65.

for dad.

Left: Octdogs, broccoli, sweet potato + butter, mustard in the watermelon cup.
Right: Lettuce, bleu cheese, heart egg, salt in the apple, ranch in the orange cup, blackberries, watermelon, grape tomatoes, orange
Outside: A note for my dad to PLEASE not microwave/throw away/anything of my sauce cups/divider cups, etc.

62

dad's.

Left to Right: Spiral ham slices, grape tomatoes, pineapple, broccoli, ranch in the cup, red grapes
Outside container: sweet potato, butter

37

for daddy.

Main [ large ] dish: fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy
Side: Corn with butter and salt, grape tomatoes, banana muffin

This was dinner on Friday, and mom plans ahead for lunches, so she made some extra fried chicken. There were thighs and drumsticks, so I took those off the bones for him, put those in there, made some instant mashed potatoes, put some gravy over top that. Then I took a small lock&lock container and a bit of a can of corn and put it in there, put a pat or so of butter and some salt on that, threw in the banana muffin and then used the grape tomatoes as a filler.

twenty-two.

for my papa.

Left to Right: Chocolate chip cookie, Shepherder bread, tangerine slices, grape tomatoes, baby carrots, ranch for carrots and tomatoes, butter, and my mom's lasagna.

All in all, a fairly easy and quick bento to throw together. My mom suggested that I give my dad lasagna for lunch, since he doesn't eat dinner due to acid reflux problems.

He also said that yesterday's lunch was about the best i've made yet, so I think that will be a future recipie to make for him, as well as me. I've been considering going to work with him when I have a day off. Maybe on spring break or something? I dunno.

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).