Neuer Job, neue Bentos / New Job, new bentos

Es ist ewig her, dass ich Bentos gemacht habe. Nachdem mein Arbeitgeber an einen neuen Ort gezogen ist, hatte ich plötzlich sehr viel weniger Zeit. Zuerst wurden meine Bentos unkreativ, schließlich gab ich es ganz auf. Auf der Arbeit gab es eine kleine Küche und ich aß meistens Fertiggerichte. Da gibt es hier ja glücklicherweise eine Firma, die brauchbare herstellt.
Meine Bentoboxen verstaubten also und die Zutaten wurden anderweitig verwendet. Ein letzter Rest Furikake hat bis heute überlebt (obwohl der auch gut als Notfall-Nudelsoßengewürz taugt).
It's been ages since I last made bentos. As my work moved to a different place I had much less time every day. First my bentos became boring. Then I gave it up at all. At my work was a little kitchen and I mostly ate bought food. At least there is a company which makes decent convenience food.
So my bento boxes got dusty and the ingredients were used up for other meals. A bit of furikake ist still left (even though it's pretty good as a spice for noodle sauces). 

Ich war eine zeitlang arbeitslos, da war auch keine Gelegenheit für Bentos. Nun habe ich einen neuen Job. Ich habe zwar auch wieder eine lange Fahrtzeit und dadurch unter der Woche kaum noch Freizeit. Aber dort gibt es keine Möglichkeit zu kochen oder Gefrorenes zu lagern. Ständig etwas bestellen geht auf Dauer zu sehr ins Geld und wird auch schnell langweilig. Mal davon abgesehen, dass man keine Kontrolle über die Zutaten hat. Also nehme ich das jetzt als wunderbare Gelegenheit, wieder in die Welt der Bentos zurückzukehren.
I've been unemployed for a while. Now I have a new job. I have a long commute again and not much free time left. But a the new workplace is no kitchen and no chance to store frozen food. Ordering food every day costs too much and would get boring very soon. And you never know, what ingredients they use. So I take this oportunity to come back to the world of bentos.

Meine ersten Versuche sind noch ziemlich unspannend. Ich kam noch nicht dazu, meine Boxen zu waschen oder irgendwas zu planen. Ich hatte auch keinen Dämpfer mehr. Also gab es erstmal nur schnelle Gemüse-Nudeln.
My first meals weren't exciting yet. I hadn't washed my boxes yet and couldn't find the time to plan anything. I also didn't have a steamer anymore. So I just made some quick noodles and vegetables.

Gnocchi, Rote Bete, Möhren, gelbe Bohnen und Sellerie. Dazu eine Soße aus Tomatenmark und Frischkäse.
Gnocchi, beetroot, carrots, yellow beans and celery with a sauce of tomato purée and cream cheese.

Gnocchi, Möhren, gelbe Bohnen, Zucchini, Kürbis und Würstchen. Wieder mit Tomatenmark und Frischkäse, dazu noch Furikake. Ja, die Box ist zu groß für eine Portion, aber das war die einzige, die ich gerade griffbereit hatte.
Gnocchi, carrots, yellow beans, zucchini, squash and sausage. Again with tomato purée and cream cheese, and a bit of furikake. The box is too big, but it was the only one I had at hand.

Sobanudeln, Möhre, gelbe Bohnen, Zucchini, Kürbis und Würstchen. Die Soße bestand diesmal aus Streichcreme (Paprika-Chili) und Frischkäse.
Soba noodles, carrot, yellow beans, zucchini, squash and sausage. This time with a sauce made of vegetable spread (bell pepper - chili) and cream cheese.

There's a bug in my bento

I had the idea for this bento some days ago when I cut the beetroot. A round piece with a nice pattern that looked almost like wood grain. But I didn't have a place to put the ladybug on and I was in a hurry anyways, so I postponed it to another day.
Yesterday someone told me that my bentos look too cute to eat. There were just two cheese hearts, that's not too cute o.O So today I had to make a cute one XD
The ladybug is made of beetroot, nori and cheese. It is sitting on top of rice and millet in front of a cheese flower with sesame seeds. There's more cheese and half of a fish patty in this tier, too. The other tier contains cooked squash and beetroot, sautéd king trumpet mushrooms, swede and zucchini and the other half of the fish patty.

25.11.10

I cooked rice today and froze 4 batches. The last one went into my bento box. I mixed all types of rice I have at the moment (broken jasmine rice, normal jasmine rice, sushi rice and brown rice) and also added a bit of millet.
I decorated the rice with swede and beetroot. The other tier contains zucchini, swede, carrot and squash (Muskatkürbis/Muscade de Provence, I can't find an englisch translation).

The weather forecast said "snow" again. A look out of the window told me "not here". It started snowing as I went out of the house, but just a little bit. Just some snowflake floating around. Nothing that would last long. The snow became heavier as I drove out of the village. There really must be some magical weather barrier or something o.O

Pink cat bento

Yesterday's bento wasn't anything special. The only 'decoration' was a piece of carrot in the middle of the rice. My colleague tried to interpret the japanese flag into it, but no, not really XD They seemed kind of disappointed. So today, I made a charaben.
I wanted to make a Jigglypuff, but the ears, arms and feet were too big and it didn't look good. So I just left the ears and made a cat face.
The rice is coloured with beetroot. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, but in the end it turned out ok. The face is made of parsley root and nori. The rest of the box contains lettuce, carrot, beetroot, squash, parsley root and spinach, hidden under tamagoyaki filled with nori.
Lunch was somehow disappointing. My colleagues didn't look T_T And I was too shy to ask them to.