A few months ago, I picked up a box of Nueva Cocina Black Beans and Rice from Whole Foods.  I was there.  I needed a side dish for whatever it was I was cooking.  Black beans and rice is a favorite dish of mine, but one I can’t ever seem to get right.  This. Was. Awesome.  For a boxed food, this was really darn good.  It was spiced just right, the dehydrated seasonings and veggies plumped back up well, and the black beans were tasty.

Ever since picking this box up, I pick up another whenever I get a chance to go out to Whole Foods again.  In fact, I picked up another box the other day since I had none left in the house.  This little side dish is becoming my go to staple whenever I need a quick side dish.  I just wish I could make it from scratch instead.  But I can’t seem to find a decent recipe.

If you’re in the market for something different and you see this box of black beans & rice on the shelf.  Pick one up.  I’d definitely recommend it.

This post is not sponsored or in any way connected to Nueva Cocina.  I purchased the food item with my own money.

P.S. Today, I do have a most lovely bento to eat.  However, I’m not posting it until tomorrow.  I’m finding that posting my bentos a day or two after I eat them makes it less stressful to blog about them while so work-busy.  Less worry on my end means I keep up with everything a wee bit better here at Not Exactly Bento.

An absolutely delicious meatball sandwich!

It’s only been two days, and I’m already so pleased with having two completely tasty bentos this week.  Here’s today’s.  Yep, it’s leftovers from a take-out sandwich I picked up last night.  But take-out was about all I was up for yesterday.  I was tired, a good tired, but too tired to even want to make my own sandwich.  And my sandwich would have been a cold ham sandwich, which I like…but this was better.

There is a small cafe type place in my neighboorhood called John Michael’s Good Eats.   About 8 months ago, a co-worker suggested that I try this place.  They have a wide variety of sandwiches, wraps, and such.  The only problem that I have with their selection is that the first thing I got, the meatball cheeseburger poboy, was so good I haven’t really been willing to try another sandwich.  Until last week when I tried the Cubano: roasted pork tenderloin slightly spiced, smoked ham, bacon, swiss, purple onions, and lettuce.  Oh my.  That was tasty too.

But last night, I went back to my tried and true meatball sandwich: big homemade meatballs covered in cheese with ketchup and lettuce.  I always get mine on poboy bread, bread that they slightly press and grill.   OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!  I hope this place stays in business.  I hope they make it.  I’d hate to see this sandwich exit back out of my life after entering it just a short while ago.

What I packed is half of what one gets when one orders this sandwich.  That’s a good bit of sandwich!  I knew last night that I would eat half for dinner and bring the other half for lunch today, along with half of the chips.  I also packed and orange with a wee bit of chocolate and a smidge of garlic sesame sticks. 

My only disappointment was that the big ol’ brownie I bought was a case of “looks can be deceiving.”  They looked so good, so tasty underneath that big glass dish.  When I brought it home, however…Disappointment!  ARGH!  I don’t like when only the outside of the brownie is cooked and the inside is a gooey mess that makes you think you need to put it back into your own oven from 10 minutes so it can finish baking.  Blech.  I can’t stand that.  It is the reason that I don’t like cookies from the Great American Cookie Company at the mall.  The center of their cookies always taste a bit on the too-undercooked side.

If you’re in the Geismar/Prairieville, Louisiana area and are looking for a good place for lunch, I do recommend trying out John Michael’s…maybe just stay away from the brownie.  Which is no big thing, because their chocolate chip cookies are SUPERB along with their most excellent sandwiches.

This post is in no way affiliated with John Michael’s Good Eats.  I was not asked or paid to post a mini-review of their establishment.  However if someone from John Michael’s sees this post, know that you all have a lovely little eatery.  Good luck!

Bento 306
Eaten 9/2/10

This bento was another throw it together and rush out the door idea.  Dudes and dudettes, I so have to figure out more lunches like this.  I’m a bento slacker.  I know this.  I accept this.  I know there comes that point each month where I’m like, “Aw, forget it.  I’m eating out today.”  There is literally no eating out where I now am.  Do you hear that tinge of panic in my voice?  It’s not that I feel I have to eat out.  It is certainly better that I don’t.  This weekend, I’m definitely going to do some cooking to keep this up.

The chicken is part of a BBQ’d chicken breast that I cut/diced/shredded into small portions. I’ll just zap that in the micro for a few seconds before I eat it.  The salad has a quartered hard-boiled egg.  I accidentally left my GoToob of salad dressing at work yesterday, so some nice French dressing will accompany this.  It is all packed in a leftover take out container that I saved.  I love those things. 

In some side containers in my lunch bag I have croutons for my salad.  I can’t eat a salad without croutons, and these are hands down my favorites.  Dear grocers in my area: Please carry these croutons, every last one of you.  They are hard to find, and I’d like it to be easier, pretty please.    A bit of nut mix for a morning snack and some animal crackers for an after dinner sweet round out today’s packed lunch.

So ready for lunch, and I haven’t even had breakfast yet! 

Be the bentoe everyone!

As I mentioned yesterday, my work situation has changed such that I must start packing lunches again.  I’m going to be in an area that has few lunch options and unless I want to start unintentionally fasting Imust pack a lunch.  Which means, I must also get better at managing my personal time.  I learned a valuable lesson with bento #1.  Leftover take-out can be a real time saver when in a pinch.  I had two days to myself before the start of the new position and I spent them doing fun things with friends and family.  In the end I didn’t leave enough time to actually cook anything for lunch and had no dinner leftovers since dinner was out with a group of new people (I joined a crochet group, more on that on Photo Friday).

Anyhow, one positive was that I had grocery shopped and bought alot of easy to pack items: lettuce mix, nuts, tangerines, mini bananas, and more.  When it came time to pack this meal, I thought, “What will the main course be?” I didn’t feel like having a huge salad for lunch.  Oh yeah, leftover pizza is in the fridge from 2 nights ago.  Let’s have that! 

Pizza Bento Closeup #1

A slice of pepperoni-canadian bacon-onion-roasted red pepper pizza went into my lunch set.  The slice was cut in half to fit, so it is actually now two small slices.  Behind the pizza is lettuce mix with half a chopped up hard boiled egg.  The other half I ate for breakfast with other breakfast like items.

Pizza Bento Closeup #2

The right side of the box is where some of the fun really begins.  I have a peeled tangerine with a bit of Hershey’s special dark for my after lunch treat.  Little wee boxes of Planter’s Energy Mix (love that stuff) and roasted, unsalted cashews.  And a wee little mini banana.  The nuts and banana are my snacks for the day.

Okay, that’s it.  That’s my bento for today.  And in case you are wondering it is all packed in a Laptop Lunches container.  I’m very concerned about my lunch not spoiling on the way to work (40 minute drive coming up).  So I bought a Laptop Lunches deal to go along with the inner containers I had purchased some months back. 

Have a great Tuesday everyone!  Hope you have a lovely day.

Be the bento…

I laughed hysterically this morning as I started this post.  This is a not lost nor forgotten bento that I just had not gotten around to posting yet.  In fact, it is the last bento I made between then and the one I will post tomorrow.  The one that I’m eating for lunch today.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Why did I laugh so hard?  Because I started the draft for this post on July 13, 2010.  That’s when I ate this bento.  What a long, crazy, fun, mixed-up month it has been.  I might have been absent, but I hadn’t forgotten my ol’ blog here.  My plan in September is to be around with more bentos.  Not because I’m trying to turn over some new leaf.  Not for health reasons.  Not for any of those altruistic things. 

The reason more packed lunches MUST enter my life is because I’ve had another life change that resulted in my working in an area that has little to none eat-out/fast food/plate lunch type places.  I’m super excited about this change and am highly looking forward to it.  I’m also excited that it might force me back into the bento habit.  I’ve missed it but just allowed myself to be too lazy to keep up with it. 

And what about that long-ago bento.  Well, it was my first ever pot roast.  It was tasty.  It was seasoned well.  It was slightly overcooked.  Ah well.  Not bad for a first attempt!

It did  make a lovely bento with lemon mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, carrots, and the best deviled eggs I’ve made so far.  OMW, those were tasty, tasty.  I’ve finally figured out how to make them the way I like ‘em.  WHEEEE!

So hello again to all of you out there!  Here’s hoping I’m around with ALOT more bentos this month.  Otherwise, I’ll be unintentionally fasting.

As is usual with June, I become absent at Not Exactly Bento as work becomes super busy.  And super busy it has been.  But so fun.  With mid-July, I’m finally finding a bit of time to come back and say hello.

I didn’t even worry with packing bentos in June too much.  It was a mainly eat out month with a few spots of eating at home.  I packed a few bentos just so I wouldn’t “lose my touch” so to speak.  Though this first bento leaves alot to be desired.

When so busy, it is sometimes hard for me to think of quick things to cook.  In came Albertsons to the save this past month.  They have pork chops and steaks they will pre-marinate for you.  During June they ran a big sale on these, and I stocked up.  And they become my meals in June.  I brought them all home, cooked them that weekend, and then froze.  Popped one out for lunch or dinner when needed, and voila, near instant meal.  Was so easy and helpful.  In bento 303, a pre-seasoned pork chop is paired with Pasta Roni (herb variety) and some steamed vegetables.

Bento 304 was better planned.  A box of black beans and rice made a tasty side dish to the pre-seasoned pork chop along with grilled zucchini and hard boiled egg.  I also packed orange slices a bit of chocolate and a salad.  The only problem with this lunch is that it was WAY too much food.  I didn’t end up eating the salad portion.  I brought that home for lunch along with the orange slices.  A review of the black beans and rice will come on a Tuesday in the not so distant future.

Or so Toby thinks as he rolls around in the hot Louisiana sun.

And to paraphrase ol’ Charlie Brown: “Stinkiness is also a warm puppy.”

Last year’s semi-successful garden attempt has turned into a mulched area with two blueberry bushes and a orange tree sapling.  Recently while weeding, I discovered a snail shell and wondered where the snail was.  I didn’t see him in there.  I wonder if he found a nicer shell for his home?

While last week’s Photo Friday post featured a recipe failure, this week’s features a recipe success: cheddar-thyme cornbread.  Lately, I’ve seen lots of pictures of cornbread with cheddar in it.  In fact, I think an issue of Everyday Food I was recently perusing had such a recipe.  But I didn’t like the recipe for some reason.  Then, I went off searching for other recipes.

One of the places I cruised was The Smitten Kitchen.  Smitten Kitchen is my guilty pleasure.  I pop into her blog when I want to ooh and aah and drool over food photography.  Really, hers is some of the best (in my opinion).  Then, I ooh and aah and giggle at the pictures she posts of her son (geez, that’s a photogenic baby).  And her recipes are just amazing.  Amazing because many are so complicated there is no way I’ll ever try them.  I read her blog because I think her food adventures in cooking are just the ultimate.  Anyhow, my perusing ran me across her bleu cheese scallion drop biscuits.  And to emulate the great Deb, I’ll just say that her bleu cheese turned into my cheddar, her scallion into my thyme, and her drop biscuits into my cornbread.  Don’t ask me why it worked out that way.  It just did.

And then after all that measuring, and mixing, and baking, two slices were buttered and tosted for breakfast the next morning with a spinach and egg omelet (of sorts).  I ate.  I sighed.  I was soooo content.

I’ve been documenting the things that haven’t gone so well in my cooking adventures.  I don’t normally talk abou them here on the blog.  I know I”m going to change that soon.  I’ve even been going back and finding those recipes that really didnt’ work out so well in the long run.  Things that haven’t become a permanent staple in my cooking life have been moved to the “Recipes that Didn’t Really Work” file.  I guess one day I could go back and see if I can figure out where the mishaps happened.  I doubt it though.  I have too many other recipes I want to try instead.

These blueberry pancakes I made are an example of a recipe that didn’t quite workout.  However, I think that these I will try to go back and figure out how to fix the recipe.  It all started with my finding a recipe on the Everyday Food magazine site for Cherry Almond Cake.  I was looking for recipes that would use up some frozen blueberries.  This one seemed a possibility, though I haven’t made it yet.

One morning as I was about to fix up a batch of blueberry, pecan pancakes, I was reading my go-to pancake recipe (courtesy of Recipezaar) and thought, “What would happen if I substituted almond extract for the vanialla extract?”  I had some sliced almonds on hand.  Into the batter went a nice handful of sliced almonds.  Blueberries were plopped into the pancake batter immediately after pouring out the cake to the hot skillet.

While they didnt’ taste bad, something just didn’t gel quite right.  I think it was the sliced almonds for some reason.  I have a feeling that to fix the recipe I either need to toast the chop the almonds or possibly blanch and chop the almonds.

It is definitely a concept I plan to go back to.