Thesis has taken over my life

Well, since I officially haven't been able to keep up with making bento lunches in Sweden, I am going to post old photos that I just never got around to posting.  At least there will be something nice to look at. 

So...in the top of the bento box is an apple and satsuma.  Satsuma oranges are my absolute favorite and I really wish they grew them here in Sweden.  

In the bottom of the bento, there is some potatoes, green beens and carrot sticks.  I don't remember how the potatoes or beans were cooked, but I bet they were delicious!  The little piggy (hard boiled egg) is really happy with the lunch!  Although, I'm not too happy tha

t the left side of his face didn't turn out so well.  I'll have to work on finding larger eggs to fit the molds better.

So, the second bento lunch we have here makes me wish that delicious thai food existed in Sweden.  I'm going to bet that this leftover pad thai was purchased from Chow,

which was just down the street from me when lived in San Diego.  YUM. 

 The gyoza are most likely frozen ones from Trader Joe's.  Frozen corn, half an apple and some edemame are in the top tier.  Mmm...I'm getting super hungry just looking at this!  I'll be back in the US soon enough, where the food actually has flavor and spice!  I can't wait!

Pre-lunch Posting!

I always feel like I get more accomplished in a day when I make myself a good well-rounded lunch.  It must be a self-fulfulling prophecy since it is the night before and my bento is still sitting in the fridge waiting to be eaten in 12 hours!  Making bento lunches gives my hectic life a bit of routine, and I'm finally trying to get back into it here in Sweden.  Even if I'm making just one bento a week.  So, here we go!

In this lovely lunch we have some green grapes

and half an orange in the bottom tier.  Nothing too fancy.  In the top tier I made some noodle-y thing using some instant buckwheat noodles, carrots, spinach, and a can of stir-fry veggies, tossed in with some teriyaki sauce.  A halved boiled egg tops off the mix.  

I have to admit, it wasn't the best tasting concoction in the world (I made it for lunch today), but sometimes you are doomed to eat what you cook.  I'd like to think that my culinary skills are improving, but then I am humbled by making a dish that just isn't quite right.  At least I managed to make myself a delicious dinner.  

Take 2!

In the spirit of FARthesis blogging, I have decided to start bento-blogging again.  Well, first, I had to decide to start making bento lunches again.  Since moving to Sweden, it has been a challenge for me to make my own (healthy) lunches.  I sorely miss ingredients from the United States.  I really just need to suck it up and use my creative brain to get myself eating better again.  I actually noticed a difference in how I felt due to my poor eating habits and lack of variety in my diet.  So, here's to a late resolution of making more lunches!  I think my wallet and belly will both be glad I'm doing this...

Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out a good picture taking strategy, so deal.  Top of the lunch contains 1 dl of rice (a measuring cup makes for a creative rice mold!), homemeade dumplings (recipe here), and some soy sacue spiced up with a little siracha.  The bottom has some frozen blueberries and a stir-fry of napa cabbage, bamboo shoots, and carrots.  Not the most colorful lunch, but really, I was just happy I was able to scrounge one together.

I've been experimenting with more and more recipes and making more food from scratch.  I think that is what you have to do when you live in a "culinary wasteland".  This is the first time I made dumplings from scratch, and I think they turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.  It is really easy to make a big batch and freeze the rest for a rainy day.  Perfect!  

Fail

I have finally managed to sneak some internet and have been using it for many other things rather than uploading pictures of my bento lunches. Clearly, I fail. However, I made a delicious looking bento for lunch tomorrow and my inspiration has been renewed. So, without further ado, pictures of lunches from a last November!!!

A Bear-y nice lunch! Haha, kill me for that awful pun. Some chicken pasta cassarole type noodle thing that I learned to make on a college budget fills the upper right hand corner. To the left is a feeble attempt at making garlic spinach tamago-yaki. Some carrots, apple from the farmer's market and the awesome bear sandwiches round out the rest of the lunch. Oh, and a sprig of broccoli for colo
r (its raw, and I don't really like raw broccoli, I wonder if I even ate it). The sandwich cutters come in a set of three and come with a cutter and a top piece that stamps the design on the bread. I imagine that they would work well as actual cookie cutters as well, just kind of tedious. This lunch isn't as colorful as I would have liked, however, I couldn't resist posting the bear sandwiches. They are my pride and joy.

Another one from the "Cute Sandwich" series. The top tier has heart shaped rice with nori furikake on it. Some spinach leaves separate the sweet apple pieces from the rice and sandwiches. The sandwiches are flower shaped and came in the same set as the bears. The bottom tier has some spinach leaves with carrot flowers and some leftover canned baby corn on top. Sesame dressing from Trader Joe's fills the small cup.


This is another somen variation. Somen is especially yummy on a hot day. The bottom is filled with somen spun around on a fork to make it neater looking and easier to eat and sprinkled with some nori furikake to make it pretty. A boiled egg and somen tsuyu fill the rest of the bottom tier. The top is filled with peeled asian pear and some spinach topped with carrots and frozen corn. Again, sesame dressing from Trader Joe's fills the small sauce bottle.

Hopefully I'll get around to posting more pictures. It isn't my strongest quality. And time is becoming more precious as I prepare for my move across the globe to Karlskrona, Sweden. I hope to continue my bento lunch making overseas, so stay tuned for Swedish flavored bentos!

Three for the Price of One

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderfully delicious dinner ending with very full bellies. Not having the internet has made it quite difficult to keep up with the uploading of lunch pictures, so it looks like I'm going to be posting them in batches. More bang for your buck, right? Anyway, three lunches from long, long ago.

October 11: So, upon Biggie's advice, I made a trip to my local Costco to purchase the Aidell's brand of meatballs. I have to say, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. They are perfect for the fastest lunch in the world early in the mornings. I just microwave them for 45 seconds along with my rice and pack the fruit the night before and I'm ready to go! It's amazing! This lunch contains 5 Teriyaki and pineapple meatballs, rice sprinkled with nori furikake, some steamed broccoli, grapes, and fuji apple--both from the local farmer's market. You'll probably see a variations of this very same lunch until I run out of meatballs, its pretty much my go-to lunch when there is nothing left in my fridge.



October 12: It looks as though I got on a small kick of making my lunch, go me! The top tier is filled with organic spinach topped with star shaped carrot slices, some shelled edamame and frozen white corn. In the small container is some sesame dressing from Trader Joe's. This salad is also a staple of mine, its one of the few ways I can get myself to eat so many veggies at once. Is it sad when you have to resort to semi-trickery on yourself? The bottom tier contains some salami slices with a small chunk of fresh mozzarella on cute picks that I picked up from the Daiso that finally opened here in San Diego! I used a small piece of foil to separate the sweet from the savory. Some grapes and part of a white nectarine round out the lunch, again, both from the local farmer's market.


October 16: I told you I used meatballs and salads when my fridge is absolutely empty! So, top tier is meatballs and rice sprinkled with nori furikake. The small container holds sesame dressing for the salad. Bottom tier is a bed of organic spinach topped with sliced carrots and white corn. I must have run out of my trusty frozen shelled edamame. Time to make a trip to the Japanese market! Next to the salad is part of a fuji apple from the farmer's market. Did I mention how much I love the farmer's market? No? I do!

So, it seems I should say, come back in about a month to see an update. Ok, I hope it isn't that long. However, I am going away on a few business trips that will be feeding me well. So, its a good thing that I have a huge backlog of pictures to share--eventually.

Oy, bento!

Ok, so I have been mulling it over. And well, I think I might just turn this blog into a bento blog. I only say this because my creative juices have taken a vacation and all that I really have to post are pictures of my lunches. I know, its not very exciting, and I'm not very creative, nor will I post recipes, but hopefully someone will find this blog interesting. Currently, I don't have internet access at my house, so I'm limited to the time I can steal away at work, so I have accumulated a few pictures that need posting. One day soon!

Bento, Bento Everywhere!

So I can see that this is quickly becoming a collection of my bento photos. Despair not! Soon I will get out of this creative funk and make something splendid for everyone to see. In the meantime, this is all I can muster while trying to fight this pesky cold that I feel coming on. Oh, and I realize that I am posting my photos humungo-sized, but I am just plain too lazy to resize them.

Boring backlogged bento. Woo for alliteration! Here we have some yummy left over filipino beef that a friends mom made situated on a bed of rice. Some shelled edemame and frozen corn fill the lower right hand corner and part of a peach all sliced up and ready to eat fills the top right hand corner. This isn't one of my more eye pleasing bento lunches, but it did the trick.


Whew! I am finally caught up! This is my lunch from yesterday. I think it would have looked better if I had used the green puti fresh box instead of the pink, but switching the boxes just would have been plain silly.

This lunch was both delish and super filling. In the top tier is some leftover chicken katsu on a bed of rice from a yummy Japanese restaurant that I adore. The small container holds katsu sauce which can be likened to "Japanese steak sauce". The broccoli is there for color. The bottom tier holds half of an apple and some grapes from my local farmer's market and some carrot sticks. I must say, since I have been reading Biggie's blog, I have been inspired to try to get 5 colors into my lunches. Tasty success!