Two Weeks of Post Vacation Bentos

I am back from vacation!  Well, I've been back for two weeks, at least physically.  I'm still trying to get back into a routine and mindset to make my bentos daily and then blog about them.  I have taken pictures, though!

Pita chips and roasted red pepper hummus in the back bento.  Bell pepper slices, cucumber sticks and an apricot and strawberries in the front.  Sitting on my new picnic-style furoshiki!  (I did not make this one, just bought it at the craft store in the bandana section for $1.)

Furoshiki all tied up and ready to go to work with me.  I love this because once I opened it at work, I just used the furoshiki as a napkin instead of wasting a paper towel or something else and threw it in the wash when I got home!

This was my dinner bento.  Pita chips and roasted red pepper hummus on the left.  Kalamata olives, mozzarella cubes, cucumber slices, strawberries, bell pepper slices and an apricot in the stainless steel container. Pocky in front, and Dry Valencia Orange Grown Up Soda.

Lunch bento.  Spinach salad with cucumber slices, bell pepper chunks and mozzarella cubes.  Side container of strawberries and an apricot.  Pocky and more Grown Up Soda!

On Tuesday, my boyfriend and two friends of ours went to the Joe Cocker concert at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  It was pretty fun.  We took a picnic lunch which was sandwiches, some macaroni salad and fruits and veggies (above).  I think it's funny now how I scoff at the idea of just taking a store made veggie tray - even though that's what I bought, I still had to arrange the veggies bento-style in their own container.  I loved that I was able to make a rainbow of fruit, without even intentionally trying to get all the right colors!

Hopefully next week will be lots better with the bentos. =)

05/02/09 Bento for Two

My boyfriend, Kyle, has to work late tonight so I decided to bring him dinner.  Usually in this situation, I would have picked up fast food on the way to his work and called it good.  This time, though, I decided to make a bento for two.  He and I have different tastes and opinions on a wide variety of foods, but I managed to pick out things that we both should enjoy, for the most part.  (This involved several text messages beginning with, "So do you like..." at the grocery store.  He was a good sport.)

I made cream cheese wontons filled with cream cheese, green onions, onions, red cabbage, red and yellow bell peppers, and celery. They are quite tasty. Those are under the grape tomatoes (which were added mostly for color). I bought a package of swedish meatballs which are mostly for him. I don't eat meat with every meal and I almost never buy meat at the grocery store because I don't like cooking it. But these were frozen and easy enough to put on a plate and pop in the microwave for a few minutes. We'll probably reheat them just before eating them, too. The meatballs are sitting on top of some fried rice. I've got an extra little container of fried rice and one of regular sticky rice to bring as well. On the right is a pile of stir fried bell peppers and onions.

For dessert, I went a little crazy with the fruit. Cantaloupe and watermelon shapes, pineapple and green grapes, clementine slices, red grapes, pineapple and watermelon slices, blackberries. I'll also bring two chocolate-covered caramel and nut clusters for each of us.

I bought the two Pyrex dishes each "tier" is packed in at the store today too because they were too perfect to pass up. I can use them for my own bentos during the week as well as storage and other things.

This is the first time I've made a bento style meal for anyone besides myself (even though I'll be enjoying this too). I had fun with it and can't wait to do it again!