0 Bento #180 - Grilled Ham & Cheese "Apples"

Today's a PlanetBox lunch with grilled ham & cheese cut into apples.  I think you can tell when I need to get to the store when we have dried fruit, but it's still healthy and very convenient, and they come unsweetened.  I always have a few bags on hand for lunches and as additions into quick breads.

Bento #180 - Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, carrot chips, roasted peanuts, dried blueberries, cherries and banana chips and vitamins (multi/iron, calcium and Omega-3.)

4 Bento #123 - Chicken Sandwich & Cucumber Flowers

First of all, my wonderful husband just installed a new kitchen light fixture for me with four 50-watt halogen bulbs, so I finally have much needed brighter lighting in there!  However, I now need to play around with the picture-taking a bit so things don't look crazy washed out.

Second, I have something awful - a phenomenon known as "Pine Mouth".  Sounds very strange, but apparently quite harmless unless you're the one suffering from it.  Everything I put in my mouth tastes bitter and metallic!  I started Googling for possible causes of such a terrible symptom, and after checking off liver disease and diabetes, discovered that pine nuts, yes, beloved pignolias, one of the star ingredients in the pesto I made the other evening, can cause a bitter taste for up to two months!  Anyway, I'm taking my half-used bag of pine nuts back to TJ's and getting my money back.  I really hope this is a short-lived disruption of my sense of taste.  I thought I was going... err...nuts while making tomato sauce last night.  Have you ever heard of  this?

As for the lunch today, we went out to eat yesterday and E had one chicken tender left, so I made a sandwich of it on a toasted bun.  I seriously cannot stand to waste food.  And yes, that is my granola bite I bought from the bake sale yesterday. ;)

Bento #123 - Mini chicken sandwiches, organic banana chips, tango lettuce, cucumber flowers, homemade spinach and onion dip and a granola bite.

4 Bento #115 - Veggie Shells & Trail Mix

Today I took some organic tri-color pasta shells made from spinach and tomato, and tossed in some frozen veggies - peas, corn, cauliflower and carrots, in a light herb butter sauce, and some shredded cheese and cream.  Very yummy!  The trail mix is just some banana chips, craisins, apricots, macadamia nuts and ducky crackers all tossed together.

Bento #115 - Veggie shell pasta, dried fruit trial mix, strawberry yogurt (not shown.)

1 Bento #82 - Egg Flower & Wild Blueberries

Today we're going to help my SIL pack up her classroom, so I packed a lunch for E to take and eat there while we work.

Bento #82 - hardboiled eggs with a blackberry, wild blueberries, artisan lettuce, mini oatmeal cookies and banana chips.

Also, this is in a new bento box that I picked up from Niko Niko this weekend.  I'm impressed by the locking style - instead of the handle hinges being the locking point, it's those tabs on the bento box itself that lock into the handles, so a lot less chance for hinge breakage.  I can see this one lasting a long time!