Lemon's Lunches

[1emon]

Lemon's Lunches
[A Bento Blog]

I'm comfortable with my weight. What makes me squirm is my eating habits. They're decent on the whole, but I want to improve them. I eat out less than once a week. I eat all 3 meals, and they're usually pretty healthy. My fatal feasting flaws? Unhealthy on-the-go high school lunches and snacks. There isn't much to post about snacks, and I doubt I'll ever be able to curb my extra eating. I'm frequently hungry, and I can't do much about that. What I can do is make my lunches healthier. And cuter.

Over the summer of 'O7 I decided that I would eat sushi. I researched this further, and discovered bentos. They're basically partitioned Japanese lunches in a plastic box. Like any food though, they can be so much fancier. I combed the internet for all the information and inspiration I could find. This resulted in healthier, cuter lunches for me. Sadly, I lost my motivation about a week into my venture. I have no restarted it, and am going strong. I believe posting here will keep me motivated to continue eating healthier lunches.

^^

 

[Iconised Ghost]

ooo will you be posting some of your ideas? this sounds really cool!  

[1emon]

Yep.
^^

My first attempts at bento-making were rather sad, but a pretty big step. Before this, I'd eat a peanut butter sandwich, a salty snack (like goldfish or pretzels), and a sugary snack (like gummies or animal crackers). Sometimes I would just not eat the sandwich. Finally I recognized my atrocious lunch habits, and decided to change them.

This was my first bento. Chopped up wheat bread, carrots, and apples.

 

[1emon]

This was my second. Once again I had chopped up wheat bread, carrots, and apples, I just arranged them in a more attractive fashion.

 

[1emon]

My third bento branched out a little more, replacing the wheat bread with pancakes cut into star shapes. Each of these lunches was accompanied either with a lemonade capri sun (lemons are my weakness!) or water.

 

[1emon]

My fourth bento continued with the last bentos star theme. This had rice in a cookie cutter with apple star shapes and carrots.

 

[1emon]

This was a rather skimpy lunch, with wheat bread, celery, and apples. I added food to it after I took the picture. It's supposed to look like a flower...

 

[1emon]

My sixth bento was made to look like a happy bear. Apples, Celery, Rice, and Pistachios were used. My dad wanted me to add protein to my lunches, so I opted for nuts. Unfortunately, the lack of color contrast was a result.

 

[1emon]

My seventh bento was my last bento for a couple months, and probably better than all those that preceded it. These were from back in September, and I stopped making them for about 5 months. This one used rice for the bunny, celery for the grass, pistachios hidden under a clementine. It combined my desire for a cute lunch with color contrast.

 

[1emon]

This was my first bento in a long time, made to look like a shark. Ham sandwich, raisins for eyes,and broccoli, apples and spinach framing the sea monster.

 

[1emon]

My second revival-bento (and my ninth overall) was pikachu. I traced a picture on the web, cut it out, and used my stencil to cut out pikachu's head from eggs. I used black licorice for his mouth and red for his cheeks. The black tips of his ears, his eyes, and his nose are nori that I cut out to fit the stencil. Underneath pikachu rests two slices of toasted potato bread, cut to his face shape.They support him without taking up too much room. Nori is the blackish/greenish dried seaweed used to roll sushi. Most supermarkets carry it, but it's a lot cheaper if you buy it from an asian market. Cheese forms the whites of his eyes, and apples, broccoli, and spinach surround him.

I still felt hungry after my shark lunch, and I had extras after filling the first tupperware container, so I had some more food. This included more apple and spinach, along wit the leftover egg rolled up. A second 'egg-roll' is encased by a purple-y veggie leaf and stayed like that with 3 toothpicks.

 

[1emon]

My tenth bento was spongebob! I toasted potato bread and made a peanut butter sandwich. I used cheese, red licorice, and black licorice for his facial features, and a toothpick to keep his nose up. There's cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats) around him, holding up the Verona cookies (that brand name might be wrong...) and spinach. I usually have fruit, but not this time.

 

[1emon]

Bento number eleven was less spectacular than the others, but made in a quick 15 minutes. The time it takes to make a bento decreases with experience, but due to my general lack of that, I had to opt for a very simple lunch. (Pikachu took 90 minutes for total preparation including making the egg, cutting the egg, making the nori, etc. Spongebob was a 30-45 minute venture.) Here we have An un-toasted white bread peanut butter sandwich and stars, rice chex, broccoli, and apple slices. The un-toasted is something to note. Toasting something makes it easier to cut out, because you have something more rigid to work with. I toast my breads lightly, but it can really help.

A reflection:
An important aspect of my lunch for me is the fruit. I absolutely love fruit, whether because of the flavor or the natural sugar. I save most of it for the end of my lunch, eating very little of it while I munch on the grains and veggie. Because of it's sugary taste, it feels like a dessert after I've eaten the other food. The fact that I'm in school and can only eat what I've packed helps my snacking habits.

 

[1emon]

Bento number twelve was another 15 minute bento. Toasted white bread peanut butter sandwiches again, cut out with a dinosaur cookie cutter. They didn't sit all the way at the top of my lock-and-lock container, so I filled the bottom with Honey Bunches of Oats cereal. Broccoli dances around the dinos and the blue re-usable cupcake holder has apple in it.

 

[1emon]

This was a snack I made for a Robotics meeting I had on a Saturday. Lots of chopped up baby carrots, grapes on toothpicks, and flower-shaped pancakes. I made this while eating breakfast, so I ate some of the extra outlines of the flowers and put the rest in a cupcake holder. We had pizza and soda for lunch, (Eek!) but I didn't eat much and saved my appetite for bento number thirteen.