Maternity Dress July 30, 2008

For my Apparel 3 class I needed to make a lined dress appropriate for maternity. I thought a wrap dress would be perfect.
My idea was that a wrap dress would be great for maternity because it would expand for the growing tummy and the mother could wear it before, during, and after the pregnancy. First I had to make the necessary adjustments to the pattern. There were a lot to make, but I was pretty happy when I was able to do it without help.
I think it turned out really well. It’s just how I had imagined. I added pleats to the bottom layer to give even more room. The ties are extra long so the dress can be tied in the front or back.

Since I’m a poor college student, I am putting this dress up for sale plus many other clothing items on my sweetheart clothing etsy site. This dress is only $65, so go buy it now.

Bento 30 – Spring Rolls July 30, 2008

I made a bunch of spring rolls for dinner so I would have leftovers for my bento today plus more. I recently got into making spring rolls, I used to have trouble rolling them, but I think I’ve got it down now. I made a peanut sauce for some tofu veggie lettuce wraps I made the night before, so we used the rest of that with dinner/bento.

Without further adieu, here’s the bento

There’s the spring rolls on the right with some of the peanut sauce in little piggy sauce containers. I added a little bit more of cilantro and green onion to snack on with the spring rolls too.
I sliced up a pear and put in some cherry tomatoes. The other weird looking stuff is some dried spiced tofu… I got it at Tim’s Oriental Market. It was on sale for 39 cents (because it was expired) but I bought it anyway and tried it out. It tastes somewhat like tofu jerkey, not as chewy though. I’m hoping I don’t get sick from it, but it was so cheap I couldn’t resist.

In other news, one of the pictures I submitted to onabentofrenzy’s site was shortlisted! I am so excited that my bentos are actually good looking and I’m not just a crazy person with this site, hehe. There will be a poll on the site soon to choose the winner, so we’ll see how it goes!

Bento 29 – Mock Shrimp Stirfry July 25, 2008

For this bento, I decided to use the mock shrimp I bought in a little different way. I cut up some cabbage, onion, garlic, green onion, and mushrooms and stir fried it with the shrimp. I also added a little kimchi for extra flavor and spiciness. For the sauce I used a sweet asian sauce that I made to accompany some summer rolls I made for dinner.
I also sliced up some cucumber from my Mom’s garden and made an asian cucumber salad with that. Then all I had to do was slice up some strawberry and apple and this bento was ready.

Bento 28 July 23, 2008

Today Jason and I went to my favorite Japanese Market and we got all kinds of goodies. We had a simple asian dinner with boiled edamame pods, miso soup with nori, brown rice to go into the soup, and kimchi. It was really good but I was still in the mood for asian food. So I came up with these bentos for Jason and I tomorrow. Unfortunately we won’t be able to have lunch together tomorrow, but at least we’ll both have similar meals! I made some carrot and avocado sushi and put a little container of soy sauce for Jason. I filled up a container for myself, plus filled a little hello kitty bowl with pickled ginger and wasabi. Then I added some kimchi to his,and apple pieces and mixed nuts to both. Because my bento box has so much space it took me a while to fill up all the spaces. Our kitchen is a little bare, so it was hard coming up with things that would go together but I think it works out well.

First the man’s

And mine. I added some snack peas, star shaped peanut butter with sugar free jelly, and edamame.

Bento 27 July 23, 2008

I made this bento a couple days ago, but I’ve been super busy lately and haven’t gotten a chance to post it yet. I had some vegan mac and cheese, corn on the cob, and greenbeans leftover from dinner, so this bento was a breeze to put together. I had some edamame in pods that I didn’t eat from the bento the day before too and didn’t want to trow them away, so I popped the beans out out the shell on top of my mac and cheese. Then I cup the corn off the cob and added that along with the green beans to my bento. All I had to do after that was cut up some strawberries and I was done.

Although this bento was ludicrously easy to make, it was also ludicrously yummy!

Beatles Lunchbox July 22, 2008

This project was inspired by two items that I feel are totally different – a Beatles calendar and a tin lunchbox I bought in middle school. Sadly I do not have a before picture of the lunchbox, but let me tell you, it was horrible. It said “Princess of Everything” on it and was bright pink with a crown. I don’t know what I was thinking when I spent $20 on it… The calendar was my boyfriends and when the year was over I couldn’t let him discard it because of the great pictures.

After a few months I finally came upon both items and realized the lunchbox could be saved. I cut out my favorite pictures, then went to work cutting out little pieces of paper in different colors to make a border. Then I used one of my favorite products, Mod Podge, to attach the pictures and paper pieces to the lunchbox. A few hours later this was the result.

I am really pleased with how this box turned out, and actually wish I had more of these tin boxes to decoupage.  Please let me know if you like it too!

Bento 26- Spaghetti Nests July 18, 2008

Last night for dinner, we had some spaghetti with garlic bread. Since I haven’t had spaghetti in a while, I thought it would be nice for my lunch too. After thinking about which bento box would be best, I choose my “authentic” style bento and fashioned the noodles and sauce into little nests. For the 2nd tier in the box, I cooked the rest of my edamame and sprinkled some Mrs. Dash on it. Then put some sliced strawberries, nectarine, and some almonds w/ dried cherries.

Canned Mock Abalone July 17, 2008

A few days ago, I mentioned that I made a stirfry for my bento using some canned mock abalone that I found at an Asian market. Well now it’s time for the review. Here’s what the can looked like. Innocent enough…

After I opened the can up though I was rather disturbed. The abalone really did look like abalone which kind of worried me. Still I knew they had to be eaten, so I drained the liquid out and threw a few into the stirfry.

Once all the vegetables were done I tasted a piece… it was surprisingly good. It had a meaty texture and it was lightly soy sauce flavored. Although the texture and appearance was kind of scary for me because it was so realistic, I still enjoyed the stirfry and ate it all. You can see how it turned out on the left side of this bento.

I give it a 7 out of 10. It tasted good and I enjoyed it, but it’s not going to be something that I start craving.

Bento #25- Sneaky Tomato July 17, 2008

Last night when I was making this bento, I thought some of the little homegrown tomatoes we had looked kind of like faces. So I made one into a cute little face.
This bento also has some leftovers from dinner, the au gratin potatoes, brussel sprouts, and avocado. I found out that brussel sprouts are really good with avocado. Try it out sometime! I also added a little hot sauce to the avocado to add some extra flavor for dipping the vegetables in.
I also added some green apple, strawberries, mixed nuts/dried fruit, and baby carrots and tomatoes.

I entered this into a competition also. Click here to check it out.

Using Leftovers Pt. 1 – Vegetable Fajita Calzone July 15, 2008

Continuing with the reducing waste theme, I used some leftover grilled vegetables and black beans to make a fajita style calzone for dinner and here’s how I did it.

First make a simple pizza dough.

let it rise

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and roll out into a square shape.

spread on black beans and sprinkle minced garlic on top

Get your leftover grilled vegetables out and chop them up.

Spread out vegetables over beans.

Close it up, trying to keep the dough even.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the dough is lightly browned.

Slice and enjoy!

This turned out to be a great dinner for tonight. I was tired of fajita tacos and there were tonnes of vegetables left so this was a nice change but also helped use up some of the veggies. I also have made a Mexican style calzone before by cooking up some onion, bell pepper, whole black beans, corn and garlic and sticking that into the pizza dough. I really enjoy that recipe, so it kind of inspired this one.