Bento Bento On My Mind

I just don't know about Polly. At least she doesn't need me to play with her all the time. She's quite content playing little games in her "padded cell"!


Since I am back at the Desert Botanical Garden, doing some seasonal work, I am working all day so I have to resume my lunch-taking adventures. For the past couple of years, I have been exploring my Japanese heritage - the Chopstick Culture of eating from a Bento Box. What is a Bento Box? It's delicious morsels of a variety of food geared toward eating with chopsticks. So, no supersized, giant pieces of whatever you eat. I thought, "What better way to control my portions!" The challenge for me, was to gather enough variety for a balanced meal. Some rice or noodles, some protein, vegetables and fruit, and yes, dessert. The portion sizes are small so you can have a decadent cheesecake but it has to fit in the Bento Box! That's the trick! The calories of a slice of cheesecake can be enormous, but a bite or two can be the perfect calorie count, never feeling deprived.


I usually cook a main meal to plan for leftovers that I can put in my Bento. I assemble it in the morning just before work. This time it was pork thingy's - um, dumplings, I guess. I've never cooked with gyoza skins, that's the outer sheet of the pork meatballs. The ground pork was filled with ginger, onions, mango, mango chutney, slivered chili peppers, snow pea pods, chili powder for an extra kick, and salt, pepper of course. My little steamer could only hold ten of them, so I baked the rest in little mini muffin pans. That actually worked out better because it didn't take as long to fold around the pork, which is a definite technique that needs to be practiced.

I have two Bento Boxes from a long time ago. They weren't used much because I felt like they didn't hold enough food for my satisfaction. Little did I know...
They usually have two separate layers, fitting one on top of the other, then the lid. The bottom, I fill with a small serving of rice or noodles - today, it's rice with pork dumplings on top, and I had some leftover roasted vegetables in the fridge. It's interesting too, how I save more leftover foods, even if it's a couple of tablespoons for my Bento. It adds color, some variety and nutrients too. The next section has pickled vegetables. I took a pear with me to work, so I opted for some pickled veggies instead of fruit. It was delicious, kept me from overeating and I like to make them pretty, laying out the foods in a very appealing way.

There's even creativity in making Bento Boxes!


My Featured Jewelry Piece ...


I made this green dichroic glass bracelet a long time ago. I took it out the other day to polish it. Since it's getting cooler (ha ha), I can wear heavier bracelets. I made each link from precious metal clay, made the dichroic glass cabochons and fired them together.



Even though the glass is green, there is a dichroic pattern in each one making them unique at the same time. I'm selling this for $250.00 retail. My blog special price is $175.00!



Have a Great Day. I'm watching the Memorial this morning, and have been watching it all week. New York's Memorial is so grand, so beautiful. It touches my soul.