Stay at Home Bento - BOMB Bento #1

I noticed Hapa Bento was having a B.O.M.B. bento challenge . While I'm still a novice at the whole bento thing, I figure this is about having fun and eating healthy, not having the most beautiful bento in existence. Even though tomorrow is not a work day, I roasted some veggies for dinner and didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to make a "roasted" bento. My lunch consists of a black bean burger on honey wheat, raspberries and blueberries, roasted Brussels sprouts and roasted sweet potato. I hadn't ever had Brussels sprouts before a couple years ago, but they've become a household favorite. I simply toss the cut up vegetable with a little bit of oil and kosher salt, plus some brown sugar to downplay the bitterness and bake at 400F for about 20minutes. I love it! If the Brussels sprouts are popular, the sweet potatoes are pure heaven to the taste buds. My son is such a huge sweet potato fan, but still has no teeth, so I had to mash up a bowl of the stuff just for him. We couldn't feed it to him fast enough!

Color Code Score

• Brussels Sprouts - 10 pts
• Sweet Potato - 10 + 5 pts
• Blueberries and Raspberries 10 + 5 pts
• 5pt bonus for eating from all 4 color groups!

This bento is worth 45pts.

Back to Work Bentos

Part of my 2010 plan for improving my eating habits includes experimenting with whole grains beyond wheat. This bento, from Jan 4th 2010, includes red quinoa flavored with miso, a clementine, scrambled egg whites, and raspberries and blueberries. The stars are made from Tofutti cheese. I'm embarrassed to say, this bento never got eaten. *hides in shame* When I got to work, a plain old whole wheat bagel seemed so much more appealing. I'm not sure if it was due to the fact that I was so tired from being off the work schedule for awhile or if I was just being a bit too adventurous for the early morning hours.


Since time in the morning is at such a premium, I pack my food the night before. Most days, lunch consists of leftovers from dinner. As you can see, we'd had piles of squash. I always make a large quantity of veggies, so I was stacking as I cut in order to save room.

Lunch was roasted yellow squash, zucchini, and onions; black beans; carrots and hummus; plus some avocado. This is a pretty typical meal for my family. It's simple and tasty!

Color Code Score

Breakfast - 30pts (If I'd eaten it!)

• Raspberries & Blueberries 10 + 5 pts
• Clementine 10 + 5 pts

Lunch - 35pts

• Yellow Squash and Zucchini 10pts
• Carrots 10 + 5 pts
• Avocado 10pts (usually this would be 10 + 5 bonus, but the amount seems to small to justify that)
• 5pt bonus for eating from all 4 color groups.

If I'd eaten both meals, this would amount to 70pts.

Last Bentos of 2009

Usually, I take the entire week from Christmas Eve to New Year's off, but this year I became a mom. As any parent knows, kids wreak havoc on every aspect of life, especially anything you've precisely planned out. The week before Christmas, Senorcito ... aka the slobber machine ... aka my baby boy ... ended up sick with croup then I had the flu. Thankfully, we both recovered, but I ran out of PTO and had to go in to work to make up some time before the end of the year. These bentos are from Dec 30th, 2009 ...

Most weekday mornings, I don't have an extra minute to sit down and eat breakfast before I go to work. I am definitely not the type to skip meals (I think I'd pass out!), so a portable breakfast is a must. On this morning I packed an apple, cheerios, and pistachios. I also had a bottle of soy milk, not pictured.



Lunch was a small green salad with poppy seed dressing, a clementine, and vegetable gyoza from Trader Joe's with soy sauce. I was a little disappointed with the gyoza. The recipe seems different than it was in the past. It was a bit too gingery for my taste, but edible none the less.

My afternoon snack was carrots and my favorite hummus (the original stuff from Trader Joe's).

Color Code Score
Breakfast - 10pts

• Apple 10pts

Lunch - 35pts

• Mixed Greens 10pts
• Clementine 10pts + 5 bonus
• Mixed Veggies 10pts

Snack - 15pts

• Carrots 10pts + 5 bonus pts

The bentos total 60pts.

My First Bento - Archive 2

I've been digging into my archive of food photos for some inspiration. This was my very first bento box. I remember being shocked at how tiny it was. Finding something to fit into this box was a challenge for someone used to PB sandwiches ...

The lunch box contains tofu noodles and sugar snap peas with a soy sauce, plus cherries and a clementine.

In the breakfast tin, there's a steamed bean paste bun, red and green grapes, and almonds.

This reminds me of how long it's been since I've been to the Asian grocery in town. I miss those bean paste buns!

Color Score

Lunch - 30pts

• Sugar snap peas 10pts
• Cherries 10pts
• Clementine 10pts

Breakfast - 20pts

• Green Grapes 10pts
• Red Grapes 10pts

That's 50pts total for the two meals.

Hummus Bento - Archive 1

It's Day 1 for me. Making a basic, but good looking, bento is harder than I thought. Those bitty cutters are a new skill I'll need to grasp. Of course, I made it even harder than it had to be by cutting sun-dried tomatoes. The little stars looked like blobs, so I settled for one big star. Photographing these guys was tough. I played with the settings on my camera, wandered to different rooms, and turned lights on and off until I think I got it about right. There's definitely room for improvement, but it's a start in the right direction.

Bento - The lunch bento is filled with pita bread, salad greens, fresh raspberries, Tuscan white bean hummus w/ a sun-dried tomato star, and baby carrots. The snack bento contains blueberries, half a banana (the scraps are under the berries), and raw pecans.

Color Score

Lunch - 40pts

• Carrots 10 + 5 bonus
• Raspberries 10 + 5 bonus
• Sundried Tomatoes & Spinach 10pts (Note: Normally these would be 10pts each plus 5 bonus points each, but the portion is too small to merit full points.)

Snack -25pts

• Banana - 10 pts
• Blueberries 10 + 5 bonus

The total for lunch and one snack equals 65pts.

Color Code

My son is 6 months old already! Time is speeding by at record pace. One of the milestones of his newly acquired age is the introduction of solid foods. The little man has greeted these new tastes with everything from absolute delight to utter disgust. He will eagerly ingest sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and banana mixed with rice cereal, but has downright refused carrots after flashing a priceless series of faces clearly reflecting his feelings on the matter. This new stage in his life has me once again focusing more time on the topic of healthy eating. Nourishing my son with the healthiest foods available, as well as, taking care of my own body has me searching for inspiration. Recently, I came across a book called The Color Code that I had stashed away in the back of my closet. It's just what I need at the moment. The concept is simple: eat your fruits and veggies! Every serving of fruit or vegetable eaten per day is worth 10 points. Bonus points are also designated for produce on the "super-foods" list, getting servings from all four color groups, and trying a fruit or veggie you haven't eaten in awhile. The goal is to get as many points as possible per day, 100 being optimal. I've already put together some color packed meals for tomorrow. In this season of cookies, candy, and nog I think we all could use some more fruits and vegetables.

Week 1 in Bentos

I planned for 5 days worth of fresh cooked meals, but it just didn't happen. My excuses range from being too tired after coming home from the gym to those uncomfortable and unpleasant side effects of pregnancy. However, I did manage to put together and photograph some bentos. After figuring out my calorie needs last week, I also tracked my intake on Monday. I was shocked to see how few calories I had prior to dinner. The fact that I eat three meals a days, plus snacks every two hours should make it easy to get over 2000 calories, but when I cut out a lot of the high calorie junk I find it hard to consume enough calories.

Exercise wise, I went to the gym on Sunday and Tuesday, did some ypga-type stretching several days this week, and walked dogs (both at the shelter and at home) today.

^ Friday, January 16th, I broke out the metal tiffin. For lunch, I had a black bean burger on whole wheat bread w/ a slice of mozzarella, another salad, and a fruit combo of clementines, kiwi, and blackberries. Yum! The fruit was fantastic.

Another discovery this week was that it's extremely difficult to take photos at night in my kitchen. Grrr! The overhead spotlights are glaring and produce shadows, and it's too dark when I turn them out.