My first stab at kinpira and *another* WW bento

So I'm an avid reader of Just Bento, and I saw that Maki posted her parsnip kinpira recipe and I've been dying to try it since. I love parsnips and I was *so* happy that these were flipping delicious. I had to stop myself from munching all of them down before I could get them into tomorrows bento box!

You'll notice that I do my bentos the night before. This is because I honestly do not have the mental coherence in the morning to put together a lunch, nevertheless wake up early enough to cook for it. I have a lot of time the night before, so that's when I make my morning easier by packing lunch, getting tomorrows clothes ready, etc. It's easier for me.

Tonight I made my own Turkey Sausage with Peppers & Onion recipe, which was super simple and came out flipping delicious.

Open-faced omnomnons, say what?

So I had that for supper and made my bento for tomorrow!

Bento!

It's a super simple one. Strawberries in the far cup, on the left there's the kinpira, quail egg, greens and whole wheat croutons. On the right was the leftovers of sausage and peppers. I know it's not a super colorful lunch but it will be delicious tomorrow!

I also have an extra bag of strawberries because I stay late for meetings on Tuesdays so I want something to snack on during the conference call.

Hope everything has a wonderful week!

Start of a loooong month bento!

So Monday marks the start of a month of a six-day work week. With Weight Watchers, I'm going to be needing to bring my lunch even more so than I did before. Instead of bringing in large portions of take-away food or anything like that, I'll be bringing in some of my WW cooked meal mixed with 0 point food or Power Foods! It's a good thing I find all this stuff delicious!

I wanted to make quinoa to put into this bento, but I have a ton of leftover basmati rice from when boyfriend and I went for Indian food on Friday. So Mondays bento is Tex-Mex Chicken [w/ zucchini], basmati rice, strawberries, and a salad garnished with a quail egg and homemade whole-wheat croutons.

I'm looking forward to posting more of my bentos for this week. I hope holding myself accountable here will help!

Sunday Dinners, Weight Watchers and 2012!

Whew! I better blow the dust off my blog!

So 2012 has started off pretty well. I have a wonderful boyfriend, a job I like and life is just nice in general. It's so different being in Connecticut rather than Brooklyn, but I must say I'm pretty pleased with how things are here.

The only downside to moving to Connecticut is that my walking has been almost all cut out. Aside from the running around I do at work on a daily basis, I don't do the same walking that I had time for in NYC. An hour lunch break makes a huge difference when you're trying to eat and be active during your only free time.

So I've gained a lot of weight in a small amount of time! Last week I decided to join Weight Watchers, and tomorrow is my first weight in! I'm a bit nervous but I think I've stayed the same if not lost a little bit. I hope I haven't gained.

I've found that my bento are barely ANY points! I finally found quail eggs here and that's 0 points (compared to 2 points for a hard boiled egg), plus all the fruits and most of the veggies are 0 points as well. I haven't thought to take a picture but I'll snap one of my lunch on Wednesday.

I did snap a photo of what I made tonight, though! Tex Mex Chicken with Zucchini. YUM!

Omnomnomnom.

Boyfriend has been working Sundays lately, and it kinda sucks to be frank. We work opposite shifts so the rare occasion we can eat dinner together is always special. I've decided that Sunday dinners are especially important.

While boyfriend works I make dinner (Weight Watchers meals now!) and have it ready and hot when he gets home. It's nice to play housewife sometimes ;) We sit at the kitchen table (which never gets used except for Sunday dinner and Dungeons and Dragons) and discuss the week and watch some television. It's a nice time and it's important family time that we need together.

So enough gush about this stuff. I hope to start posting my bentos again this coming week and that I get great news when I weight myself tomorrow!

BENTO: Stir fry simplicity

Oh goodness it's been a LONG time! Life has been a bit all over the place: I moved from Brooklyn, NY to South Windsor, Connecticut and started a new job. Then the boyfriend, some of his friends and I had a road trip to Arkansas for a wedding. It was a very, very crazy time for me and I'm honestly glad to be home and relaxing! The wedding was lovely, however. If I get some photos up I'll post them as an aside ;) Anyway, onto my simple bento for today!

This simple bento was just a chicken with bell pepper stir fry with rice, hard boiled egg, and strawberries and kiwi slices. The bowl to the side contained an extra snack to eat during my manager's meeting of strawberries and kiwi. I can eat as much fruit as I want without feeling guilty about it!

My new co-workers were delighted with my bento. I showed them some other pictures and they loved the idea! Though one co-worker did comment that I ate too healthy because it made her feel bad :P Maybe my bento will inspire her to eat better! I know posting my lunch keeps me on the healthier side. And after all that fast food we ate during the road trip I need a detox!

And oops, you can see my bento stuff in the background! My sauce fish are mostly visible. I love those little guys!

Anyway, hope everyone has a grand week! I hope to get back into the swing of things :)

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RECIPE: Collards with Potatoes over Quinoa

So things have been a little crazy lately. I haven't had much time to make bento, nevertheless take any photos and post them! And truth be told, they've been kinda bland. Mostly stir fried things since that's usually what I make myself for dinner.

But tonight's dinner, oh ho, was not boring! I had gone to the local food co-operative and saw a box of quinoa at the checkout counter. I asked the cashier if someone was holding it, since I've wanted to cook with that for a while and never had. She said no, and was glad when I purchased it so she didn't need to go put it back! I got a reusable bag out of the deal, too. Go me!

So after playing around on Gojee for a while, I found a recipe that I'd adore. It's Chard with Potatoes and Tomatoes (you can see it here). I had most of the stuff on hand, but had to make a few substitutions. So in the end we have:

Collards with Potatoes and Tomatoes over Quinoa!
6 collard leaves, chopped
1/2 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used my zester for this!)
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
Can of diced tomatoes (mine were garlic and oil flavored)
3 red potatoes, diced (I find these have more flavor)
2 tbps fresh parsley
Salt & Pepper
1 cup cooked quinoa


Toss the diced potatoes in a sautee pan with a spot of oil (or butter if you're all Paula Dean like that), S&P and let them get a bit browned. Once they're looking like proper hash-ready potatoes put them to the side and add more oil to the pan.
Cook the onion, garlic and jalapeno pepper until the onions are soft and have a bit of color on them. Toss in the collard greens and let them wilt down a little.
Once all that's done, add in the tomatoes and reaquaint the potatoes back into this sautee pan lovefest. Sprinkle the parsley on top and let the mixture cook for a bit to marry together, have weird babies and live happily ever after. Make sure you taste it a bit and adjust S&P levels.

Once the liquid from the tomatoes cooks down a bit, your food is ready! Toss it over the quinoa and nosh to your hearts content.

This is served beside a side of vodka, the best side dish there is.

I had plenty of leftovers, so I'll be making a lot of annoying quinoa-based dishes all week! Yum!

Bento: Stir fried fever

Alright so I may be going overboard with the stir fried stuff, but I'm currently heavily addicted to hoisen sauce so forgive me.
Onto the bento!
It's a simple one. I was tired. Hoisen chicken stir fried over vegetable fried rice. Next to it are baby red and orange bell peppers, a hard boiled egg and some grapes. Was simple and tasty!

BENTO: It's a rice world.

Greetings! It's been a while! I've been incredibly busy and haven't gotten to take any pictures of my lunches at all!

But this morning I had a bit of extra time and threw together a good lunch for my late night at work.

Sorry there's no pictures of it all as one, my camera is awful in the lighting of my kitchen.

Bottom tier is leftover rice patties made from a cookbook that my friend Renee got me for my birthday! They were a mix of hoisen sauce, soy sauce, rice, egg, scallions and a few other things. They were grand, though a bit of a chore to make. But Boyfriend and I seem to have had the method down by the end, so I hope we make it again!

I took the leftover patty mix and stir fried it with an egg and soy sauce and made the side rice.

Top tier is simple. Hard boiled egg, blanced asparagus, grapes, and a mix of potatoes, bell peppers and soyrizo. I needed something a bit more substantial in this bento since it has to last me til I get home at 8pm!

I hope everyone enjoys their day! (And lunch!)