Week 1 Bentos (so far)

I was Monday and Tuesday this week, so I didnt make Bentos for those days. (Although I would have been better off doing that.) I made bento for today and for tomorrow. I tried something new though. Normally when school is in session I would make bentos at night for DH and I. However at work I have no microwave access (I do at school) so after my bento sits in the fridge over night its still too chilly when I eat lunch. Since I dont have to be in work till lunchtime I've been prepping my bento at night and finishing it off cooking wise in the am. Today was the first day I did that. (And of course I woke up to a few inches of snow this summer which cut into to my am bento cooking time!) But it worked well and tested much better then super cold bento. 

So for todays bento I made a mini vegetable gratin, tamagoyaki, teriyaki shrimp and rice.

This way was easier. Last night I marinated the shrimp, prepared the gratin in the cup and that was it. So this morning all I did was put the gratin in the toaster oven, while that was baking  I fried the leftover rice I had, and cooked the shrimp in the same pan (I did the rice first since it takes longer to cool) After the shrimp and I rice I made the Tamagoyaki. 

This is the vegetable gratin, all ready to go for tomorrow and be cooked in the toaster. The gratin was so good today I decided to make it again tomorrow! Yum!

I also cooked up some really easy shrimp furikake fritters too. Keeping frozen uncooked shrimp in the freezer is a good idea, they defrost very quickly and work for proteins. 

I've been following (trying) the bento challenge at Just Bento. This is week 1. More about getting started and into the swing of making bentos for lunch everyday. This is my week to get back on track, with making lunches and not eating so much crap. (again trying) I linked all the recipes I used from Maki at Just Bento, go visit!