chicken salad croissant bento

(I made this bento on April 9, 2008.)

When I got to school, I realized I had forgotten to take a picture of my bento. Even though the contents had shuffled a little, I took this picture shortly before eating it.

Left section: apple slices, chicken salad and lettuce on a mini croissant, and mini tomatoes (yellow and red) as gap fillers.

Right section: Newman's Own hi-protein mini pretzels, a small cup of Pub Cheese, rumaki (water chestnuts wrapped with turkey bacon) on toothpicks, a round of Babybel cheese (hiding under the pretzels), and a few more tomatoes.

Classroom bento

(I made this bento on April 6, 2008.

Left section: teriyaki-pineapple meatballs, steamed broccoli, clam alfredo linguine

Right section: homemade white grape juice gelatin cup with strawberries, grape tomatoes, Babybel cheese round, edemame skewers
I bought the meatballs, the cheese, and the edamame (already steamed and shelled) from Costco.

I made a batch of the juice gelatin cups on ahead of time so I'd have them ready to stick in a bento. The pasta was leftover from dinner a few months before. Using a tip from the Lunch in a Box blog (as well as the tip about the gelatin cups), I froze the pasta into bento sized portions.

yesterday's bento

(This was originally posted in a bento community on 4/25/06)
Bottom tray: Green beans, 2 pieces of Daim chocolates (Swedish chocolate toffees), foil cup of macadamia/almond/cashew nut mix.
Small green cup (to the right of the bottom tray): Vitamins.
Top tray: Chicken L'Orange, container with extra orange sauce.
Right of top tray: Instant miso soup.

two for the price of one!

(This was originally posted in a bento community on 4/20/06)

Two bentos today!

Top row: Little green container with vitamins, package of instant miso soup, small blue container with toppings for salad.
Upper tray: Spring salad mix with little container of Garlic Italian salad dressing.
Lower tray: Mixture of cashews, almonds, and macadamia nuts, and 1/2 of an almond butter and blackberry jam sandwich.

My daughter had testing in school today, so she had some snacks to enjoy during the breaks.

Purple tray: Hot dog coins with ketchup for dipping.
Red tray: Goji berry blend dried fruit mixture.
Yellow tray: Roasted peanuts.
Green tray: Hardboiled egg, fig bar, and sea salt (for the egg).
Sitting on the blue lid: Hello Kitty wafer cookies.
Drink: Water.

chicken salad bento

(This was originally posted in a bento community on 4/19/06)

Bottom tray: Smokehouse Almond Thins crackers, a Dove chocolate egg, and some Smokehouse almonds.

Upper tray: Chicken salad on spring salad greens with a flower made from red leaf lettuce, calendula blossoms, and borage blossoms.

Little blue container in the center: Blue-green hardboiled Easter egg.

Sitting on top bento box lid: Packet of sea salt for the egg.

Drink: Bottle of MetroMint peppermint flavored water.

I really liked the way the flower turned out, but unfortunately the close up picture (on the right) doesn't do it justice.

child's bento lunch

(I've been catching up... this was originally posted in another blog on 4/18/07)

This wasn't my lunch, but my daughter's. Her bento box is one of the Laptop Lunch boxes.
Bottom left tray (purple): 2 mini whole wheat pita pocket halves with peanut butter and blueberry jam.
Bottom right tray (red): Honey roasted peanuts.
Top right tray (yellow): Goji berry blend dried fruit mix from Trader Joe's.
Top left tray (green): Purple hard boiled Easter egg, packet of sea salt, a "This Fig Walks Into A Bar..." fig bar, and a packet of Hello Kitty sugar wafers.

She also had a bottle of water (which you can see to the right of the yellow tray).

miso soup bento for tomorrow

(This was originally posted in another blog on 9/18/06)

I wanted something simple but satisfying for tomorrow, plus I've been dying to use my new bento bowl for weeks.

Top section of bowl: packet of miso (foil pouch), blue packet of miso soup seasonings (contains freeze-dried scallions, wakame)
Bottom section of bowl (left): sliced green beans and carrot flowers
Middle lidded compartment: sliced egg, matchsticks of roast pork

When I'm ready to eat, I'll mix everything together in the bottom section of the bowl, add hot water, and eat!