Yesterday was Palm Sunday, but unfortunately I had to work. :( Anyway, fish was allowed, so I made a tuna sandwich.

In the bento lunch is a half tuna sandwich, onigiri (soy sauce in the yellow bottle), tomato wedges, frozen fruit in the yellow box, boiled peanuts, and asparagus spears.

Not a very inspired bento lunch for tomorrow, but healthy. :)
Small side car of grapes.
The main box has lettuce, tomatoes, sliced baby cucumber, cauliflower and baby carrots for salad. The brown thing is inarizushi.

From now on, I'm going to try to participate in Tammy's Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

If you're like me, and forget to clean the microwave for embarrassingly extended amounts of time, you know just how difficult it is to get those crusty splatters off of the sides of the microwave.

A simple solution to this is to fill a small bowl of water about half way (it really doesn't matter) and microwave it on high for about 5 minutes, and then let it sit for a few minutes after that. The steam will loosen the gunk, making it easier to scrub away! You might need to do it twice if it's the first time to use this method or your microwave is really gunky.

Today's bento was in a new Lock & Lock case. It came with that big box(600 ml), and two smaller side cars. It was about $6.00 at Wal-Mart.

In it is some white rice covering up a nasty mess of failed yaki onigiri. :)
There are some sakura watermelon pieces, green beans, and cooked carrots. It was really good!

Left of the divider: salad with avocado slices, edamame, carrots, lettuce, water chestnuts. Right: vegan tomato and orzo dish.

Gah! So much green! Sorry.

We have: bread, Amy's veggie burgers (soooo much better than soy burgers imo), lettuce and garbanzo beans on a pick, mustard in a Hello Kitty container I found lying around the house, potato salad, and veggies marinated in a garlic-mint vinegar.

Hokay, so over the week I grew tired of scrounging around in the fridge looking for something vegan to eat. Normally I'd end up with wasa bread, hummus, and carrots or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Now, I love pb&j just as much as any other blue blooded American, but after a week of alternating sandwiches and hummus? Well, the palate grows tired after a while. So, I scrounged around on the internets looking for quick vegan meals and came across vegan pancakes. Deciding that I would make some and freeze for later, I set about gathering ingredients. Then, with caution thrown to the wind, I mixed the ingredients and followed the recipe:

1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon

Beat in:

1 1/4 cups low-fat soymilk
1/4 cup raisins

Heat lightly oiled frying pan on medium-high. When pan is hot, drop on by tablespoons. Flip once when bubbles appear, and cook until golden brown on bottom.

( Making vegan pancakes. )
In regards to taste, they were really good. I loved the nuttiness of the oatmeal with the tartness of the raisins. They came out a little gummy, but that may have been just bad cooking on my part. I'll make a second batch with the real ingredients (whole wheat flour instead of the white I used *AHEM*)and be a little more careful next time to see how they came out.

The meal is also remarkably frugal if you think about it. Cans of oatmeal are slap cheap, about two to three dollars if you buy the store brand. Raisins are also cheap; I bought mine for about $3.00. Soymilk, flour, and cinnamon I already had, but those are also very cheap. I can make a huge batch and freeze them for later and not have to worry about buying a convenience food to fill its place. :D

Left tier: vegan oatmeal pancakes, dried banana strips, grapefruit pieces, carrots, tomatoes, peanut butter.
Right tier: quick brown rice, "bushel" of asparagus tied with green onion, tomato sun.

Finally! A genuinely vegan bento lunch!

Admittedly, the pancakes look disgusting, but they're genuinely good.

So getting used to veganism for lent is d-i-f-f-i-c-u-l-t. It wasn't until I snapped this picture, uploaded it, and started to blog it hat I realized the broccoli bites have cheese in them. :( Also the orange looks vaguely..uh..erotic. DAGNABBIT.
So left of the divider is couscous mixed with herbs and beans and corn. It is most delicious. Right of the divider is peanut butter on celery, VEGETARIAN broccoli bites :(, artichoke hearts, olive, garlic, and salad pepper on a pick. Then there's the erotic orange. :(

Man I fail.

Top tier: wasa bread, olives, guacamole, cashew and soynuts, laughing cow cheese, apple bunny.

Bottom tier: quinoa mixed with curry tomato sauce.

Recipe for the curry tomato sauce: (altered from a recipe on about.com)
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp basil + whatever herbs.
olive oil

Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until soft, add the tomatoes and herbs and cook covered over medium for about 15 minute, stirring frequently. Can be served over pasta or grain.

I mixed mine with quinoa and it is very good. I used 1/2 tsp cumin in the recipe but I found it a little overpowering so I changed it to 1/4 tsp in the recipe. You can also add mushrooms or whatever you want. It's a very flexible recipe.

Tomorrow I have to go in to Dallas with Mom. My car broke so I have to go with her to work so I can borrow her car for a college information session. I'm not familiar with Dallas, and completely anticipate getting lost so I packed a lunch.

So tomorrow's bento has hummus in the middle thing, two onigiri with Cavender's Greek Seasoning acting as furikake, wasa bread rectangles, carrots, skewered edamame, half a banana, and honey roasted cashews as filler. :D

Top tier: laughing cow cheese, grilled asparagus, apple bunnies(!), cucumber, red bell peppers, all on top of two pieces of wasa. The cheese, cucumbers, and bell peppers will be spread on the wasa!

Bottom tier: apples, inarzushi.

This is a box I got at what we affectionately call the "crapalogue" store. Every winter one of those school fund raiser stores opens up and sells their overstock for slap cheap. This box was about a dollar.
Anyway, in it are cherries, blueberries, chicken potstickers, a babybell cheese, and vanilla yogurt dotted with a blueberry in the middle. I made this in the middle of February. Just too lazy to load it.

I was so excited about this bento because I finally made some inarizushi! I know I vowed never to buy anything special for my lunches but once I had one at a Japanese restaurant I knew I was need to make some for myself so I ordered some.

Anyway, in the left tier is a laughing cow cheese wedge,okra, mashed avocado and onion and a tomato on top of two halves of bread. In the cup is some tuna.

In the right tier is an inarizushi pocket, two baby lettuce rolls, honey dijon in the red heart, grapes, and an orange.

Btw, does anyone know the rough caloric value of inarizushi?

I know, I know. Two in a day. I won't have time tomorrow. Sorry.
In the top tier are some beans in the cup, baby dill pickles, a poorly shaped onigiri, carrot strips, grapes, and cottage cheese in the orange cup.

In the bottom tier are some baby spinach... roll..things. They have turkey and pepperoni things in wrapped in some baby spinach. I'm not sure whether or not to be proud or ashamed that I took the time do this. The mustard is a little crazy. There's the last of the stir-fried quinoa with a salad pepper on it. There are some olives and a garlic skewed on a fun little tiki-pick. The top is shaped like a tiki head!

I've got some changes in store for my blog come Monday or so. I'm excited.:D

This bento was really good simply because I made some stir-fry quinoa. Quinoa cooks just like rice (I even made it in my new microwave rice cooker) and is super good for you. I use it to get more protein in my diet because I don't eat much meat. Also I'm a carb whore. No use denying it.

In the top tier is some stir-fried quinoa, grapes in the blue cup, cherry tomatoes, turkey..uh.. "swirls", and cottage cheese in the green cup.

In the bottom tier is a salad. The salads are getting a little boring, but if I fill both tiers I usually can't finish t he meal. I'm trying to diversify.

O yayz another bento! My camera's battery went down and I couldn't find the dingdang charger.

Tomorrow's bento has, in the top tier, flower shaped cucumbers with pepper on top, cottage cheese for dipping in the little container with cooked spinach and garlic with pignolias. Underneath the meatloaf is a couscous/orzo mix.
In the bottom tier is the ubiquitous salad. It has tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, feta cheese, and artichoke hearts.

Bah, it's not as colorful as I wanted.

Today's bento is a prime example of my utilizing leftovers to make bento. Since it's not really practical of me to make something new every day for bento, I usually just use leftovers and try to dress them up a little.
Everything except the onigiri and sandwich are leftovers.

In the top tier is a prefrozen cow shaped onigiri with a baby corn flower on her head ontop of some alfalfa. There is some edamame leftover from last night (taco salad, yum!), and a salad dressed up with leftover baby corn, pomegranate seeds and black olives.

On the bottom tier is some admittedly disgusting looking but oh so tasty left over macaroni with leftover taco beef, a who-knows-how-old-tomato broiled with olive oil, black olives, italian seasoning, garlic powder, mozzarella cheese and salt and pepper. Finally there is a spade shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Today's bento was amazingly delicious despite it being really nothing special. It was filling but not too heavy and I got hungry for dinner at the right time. :) This will definitely be a meal I repeat.

The top tier has cherry tomatoes on top of onion slices, alfalfa sprouts, poorly sliced avocado on top of a slice of wheat bread cut in two, turkey swirls, and a carrot as a filler. Everything except the carrot became a delicious sandwich.

The bottom tier has a salad with feta cheese and cherry tomatoes. I meant to put pomegranate seeds in but I forgot. :( Oh well, it was still delicious. The dressing is an italian spritz so I don't have runny dressing all over the place.

Yikes, I haven't posted since September! Boo on me! I've definitely noticed a difference in the quality of foods since I stopped bentoing. So my New Years resolution (one of many) is to bento more. :)

Today's bento has alfalfa sprouts for a sandwich, carrots, bread (also for a sandwich), celery, turkey and onion "rosettes", couscous mix, orange slices, and baby corn slices. :D

Click the picture to see notes on my shiney new flikr! Hooboy!