Wrap bento

            Mmmmm, what a fresh and delicious looking bento!  I was so insanely excited to eat this for lunch that I couldn't stop thinking about it all morning. Lunch is so much more fun when you know you have a bento waiting for you at noon. :) These 'wrap' bentos have an assortment of fresh veggies, some grapes, laughing cow cheese and (in my case) organic raisins and olives.  But, of course, the main feature is the wrap itself, which contained: 'crab' meat, avocado, cucumber, and mayo.  Luke's bento had an extra wrap in place of the olives and raisins, and he also took some hummus for dipping.

Rainbow Reward

          
                 Right after completing the finishing touches on our freshly painted interior, we were rewarded with this scene. This was taken from our front lawn....wow :)

A Painted House

          After many hours of hard work, we have finally finished painting our house! (With two weeks to spare)  The transformation has been amazing and it was well worth our time and effort. I was desperate to get some pictures while the sun was still out, so there may be a few shots where the walls weren't completely dry yet.  Luke did the rolling and I did the cutting along the baseboards, windows and ceilings, it ended up working really well. We made a great team! :)

I took this 'self-portrait' in our wall length mirror

The Hummus Friendly Bento

              I managed to assemble two of these bentos this morning in under 10 minutes. This is a lunch bento that was also packed with a container of hummus to go with all of the dippables you see above.  (Well, execpt for the grapes, somehow I don't think garlic and grapes would go well together...) I took some pictures that included the hummus container but I wasn't sure about posting them. The hummus wasn't very pretty ;) Ah, what the heck, I'll post the hummus below for fun.  I used the 'summer fresh' hummus that Kaitlin introduced me to this January when we went home to Ontario.  I was very excited when I discovered that you can buy it out here too!


Mmmmm, doesn't that pile of hummus look delicious??? ;)

Fried Rice and egg bento

      Front tier: Hard boiled egg and steamed zucchini 

Back tier: Fried rice with egg and green onions

Tuna Pattie Bento

             I tried something new in my most recent bento... Tuna Patties!  And boy were they delicious, I was extremely happy with the results. They were easy to make and were quite tasty for being so healthy.  The top tier contains some mashed potatoes, which, unfortunately, aren't very pretty to look at ;) The steamed zuchinni has become a bento staple for me, but they too look pretty unappetizing in this picture.  I had to make a little tin foil pouch to wrap the zuchinni in so the moisture would make the patties soggy.  It's definitely time for me to buy some new bento supplies! A silicone baking cup would have have been much easier to use, and much more visually pleasing.  I will be going on j-list.com in a few days to place my order, I've had a 'wish list' going for a while now :)

Painting

Now that I have a new digital camera again, I've been taking a LOT of pictures.  I am very impressed with the quality of the images, there won't be any more blurry cell phone pictures on my blog, I promise ;)

            Today we spent many hours painting the trim in our new rental house. We decided, without much thinking, that we wanted white trim (or eggshell as it says on our paint can) ... It ended up taking 3-4 coats of white to cover up the dark burguny trim!  At least the walls themselves will be easier as they are currently white and we will be painting them a lightbrown/tan colour....  Luckily, for me, I really enjoy painting and I've been having a lot of fun spending time in our new place and making it 'our own'.

House pics - Inside

Living room

I love this floor so much for some reason - I think it has 'character'

Hall way (with storage!!!) We are painting the two bedrooms - notice our drop cloth



Kitchen




Kitchen again



Bathroom - new laminate floor (also took a picture of the newly tiled bathtub but it came out blurry)

Storage/Pantry room




View from kitchen windows :)



Rental house pictures - Outside

Back view

              I am moving again!!! This time, Luke and I get a whole little house to ourselves, we are extremely excited!  We managed to find an amazing deal and will be moving in within the next couple of weeks.  In the meantime, we are getting prepared to move into our new abode and are busy re-painting the two bedrooms and living room.  Our new place is located in the middle of an orchard (sour cherry) out in the 'country' in south-east Kelowna. It is exactly what we've been looking for, not only do we have our own house, we now have a huge lawn (xeriscaped and irrigated) including a fire pit.  The area is extremely quiet and the views are breathtaking, we are so very lucky to have found this lovely little place :)  Note - These pictures were taken with my brand new digital camera - thanks Mom and Dad for the awesome birthday gift!

Front view

Back deck (with Luke)

Orchard view

Driveway

Luke in the backyard :)

Yet another bento

         I managed to snag a picture of my latest bento at work during my lunch.  The last couple of bentos were not documented because I was so hungry I devoured them before remembering to take some pictures :)

 Top tier: Lean italian meatballs covered in tomato sauce and some stir-fried snap peas.
  Bottom tier: filled with my favourite version of chinese fried rice: rice stir-fried with olive oil, soy sauce,           scramble eggs and green onion.

Caching on the lake

                 We were doing some winter caching last weekend and took a stroll on Wood Lake while it was still frozen.  The fresh tire tracks ensured us that it would still be strong enough to support our body weight.  We weren't the only ones taking advantage of the still frozen water, there were many groups of ice-fishers getting in some 'ice-time' as well. All in all, we had a great little caching trip, discovering all four of the caches we had set out to find.

Manly vs. Mini Bento

Contents: Fried Rice, hard-boiled eggs and carrot kinpia (links to recipes below)

Front Tier: Hard-boiled eggs, Carrot kinpira from 'Just Bento' blog (recipe here)

Back Tier: Easy and delicious fried rice (recipe here)

Recent bentos

I have been busy making bentos lately.... :)

New Bento Box (and pics)

           This is my new 'official' bento box which I ordered straight from Japan. You can't tell from the picture, but there are dragonfly's adorning the plastic caseing. Choosing a bento was extremely fun, and very time consuming because there are just so many cool bentos out there!  I chose this particular 'Lube Sheep' brand bento because it has two tiers and came with an adorable drawstring pouch (as you can see pictured here). It also came with a tiny pair of  laquered chopsticks, which are even harder to use then the unfinished wooden ones I am used to ;)