Double amazement coz I didn't eat my choc treats or the chilli snacks which I forgot to put in the pic.

No bento tomorrow coz I'm actually out for lunch but I'll be back Thurs!

Burger Bento 30/7/12

I made the spicy mini burgers from one chilli burger (from the coop) squished up into little ones - I may have over miniaturized them. There's mayo in the chick to dip them in. The apache (its the type of potato, I don't know!) potato salad was a bit of a fail coz the potatoes were a bit over cooked but I ate all my healthy nibbly bits (daikon, cherry tomatoes & olives). I ate all the chocolate too but that's hardly a shocker! What is a shock is that I ATE MY APPLE!

Lunch Plate 29/7/12

My lunches at home are half trying stuff out for bento's & half chucking together what's in the fridge!
Today I have some Spanish omelette, crackers, smoked paprika mayo (ie I stirred some smoked paprika into some mayo), crackers, apple, celery & stuffed olives. Just realised I could've had some ham too. Never mind, it's not very good ham!

Snack Plate 28/7/12

This would've made a great bento so it gets a post! I skipped lunch but couldn't wait til dinner so I've made myself a substantial snack! There's some gf breadsticks, celery & apple* for dipping, tahiniyeh (tahini, lemon juice & garlic oil with water to get it to the right consistency) to dip into, a piece of ham & some stuffed olives. Yum. Would need more protein to do me for lunch but that's easily solved.

*the only time I actually eat my apple is  when its cut up as part of a savoury snack so maybe I need to start doing that in my bento's with a bit if lemon juice to stop it going brown

Lunch Bento 25.7.12

Not a particularly memorable bento but it kinda was coz the genius bloomer bread was new to me and yummy and I made the coconut & sesame cookies (see Claire's special kitchen). With the bread I had pork rillette - which I love, it kinda tastes like scraped bits from the bottom of the pan when you've done a pork roast - some nibbly bits of mooli and radish as well as some pickles in the chick. 

Whatever the date was Thursday lunch bento

Yeah, I forgot to post this!

Do you like my new £1.30 lunch box? Bargain of the year!

So another left over bento; duck ginger & garlic stirfry with basmati rice.

I also had some radishes & cucumber (for crunch) and some black pepper ricecrackers. Chocolate pudding too and I actually ate my apple!

Lunch Bento 16.7.12

A left overs vibe today : left over roast potato chunks w/ red onions, griddled turkey escalopes with lemon, garlic & rosemary and pan fried vegetable ribbons. Last nights dinner basically! Not sure why I haven't thought of turkey escalopes before; they're super easy & dad loves turkey!

As you can see I also had some mango and a coconut mochi. There aren't many coconut mochi left - I'm gonna miss them.

I had one of those friendly bacteria chocolate bars in my bag too - it's chocolate but it's good for you!

Dinner Bento 13/7/12

Most of my bento's involve leftovers incase you hadn't noticed and last nights was no exception with cold sausages providing the main attraction. I also had onigiri, radishes & pickles as well as left over butternut squash & red pepper stir fry. For pudding I had a coconut mochi which was from the Japan Centre http://www.japancentre.com/ along with the seaweed wrapped rice cracker which I ate early  but was so nice it deserved a pic.

Lunch Bento 12/7/12

One of two bento's I didn't get round to posting. A simple bento of onigiri that has pork rillette in the middle & is sprinkled with shiso leaf furikake. I had radishes & cucumber to give a bit of variety & the sides, well you can see for yourself!

Train Bento

I had an interview today, more on that later maybe - we'll see!

Not everything is pictured here but you can see I made some onigiri and I had Spanish Omelette and roast belly pork left over from yesterdays lunch & dinner. A few bits of cucumber & radish for a healthy crunch too. In the bag the boxes are balanced on I've got an apple, some chocolate buttons and some seeds. All easy bits eat on the train which is where I feel I've spent most of the day!  

Bed Bento 7/7/12

Not sure this even counts as a bento as it was just stuff I threw together to take upstairs to avoid the shitty tv my parents were watching (ok admittedly to avoid my mum too but that's a whole different blog).

My first time making noriben, I made it with tinned tuna and it's really nice!
Shopping delivery tomorrow so I'm kinda low on everything so the last of the grapes & apple, some prawn crackers and a chocolate bar make up the meal.

It's a few days before I'm back at work so I can't promise many bento's this week - maybe a bed one!

Dinner Bento 4/6/12

Mad time to be posting (its 6am) but can't sleep & don't want to get up quite yet!

Another late shift last night so made a bento but I was so busy I didn't even eat it all! Salted my onigiri the perfect amount though so happy with that! Am having a wee love affair with my onigiri moulds at the moment - simple things please simple minds & all that!

So, with my onigiri I basically had left overs - simply roast belly pork slices with fennel seeds, some stir fried veg (a 'traditional' English mix of carrots, swede & cabbage from waitrose*) and some apple sauce in the panda pot. I ate my chocolate pudding but not the rest of my snacks.

*other supermarkets are available but this isn't the BBC & I like waitrose!

Lunch Bento 2/6/12

Was running a bit late this morning so my bento was a thrown together affair but my onigiri are looking good - I have new moulds!

The onigiri are just salted today with a bit of nori (which makes them easier to hold & eat as well as looking good). I put a couple of cornichons in with the rice to give me a bit of texture and flavour.

The top layer has a couple of sneaky baby left over roast potatoes, a few slices of left over smoked brisket* and the little panda has tahiniyeh** in which I ate with the pretzels. I didn't eat the pudding but I did eat the mango & the probiotic chocolate (genius idea that).

*I also had left over Yorkshire puddings for breakfast!
**Basically made from tahini and lemon juice - I normally add some garlic oil for flavour and a splash of water to get the consistency I like. Nice alternative to hummus if you're avoiding chickpeas like me.