It's that time of the year, I guess.

It's a very drippy morning out there, so I'm sitting inside today. It should be against the laws of Nature for it to rain on the weekends. At the same time we should have a covered drop-off and pick up area and playground for the weekdays when it's pouring down. My peeps know what I'm talking about. Judi sunk ankle deep in mud yesterday afternoon, good thing she had her Coach rainboots on.

We had some pretty rough weather yesterday morning. Lots of towns lost power and the school district next door to ours sent kids home because they were without power and it didn't look like they would get it turned back on before the end of the day.

On the home front we were dis-masted! I guess I should have been here to adjust the spinnaker or take up the jib or something. At any rate, we won't be using the 10 year old umbrella anymore. Just in time for another birthday. Jody doesn't believe in Monkey Candy for birthdays. He only give useful gifts. The umbrella had been a birthday gift 10 years ago next month. I REALLY got his money's worth out of it. I LOVED that umbrella.

It also took out a portion of Jody's favorite shrub too. I forgot that birdhouse was buried inside the ever growing Lady Banks Rose Bush.

Jody will be returning from New Braunfels today. He went to see his parents Wednesday and I'm hoping the road trip does him as much good as a road trip does for me. I think he was getting a little down hanging around the house all the time.

Now for one of the best Bento ideas I've ever come up with.... not that I've had a whole lot of bento ideas, but this one is a doozie. A few weeks ago I was making a shopping list as I was about to go to the store and thought I should take my Bento box. You know how Starbucks encourages their patrons to bring their own coffee cups, well why not take my Bento box to the Sushi counter and have them load it up instead of purchasing the sushi in their plastic box. Doesn't hurt to ask... (Sorry about this picture, the one with the flash would blind you)

I walked up to the Sushi Guy and just asked him if he could put the Caterpillar Roll in my box instead of the plastic tray. Of course I had to show him how it opened up and then re-stacked after it was filled. He gladly agreed to do it. I went about getting the rest of my groceries and returned to pick up the filled box. Mr. Sushi handed me my filled Bento and said "Marv-o-wus ideah!" This week he remembered me and asked "Catapelwer roll?" when I handed him my Bento box.

So this is my Sushi Bento for this week (California Roll), but instead of having to transfer half the sushi into another box once I get home, I just purchased an identical box and I trade out the bottom compartment with an empty box at home. I can't eat all that sushi in one setting.



















I split it into two day's worth and put fruit in the extra compartment.










Stack 'em up and add my sweets, Obleas con Cajeta....

I know... real Bento people have a certain amount of protein, starch, yada yada.... I'm lucky I'm giving up my daily serving of chili powder and grease. I'm getting there, old habits are hard to break. No, I'm not about to start making my own sushi... I'll cut my fingers off trying to slice the veggies into those tiny pieces and I'd get rice in my hair.





Now my lunch is done for two days. The only thing I'm not happy with is the bar code sticker wouldn't come off. They must have space shuttle glue on those.







I'm off to the Plano Green Celebration. Jolea and I went a couple of years ago when she was home in the spring. Lots of good ideas for going green, and I am a pretty green person. Seems like the weather was the same that year. I may meet Lourdes there. I hope they have info on those Patio roof/solar panel set ups. We wouldn't need a umbrella if we had something like that. Ed Begley Jr. is there! He's my hero!

Have a great weekend!

I do use my bento boxes.

It's the secret side of my life. I don't try to keep it secret or anything. I just don't talk about what I have for lunch. I do eat lunch so I may as well make it easy to carry since I'm lugging it into school everyday. Some days I feel like I'm moving in over there, and I barely notice a tiny Bento Box my purse.

When I noticed Lyvvie's blog site Obento Baby, I became interested in how she packed lunches for her children and her husband and sometimes for herself. I had packed lunches for the kids and Jody in the past. I had used my fair share of Tupperware containers but nothing like this! This beat Tupperware to death with a greasy rubber spatula. These little boxes were awesome!

I began visiting other Bento sites, and getting lots of ideas. Before Jolea left town she packed my first Bento lunch, you may remember the white bread Onigiri. So today's post is to thank Lyvvie for making my work day lunch more interesting, and to prove to some of those people whom I've commented on their posts, YES I do use my bento boxes.

This jumbled mess is the inside of my purse. The pink fabric box contains my lunch. Let me apologize for the lighting in these pictures, this one of my purse was taken in the dark in the entry hall of our house before I walked out the door.









Here's my little sandwich box bag.... what ever you want to call it. It's like a lunch bag, but no handle.









This is the sandwich box. For you first timers, it's held shut with that little pink elastic band.












Take off the lid and there's my chicken salad sandwich in all it's washed out glory. No, there's no need for a baggie or plastic wrap. (That's another reason for using bento... no baggies.) The inside of the bento sandwich box/bag is insulated. The little open grid in the box keeps the sandwich from getting soggy.


The bottom section, that's covered by a little lid holds the good stuff. Chopped mango, a strawberry, some black berries and a slice of chocolate cake. A little yellow fork like pick. The juicy stuff is in a little paper cup like container. That lime is for the mango, keeps me from having an allergic reaction.









And here's what my friend Lourdes had for lunch!

My bentos rarely have any onigiri or traditional bento cutesie pootsie stuff like all those professional Mamas make, but it does it's job really well. If you are interested in what the Pros pack in their bentos, check out the sites I have listed over on the right, under the heading of MMMMM Food.


This is exactly the reason Jody doesn't read blogs.