So it's shaping up to be a busy quarter! I have Engineering Physics + Lab, Organic Chemistry + Lab, and 3rd quarter Calculus. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are all crazy-busy, and I'm planning on packing bentos those days. I'll try to take photos of them, but it depends on how much I oversleep! Thursday and Friday aren't so bad, though sometimes I'll be there later for study groups. Some of those days I'll take bentos, and others I'll come home for lunch (happily, I live near campus!). I plan to use a lot of Biggie's tips (thanks, Biggie!) this year.

Now, back to my 20 pages of study problems for Monday's OChem quiz! (o_o;)

Classes started Monday--it's going to be pretty tiring, I think. I didn't have time to make a bento the first day, and I didn't have time to take pics of yesterday's bento. However, here is today's bento:



Clockwise from the container in the top left of the bento:
A small container of fruit cocktail, Japanese style with peaches, mandarin oranges, pineapple, cherries, and nata de coco. I bought a small (11 oz) can, divided it into three little containers, and froze them, so they also help keep the food cool.
A surprisingly tasty strawberry for the time of year.
2 chicken spring rolls (frozen, Ling-Ling brand) that I baked the night before, cooled, and then tossed in the fridge overnight.
A small fish bottle filled with low-sodium soy sauce.
A yaki-onigiri.
A small cup of red grapes.

It was very tasty and sufficiently filling.

For the record, yesterday's contained 2 yaki onigiri, a cold baked chicken leg, grapes, a strawberry, and a mini-Babybel cheese.

I discovered there is a Daiso nearby--even closer than Uwajimaya. What a great shop! I stocked up on a lot of stuff there. If there is one in your area, and you haven't been yet, be sure to go check it out! Everything I bought there was a buck fifty.

DS is going through one of those between-growth-spurt phases where he eats hardly anything, so in order to help pique his appetite, I put his dinner in a bento box.



On the left is a mini taco, using half a large corn tortilla and filled with seasoned ground beef, shredded cheese, sour cream, and mild red sauce.

On the right is some additional shredded cheese, some avocado slices, and a few California olives.

He ate better than he has for several nights!

Today's bento:



Upper left: Li'l Beef Smokies microwaved in a mixture of ketchup, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce.
Lower left: mixed cantaloupe and watermelon, cut into toddler-bite-sized pieces.
Upper right: turkey bologna and cheese sandwich on whole-grain white bread, cut into half-moons.
Lower right: Mini Babybel cheese and 2 whole-wheat Fig Newtons.

Surprisingly, he went for the sausages first, not the cookies. He gobbled them down, and I think considered eating the paper liner they were in, too. He ate the cookies next, though--of course! :)

DH had last week off to work on some remodeling, but we did some fun things, too--like visit the aquarium. DS loved the fish and sharks and sea stars! He's still talking about it. And naturally, every single orange and white fish was "Nemo!" to him, and all the brilliant blue ones were "Dory." 

Today he requested "green 'sghetti" for his bento.



So we have green noodles, which are Ichiban Original ramen noodles, cooked in the flavoring, rinsed, drained, and colored. On top are carrot starfish, a sea star cut from a mini Babybel cheese, and a hard boiled egg molded into a fish shape (which you can't see very well thanks to the flash). On the right are muffin cups with rainbow fish crackers and shark-shaped fruit snacks. 

DS didn't care for the egg. I'll have to find some way to make boiled eggs more palatable to him, since they are a good source of protein. Some kind of sauce, maybe?

My third bento, with an aquatic theme.



On the left, ramen noodles, cooked with the chicken flavor packet, rinsed in cold water, drained, and tossed with green food coloring (for seaweed), octopi made from boiled hot dogs, and cheese starfish.
On the right, the upper cup contains fruit snacks shaped like sharks and multi-colored fish crackers. The lower cup has some baby carrots and seedless green grapes (couldn't think how to make those fishy!).

Today's bento includes:
peanut butter and raspberry jam (homemade, even!) "sushi" rolls
fruit kebabs--cantaloupe and seedless green grapes
cubes of cheddar cheese

Since DS is only 3, these are just for fun and practice, for him to eat here at home. So far we haven't had to take actual portability into account. But that's okay, I'm having fun making them, and he's having fun eating them!

This was simpler than I'd originally planned--I'm still recouperating from a full year of college classes. Summer quarter just ended last week, and I'm still drained!

My DH bought a little Pixar Cars bento off of Ebay for our DS, and it arrived yesterday! DS loved it so much, I had a hard time getting him to relinquish it so I could wash it up. Today I made him a bento, although the components were pretty American.



It contained:
2 little homemade pizza rolls
bug-shaped cinnamon graham crackers
seedless green grapes
baby carrots
2 cheddar cheese stars

He loved it!