My mom is coming in from FL today then we are out of town for a couple of weeks so I’ll be taking a little bloggin break.  Stay tuned in April as we feature some new bentos, recipes, bento gear and even some new amigurumi I’ve been working on!

Hope everyone has a great rest of March and see you all in April !!

Want bento gear?  Want bento gear for free?  NotExactlyBento.com is running a drawing through March 20th on the Natural Lunch – Green bento line from Ichiban Kan.   Enter contest HERE! Do it, do it now!!

I’m doing a week long cleansing fast so there won’t be much in a bento for me this week.  To keep my practice going, I’ve made my wonderful husband a bento this morning.  He made sure to tell me not to make it with any cutesy animals or hearts and flowers so I kept it very plain and simple (which equals boring in my opinion!  — But he is the man so we have to pretend like they have a say in these things!)  Being adorable, as I am, I even stuck in a little “I <3 you” note under the lid… awww!

Box 1 = Soft Boiled Egg, Chicken Dumplings, Carrot sticks, Fishy soy sauce holder. Box 2 = Pepper Jack Cheese cubes, Cinnamon Graham Cracker Bites, Apple cubes. Didn't figure out calories because he doesn't need to watch what he eats... lucky!

All sealed up and ready to go with chopsticks and Pocky!

Maki just published my guest post on JustBento.com (one of my fav bento blogs!)

How Tracy Uses Bentos For Weight Loss

Weee!  Enjoy!

Made a homemade pizza last night for dinner and tried to save some before Pete scarfed the whole thing down.  Just made a simple salad with bottled lite Italian dressing to go with it.  This was my first attempt at the bunny and checkered apple.  I don’t think they turned out too bad.  I picked up and exacto knife to use just for the kitchen since all my knifes are way too dull for anything this intricate.  Other than that, the bento was pretty much thrown together.  I’m getting lazy!  I definitely need a nicer bento that’s a bit bigger than the other boxes I have.  They just don’t look as good in a boring plain tupperware container.

Homemade Pizza, Apple, Salad with Lite Italian Dressing and Green Olives. 280 Calories.

Today’s bento was a pretty lazy attempt at making something quickly when I got home from the shops. I think it came out pretty cute though!

The roll up is made using vegetarian deli sliced ham. If you’ve never tried this before, using it in a roll up with lots of crunch is a great way to add a vegetarian meal to your day! The outside of the roll-up is a Flat Out wrap. These now come really low in calories and carbs and really high in fiber and protein.

Here’s how I made this one.

1. Lay the wrap flat, so that the short end is facing you.
2. Cover a very thin layer of dijon mustard mayonnaise. I used Hellman’s Dijonnaise.
3. Top with 4 pieces of the veggie ham.
4. Lay 2 slices of cheese on top of the ham.
5. Add a fair amount of baby greens to the middle.
6. Top with a good amount of clover sprouts.
7. Roll up tight and cut into slices. YUM!

Veggie Ham and Swiss Cheese roll-up, black grapes, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, hummus dip. 385 Calories

Nothing too exciting today. I didn’t really feel like messing around in the kitchen so today’s is from the freezer, but I tried to make it look interesting at least!

Box 1: Rice and veggie cake, black olives, veggie sausage and yellow pepper kabobs Box 2: Apples, celery, cream cheese and PB2 dip 375 Calories

Today’s lunch was inspired by frozen pierogi I’ve had in my freezer for a bit now.  The pierogi came from a little Polish shop that gets them sent in from Chicago… we’re not talking Mrs. T’s here.  They are as close to homemade that I’ve ever found.  So I started thinking about what goes with pierogi and my mind immediately went to kielbasa (Polish sausage).  Well obviously being vegetarian I don’t eat kielbasa.  They do make a veggie version which isn’t too bad, but I didn’t have any in my fridge.  What I did have what veggie hotdogs.  Score!  I tried to make the cute little hot dog shapes but it didn’t work out too well… need more practice on that.  Just stuck them in there upside down and it didn’t look that bad.

Box 1: Melon, almonds, cucumber, carrots Box 2: Veggie hotdogs, potato and cheese pierogi, cheese stick. 423 Calories.

All new recipes!  Tried to keep everything very Japanese or Chinese.  YUM!

Box 1: Blueberries, Strawberries, Mango, Greek Yogurt. Box 2: Onigiri, green olives, stewed hijiki seaweed with carrots and fried tofu, tea egg. Total Calories: 415

In today’s bento I decided to try tea eggs.  Very similar to coloring eggs, but you need to make cracks in the hard boiled egg before you let sit in the tea mixture.  Here is where I got the recipe/idea from:  CookingCute.com.  The only bit I didn’t have was the star anise so I just skipped it.  I think they came out really good.. and tasty too!

Tea Eggs