Bentos #83, #84, #85...

I had a nice weekend.  It didn't start until Sunday morning.  But it was nice.

I spend Sunday morning at a friend's house working on my poor little motorcycle.  It's an '82 Honda Magna v45 that I paid $50 for about three years ago.  Last summer I got a bad tank of gas.  A horrid tank of gas.  It coated the inside of the tank, all the fuel lines, the carbs, and the intakes of the engine with an awful caramel colored goo.  I'm finally getting it cleaned out.  And I should have it running next weekend.  I hope.  It's to the point where my throttle hand twitches whenever I see a motorcycle...

At some point mid-afternoon, my friend had to go do family things, as one does on Sundays.  I decided to go running.  And it was a glorious overcast afternoon.  I moved up to week 7 of the C25K, which is a 20 minute run.  I thought I was going to die going into it, but I could have gone longer!  I didn't.  Because building up to longer runs is part of the program.  And I didn't want to screw up, hurt myself, and have to start over.

*****

I packed this one in a hurry.  Which is the reason that the fruit is not cut up into cute, easy to eat bits.  I made fried rice with corn, peas, and canadian bacon.  I was going to put in an egg until I realized what time it was... I cut the flowers out of the bacon first and then diced up the other bits.  I didn't even take a picture of this one before I lidded it up.  That's my desk at work in the background of the picture...

This one was my breakfast this morning.  I went running.  Like I do.  But before I left the house I realized that I had no water.  I decided to take something to eat after my run in order to give the crews out in the street extra time to fix my water before I came home and wanted to take a shower.  I've got string cheese, black pepper beef, grapes, half an apricot, half a plum, and a baggie of roasted green peas.

They got the water working before I came home.  Thank goodness.

This one was another meal from Saturday.  And also a meal on Monday.  I packed two identical lunches.  The top has pasta with red chard, tomatoes, and mozzarella artichoke chicken sausage tossed with Philly savory garlic cooking creme.  The bottom has my last nectarine, strawberries, and some cabbage.

Bento #83... Rehearsals!

So... Rehearsals!

I'm sitting here in my theatre watching the first stage combat rehearsal for Alexander Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" (adapted by Ken Ludwig).  It's rather amusing.  Bunch of actors slowly swinging at each other with wooden dowels because we don't trust them with swords yet...

I'm actually really excited for this production.  The script is a little bit... cheesy (sorry, Ken).  But we have a great director, an amazing cast, and... you know... me.  I'm stage managing.  And I'm feeling rather accomplished right now because I just finished a very detailed schedule for the first month of rehearsals.  Which was a complicated task for this show.  I promise... I'm amazing.

We're having a Stage Combat Boot Camp for the first week.  Which is great for me because all I have to do is show up to let the cast and the fight choreographer in.  I'll probably start using the time for paperwork and other boring things starting tomorrow... but for now?  I want to see them beat each other.

*****

I brought this for my dinner today... And I intended to eat it before rehearsal started, but who has time for that?  With cutting dowels to the appropriate length and discussing schedules with people... I ate it during rehearsal...

Look!  I kind of made it cute!  Two days in a row!

I like brown rice.  I like the taste.  I like the texture.  The color leaves a little bit to be desired in a bento box... but there it is.  The flowers are made out of canadian bacon and slices of kidney bean.  The grass is little shreds of summer snap peas.  I've got a cup of spiced kidney beans (recipe below), surrounded by broccoli.  And there are ham scraps underneath that.

My excuse for a butterfly is made of nectarine slices and strawberry bits.  There are more strawberries beside that.  Then there are snap peas and tomatoes.  With a little ladybug tomato slice.  Which I'm probably a little bit too proud of.  Because I thought of that all by myself.  If I had more time and a decent pair of kitchen scissors, I would have done the spots from nori.  But I ended using Wilton food markers.  I imagine they work better on ... not tomatoes.

*****

Edit... because I forgot the recipe... *sheepish*

Spiced Kidney Beans

1 can kidney beans
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 tsp spicy mustard
2 Tbs sugar or honey
1/4 tsp powdered garlic
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
Black pepper to taste (I add a lot...)

Rinse the kidney beans.  In a small frying pan, mix all the other ingredients.  Add beans.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly.  They are done when the sauce is thickened and sticky.

Bento #80... and jogging

Wait... Bento #80?  Didn't we just to #82? ... Yeah... I may have skipped a number...

*****

I've been really good with my jogging for the past couple of months.  I've worked up to the Couch to 5k week 6.  Which I've realized varies between a couple of programs.  My current run is a 5 minute walk, 8 minute run, 5 minute walk, 8 minute run, 5 minute walk.  I've been doing some weeks over, or for an extra day or two, which is why I'm only at 6.

It doesn't sound like much.  8 minutes at a time.  But.  Taking into account that the last time I ran for more than about 30 seconds was when I was in junior high (more than 10 years ago), and when I did it, I ended up in the hospital for a week with asthma and bronchitis... this is a major thing for me!  I think the coolest thing for me is also one of the dumbest...  I had a redbox movie and about two minutes to return it.  The 7-11 is just around the  block, so I just took off running.  And I made it!  And I wasn't winded at all!  Little victories people.  Little victories.

I do intend to run a 5k at some point.  This fall most likely.  I'm actually looking forward to it.

*****

Lunch!

Everything except the salmon came from a Bountiful Basket...

I've got pan-fried salmon with broccoli and miso-roasted butternut squash.  The other layer has grape tomatoes, salted cabbage, strawberries, and nectarine slices.

I actually made two of these... but this was the cuter of the two.

Giveaway winner announced!

Why hello!

First off, I'm a slacker.  May was crazy.  That was my excuse for not making healthy lunches for myself.  This week?  I didn't make time and I ate out EVERY SINGLE DAY.  I haven't done that in a long time.  And I'm feeling unhealthy and strapped for cash.  That'll show me.

And then.  Because self control, motivation, and other things have been lacking for the past week... and because Lock'n'Lock has a discount code out for 45% off your entire purchase... I may have bought five new boxes.  Yeah.  I'll tell you about them when they come in...

So.  Expect more lunches. Healthy, colorful, guilt-ridden lunches.

And now, the winner of the giveaway!  I put all the entries on little slips of paper and handed the pile over to my four year old nephew.  He picked...

Kellybmomof3!

She said,

Just started following after finding you on WFLW. 

Why I bento? 

It's a little something I do for me! 37 years old and I bento for myself! I just started in January and really enjoy it! I blogged about it and my friends at work even come by and see what's in my lunch each day! I love it! I am also trying to lose weight and I find that bento-ing helps with portion control. Works out well for me! I just need to work on my creativity side for design food. That's my favorite part about other peoples blogs. LOVE to see all the creativity...and new recipes!!


Congrats!  Please email me at scrumptiousbento @ gmail . com (without spaces....) with your address!

Bentos #81 and #82...

Just a quick post... It's late, but I still need to go on my walk.  I've been attempting to tire myself out.  Lately I've been in the habit of waking up a couple of times a night and then popping wide awake at 7:00 in the morning..  I went on a walk a couple of nights ago and it seemed to help.  So that's the plan...

It's been a while since you've seen me attempt to dress up my lunches, yes?  This lunch has turkey meatballs with bone picks and a yummy pasta thing I've been making with spinach, tomatoes, and Philly cooking creams.  The bottom has peaches, blackberries, a homemade apple gel with watermelon bugeyes and a celery mouth, more celery, and cabbage.  I grew up just eating sliced cabbage with salt.  For some reason I haven't done that once since I started getting my baskets...

This was a quickly packed breakfast bento.  I love this box.  It's just the right size for something like this, and it's vintage, and it's cool looking.  I stuffed it with peaches, a plum, watermelon, and blackberries.  And a couple of Dove chocolates.  Because I'm a big girl and no one can tell me not to have chocolate for breakfast...

*****

Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway!  Only one more week!