0 Bento #243 - Chow Mein & Grapes

We have a reprisal of the chow mein from the other day, another vegetarian lunch.  E just adores these noodles, her bento box is always empty when she comes home.

Cute grapes!  Letter picks spell...GRAPE.  SHOCKING!  And Trader Joes yogurt stars.

Snack is dried apricots and granola.

All packed up.

Bento #243 - Chow mein with steamed vegetables, grapes and yogurt stars.  Snack - Dried apricots and granola.

7 Bento #242 - Chow Mein & Cherries

We have a giraffe theme today in an Easy Lunchbox with some yummy chow mein and steamed veggies.

A cute ladybug Baby Bel cheese.

And one of my spiced pumpkin-cranberry muffins for snacktime.

Bento #242 - Veggie chow mein, cherries and cheese.  Snack - Pumpkin muffin.

3 Bento #208 - Beef Stir Fry Noodles & Veg

So we are in the middle of our third week of school!  It's a bit of an adjustment (OMG, waking up at 6ish am every morning is KILLING ME) but we are excited about what the year holds.  I volunteered to be room mom again, so I have some work cut out for me, but since I'm crazy and love all that organizational stuff (charts, calendars and to-do lists) I think I'll do okay.  Once or twice a week I let Ella get school lunch, which is amazingly healthy, for the most part.  Yesterday they had a fruit/yogurt/peanut butter plate and salad as a choice.  Love it!  Takes a little pressure off me.  

Today's lunch is delicious.  I made my Korean barbecue stir fry with carrots, bell peppers and spring onions. 

Bento #208 - Korean stir fry with noodles, organic carrots, yellow bell peppers and spring onions, frozen blackberries, and multivitamins.  Snack - Applesauce and spiced nuts.  

1 Bento #204 - Thai Shrimp Dumplings & Champagne Grapes

Champagne grapes?  I'd never heard of them before, at least not for general consumption and availability at my local market!  They are the tiniest little grapes you ever saw.  They are tart, but not overwhelmingly so.

And, we have the sad giraffe picks.  Poor giraffes, why so glum?  The noodles are very yummy, though, sauteed with lots of veggies.  

Bento #204 - Thai shrimp dumplings, stir-fry veggie noodles, and champagne grapes.  Snack - Banana.

2 Bento #178 - Veggie Yakisoba & Fruit

We've been on spring break like most of the rest of the U.S., so bento lunches have been far and few between.  Today we have a simple tray with veggie yakisoba noodles with lots of steamed veggies like water chestnuts, snow peas, slivered carrots, mushrooms, peppers and edamame. E loves this dish and asks for it a lot.  Sometimes I'll add grilled chicken for protein. A tropical fruit salad rounds it out for dessert.

Bento #178 - Yakisoba noodes and steamed veggies, and fruit salad medley.  

3 Bento #156 - Chicken, Noodle & Veg Stir Fry

Today's lunch is leftover from last night's dinner.  It's very similar to the Korean barbecue I did last week, the only differences being I used the container of chicken, and instead of yellow squash I used lots of sliced mushrooms, and added a bit more soy sauce and ginger. Same idea, though.  Incidentally, a few of my knuckles are sorely abused from all the ginger peeling and grating I did last night.  Ouch!  

Since we have a complete meal in one dish, I just added some grapes on drink stirrer skewers.  I packed along her adorable pink piggy chopsticks, which I'm sure she'll use with zeal, becoming a conversation piece at the lunch table.

Bento #156 - Korean chicken, veg & noodle stir fry, grapes and a cheese stick (not shown.)

9 Korean Barbecue and Asian Noodles

We took a field trip Monday to Super H Mart (I say field trip because it's about a 40 minute drive for us.)  How I'm awed by that place!  In fact, it was exactly one year to the day that I first discovered it.

In the fresh meat department I found fresh packed containers of marinated meats - chicken, beef, pork belly, etc..  There weren't any ingredients on the labels, but I took a chance on the chicken and the beef ribeye, hoping that they weren't too spicy.  I also got fresh heads of garlic, baby bok choy and some fresh pan fried noodles.  I also had veggies left from my produce basket for the week - some yellow squash, green scallions and sliced carrots, all of which I included in the stir fry.

I chose to use the ribeye for ease and speed of preparation because the slices were paper thin.  I wish I knew exactly what was in it, because it was delicious.  It definitely had sesame oil, sugar, garlic, soy sauce.  Hmm, sounds like Korean barbecue!

Here we have the prepared veggies - carrots, yellow squash, 5 or so scallions and 2 cloves of garlic.

I heated a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in my wok (one that my mother brought me years ago on a trip to Japan...as you can see by the patina, it's been well-used) and threw in the squash and carrots, with a sprinkling of salt.

Next, over high heat I added the beef, a little at a time so that it didn't bring down the temperature of the pan too much, as well as half the scallions and all the garlic.  

When all the beef browned, I added the rest of the beef and the marinating liquid and cooked it until the sauce boiled.  Then I added some noodles to the sauce, and tossed through, cooking for about 3 minutes.

At the very end I threw in the baby bok choy.  They are very tender and only take moments to wilt, so it's the best time to add it.

Toss well with some cracked black pepper.

Top each bowl with a sprinkling of the reserved chopped scallions.

And have two bowls!  I was expecting leftovers, but the entire amount I made vanished during one sitting.  Even my noodle-hating husband had two servings!

12 Bento #133 - Double Noodle Bento

This double bento is from Friday evening.  We took E to have an evening playdate with our friend's daughter K (while we parents went to dinner AT the movie theatre) so I made them noodles and wontons.  They are just regular ramen noodles, but I always make the sauce that seasons them myself and throw the powder packet away.  There is way, way too much sodium and MSG in those things!  It's just soy sauce, garlic, ginger, dash of rice wine vinegar and toasted sesame oil, and some pepper.  Sometimes I get a little wild and add a dash of fish sauce and some sliced green onions.  I would normally add some frozen veggie mix (peas, carrots, corn, etc.) but Miss K is a little finicky, so I held off.  Of course, the animal chopsticks make it extra fun.

Bento #133 - Chinese noodles, chicken-cilantro wontons, yogurt stars, edamame, and an organic peanut butter-stuffed Aussie apple (not pictured.)