Flowerstar's Bento Blog

1. All photos and images posted in this blog are copyrighted to me unless noted otherwise. I hate watermarks so please don't steal anything and force me to use them. (Yes, I know that my bentos are not pretty enough to be stolen yet :p.)

1a. No hotlinking, please!

2. If you have a journal or blog (LJ, Journalfen, Blogger, etc.) you can comment using Open ID. I'd be happy to get some comments :)!

3. When commenting please be courteous. Any flames, trolls or discriminating comments will be deleted.

4. The posts on this blog are in English - I considered posting bilingually but in the end I'm just too lazy XD. However, feel free to comment in German! (Or English, of course.)

To be amended/updated if necessary.

Hello everyone! Yes, I'm still alive - and more notably, I'm still making bento, too. However, I was in a horrible posting slump and felt that my bentos were so boring that nobody would care anyway ... Well, I know it's stupid, but what can you do ^^".

But anyway, lately I have tried to make my bento more decorative again and finally decided they are worth posting about, too. So, here I go again!



In this bento: Wholemeal toast sandwiches with cheese, ham and mustard, violet carrots, yellow bell pepper, cherry tomatoes and violet grapes.

It was a spontaneous decision to make something else but my usual triangle cut sandwich but it turned out cute, I think. Cutting it gave me nine pieces, so one of them it balancing on some more bell pepper to make it level with the other two-pieces stacks.

It probably would have been nicer to have some green grapes (green is pretty much missing in this bento) but alas, I didn't have any ...

( +2 )

So, here's hoping I'll be able to post more regularly from now on :). I'm not making any promises, especially not on daily posts, but keep an eye on this blog for stuff happening :D!

In this bento: Ramen with nori and lemon balm decoration, hard-boiled egg, strawberries, scallions, cherry tomatoes (or tomato cherries :P?), cucumber, radishes. Piyo Piyo contains instant chicken soup.

New toys! I ordered from Bento & Co. to reward myself for reaching an important goal, and as you can see, I immediately put the stuff to use :). Since Hanako has a bowl for soup I thought it was a nice idea to pack stuff for ramen soup. Alas, Piyo Piyo does not fit inside her, so I had to take it separately.

Also, the chicken soup was a bit bland. I need to find another type of soup - maybe miso soup? I'm not sure why I'm so intimidated by miso soup 0.0 ...





WW points:
Ramen: 4 points
Soup: 0 points
Egg: 2 points
Vegetables: 0 points
Fruits: 0 points
Total: 6 points

In this bento: Sandwich with ham and cheese, vegetable sticks (cucumber, bell pepper), Easter egg, grapes

Another simple one - I was home late and didn't have time or energy to do much cooking. I only toasted the sandwich in the oven which, in hindsight, didn't do much for it. Toasted sandwiches are just better when they are warm.

WW points:
Sandwich: 12 points
Egg: 2 points
Vegetables: 0 points
Fruits: 0 points
Total: 14 points

In this bento: Yakisoba topped with a slice of cheese, turkey bunny with nori details hiding in cucumber grass, tomato-onion salad with panda bottle containing balsamic vinegar and orange wedges

This bento was actually my lunch on Thursday but I just didn't get around to post it sooner. At least I'm still in time for Easter!

It might not look too spectacular but for someone like me who rarely does charaben it's actually quite good I think! I'm proud of it anyway ^^.

I used a slice of cheese on the yakisoba to create an even ground, then cut the grass from cucumber peel and the bunny from turkey ham. I used a cutter for its head and took the cutter's lower part (the "head", without the ears) to cut the body, too. A little piece of turkey became the tail. The hardest part was cutting the Miffy-like mouth - first I just took my small bunny nori punch and cut the cutout apart, using the ears of the nori bunny for the eyes and the head as a nose, but I didn't like how the nose looked. So instead I cut a small cross from nori freehand, and the stupid nori kept breaking. In the end I succeeded, though :).

Happy Easter, everyone!





WW points:
Yakisoba: 5 points
Cheese and ham: 4 points
Vegetables: 0 points
Fruits: 0 points
Total: 9 points

I added this to What's for Lunch Wednesday! Add yours, too?

In this bento: Heart-shaped onigiri with tuna, heart-shaped egg, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, strawberries

One of my rare tries to make a more decorative bento ... Wrapping one of the onigiri in nori was a bit of a tricky affair but it looks kinda neat with the rice peeking out of the nori.

Yes, there's a bit of lettuce again - or rather Chinese cabbage. I still had that left from the weekend and don't know what to do with it, so I might just as well use it in a bento ;).



WW points:
Onigiri: 4 points
Egg: 2 points
Vegetables: 0 points
Fruits: 0 points
Total: 6 points

I added my bento to What's for lunch Wednesday. Why don't you share yours, too?

Bento 178 - Rice and turkey rolls



In this bento: Rice with gomashio, turkey rolls with carrot and beans, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, cucumber, pineapple, strawberry, chocolate leaves

( +4 )

WW points:
Rice: 4 points
Turkey rolls: 2 1/2 points
Vegetables: 0 points
Fruits: 0 points
Chocolate: 1/2 points
Total: 8 points


Bento 179 - Maultaschen and potato salad



In this bento: Fried mini Maultaschen with egg, potato salad, radish, cherry tomatoes, strawberries and grapes.

( +3 )

WW points:
Maultaschen: 7 points
Potato salad: 2 points
Cherry tomatoes: 0 points
Fruits: 0 points
Total: 9 points


Bento 180 - Yakisoba



In this bento: Yakisoba with vegetables, egg, grapes, cherry tomatoes, radishes.

This time there's no bacon in the yakisoba which didn't hurt, I think ^^. I decorated the egg by cutting it with a cookie cutter but it didn't really show up well.



WW points:
Yakisoba: 3 points
Egg: 2 points
Cherry tomatoes, radishes: 0 points
Grapes: 0 points
Total: 5 points


Bento 181 - Sandwich bento



In this bento: Bread roll with cheese and ham, pretzel cheese croissant, cucumber and tomato slices, cherry tomatoes, grapes.

Ugh, this bento was so much fail :(. I threw it together without real inspiration, and it shows. And then, the roll had come into contact with some water/juice and had softened and was all gross - ew :(. First I didn't want to post about it at all but then I decided to do it anyway, for the sake of completeness.

WW points:
Roll: 8 points
Croissant: 3 points
Cherry tomatoes, cucumber, tomato: 0 points
Grapes: 0 points
Total: 11 points


Bento 182 - Chicken and rice bento



In this bento: Rice with peas and snow peas, chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, radishes, apple leaf.

( +2 )

WW points:
Rice: 4 points
Chicken breast: 3 points
Peas: 1 point
Cherry tomatoes, radishes: 0 points
Apple: 0 points
Total: 8 points

In this bento: Mini pizza, tomato-onion salad, grapes, balsamic vinegar in the panda bottle.

I decided that this was the last time I used lettuce in my bento :(. I love how it looks but I don't like to eat it, which means that I throw out most of it, and the rest in my fridge usually spoils long before I can use it up. I no longer can ignore my conscience ... So from now on, there will be lettuce only on the rare occasions I buy some because I want to eat it. Pity, it's so much easier to make a bento look attractive with it.




WW points:
Mini pizza: 9 points
Grapes: 0 points
Tomato-onion salad: 0 points
Total: 9 points

In this bento: Yakisoba with bacon and vegetables, cheese, grapes, cherry tomatoes

Yes, I know I'm boring - yakisoba again :p. So I added some cheese accents this time to pretty it up.








WW points:
Yakisoba: 6 points
Cheese: 1 point
Grapes: 0 points
Cherry tomatoes: 0 points
Total: 7 points

Another week where I didn't get around to posting in the evenings ^^' ... So there's the round-up.

Bento #169 - Pizza and caprese skewers



In this bento: Mini pizza, tomato and mozzarella skewers, orange wedges



I didn't have any fresh basil, so it's just tomato and mozzarella balls ... The little panda bottle hidden behind the salad leaf contains aceto balsamico.



WW points:
Pizza: 9 points
Mozzarella balls: 3 points
Cherry tomatoes, orange: 0 points
Total: 12 points

Bento #170 - Sukiyaki donburi



In this bento: Sukiyaki beef, rice, carrot hearts and stars, snow peas, cherry tomatoes, apple leaves



The sukiyaki was wonderful! I reduced the sugar a bit (Maki's recipe called for a tablespoon, and I used a teaspoon instead) which I think was a good idea - often Japanese cooking is too sweet for me, but this was much better. The next time I really should take care that the butcher understands that I want to have the meat cut really thin, though ...

The recipe contained enoki and shiitake but I don't like mushrooms. So I added mung bean sprouts instead which was quite nice, too.





I needed something different than apple bunnies this time. It'll probably need some practice but it's a nice change ^^.



WW points:
Sukiyaki: 5 points
Rice: 5 points
Cherry tomatoes, apple: 0 points
Total: 10 points

Bento #171 - Heart sandwiches



In this bento: Sandwiches with Black Forest ham and cheese, bell pepper strips and cucumber sticks, cherry tomatoes, grapes



WW points:
Sandwiches: 7 points
Vegetables, grapes: 0 points
Total: 7 points

Bento #172 - Couscous and chicken



In this bento: Couscous with bell peppers, rotisserie chicken, carrots and cherry tomatoes, grapes



I was lazy again yesterday, so I got a rotisserie chicken from Kochlöffel and cut off the breast to use in today's bento. I really love having leftovers to use <3.



For carbs I had couscous with bell peppers. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about couscous ... It's not bad but not overwhelming, too. It was a bit too salty but that might be because I made the vegetable broth a bit too strong. Another thing I need to experiment with ;).

WW points:
Chicken breast: 3 points
Couscous: 5 points
Vegetables, grapes: 0 points
Total: 8 points

What do you think about my new backgrounds :D? I picked up a few inexpensive but cute and colourful place mats from Butlers last week, and I really think it looks much better with those <3. Now I only need to take photos at an angle so you don't see my vacuum cleaner in the backgrounds all the time ^^'.