Around here - including bentos from last week

Yesterday was a public holiday here (yay!) and as well as doing a little bit of cleaning, finally introducing the kittyboys to my cousin (she lives an hour away but hasn't been able to visit since we got the boys) I worked on Project Life!

I am *so* far behind on PL.  I have a Trello checklist set up so that I can check off weeks when I finish them - actually, I have one for last year's PL, one for December Daily (still not finished), and one for 2015.  Yesterday I finished two weeks in 2015 - the first two weeks I've actually finished yet. (Yes, we're in week 11.)

But more on that in this week's Currently Creative, coming tomorrow (hopefully).

So: this past week's bento:

I don't think I've yet managed to make bento four days in the week, which is my goal, but I did do three days last week, which was a definite improvement on the previous week, which I think was none.

This week I introduced eggs to the mix - M doesn't eat eggs or anything all that eggy, which means that if I want eggs I need to have a replacement protien for her box.  This week I'm going to try Mako Itoh's spinach-stuffed tamagoyaki to see if it's too eggy for M or not: from the recipe it looks like there's a chance it will be okay.

But this past week I did sho-yu tamago (soy sauce eggs) which were just for me.

Tuesday: This bento was rice, sweet-pepper and carrot confetti, stirfried soy chicken, and asparagus.  The rice was shaped in my new rice molds that I got at Daiso over the weekend.  The photo is of M's - she also had some babaganoush and crackers - although the babaganoush was apparently no good (eggplant too old?)

Wednesday: These two were both for the same day: M's on the left and mine on the right.

Common to both: rice, broccoli, mini-angus burgers, sweet pepper and carrot confetti

M has asparagus and some stirfried soy chicken, while mine has a sho-yu tamago (soy sauce egg).

Thursday: again, M's is on the left, mine on the right.

Common to both: rice, kinpira (carrot, broccoli stem and beans) mini-angus burgers, carrot and zucchini muffin, broccoli.

In M's, apple and grapes.  Mine has asparagus and another soy sauce egg.  Mine was in two containers because I hadn't kept on top of the dishwashing and so I didn't have the right sized containers available.

Currently creating - 4th March 2015

I've gotten really behind on my crafting this past week.

I'm also behind on my Craft Circle podcast listening, mostly because I'm trying desperately to listen to an eAudiobook before my loan runs out in six days.  It's Jung Chang's "Empress Dowager Cixi", which in treebook form is 436pg and in audiobook is 57 segments of an average of 20 minutes.

You'd think all this listening time would mean that I'd have got some crochet done, but apparently not.  I am going to make a big effort on Friday to do some Project Life, however, if only so that I have something to report next week.

Last week was a total failure as far as bento was concerned, as well - (hey, bento is creative!) - but this week I've done a little better so far, including trying Sho-yu Tomago (soy sauce eggs) for the first time, and baking a batch of carrot and zucchini muffins.

Oh, and when we were in Melbourne last weekend, I got a couple of rice moulds.  So our rice now comes in fun shapes!

Currently creating - 25th February

Wow - how did it get to the 25th of February already!

So - my weekly contribution to the Champagne and Socks virtual craft circle - this time with actual photos!

This week I intend to finally send the finished Elphieblanket on its way.  I really love the yarn I used for this one - Patons Rainbow in "Rainforest".  I bought some more of it while it was on sale, in a different colourway - I'll have to find an appropriate project for that.

On the Jabyblanket, I've so far kept to my intention to complete at least one repeat of the pattern per day, and I'm up to 19 of 27.

Our cat Bard insisted on being included in my photo of progress so far.

In other types of creativity - after many tries, and *just* before they officially discontinued the set (damn you, LEGO), we finally got our hands on the Research Institute set - this being the three female scientists set that was voted for by the public and was made in such ludicrously low numbers for such things... but anyway...

We finally got our Research Institute and had great fun building it.  Have a LEGO dinosaur.

Currently Creating - 19 February 2015

A friend of mine mentioned that she was going to be working on crochet as part of her Lenten practice this year.

I also began listening to Alisa Krasnostein's new podcast, Champagne and Socks, in which she mentions that she needs to create something every day.

These two things have motivated me to set myself a daily crochet goal: at least one pattern repeat (four rows) of the Jabyblanket, or one colour (two long, long rows) of the Ripple Blanket.

The Jabyblanket is the same pattern that I previously used for the Elphieblanket, but with a higher ply yarn and larger hook.  I loved working on the Elphieblanket, but it was really far too small.

That's not going to be the problem with this one.

Bento: Week 2

See, I promised I would cut back on the the bento posts, so here are the bentos I've done for us this week (and a bit).

1.  rice, mini-burgers, asparagus with sesame sauce, brocolli, forgotten vegetable kinpira, spinach. 

(Clockwise from top left)
2. rice, smoked salmon, roast chicken, rocket, kinpira
3. A breakfast bento: congee, topped with smoked salmon, shredded carrot, pepitas, sesame sauce, walnuts
4.  chicken in pesto, tortellini salad without the tortellini, rocket, carrot in ginger, cherry tomatoes
5.  chicken in pesto sauce, kinpira, carrot in ginger, rice, red capsicum, rocket.

Bento 2

I promise it's not going to become all-bento all the time around here: I'll settle into a once-a-week post soon, I hope (as much as I settle into anything?)

As for today's bento:

• rice (sushi rice today, as the basmati yesterday just did not work with hashi (chopsticks).  Not that today's bento is a hashi one, but still).
• red capsicum
• broccoli
• mini burgers (wrapped in spinach picked fresh from the garden
• sweet pepper and onion confit (again)
• green beans with butter, garlic and sesame seeds
• a tomato sauce to go with the mini burgers, containing carrot and zucchini (last night's pasta sauce)
• grapes

For tomorrow I've got one side done already, and I think we'll be trying another recipe from the Just Bento cookbook.  At least, that's the plan.

Indira challenge:  spinach, zucchini and herbs in the past sauce, all from our garden.  Green beans from my mother's garden.

I made bento!

Those of long memory will recall that for a little while I got very into making bento lunches.  Ever since I fell out of the bento habit I've been wanting to get back into it, and yesterday afternoon we had such a lovely domestic Sunday afternoon that I just got into it.  I made up a few vegetable fillers and mentally planned out the boxes for the rest of the week (mostly) for both M and I.

The result:

• rice
• leftover Crispy Chicken Strips from last night's dinner (instead of the meatballs it was going to be, when I worked out there were four chicken strips left that shared perfectly to two each.)
• broccoli
• celery and broccoli stalk kinpira (using up some mostly-dead celery
• a little rocket, fresh from our garden.
• sweet pepper and onion confit
• blanched spinach with sesame sauce (from the Just Bento cookbook) p36
• grapes

Looking at the container, tomorrow will finish up the kinpira, and probably the steamed broccoli as well, so I should probably look at doing a couple more fillers tonight or tomorrow.  Carrots and green beans are both planned, and tomorrow one of the main vegetables will be asparagus with sesame sauce - I mixed up a decent quantity of sesame sauce yesterday.

Anyway, I'm very pleased with myself with getting this done today.  Now to see if we can keep it going!

For the Indira Challenge: rocket and spinach