Friday, April 8, 2011

Cleaning the fridge

Very last minute lunch. It doesn't have anything really substantial on it, so I made sure to pack two snacks (some fruit cocktail and my usual yogurt with granola cereal). It seems that I am taking a bit too much time to put a bento together, even something as simple as this. From the moment I opened the fridge to get the first items out to the moment I packed it in my bag, it was a good 20-25min. Too much wasted time.

This bento contains mild cheddar cheese, strawberries, lots of broccoli, some carrots, some red pepper and feta cheese. The small container is oil/vinegar dressing.

Lost my appetite yesterday, and apparently, found quite a few items spoiled. So I'll be cleaning my fridge section and getting rid of the remaining stuff. If we are in the mood for confessions, I lost...: half a container of strawberries, 3/4 a bag of frozen strawberries, half a bag of frozen green beans, about 1/2 lb of cooked rice, 1/5th of a block of mozzarella cheese, four or so spears of asparagus and less than 1/3 of a red pepper. Well... yikes. So much for saving money, eh? I'm not sure where I went wrong. The frozen strawberries were a miss for sure. The regular strawberries, I just couldn’t find a way to add them to my lunches, and apples are so much better with yogurt. Green beans were another miss. I had this 'plan' for them but never got around to it. Asparagus, I didn't like it/found a way to properly cook it, and the pepper, I just bought too much at the beginning.

Time to change tactics, I guess. Rice cooks so fast, I will make much smaller portions and use them as I go. I like strawberries, but not as much as I like apples and oranges. Apples and oranges also last a lot longer, so I'll work on rebalancing my fruits and actually including them in the box. It all comes down to MEAL PLANNING, so hopefully next week I can start doing a lot better. Have a great weekend, all!

4 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about your food lose. I use to buy too much as well. Then I started narrowing it down to two or three different veggies and only one fruit type of an item. It makes me use it.

    As for rice... I cook it up, portion it out and freeze it. Then in the morning I take one out and heat it up in the microwave. Works great!

    And BTW I spend 45 mins to an hour in the morning. I get up at 5:30 to get ready, make my lunch, etc and be out the door at 7:20. lol

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  2. That's a battle I always fight. But for me it seems I never get around to eating the apples. Or the cantaloupe. I try to take things over to my parents house that I'm not going to get around to eating. Then at least if they go bad... it's not my fault.

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  3. Gen: Thanks! That does make me feel a bit better. I have always been panicking because I can't pull out even a simple bento in less than 15min... guess I will just wake up extra early and allow myself some time to make things right.
    Silver: That's a good idea! But I totally thought I would finish the rice before it could go bad. To be honest, this is the first time (EVER!) that I've seen rice go bad. I guess that makes me sad.

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  4. Bento has really helped me with my food loss: I have never vegetables going to waste anymore like I used to. In fact, I'm more likely to run out!

    Rice, on the other hand... yeah, I usually make extra and forget to use it up. :(

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