Lettuce Wrap Lunch

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and the first weeks of the new year have been treating you right. My trip to Hawaii was great! We went scuba diving, hiking, and got to see Humpback whales. I'll post some food-related photos from the cruise in a few days or so.

Of course, I at waaay too much, so I'm trying very hard to be super healthy now that I'm home. I've been enjoying a lot of fish, but then I looked up the mercury content of what I had been eating--and discovered I had eaten the monthly recommended limit in three days.

Some days I feel like you can't win with food. Fish has mercury, soy can disrupt your hormone balance, meat is bad for your arteries, fruits and veggies are contaminated with pesticides....

Right now, Mr. Toro is in Kuwait (poor thing had to jump on a plane the day after we got back home), so today's lunch is mine. I made some chicken-mushroom lettuce wraps. They were super easy and turned out really tasty, even if they don't look terribly pretty.

Per serving:
4 oz. chicken breast
~1 cup crimini mushrooms
1 can water chestnuts
~1/2 cup cabbage

Cut all ingredients into a small dice. Cook until chicken is done and mushrooms have lost most of their water. Add in 1/4 cup dry sherry or sake or rice wine and 2T soy sauce and stir fry until mostly dry. Serve in lettuce leaves (I used romaine). You can serve with your choice of sauces as well--soya, thai peanut, and garlic chili would all be good.

Happy Holidays!

Hello, Bentocrats!

Once again, sorry about my absence--I had papers and finals December 5 through yesterday, so I've been busy and haven't been Bento-ing. I'm also leaving in a couple days for Hawai'i, so the gap will continue into the new year.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas (or had a Happy Hanukkah) and / or a great Holiday. Best wishes for a happy New Year!

See you soon,
Toro

Shrimp Enchi

Today's lunch: shrimp and bean enchilada with salsa verde on red cabbage with a side of pico de gallo and guacamole.

My paper is due Friday, so I've been a busy bee with that. "Aviation, Climate Change, the EU ETS, and the Convention on International Civil Aviation: Conflict Over Air Quality and Air Travel." Wow, I'm putting myself to sleep with that one! :)

Orange / Orange

A belated 'Happy Thanksgiving' to all. We spent the holiday in Los Angeles with some friends and family.

Tomorrow's lunch is Cajun-spiced Orange Roughy with red beans and brown rice, and cauliflower and broccoli. Dessert is orange wedges and giant red globe grapes.

This was a super quick dinner--it literally took less than ten minutes to prepare. I cooked up a pouch of 'Uncle Ben's Ready Rice,' then tossed it with a drained can of organic kidney beans. The fish got a sprinkle of Cajun seasoning, then a sear in a hot pan with just a brush of olive oil. The veggies got a quick steam in a covered pan, then a sprinkle of seasoning as well.

It was a really hearty, really healthy, darned tasty dinner--under 500 calories and 5 grams of fat, and I'm stuffed.

The Thanksgiving holiday, unfortunately, means finals are just around the corner, so I'm super busy with school work--I have a paper due Friday, and then my first final is next Wednesday. My brother and his family are also coming to visit for a week and a half starting Saturday, so I'm going to be juggling a lot. But I'm super excited to see my nephews, so I'll manage:)

Orange Chicken and Hawai'i Dreams

Tomorrow's lunch is a quick bento of leftover orange-glazed chicken with water chestnuts, fried rice with snap peas and egg, and fried pot stickers.

Getting close to finals, so I'm starting to stress. I've been spending entirely too much time reading the U.S. Income Tax Code. Yes, it is as boring as it sounds.

On the plus side, my big brother and his family are coming to visit in just under three weeks...and a couple weeks after that, Mr. Toro, my parents, and I are going on a cruise to Hawai'i. We're definitely looking forward to getting away! Mr. Toro and I have been to O'ahu before, but it will be our first time to several other islands. We have a lot of great stuff planned, including whale watching, scuba diving, hiking, relaxing, and drinking fruity drinks with little umbrellas:)

Ugly Bento

There's no structure to today's lunch...so it is the Ugly Bento.

Lunch is halibut fillets, coated in a spicy rub, then crusted with a little Parmesan cheese.

Underneath is a mushroom and Swiss chard risotto. I started with this recipe, but changed it fairly significantly.

First, I used omitted the scallops, so I skipped the first paragraph of the recipe. Then I used about a teaspoon of olive oil to saute the onions and garlic. After the mushrooms were cooked, as directed, I added a bunch of Swiss chard, cut into a fine chiffonade, and cooked it until it lost most of its moisture. Finally, I omitted the butter to keep the reicpe a little lighter; I also omitted adding the cheese, instead sprinkling a little on the top instead. I used chicken stock, but if you wanted to, vegetarian stock would substitute easily.

Guess What?

Halibut!

Sorry, I know I'm not 8 years old, but that still cracks me up:)

My lunch for tomorrow is a Halibut fillet, quick seared in a pan, then simmered with broccoli and cauliflower in a yellow thai curry sauce, served over brown rice, and garnished with green onions and peanuts.

Three gyoza and some more veggies are in the bottom box. I wish I had some cute little sauce bottles to pack some soy sauce for the dumplings. Maybe I'll be able to get a couple packets of sauce from the dining facility at school.

I have a draft of a 30 page paper due on Friday on the legality of including international aviation in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (yes, it's about as interesting as it sounds :p), the obvious reason why I am blogging...the paper is almost done. Almost.

Ok, not quite. But it's getting there;)