#008: Lunch meat is for more than brown-bagging!

Calories: 225
Contents: Turkey wraps made of mesquite turkey, Sargento's Ultra Thin Pepperjack Slices, and spinach from my mother's garden; watermelon flowers, fat-free Chobani greek yogurt.

I don't usually like using the white tubs that came with my bento box, I think it's way cuter to use the silicone cups and just jam everything in there but I don't have any silicone cups large enough to hold the amount of greek yogurt I wanted to bring. Usually I don't have to worry about how I hold my bento since nothing can really "spill" but I currently am giving myself a 50/50 chance of getting yogurt smeared all over inside the box!

I'm liking the turkey slice rolls as an alternative to eggs and octodogs as a protein!

#007: SouthwesTamagoyaki Experiment = Failure

Calories: 123

Contents: Watermelon slices, two celery sticks, SoutwesTamagoyaki, Spinach

I love the slightly sweet tamagoyaki recipe I use but, being from the southwest, eggs to me typically means cheese and hot sauce. I've been trying to modify a tamagoyaki recipe to have that same feel but so far no luck. Today's adventure was no more successful than the last. Rather than mixing in soy sauce and rice wine vinegar (yes, still using the vinegar recipe instead of mirin!) I mixed in Cholula hot sauce and a small amount of taco seasoning. Interestingly it had the "kick" without the flavor. Would not recommend.

#006: It's a zoo!

Calories: 398

Contents: Glutinous rice w/ soy sauce in the giraffe sauce vial, steamed broccoli, boiled egg with Cholula in the chicken sauce vial, watermelon stars.

Man adding in a good sized-portion of rice really jacks up the calories! Looks delicious though.

Today's box actually was up in the air for quite some time. I experimented with making the little octopus hotdogs but I didn't like the way they looked in the box (and they were tasty so I kind of just wanted to eat them!) and I also roasted more brussels sprouts. I overcooked the sprouts, though, so I just discarded them and opted for the broccoli instead for my veggie.

The animal picks and vials are a part of this set on Amazon which just arrived. I adore the vials and picks, they're so cute! The silicone cups are so small though I can barely imagine what I could put in them. Seeds, maybe. At their base they're smaller than a quarter so it's hard to imagine putting more than half a bite of any given food in them. But the set was cheap and the picks and vials are awesome, so I'm happy with the purchase.

#005: Comfy bed for the tamagoyaki!

Calories: 160

Contents: Egg-White Tamagoyaki on a bed of Spinach with Tomato Slices, Raw Carrot flowers, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, and Watermelon flowers.

I wish I knew how to quit you, you delicious egg-white tamagoyaki. I had to take out one of the sections in order to fit the tomato slices in between but I thought it came out okay. (Plus I got to munch on the removed bit of tamagoyaki! :D) The brussels sprouts roasted easily and quickly; I just halved them, tossed them with salt and pepper and 1 tsp. olive oil, then roasted them on a pan in the oven at 400 F until they were browning. They were pretty good at room temperature, though I'd have preferred them warm. I opted for raw carrots instead of steamed like the previous bento because, while delicious, the steamed carrots shriveled a bit and just didn't look as pleasant.

I hope my glutinous rice arrives soon!

#004: Southwest flavor and Mr. Fiskar!

Calories: 207

Contents: Raw Celery, Steamed Carrots, Honeydew Stars, Hard-Boiled Mr. Fiskar egg, and leftover long-grain white rice with shredded chicken, salsa verde, and green pepper stars.

I felt like I was relying too much on fruit to get my plant foods in so I tried to incorporate a few more veggies this time. The flavors didn't work super great together but alone they tasted fine and I love vegetables in any form, so it's not something I'd swear off of in the future.

This was my first time using a hard-boiled egg mold. It wasn't too tough but the design didn't show up as brilliantly as I expected. I think I need to get the egg hotter before placing it into the mold and submerge the mold in much colder water.

I feel like I've been relying too much on tamagoyaki for a protein source so, along with the egg that I just couldn't escape (look how cute he is!) I repurposed some of the left-over white rice from the previous failed experiment and tossed it in a pan with salsa verde and a bit of shredded chicken. It was delicious.I ended up eating at home so I was able to reheat the dish; I'm unsure if it would have tasted as good at room temperature, which is how I've usually been having my bento.

So far this has actually been my favorite bento, I think just because I love southwestern food though!

#003: Egg-White Tamagoyaki - Round 2

Calories: 143

Contents: Egg-White Tamagoyaki, spinach and tomato salad, honeydew, watermelon, and banana stars.

I tried the egg-white tamagoyaki again, this time using 4 T = 1 Egg instead of 3 and it turned out much better than the last time. I will likely continue making my tamagoyaki like this; the entire roll is <100 kcal. Still disappointed in the last bento's long-grain rice experience I switched back to the salad and ordered glutinous rice online. Hopefully it arrives soon!

I was worried cutting the bananas the day before may lead to brown, grody bananas by the time it was ready to eat but I was wrong, they were great. I typically shy away from bananas since melon tends to be just as satisfying but with fewer calories by volume but when "lunch" is <150 Calories I think it can be managed!

#002: That did not turn out as expected.

Calories: 241

Contents: Egg-White Tamagoyaki, Long-Grain White Rice & Soy Sauce, Watermelon and Honeydew Stars

It is very difficult to find glutionous rice in my small town so I made long grain white rice instead. I don't have sauce containers so I added soy sauce when I prepared it, the night before I was going to eat it. It did not turn out well. I'm not sure if it's because of the rice quality or the fact the rice sat in the fridge all night but it ended up being very very dry. I didn't even finish eating it. I will not do that again.

In an experiment to lower calories I made tamagoyaki (still using vinegar instead of mirin) with 100% Egg Whites instead of full eggs. The flavor and texture remained wonderful (though a little airy/bubbly on the texture side of things) but the volume was significantly lower than with full eggs, despite using the recommended 3 T whites = 1 Egg amount.