More leftover!?!

More left overs! Hah. It's so easy to throw in a bento. Sorry no cute bentos, but I promise I will take the time on a cute one soon!

Turkey update, and leftover bento!

know it isn't thanksgiving, or christmas. So most of you are wondering, "Why roast a turkey on a random thursday?" Well, because it's almost friday and I didn't want to make a turkey catastophe public to my family if possible.  However this was a meal to be very proud of. It came out fabulous. I never realized turkey wasn't soposed to be a dry tasteless bird. I was in love with turkey all over again after the first bite!

My beautiful brown turkey! It got a little too dark in some places but it was sooo good.

Okay, for some people this might be gross. That is a turkey neck in potatoes and carrots. It turned out fabuloso. I used just a little bit of turkey drippings from the pan to give it some seasoning. And cooked it for a good two hours in my le crueset (love these pans) and it was fall apart potato goodness.

And last but not least, the leftovers bento! We will be eating turkey for awhile after this. But I have a big slice of turkey underneath carrots, stuffing and potatoes. Kiwi, oranges, and concord grapes. Note: Concord grapes are heavenly. This was my first time getting my hands on some. They are not like any other grape I have ever had. You peel away the skin and get a dark purple outer layer that melts away, then a tangy center almost like a jelly ball of goodness. I don't know if they are that easy to come by, or if i just overlooked them before but they are well worth the price.

The smells in my kitchen.

Not exactly a bento! But, I was off today so I decided to finally get around to attempting a few different things in the kitchen. I will definitly post pictures of the finished products but for now here are some starters.

Candied Lemons:

I got this recipie from Martha Stewart!

It only takes 1 lemon, 1 cup of sugar, and a cup of water.

My first ever turkey:

Now this isn't finished yet, but this was my first attempt at roasting a turkey. I put stove top stuffing up it's hieney, rubbed it with savory 5 season blend and garlic. I also injected it with a garlic and butter  sauce.

My kitchen smells heavenly right now. Between the turkey and the sweet smell of lemons it's damn near mouth watering. I will be sure to post up the finished products. I plan on dipping the lemons partially in chocolate. I am testing them out first before I make a huge batch as christmas candies to give out!

Oranges, apricots, and carrots oh my!

Was in an orange mood apparently today! Had to break up the color with a green pepper. Stir fry in the bottom tier with corn and red pepper. Oranges and apricot rows, carrots and weiner blossoms.

P.S.

My Blog list isn't updating everyone anymore. Any ideas why, and how I can fix this?

More bento tools!

Sorry for the lack of real posts lately. I promise I will get back on track soon. The holidays keep me busy at work, and home. I wanted to share these few things hubs found for me at our local hobby store! They are little metal cutters, and they are perfect for bento! They come with three different sizes and I think they were only 1$ and some change.

 

 

I also found this super cute bento box on ebay and I am dying to have it! Anyone know anywhere else I could buy it? I think it is super cute.

 

 

Also a quick link to a recipie I used on thanksgiving. It was fabulous!  brussel sprouts! They turned out so amazing! Not the healthiest with the bacon and cream, but they tasted wonderful.

bento to go

sorry bento on the go. I am out of fruit so i just mashed things together. Pasta salad with peas, stir fry, fruit salad, bell pepper and onigiri head it looks like a mummy?

It's my party and ill cry if i want too

Its my birthday! Hubs made me an orange cake with cream cheese icing. It is delicioso!

Sorry for the break!

Sorry I have been M.I.A for about a week. The xbox 360 has been consuming most of my time. I have been nerding.  I got an award!!! Thanks Angi @ Bento Junkie.  I promise there will be bento tomorrow!

The rules are to state 7 things about yourself and then to pass this on to 7 other bloggers.

1. I live in Southern Virginia  
2. I am a cosmotologist        
3. I have a dog, and 2 ferrets
4. My hubs is my high school sweetie
5. I really don't care if it's organic (I know thats terrible)
6. I love butter
7. I went to boarding school!

Since most of the other blogs have been tagged I promise to put a list up soon!

Leftover breakfast bento

Leftover breakfast made into a bunny! Took hot scrambled eggs wrapped them up in cling wrap and rolled it into a tight ball and set in cold water until it was cool. Bacon ears, leftover potato cut out over some spicy hash browns, with three wiener blossoms. On the other side we have corn, grapes, and star fruit over baby bananas. Sorry there was no post yesterday! I was reading and lost track of time. 

cat bento!

Bento today! Headed off to work ina bit so made myself some quick lunch. We have chicken, peas, corn and ocotodogs in savory all purpose seasonings quickly steamed in a pot. Then We have a cat, with cheese mouth, eyes,whiskers, and cucumber ears. Grape "bubbles" with orange slices underneath. Then three cucumber and crabmeat skewers with the leftover cheese rolled up under there!

No bento

No bento today, the inlaws are in and i've been working all weekend. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

new holiday bento picks! Sorry no bento today but at least I managed an update :p

Salad bento

Today we have baby spinach, imitation crab, cucumbers, ranch dressing in the sauce cup, baby bananas and star fruit. The bottom teir has a crabmeat rangoon, cheese, onigiri (which i painted with my new food coloring pens!) grapes, and spinach.

recipies

Just two recipies of the things I made myself today. Sorry no bento, but I was exhausted this morning. I think I am finally catching a cold.

Crabmeat Rangoon:

   This is my form of crabmeat rangoon. It's not the healthiest thing in the world, but if you bake them I don't think they would be to bad.

You will need the following: Crabmeat, plain cream cheese or cream cheese spread, soy sauce, spring onion (optional), and wonton wrappers.

  Take the cream cheese let it meet room temperature then put it into a mixing bowl. Add a dash of soy sauce, and onion to your taste. I like mine with alot of crab meat so if I use imitation be sure to flake it well. Mix everything together in your bowl until it is all blended well. Next get your wontons cradle them into your palm and use a spoon to put about a medium sized dallop of mixture into your wonton. Close them up by either folding in half or bringing the corners together.  Now you can either bake them in the oven until the wontons are brown and crispy or drop them into hot oil until you get a nice cripsy shell. Enjoy!

Mix Seafood stirfry:

   Something I came up with today. I've always seen those "mixed seafood" packages in the grocery store with squid, octopus, shrimp, and sirimi (imitation crab looking fish). Today I finally decided to buy some and try it out.  This recipie is totally impomptu, but it turned out delicious. You are more than welcome to alter it an any form, and I hope you try it out! You will need: Peas, orange pepper, cabbage,onion,carrots,yellow corn,asparagus,mixed seafood, stir fry noodles, terriyake, and oyster sauce.

   Start by boiling water for your noodles. Take all your vegetables and combine them in a large skillet or wok. Add a little water to the bottom and butter or any kind of oil you like and let them steam for abit on medium heat. When the cabbage starts getting limp take your vegetables and pour them out into a large pan or bowl. The noodles only take about 5 minutes to boil, so when they are done add them into your hot skillet with some oil and abit of oyster sauce I only use alittle to flavor the noodles. Add the noodles to your pan of vegetables, and stir. Now, take your mixed seafood and add to the hot skillet with a little bit of butter and terriyake sauce. Mine was already cooked, but I let them simmer for a few minutes. Add the seafood to your noodles and vegetables and you have a pretty tasty meal with lots of vegetables.

Not the prettiest thing in the world but it was super delicious on this cold rainy day. I also packed it up and froze it like i do my rice in cling wrap. I'm hoping it reheats like rice that way I have a freezer stash of something different. Promise there will be bento tomorrow!

Peaks of Otter Winery

So I really wanted to share my trip to the winery with everyone, so on my day off I have finally got enough time to sit down and go over all the details. First a big thanks to the folks at Peaks of Otter Winery/Johnson's Orchard for having such a lovely farm, and some of the best wine i've tried. Hubs and I went on a day trip up to the peaks of otter, and decided to stop by the winery on the way out just to check it out. We didn't realize what a treat we would stumble upon. Pulling up into the gravel driveway the first thing you see is a huge statue of johnny appleseed, several signs stating it is a working farm, (one saying "If it has feet it kicks" my favorite) It is definitley an authtentic experience. Then you go into a building much like a barn, I think it was a packhouse if I'm not mistaken. There are huge crates of fresh picked apples, rows and rows of jams, jellies, and apple butters and wines. We took a few minutes to pick out several apples which you can either pick fresh off the branch, or out of the crates.
    Than we moved onto the wine tasting which was full of surprises. Now, I've been to a wine tasting before but never have I gotten to try so many different ones. Their selection is wonderful, and the spicy chili wines are something out of this world. We ended up tasting 30 different wines, all right from the farm.  I have to say the "sweet heart" and "blueberry muffin" wine are my absolute favorites. I am a sucker for a sweet wine. Hubs tried "Kiss of the Devil", a 30 different chili wine that turned his whole face red! Hah! I wasn't up for it, but we did get a bottle to take home and cook with. We actually ended up with 8 bottles, but for a little over 100$ It wasn't a bad deal at all. There was also a few other wines that were different like the "what a tomato" an apple tomato wine that was abit to sour for my taste but different with a summery tomato taste.
    Leaving, we gave the small white jack russel roaming about a pat. Loaded up our goodies and rode back through the beautiful scenery of the mountains to our cozy little home. It was a great time. I would have loved to wandered about the orchard abit but we were pressed for time. Our next trip is already planned sometime before christmas holiday so we can get a few more bottles of wine as presents this year. I will also be sure to make note when I use the spicy wine in cooking so you can all be jealous of my local find :P!

Catipillar

Bento for tomorrow! We have, chicken salad stuffed onigiri, leftover bbq wrapped up with abit of mayo, green beans, and weiner blossoms. In the bottom teir we have grapes, light garlic and herb cheese, checkered apple (my first!) and peas and carrots.

We had a great trip today! Beautiful weather, scenery, and great wine at the orchard.

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Bee bento

Quick bee bento for lunch today. We have tangerine, grape flower, onirigi bee with cheese and nori. The top teir has a chicken salad dino, green beans, weiners and a cheese. No bento tomorrow but, we are going to the Peaks of Otter orchad and winery so I will post pictures of our trip tomorrow night!

Crabs at the beach

Bento of the day! Leftover crawfish claws, baybel cheese, corn and asparagus. I was going for a beach ball, but I'm not exactly sure if anyone else can see that lol. The bottom teir is tangerine, grapes, pomegranite, and swiss cake 100 calorie rolls.

Lions, bunnies, and bears?

Lion and bunny bento! Top teir has, lion onigiri, green beans, large grapes, and some pomegranite.  Bottom teir has asparagus nestled in stir fry noodles with oyster sauce, green peas, and carrots.

Oven baked salmon and asparagus rolls

So today we have carrots, yogurt with dried mixed berries, cheese, and two dogs. The top teir has 3 salmon and asapargus with mayo and mustard sauce, some extra asparagus, and large dark grapes. Yum!

Bento for today!

Pretty boring lunch today :P but Im trying to post once a day. Some small chicken salad sandwhiches, ninjadogs, and potatoes. Top teir has brown rice and "happy" tacos. The pink is my new bento box, which I will post better pictures of later.

Lunch from thursday!

Sorry no posts lately! Busy with the halloween holiday coming and going. Here's a bento from thursday I think :P and I promise pictures tomorrow of my new bento stuff!

Salmon with vinegar and oil sauce, pasta salad, brown rice, carrots, and dried mixed berries. Boring but I promise some cuteness tomorrow!

CONTEST!

I will have a contest if I can get at least 10 comments from different people on this post. So if you are lurking, please just say hi!

Cute yummy time!

So today is just full of posts! My Cute Yummy Time book arrived today that I won from Jacki's Bento Blog! Review will come soon and hopefully some super cute bento! Thank you Jacki and La Carmina!

Bento of the day!

The reason I took a photo of my plate is to prove that there is alot of food going into these! We have salmon, brown rice, tortellini, peppers, rice and lima beans, rasberries and cheese. Sorry about the blurry photos, it was taken on my cell phone. Thats also why there is a weird icon on there....I was being lazy and saved it :P

Contest?

 Sorry no posties for the past few days, life is hectic but there will be one tonight, promise! I am thinking about doing a contest! But, I do want to be sure there are enough participants. So, I'm not sure what/how to do this contest so any ideas would be great! I am planning on having a bento set as the prize and you get to choose between :

I think they are nice prizes! So as soon as I get an idea for a contest it will be on!

Bento of the day!

Thrown together super fast so excuse the lack of lettuce bedding. Top teir has two hand shaped brown rice onigiri. A cocktail weiner, two mini quiches halfed, a potatoe slice with bologna in the midde and that red thing is the cut out from my cheese. Just needed a pop of color! The bottom has salmon salad, potatoes and carrots, rasberries, and a cheese wheel.

New stuff!

Got a few new things in the mail today! A set of 24 plastic coated cups, super cute baran, a nori punch (finally i can make cute faces!) and vegetable cutters. I ordered it Wenesday thinking it wouldn't get here until at least next week but I had a pleasant surprise finding it in my mail box today! Thanks to the guys over at All Things For Sale  I am super estatic it came so early and they have great priced bento box sets everyone should definatly check them out.

Bento of the day!

Bento of the day!

In the top picture, we have onigiri made of brown rice, salmon salad, tomotoes, and ninja octo dogs! The bottom picture there is a boiled egg, bell pepper slices, garlic and herb cheese, dried fruit mix and hiding under there is a 100 calorie cupcake. There are three in a pack so i'm guessing 30 something calories a peice. Have a great night!