My last bento before Halloween and I am pooped. Ran out to a parent meeting at my daughter's school last night only to find out that the meeting is actually in two weeks. I think I'll send my husband to that one. On a bright note since I arrived forty minutes early I did get a chance to read a magazine. This bento is composed of two pork buns on parchment, an edamame pumpkin patch with yam circles, cranberries and cashew smiles. Wishing you a happy day before Halloween.
I know that "Bento Purists" will not see the link between gourmet style pasta and bento, but for this busy mom it's perfect. During the holiday season I am noticing special edition shapes like pumpkins, fall leaves, and turkeys that make great bento salads when combined with brightly colored vegetables. I have been using cherry tomatoes, orange and red bell pepper and cucumbers for quick crunchy additions. Toss with a low fat salad dressing and maybe a little mozzarella cheese shreads and you are good to go.
Boo! to you today. Lunch bento is filled with whole wheat ghost and provolone cheese slices, lettuce, ghostly cookies. Snack bento is filled with cranberry and apple salad for later in the day.
Look carefully into my box and you will see what looks like shrunken heads of Jack-o-lanterns. Boo....I bought these irresistible pasta shapes that are Jack-0-lanterns with dreams of pasta salad and artichokes. Did you notice I forgot the artichokes? I think it is because I was at the point of brain freeze when it came time to make lunch. I had just finished two hours at Party City looking for Halloween costumes for my teenage daughters. We left the store empty handed. "Just shot me now!" and put me out of my misery, please. The bat box contains more of the yummy pumpkin bread with tiny Peanuts characters made out of fruit. Get it Charlie Brown in the pumpkin patch? Any hoot...the pumpkin box contains sliced pear with two caramels.
Halloween Bento lunch composed of Cashew Chicken, white rice, orange slices and pumpkin bread. How can I resist the urge to nibble before lunch. I am really looking forward to Halloween this year even though my kidlets are all too big to Trick or Treat. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I am very partial to candy. The pumpkin bread was at special request of my dh. He saw pumpkin muffins in Whole Foods today for $2.50 a piece. Despite the fact that he was drooling I couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money on one muffin. Instead I went home and made two (2lb.) loaves from ingredients I had on hand. Does that make the pumpkin bread free? I did only pay .25 cents for the can of pumpkin several months ago. One loaf is destined for the deep freezer, the other loaf will be history in short order. YUM! 
I tried to come up with some clever title for this autumn post but it's really hard to stay focused in October when it's 85 degrees outside. Our leaves only change two colors: green and yellow (then their dead). I vaguely remember reds, oranges, yellows and brown from my childhood in upper New York State. I think it may be time for a road trip. I digress. Today's bento is composed of a ham sandwich on whole wheat bread with a mixed salad filled with cashews, cherry tomatoes, provolone cheese leaves and mint. I am trying to work on incorporating some healthy nuts into my diet. My little snack is cheese and crackers with a sprig of mint for color.
This halloween bento is all vegetarian. It is made up of hummus and cheese stuffed mini bell peppers, cucumber pumpkins and a ghost tin stuffed with Asian Slaw. I am still trying to get the nack of working with nori as a decorative addition. I have a lot of new found respect for those bento artists out there that work with those tiny pieces of nori every morning. With my glasses on I could barely find them on the kitchen counter. I think tweezers will be my next addition to my bento kit. No snack today I get to go home right after school. Yeah!
Today's bento is guaranteed to be deliteful and delicious since it is composed of last night's leftovers. We really enjoyed supper. The lower box is filled with chicken piccata and roasted mixed vegetables. The top boxes are my snack for the afternoon since I stay at school to tutor until 5 PM. The top is composed of non-fat vanilla yogurt with chopped walnuts for topping and one cup of grapes. I can't wait for lunchtime.
Monday's bento starts out a low fat week meal plan. The boxes in the photo represent both lunch and a snack for about 4:00 PM. The lunch is 4 oz of rolled organic turkey, one stick of string cheese and 1 cup of steamed carrots with lowfat salad dressing. The snack is 2 tbsp. of all natural peanut butter, apple slices and 2 lowfat rye crackers. Uninspired as to what to do with these ingedients, it's sort of an orange and yellow theme. At least the boxes are cute! Looking forward to a good day ahead.
Just before summer ended I visited one of my favorite places in Miami for the day. This is a photo of a swan from the Amazon exhibit at Metro-Zoo. I would love to shrink this picture to use as my google photo but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Any one with suggestions please advise so I can learn this skill. The photo is currently on my hard drive in Picassa 3 so I should be able to edit it without any problem. With snow across the Midwest and a cold front expected in Miami by tonight I thought my little swan would bring some needed sunshine. The temperature in Miami was 90, today it is supposed to be about 85 and rainy by days end. Wishing you all a great day.
The first tower has four drawers. Top drawer is filled with silver ware, chop sticks and small utensils. The second drawer is filled with side cars. The third drawer is filled with coordinated bento boxes and the fourth drawer is filled with water bottles and thermos jars. The second tower has three drawers. The top drawer is filled with picks, small sauce containers, vegetable and food cutters, and rice molds. the second drawer is filled with large lock and lock containers and family sized bento boxes. The third drawer is filled with lunch bags and my laptop lunchbox system. Every thing is super easy to find and saves a lot of time during preparation. Now I have to concentrate on the garage...a much bigger task. Wish me luck!
Some might say that my bento collection was getting a little out of hand but I did have a plan. The execution required a little floor space and a new tower. What you see on hand are old plastic containers I rescued from the garage. After reviewing my collection, I purchases a few more towers and got to work.
I have to ask myself...is it wrong to love an appliance. I don't think so, not if that appliance is a slow cooker. I fell in love with mine in the very beginning of my marriage when I worked the evening shift in the hospital and at supper time I was running out the door to go to work. All my husband needed to do when he was ready to feed the kids was plate up the meal. Now even though I work during the day this love affair has flourished. Twenty years later, I am still running out the door and tired when I return home in the evening. I find that I have much more energy in the morning before I leave for work. It is so nice to have a meal ready and waiting.
Lunch today is composed of ham, cheese and whole wheat tortilla rolls. Miniature sweet bell pepper and bonnie bell cheese wedges. The top box is filled with steamed edamame sprinkled with seasalt and sweet bell pepper rings. Another attempt at a low-fat bento in the battle of the bulge. Lots of finger foods should keep my mouth and hands busy.
Lunch today is composed of leftovers from last night's supper. the stew-like portion is boneless chicken thighs that have been slow cooked with carrot, onion, mushroom, red wine and tomato. It does not translate to a very attractive photo but it is very tasty. The bottom two boxes have my snack 0% Fat Greek Yogurt and apricot halves. The bento box is a bundle from Borders bookstore called Pet Champz by Paperchase. These are the smaller boxes of four that nest in each other to store. They are watertight and great when you have lots of gooey stuff that you don't want to intermix. I use this style alot.
Today's bento was low calorie and plenty filling. The single tier balloon bento box contained sliced turkey with arugula in whole wheat tortilla rolls on a bed of greens. The pumpkin box contains red seedles grapes and dried apricots. The lemon slice was for my afternoon cup of tea. Simple and sweet, bon appetite.
I finally got to use my new cookie cutters on sugar cookies this week. I split the batch and froze half immediately. A whole batch of fresh cookies would just soar out of the kitchen. It is amazing how good they taste before dinner, after dinner, before bedtime and for breakfast if you are not careful. 
Todays bento is directly from the freezer. The main ingredient are Japanese meatballs that were featured for dinner several weeks ago. The meatballs are adorned with sugar eyes. I still can't figure out how to attach them securely. I may find one eyed monsters in my box at lunch time. Oh well, Halloween is just around the corner. The meatballs are surrounded by mandarin orange slices since it definitely needed some color. The second box is filled with celery hearts stuffed with laughing cow cheese, cherry tomatoes, and baby carrots. The dip is ranch dressing which I will use sparingly. The boxes are my new treat from Japan. They are clickety click boxes single tier that read "My name is Mink and I love to read the fantasy story. I am very excited when I read."
