August Catch-up: Bentos 28 & 29 and Gnocchi Skins

Ok... are you ready for a flood of food blog posts?  Cuz I have like two and a half months worth of cooking to catch up on here! It will probably be done in increments, but anywho... here goes!

Bento #28: Salads and Chicken Nuggets

 Yeah, I know chicken nuggets are horrible processed high-fat/high-sodium, but darn it they're good. Got chicken nuggets, barbecue sauce (in the Spidey/Lightning McQueen dishes), graham crackers, and caesar salads.  Yum!

Bento #29: Mexican Dip

Mexican dip (refried beans, salsa, rice, and cheese), Tostitos, and a Lofthouse cookie

Gnocchi Skins?

So, we made up another batch of the amazing Gnocchi, but it seemed a shame to waste all the skins from the potatoes we cooked.  Thus were born the gnocchi skins.  Basically, after making gnocchi, we took the boiled potato skins and pan-fried them up with bacon bits and cheese, then had them for "breakfast for dinner" with fried eggs, apple slices, and Italian bread.  

They were delicious, if I do say so myself. ;-)

That wraps up the first of the catch-up posts, and I should really get ready for work now, but more to come later, including: The Chopped Championship (home version), more bentos, chocolate waffles, and more!

Happy Bentos, 

Rowan

Bento #25! Hamburger Helper.... Mmmm.

25 bentos in the blog!!  That sounds like an achievement to me! (Achievement UNLOCKED!) Woo hoo!

Ok, now that the celebration's done, I suppose I ought to actually POST the 25th one, huh?  Make it for reals?

But first, I have to post a pic of the new boxes!

My Grandmother found these awesome boxes at World Market for $5.00!!  How amazing is that?!  So she bought two.  Then I bought two.  Then I picked up two for Mom.  Then I picked up two for Chloe.  They're out of the green ones now.... lol.  Anyway, they hold about 1100 mL by my measurement and have a built in silverware compartment.  And they snap closed, which is nice (don't have to find a band in the morning!).

So anyway, drum roll please...

Bento #25

Our boxes side by side so you can see how awesomely huge Dante's is.  The top layer's shallow tho, so it looks bigger than it is.  Inside, we have Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper (YUM!), Salad with mozzarella and craisins with Raspberry Pecan dressing, and Dante has some fried rice up in the top. 

Ok, 'nother post coming in a minute, so until then....

Happy bentos!

Rowan

Bento Catch Up!

Bento #20

First in a set of less than creative bentos... EL Fudge Cookies, goldfish crackers, and Lady Alice Apple

So..... cuz Dante's AWESOME, we got to go see BON JOVI!!!  it was Legen.... wait for it.... DARY.  (I've been using a lot of Barney-isms lately...) And since our road trip took us through Chicago, we decided to stop in at Gino's East for some amazing pizza.  Chicago-style deep dish with patty-style sausage and load of deliciousness.

Saturday morning, we ordered room service for breakfast.  Pricey, but DELICIOUS.  Seriously.  Dante got Crab Eggs Benedict (Made with jumbo lump crab meat) with seasoned potatoes, which was amazing.  As was my apple french toast, which was made with locally-grown apples.  Mmmmmm.

Bento #21

Zoo pasta salad with black forest ham and chunks of colby jack cheese, with a fresh strawberry

 Bento #22

Spring Mix with dried cranberries, shredded cheddar, raspberry pecan dressing,

and a fresh strawberry

I know there were a few other bentos in there, as well as an AMAZING cheese board that we (I) forgot to photograph (d'oh!).  It had, I kid you not, 10 kinds of cheese.  Everything from Mango Ginger Stilton to Smoked Gouda, and loads of awesome deliciousness.  But no photo.  Darn it.  You'll just have to trust me that it was awesome. 

Anywho... Happy Bentos!  Hopefully post again in LESS than 2 weeks this time...

Rowan

Bento #12

Ok, so to follow up my "Wow, Poot's Bento is AWESOME, I need to step it up a notch!"  I made super-boring bentos on Friday! (I was in a hurry and running late for class...)

Both bentos: PB&J, Leftover Roasted Sweet Potato, Salad (mine has tomatoes)

Very exciting, no?  It was tasty tho. :-)  That's what matters in the end.

On to post about today's breakfast!

Rowan

Bentos #10/11- Tortellini with Garlic Cream Sauce

Tuesday's dinner was pretty darn good if I do say so myself.  I bought prepackaged (I know, lame...lol) Chicken and Prosciutto Tortellini and made a Garlic Cream sauce to go on it.  I modified this recipe from food.com.  Basically, I used fat-free half and half, added Parmesan cheese, added some orange pepper when sauteeing the garlic, and added spinach and chopped prosciutto in the last step.  Then took sub rolls and sprayed them with some Olivio, added garlic salt, Italian seasoning, Parmesan, and Mozzarella and popped em in the toaster oven for a few minutes. 

 

See?  Tasty...

And, as is the theme around here, tonight's dinner becomes tomorrow's bentos (which I think is a very good thing.  I'm already noticing we throw away less food this way!)

My bento: Actually not as much leftovers as Dante's.  I have: Tortellini in the red silicone cup at the end (those things are so gosh darn handy!!), Colby Jack Cheese, Ranch dressing, Whole Grain bread, and salad (spinach, romaine, and grape tomatoes).

 

Dante's bento: Leftover Tortellini and Garlic Bread, apples, and Cheddar Babybel.  (The apples don't look quite so nifty since they're in a plastic bag, but I packed these the night before.)

And since I didn't make bentos today (it was early, I was tired, and our boxes were dirty!), I think that catches me up!  woo hoo!!

Happy Bento-ing!

Rowan

Bento #8- Bread, Cheese, and Veggies

Ok, go me for being FIVE days behind on posting.  Woo hoo!  (I've been busy!  Honest!)

To be completely honest, I didn't even MAKE a bento today.  I know.  Sad.  But I got up early and we didn't have much in the way of handy leftovers.  So I got chips from the vending machine and reminded myself WHY I should be packing bentos...

So going all the way back to Monday, we have: 

My bento: Sliced french roll, Mini Cheddar Babybel, Salad with Garlic and Salt, Florida's Naturals Sour fruit snacks (SOOOO good!)

Dante's bento: Much the same.  French roll, Babybel, but with Green Giant Garden Vegetable Medley (Potatoes, Red Pepper, and Peas in sauce- Delicious, cheap, and easy!) on the bottom tier.

At this point, I'm so far behind, I don't think it would make sense to put all of them in one post, so I'm going to break them up into multiple posts and make it look like I'm not such a slacker. ;-)

Bentos #5 and 6: Eggs and chaos tots!

(So... in case anyone's confused by the numbering, if I pack the same thing for Dante and I, I call it one bento.  If I pack different things, I count it as two.)

So today was bento #5 and the end of a FULL WEEK OF BENTO AWESOMENESS!!!

Dante's bento: Top Layer: Hard boiled egg and egg salad sandwich on Pepperidge Farm Italian bread, which fit amazingly well in his box.  I was very surprised!  Bottom layer: Apple slices, tomato slices, tater tots, and ketchup.  If you look closely, you can see one of the carrot sauce bottles hiding in the bottom of the box.  It's actually full of salt, for sprinkling on the tomato and egg!  Dante said it worked very well, so score one for the creative repurposing!!  Woo hoo!

My bento: (I had an epiphany!  Just because the boxes CAME all blue/red doesn't mean they have to STAY that way!  I mean... they're the same size/shape, so I can mix and match!!) Tater tots, with a super-cute blue flower cup of pickles and tomatoes to use to make chaos tots (I picked up ketchup and mustard packets at the little cafe downstairs from my office).  The cheese for the tots is in the bottom layer, along with some salad, again with garlic powder and sea salt.  Slightly more colorful today, which is good!

We also did some experimenting this morning, since I worked a later shift today.  We made oat-nigiri (onigiri made with oatmeal instead of rice!  Idea courtesy of One More Bento Fan's Flickr page).  Basically, cooked oatmeal with a little less water than normal to make it super-sticky, draped a piece of plastic wrap over my pancake puff pan, put a spoonful of oatmeal in it and squished it into a cup-shape with wet fingers, put fillings in the well (PBJ, dried cranberries and pecans, apples pecans and brown sugar, and maple/brown sugar), put a bit more oatmeal on top, then used the plastic wrap to squish all the oatmeal into a solid blob and do some rough shaping and stuck them in the fridge.  Then, in an attempt to reduce the sticky texture, we fried them lightly in a skillet to give them just a bit of a crust.  Consensus was, though, that the texture was still less than ideal and maybe next time we'd try deep-frying them, donut hole style (Dante's suggestion).  And IMPORTANT NOTE: two of these is PLENTY.  Oh my goodness are they filling.  Neither one of us wanted to move after eating them.  I took a picture, but it seems to have been corrupted on my camera, so no pics of the oatnigiri.  Bummer.   

Anywho... Happy bento!

Rowan

Bentos #3 and 4: Mexican, Pancake Puffs, and Breakfast!

Ok, so I missed a day... oops!  That didn't take long.  oh well.  Just means I have two sets to post today!

So for Monday's lunch, we had some of the leftover Mexican that Dante cooked on Thursday, and let me tell you... it was DELICIOUS!! 

Dante's box Monday had cooked yellow peppers with homemade enchilada sauce and cheese and some marinaded flank steak on plastic picks. In the bottom layer, are "pancake puffs" (Made in a Pancake Puff Pan) which are heart smart bisquick batter with bits of meat cooked into the middle.  The back row has leftover brisket and the front row (the ones with stars on thars... henceforth these are totally called Sneetches!) have cooked seasoned hamburger left from Chaos Tots.  The red cup has Sweet Baby Ray's.

A quick silverware shot to show of Dante's new utensils.  World Market, oh yeah!

My box: Top layer- Sneetches and Sweet Baby Ray's (I do actually have 2 Hamburger Sneetches, but they don't have stars on thars.  Poor guys.).  Bottom layer- Salad with sea salt and garlic powder, and a small red cup of brisket, which was REALLY GOOD on top of the salad, and a small cup of Malted Milk eggs (in my bird box... he he he!).  Then there's the box lid and one of my new sets of silverware. Aren't they cute?!

Today's "Breakfast in a box" lunch bento.  (Dante didn't get a bento today.  Poor Dante!  His lunch must have been so boring...) Part of a peanut butter and banana sandwich, mini pancakes, a silicone turtle with Vanilla Yogurt, and frozen triple berry mix.  (Note: the turtle really should have gone in the top tier.  He's a tad too tall for the bottom.  Got a little squished.)

Boiling up some eggs for tomorrow's bentos right now, and getting ready to do some more bento-themed crafty time, with Dante this time!

-Rowan