A Few Super Fast Lunches

I've been trying to each healthier this year, as by the end of the academic year, my lunches are crazy carb fuelled wonders....

The plan is food from the garden, in the box, and out the door before I have time to think...




Garden salad, satay sauce in the piggy, apricots and almonds.


Pasta salad using garden vege, picked grapes and strawberries, dip for crackers, and frittata made from free range gifted eggs.


Iskender with tabouli (all garden vege), rice, beetroot, falafel, salad, yogurt, hummus and chilli.


Corn and pasta salad, frittata, cheese, cherry tomatoes, yogurt with fresh picked berries, tabouli from garden vege.


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wizard of Oz bento

Well, I have probably gone a little nuts. But it is cool.

Here's Toto on the yellow brick road of cheese to the emerald jelly city, past the red tomato poppy fields....



And here's the witches hat, the scarecrows dip brain, the cowardly lion hiding in crackers, and the tinmans heart of onigiri.





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Star Wars Bento

Well, when the theme is "Movies" what comes to mind: Star Wars!





Here we have my Star Wars tribute bento:
From the top:
R2D2 banana (made with banana, peanut butter, crushed nuts and a kit-kat finger. For the recipe see the Banana Trees listed here)
Jabba the Hut Jelly - green with orange mandarin segments, and star shaped kiwi fruit.

2 suns of tatooine toast (toad in the hole, with 2 holes)
Sand people crackers with the droid I am looking for
Death Star cheese and coleslaw
In a galaxy far far away peppermint slice
Light sabred cheese, grape and pineapple

This was accompanied by some pumpkin soup.

The recipe for the no-bake peppermint slice is posted here, and the toast was a simple deal:




Cut out the crusts and centres of the bread





Toast one side in a pan with butter. Flip.



Pour a little egg mixture in the centre

5+ a Day Challenge: Day 4

It's been a struggle to eat right today, with 33 teenagers in the capital city, Wellington. Admittedly, it's the coolest little capital in the world. We hiked all over the city, having a blast.

Breakfast
- blt bagel - sans bacon
- hash brown
- hot choccy (yup, maccas)

Lunch
- tank juice (apple, orange, pineapple)
- 2 slices of the best marguerita pizza ever!

Snacks
- cookie
- Scroggin

Dinner
- Kumara soup (though the husband got takeaways.

5 portions - I'm not counting the hashbrown as a portion, nor the tomato on the pizza, which was made fresh. So wonderful. I also bought new bento stuff... I'm so bad!



But this is cool... Chard or silver beet growing outside the train station. Community food looking gorgeous! That's Ghandi in the back!





Plans are afoot for a better day tomorrow.


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Day 3: 5+ a Day Challenge

Well, I thought today would be chaos but, it was okay.



Breakfast
- Special K
- peaches

Lunch
- carrot
- pasta salad
- 2 kiwi fruit
- mandarin
- mixed nuts

Snacks
- yogurt
- cheese and crackers
- scroggin

Dinner
- 1 cold lasagne serving

7 servings! Yay!

More importantly, check out my lunch:


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thankful ploughmen....

This week has been filled in the blogosphere with thanks, and it had me thinking.  What was I thankful for?  Well, I have a lot to be thankful for, but today especially, I have people to thank for who I am.  I worked at this amazing vineyard cafe at Muirlea Rise.  There I was the slave, I did dishes, cut foods, poured wine, and generally did whatever.  Lea and Will were amazing to work for, always positive and encouraging and they taught me a lot about life, love and food.

My favourite dish on the menu was the ploughman's lunch, with hunks of great cheese, various breads, and branston pickle, with pickled onions and grapes.  It was amazing.  Today, the day of "Toast Martinborough" the food, wine and music festival, I honour them with my thanks, and a bento-snack variation of the ploughmans lunch.

Here we have 3 slices of baguette, with Edam cheese flowers and lashings of Branston pickle.  I only wish I had picked onions as well.  And a nice glass of red wine.

The Lunch Rush

A lunch that didn't quite come together as planned.... oh well.  In the containers it does look cute as.

In the top we have a fritata with cheese and carrots, bagette pizza slices, strawberries, nut mix and hundreds and thousands cookies (yumo).  This bento is particularly nice because it is quite wide and it can fit more in that it seems.  The muffin thingies are full size regular muffin thingies....

So, what's going on???

It's been busy around here in the last week.  Busy in a good way.

The garden is back in shape after the jaunt to New Caledonia.  I'm not sure why all the berries decided to stop growing while we were away, but methinks the sister who was meant to do the watering probably forgot.  The lettuce went to seed, the peas turned to straw, the berries stopped fruiting and all the roses needed trimming.

But, we are back on track.  The cucumbers are doing better than ever, we are about to be inundated with tomatoes, the radishes are almost done, the chili's are growing faster than I can harvest them (I think this would be a brilliant cash crop if we didn't eat them all on a yearly basis!).  Yesterday I planted more peas, lettuce and celery.

Grapes, growing nicely, looking forward to them ripening

Cucumber!

And in the category of cooking.... the garden has been great.  I made fresh spag bol the other night using only lamb mince from a friends farm and things from the garden.  I stopped sort at making my own pasta, because being without a pasta machine means that I stubbornly make it by hand.... which is labourious and not so attractive afterwards. 

On the sweet and tasty front, I've been trying to create the perfect apricot ball.  After reading all my recipe books, which is no small feet, and checking out internet recipes, I tried the most popular one (which had condensed milk, cocunut, apricot and caster sugar.)  This was too sweet, and too coconutty for me.  I tried a version with malt biscuits broken in, but were still too sweet and cocnutty.  But, I think that I shall have the perfect apricot ball recipe by the end of the weekend.  I was going to upload a picture, but.... I kinda ate them all before photographing..... :D

With school back in 2 weeks, I have just a fortnight to get all sorted for the mad-morning rush!  So, after sorting out my bento cupboard, again, I went and bought a whole load of plastic containers for storing my cups, mini-cutters, picks, etc.  Tomorrow's task is to sort of the drawer.......... which is bulging at the seams.  And what happens to all the bento bands?  I seem to lose them.  But, I have a plan, which I will post out to all my readers once I have sorted out.

I do have a question for my readers...... I have LOADS of zucchini/courgettes.  We are now at the stage that we are sick of eating them.... what recipes or ideas do you have for using them?  I've been making lots of vegie fritters, grating them into dishes and generally trying to think of something fun to do.  What do you do with them?

A Bento discovery

During my recent jaunt to Auckland, I stumbled upon a magnificent store on Queen Street.  The $3 Japan store had all I could dream of.... and more.  I was disappointed with myself for finding it so late in the evening, so my purchases had to be made at speed, before my bus arrived, but I felt good about my haul.  I managed to find a terrific headband, hair ties, origami paper, pens, a book, and then my bento goodies.

I managed to get a red 2 tier bento, a one layer yellow bento to match a 2 tier one I have, 4 bear silicon cups, and a set of picks. 

On returning home, I discovered that the store has a website.  Though it seems to be limited at present, I hope they get the bento supplies uploaded for purchase before too long.

$3 Japan store website

Thursday..... ARGH!

The day of the school Cultural Awards evening... so it was going to be a MAD day setting up the auditorium, checking certificates, polishing trophies etc.... sigh.

This was designed to be snacked on at the big table where we were organising the certificates....

Bottom layer.... nectarine, pears and mini M&M's.  In theory, a good idea.  However, the M&M's melted.......... and the blue ones stained all my fruit...... I am not a fan of the mini M&M's anymore.  I shall go back to the peanut ones that don't seem to run like that......

And in the top layer, cowboy eggy with his herd of almonds, in the pizza corral...... yes.... I was ready for a show-down! 

(The awards went off reasonably well...... but I misplaced my iPhone.... hence the lateness of the current blog entries......... finally found the phone in the sound booth.... weird.)

Wednesday.... food in a box....

A particularly wonderful lunch, I may add.  Noms all round.  In the green tupperware container- 2 vegie wraps, an apricot yogurt tub.  In the bottom bento layer, waffles with peanut butter and cashew pieces with a run of grapes (which in retrospect should have little legs to become ants or something... time for ones thinking cap)..... and in the top layer, pear and nectarine slices.   All eaten while delivering a tutorial.  :D

Easy like Tuesday morning?

I wish!  Yesterday was a public holiday here in good ol' New Zealand.... so the day was a total relax-fest.... not.  With gardens to overhaul and school reports to write, there was not a lot of time for chillaxing in the sun.

And on Tuesday morning.... well.... it's rubbish day, so out goes the wheely bin, and I start morning duty early.  Oh, and did I mention reports are due?

So this was lunch.... I was impressed anyway.

Here in my gorgeous wee pink strawberry bento we have.... pizza bites on a bed of lettuce (vegetarian), an assortment of grapes, almonds and mini-toffee pops for snacking on during lunchtime tutorial sessions... and some ambrosia on the side.  All pretty in pink.

Bento for Beginners

And yes, I am now a free-lance writer.  Will this be the cash-cow that brings in the millions?  Probably not, but what I am hoping for is a little paypal "mad-money" to buy more random bento's!

So I have now published 2 articles on suite101.  The first was on my experiences cruising on the Pacific Sun.  Here is my effort about bento-ing for beginners.

Bento for Beginners

Please follow the link and check out the article.  I would love your feedback and guidance.

It's a Cat and Mouse game....

Well... today I tried making it all a little more awesome....

The top layer was a simple green salad with cat shaped cucumber slices....

While the mice hid on the bottom layer with some smaller food to "nibble on"......

And what is lunch without a mid-morning snack of some sworded cheese cubes, with grapes and pineapple.....

Bagel Bento

This morning was a total rush..... crazy.... but I got myself out the door and lunch made and to work etc.  Yay.  Here was my bagel bento....

The bottom layer as kiwifruit slices, seedless grapes and a piece of banana cake.  The top layer has cheese and carrot sticks with 2 mini bagels- both with avocado, lettuce, tomato and mayonaise.  All eaten during dress rehearsal.  Yay.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY!

Well, as we are in full rehearsals for "The Wizard of Oz".... my lunch became Oz themed.... with varying levels of success.

First there was the cake for the cast:

A yellow brick road banana cake!

Which was well received.

From another banana cake (made thinner than this one) I cut out with a fluted circle cutter, a piece of cake... which was iced as such:

Here I just drew a face with icing... and painted an orange mane on the icing with more food colouring.  It was ok.... eyes are hard!  But it tasted nice and was popular with the cast.

This made my "Lions and Tigers and Bears" themed lunch:

The salads are all green, like the Emerald City, and I have Lions and Tigers and Bears (cashews and trail mix) in the little containers.

Snacking in the hospital

Well, today was a total rush to get through.  I had a hospital appointment related to my broken ankle and subsequent operation.  As the radiographers were about to go on strike on Friday, the x-ray was back-logged and rushing to get through all the patients.

But for once I was sorta prepared!

A rushed snack, and a rushed photo sorry....  but here it is.... a selection of nuts and raisins, a boiled bantum egg for protein and 2 yogurt covered apricots.

Sadly, I was delayed in the hospital, which made me a little more hungry than the snack, so I had a salad sandwich from the cafe there.  So "mission-healthy" was on track... until I had a chocolate bar for tea!

Tomorrow I will make some mini-pizzas... at some point....

Good Morning!

What I had not anticipated this week was that darned daylight saving!  I have never felt so tired in the morning.  It was a struggle to get up and fix lunch for the husband and myself- but it is done, and I am feeling rather proud of my efforts.... so proud I am blogging instead of heading out the door or into the shower!

So here it is... in the hamburger bento.  In the bottom layer we have a simple salad of rocket, cheese, avodcado and apple rolled in lemon juice, a boiled bantum egg and lashings of parsley.  In the piigy bottle is some honey mustard dressing.

Top layer has the frittata from yesterday, nuts and raisins, and some yogurt covered dried apricots.  One square meal bar and an apple on the side.

Some have complained with the shaped bentos being too small or impractical.  I have found this one to be perfect for salads and snacks, easy to eat from, and a good size portion.  The top layer is deep as the lid has more space in it.  I cannot sing the praises of this bento enough.

All of this has been put in the wrong bag- but I wanted some yellow brick road influence!

Now I am off for a shower and rehearsal.

The Year of the Lunchbox

Well, welcome to 2010, and welcome to my new blog.  Basically I have decided that this year I will be a healthier eater (which it would be hard to be a worse eater after 2009).  After spending a whole lot of time reading and looking at other peoples lunches (call me an amature food stalker here), I have decided how I am going to do this.

BENTO!!!

Or more specifically, my interpretation of Bento, for the untalented, slightly obsessive, and generally short attention spanned workaholic, busy person.

In general, hmmm.... I am a vegetarian.  An ovo-lacto vegetarian if that helps (I eat eggs and dairy).  I have a sweet tooth.  I am a teacher.  I have beagles.  I am the 2nd to worst cook on the planet (I married the worst cook).

The plan is this.... I will attempt to make visually exciting bento-styled lunches this year.  And I will upload pictures of my lunch or bits related to my lunch, and see if:
A) I actually become a healthier person...
B) I can maintain focus on this task all year AND
C) Whether the untalented in the kitchen me, can gain my black belt in lunchbox awesomeness.