42 + 43.

for me.

Top tier: Fruit and nut trail mix, fruit by the foot, mini tacos.
Bottom tier: Roast beef sandwich, quartered.

So after a weekend [thursday - monday afternoon] of being at my friends house, I came home, shucked my clothes, since my friend has cats and my mom is allergic to them, into a laundry hamper, showered and got into pajamas, I felt like making a bento. Partially because I was hungry, and partially because I wanted to. So this was the remains of what sounded interesting to me in my house. I made this while my mom was out shopping, so I didn't have any of the stuff she bought to use. Still yummy though.

for papa.

Round ziploc container: Cinnamon sugar cooked apples
Lock&Lock: Sweet and sour pork, sticky rice
Large ziploc container [top to bottom]: pan fried potstickers, soy sauce, orange segments, asparagus spears

I was going to make some teriyaki chicken for my dad for lunch tonight, but I realized that I didn't have the chicken marinated, so I threw some rice vinegar, brown sugar and some soy sauce into a bag with the chicken and threw it into the fridge to mingle for a few days while it gets nice and oh so tasty.

So I just threw together some leftovers, pretty much. Put the rice in the lock and lock and put the sweet and sour pork on top. Chopped up the apples and threw them in a bowl with cinnamon sugar and a bit more sugar with a little water, threw it in the microwave for 4 minutes, and then stirred them when they were done and then put a bit more sugar on it after tasting it and then put the apples, juice and all into the ziploc.

While that was going on I heated up a pan and cooked the potstickers, throwing them in the pan, frozen with some oil, letting them warm up a minute or three and then put 2/3 cup warm water in the pan and covered them for 8 mins to cook. Easier than microwaving them, I think. And they taste so much better. I also put some soy sauce into a little dixie cup and when the potstickers were done I put them on a plate to cool a little bit, and then tucked the soy sauce next to the potstickers.

I then peeled an orange, and peeled the orange segments apart to fan them out and look pretty, after putting a piece of foil down, so the orange didn't taste like asparagus in the morning. And then I decided I needed something green, and I found some leftover steamed asparagus in the fridge.

Now, I have no idea why, but my mother steams veggies past their peak. Like, normally broccoli is kind of a brownish nasty green. But I've been educating her recently that the longer you cook veggies like that, the nutrients get sucked right out of the veggies. But she does. And it kinda irritates me. Oh well.

Then put that all together and got some of our laquered wood [I think?] chopsticks so mom could put it with his lunch in the morning so he could eat it with that.

I hope he likes it! He generally does like the things I make for his lunches. I try to make them more like dinners, because due to his acid reflux, he can't eat past 4pm or so without feeling yucky. ):

bentos 20 and 21

mine, for lunch today

Top: Pistachios, broccoli, grape tomatoes, ranch in lemon cup
Bottom: Shell noodles with butter, garlic salt, nutmeg and parmesean cheese, banana
Lid: Spoon, fork and string cheese.

To make the shell noodles:
My brother (or his girlfriend, most likely) a couple of weeks ago made macaroni and cheese from scratch, and they left half a box of shells, so I totally took them and threw them in the cupboard. I cooked them in boiling water with salt and some olive oil to just past al dente (I don't like chewy noodles) and then cooled them, and then put in a ziploc bag and threw them in the fridge. Then this morning, as I was making my lunch, I put some butter down in the pan, threw the noodles in and sprinkled in some garlic salt and nutmeg (I unfortunately couldn't find the whole nuts, so I used ground) and then let it cook for a minute, moving the pasta around so it wouldn't stick. Then I saw some parmesean cheese in the fridge and sprinkled that over, and let it heat up in the pan and stirred it around.
I would honestly eat these hot, since I don't have a microwave source at school, I cannot easily do that. But, tasty nonetheless.

I'm trying to eat healthier bentos (yeah, I know butter isin't really THAT healthy, but it IS healthier than margarine, ick) and I thought this was a good start to it. I got a good portion of fruits and veggies. I just need to have more meat/protien in it, I think. My mom is always complaining that I dont eat enough salads and veggies. I mean, I like them and all, it's just a hassle to prepare them a lot of the time.

for my dad for tomorrow's lunch.

Left to Right: Cake balls, salt, pears, chicken in a white wine cream sauce, asparagus and spinach in white wine cream sauce, shell pasta.

Now, for the chicken and veggies, I kind of did what I normally do when making Chicken Florentine at home. Although I didn't feel like chopping up fresh onions and garlic, I just threw some dried onions and sliced garlic into the wine and soaked it before I put the wine in the pan. I cooked the chicken (pan frying -- dredging in flour+salt+pepper -- in butter) and then took the chicken out of the pan and threw the white wine mixture into the pan, let that reduce, threw some cream in (eyeball it -- god, I sound like Rachel Ray) and let that reduce some more until you get a nice thick sauce, and then throw the chicken back in and coat it in the sauce.
For the asparagus and spinach I pretty much did the same thing, except a bit differently. I took the asparagus, cleaned them up and threw some butter into the pan, then sauteed the asparagus for a minute or two. Then came the wine. I just splashed enough in to help the asparagus cook a bit and then I reduced the wine and then added a bit of cream, and then I saw some baby spinach in the fridge, so I put a bit of that in there also and let the sauce reduce down even more into a nice thick sauce. Then I put the asparagus mixture over the chicken and noodles.
HOPEFULLY I will get a good report on this one tomorrow. It should come back empty, as per usual (since my dad will eat just about anything) and it's nice that he gives me suggestions and stuff to work on my recipies if he has any qualms with them (I think he wants me to be an awesome cook for whoever I marry, hahahaha).