#34 Rice and Stuff Bento

Bottom Tier: Jasmine Rice with a soy sauce swirl

Top Tier: Celery and carrot pieces, furikake for my rice in plastic wrap, fried soysage slices, dark chocolate almonds.

#33 Not a Bento

This obviously isn't a bento lunch, but it does have 2 recipes in it that I want to write down, so here it is anyway:

In the cream cheese tub: 3 stuffed grape leaves.

Sandwich: Queso blanco, turkey bacon, and guacamole on multigrain bread.

and a peach yogurt.

Stuffed grape leaves:

Cook about 1.5 cups of any white rice you like (I used Jasmine). Cool, and mix in about 1 can of crushed tomatoes, about a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, a couple tablespoons of crushed garlic, and some black pepper.

Open 1 bottle of pickled grape leaves, and rinse them under running water (if you don't do this, they will be way too salty to eat. Put about 1 tablespoon of rice mixture into the middle of each leaf and roll it like a burrito. Pack the stuffed leaves into a deep soup pan. When the pan is full, sprinkle it all over with about 1/4 cup olive oil, and add enough veggie broth where you can see it under the first couple of layers. Cover and cook on medium-low for a couple of hours. When finished, squeeze the juice of half a lemon over all the leaves.

Guacamole:

1 avocado

3 cherry tomatoes, or half a normal tomato

a few sprigs of cilantro

1 garlic clove

juice of quarter-half lime or

Put everything in a blender (I used my Magic Bullet), and blend until you get the consistency you want.

Here's what it looked like on my sandwich:

#32 Comfort Pasta Bento

Top Tier: Baked bow-tie pasta

Bottom Tier: Red cabbage and carrot salad dressed with salad oil, salt, and lemon juice

Yummy comforting baked pasta:

Cook 1 box (12 oz?) of your favorite pasta shape al dente (my pasta box said to cook the pasta for 10 minutes, but I cooked it for about 7 and a half). Mix together 1 can of your favorite cream of whatever soup (I used chicken) and a half soup-can of milk, and stir into pasta. Add some spices, salt, and pepper to taste. Stir in some shredded cheese (I used an Italian blend). Pour everything into an oven-safe dish. Top with some smashed crackers (I used whole wheat Saltines), and some more cheese. Bake at 350 until cheese is melty and a little browned.

You could also add some veggies in there if you want. As I was trying it, I thought it might be good with some frozen peas, or maybe some asparagus (although I would have used fresh-I have a consistency issue with most pre-cooked veggies).

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven:

#31 Veggie Soup Bento

Twist-top container: Creamy roasted vegetable soup with fresh basil

Glass container: mini biscuit with turkey bacon and colby-jack cheese, broccoli, celery, carrots, grapes.

Roasted veggie soup:

Peel 2 sweet potatoes, 1 parsnip, 3 carrots, and 3 celery stalks, and cut into 1-inch squares. Toss with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until the veggies are soft and golden brown around the edges. At the same time, make some roasted garlic from the recipe in this post. Let veggies cool, and then blend them (I used my Magic Bullet) with some veggie broth (enough to accomplish blending). Pour it all into a pot, stir in more broth until it's almost as liquidy as you want. Heat on medium, and stir in any spices you want to taste (I used a seasoning salt, some cayenne pepper, and some fresh basil). When soup is hot, add about 1/5 of the volume milk. Stir, and enjoy!

*Celery Tip- If you hate those celery strings that always clump up after cooking, peel them off with a veggie peeler before slicing. I do this every time I use celery, even if I'm just going to eat it straight.

#30 Chickpea-heavy Bento

Bottom Tier: salad of baby Romaine leaves and carrots with ginger miso dressing underneath.
Top Tier: 3 falafel patties, homemade hummus, some colby jack cheese cubes, strawberries

In the bag: pappadum
and: a Clementine

I made the hummus in my Magic Bullet, which is pretty cool, but not as cool as the infomercial says it is (obviously). Recipe:
1 can of chickpeas (also called Garbanzo beans)
1 clove fresh garlic
1/4 Tsp each salt and pepper
1/2 Tsp dried parsley (I will probably use fresh next time)
A couple Tbsp olive oil

Blend it!

#29 Stir-fry Bento

Bottom Tier: 2 langostino wontons, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, slices of peppered salami, 1 piece of Muenster cheese.

Top Tier: wild rice blend with a stir-fry with curry tofu, carrots, baby bok choy, garlic, fresh ginger (from the garden!), and cilantro.

I also had a nectarine with this lunch.

Our homegrown ginger was an incredibly happy accident. Last spring, we had some store-bought ginger that had been around for a while, and started to grow a crown, so I decided to plant it. The greens of the plant are really beautiful, although I didn't have mine in the ground long enough for it to flower. Anyway, the point is that the ginger root that you get from growing your own plants is absolutely nothing like the kind you buy from the store. Store-bought ginger has a tough skin, and is almost grainy and hard to cut through. This ginger had a thin, papery skin that you could remove just by rubbing it, and it slices as easily as a clove of garlic. I'm probably going to try and grown some in a pot over the winter.

#28 Pescatarian Bento

Baby bok choy leaves on the bottom, a mixture of broccoli and cauliflower florets, baby carrots, and cherry tomatoes (from the garden!), two falafels, three wontons made with cream cheese, langostino tails, and parsley (from the garden), 1 folded-up slice of Muenster cheese. Also, I had a Minneola tangelo.

This lunch was put together in a 1 QT (950 mL) Pyrex container. It was a little much, but I ate the leftovers later in the afternoon before going to the gym.

You can find my wonton recipe in this post.

I have tried many falafel mixes over the years, including making my own, which was kind of a disaster. Falafel is one of my favorite foods, and it's a staple in our household for a quick and easy veggie lunch (my husband is a vegetarian, although I'm not). In any case, I've found my favorite brand: Casbah. The falafel get nice and crispy in the pan without having to deep fry them, and there is plenty of spice in the mix. I've started buying them by the case from on amazon.com.

#27 Gnocchi Bento

Bottom Tier: Gnocchi with pesto and pine nuts
Top Tier: Orange slices, chocolate raspberry sticks, black tea bag

Gnocchi is a pasta made with potato flour. It's really delicious, and quick to cook. You can buy it dried, but I prefer the frozen kind. The pesto sauce was simple olive oil and basil.

#26 Wrap Bento

Top Tier: Spinach tortilla with mayo, salami, and colby jack, cut in half; goldfish crackers, dark chocolate-covered almonds
Bottom Tier: Salad of Romaine lettuce and carrots, with peppercorn ranch dressing underneath.

#25 Veggie Pasta Bento

Top Tier: Cucumber (from the garden!) and carrot slices
Bottom Tier: Capellini with a triple tomato and asparagus sauce
Hidden: Chocolate square in the lid

This sauce is made with 3 kinds of tomatoes- raw cherry tomatoes (from the garden!), bottled stewed plum tomatoes, and sun dried tomatoes.
Recipe:
Saute some asparagus in a little olive oil and salt (I prefer using fresh asparagus as opposed to frozen, because it doesn't fall apart as easily). When the asparagus is cooked through (about 5 minutes on medium heat), add thinly-sliced garlic, and saute for another couple of minutes. Add sun dried tomato pieces, and whole cherry tomatoes. Cover pan so that the tomatoes will burst from the heat. Then, add a couple of the stewed tomatoes, and crush/mix them with the rest of the sauce. Add any spices to taste (I used ground black pepper and an Italian seasoning mix), pour sauce over pasta , mix, and top off with some Parmesan cheese.

#24 Orange Bento

Bottom Tier: leftover takeout- enchilada and 1/2 of a quesadilla
Top Tier: 2 apricot halves, cut-up carrot, trail mix as filler.

#23 Pita Pizza Bento

It's been months since I posted! I've been packing bento lunches pretty much daily, but have been too lazy to photograph/post them. Here's one I found in my camera from June or so (I think):

Bottom tier: Whole wheat pita with tomato sauce, sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic, and Buffalo mozarella slices

Top tier: cucumber (from the garden!), strawberries, grapes, tiny homemade lemon poppyseed muffin with orange glaze.

I will try to get back in the game starting.... NOW!

#22 Adult Quesadillas Bento

Bottom Tier: 2 Spinach-Feta Quesadillas
Top Tier: Strawberries, chocolate square

The spinach in our garden is getting a little out of control, so we had to harvest a bunch. These quesadillas were a natural choice, because they're so delicious:
Make roasted garlic as in my very first bento blog post. While it cools, boil some veggie or chicken broth with some chopped jalapeno peppers (the number of peppers depends on how spicy you want your quesadillas). Boil for about 10 minutes, so that it reduces a little, and the pepper flavor gets infused into the broth. Then, pour it into a shallow bowl or pan through a sieve (to remove the pepper chunks). While the broth cools, chop up some spinach into small strips, and put it into a large bowl. Add crumbled feta cheese, the roasted garlic, and a little olive oil. When you are ready to cook your quesadillas, choose a frying pan that is the same size or larger than the tortillas that you will be using. Heat the pan up to about the medium setting, and add some oil. Dip each tortilla in the spicy broth mixture, and fry it for about 1 minute on each side, just to make it sticky.
After all of your tortillas have been pre-cooked, you can start adding the spinach-feta mixture and rolling up your quesadillas. Then, fry them again until golden-brown.

#21 Greek Bento

Top Tier: Jasmine rice with gyro meat, hummus in the plastic container
Bottom Tier: Falafel, strawberries, carrot chunks
In the Lid: chocolate square

#20 Southern-Style Bento

These are leftovers from Cracker Barrel, which holds a very special tiny space in my heart.

Bottom Tier: Roast beef, pinto beans, and a biscuit
Top Tier: Fried apples, strawberries

Totally not nutritious, but soooooooooo good.

New Boxes!

I just bought these new boxes from Ichiban Kan. They are from the Putifresh grape series, and have some awesome Engrish: "Happy fruits is very delicious. I will eat this and will become fortunate all together!" The one on the left is two tiers, 350 mL and 250 mL, and has space in the top lid for my little fork, and something small, like chocolate squares. The box on the right has a snap-top lid which makes it spill-proof. It holds 480 mL, which is more than enough soup (or whatever). Also, both boxes are microwaveable.
I also bought some more elastic bands to hold my boxes together, two bags, some furikake, a spring roll kit, and some cookies, and my total was less than $20!

#19 Baked Potato Bento

Bottom Tier: Baked potato, sour cream and Earth Balance in the silicone cup
Top Tier: Caprese salad, cheddar cheese cubes, slices of beef bologna, grapes, kiwi slices.

I have a debilitating weakness for bologna. Its a curse I'm resigned to living with.

#18 Alfredo Bento

Top Tier: Shrimp fettuccine alfredo
Bottom Tier: Butter beans tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper on a kale leaf, strawberries, raspberries

Shrimp Recipe:
Heat up some olive oil in a frying pan around the medium setting. Wash off your shrimp, and pat them dry (if you don't do this, then your shrimp will end up rubbery and not crisped. Sprinkle with any seasoning you prefer (I have a seafood spice that I like, which includes salt, white pepper, garlic, red pepper flake, and some other stuff). Fry about 2-4 minutes on each side.

Alfredo Recipe:
If you're making the shrimp variety, remove the shrimp onto a plate and put the pan back on the heat. Add a little olive oil, and several splashes of cream. Deglaze the pan, while also making sure to stir constantly. If left alone, the cream will boil extremely quickly, and then you'll have a big mess on your hands. If you're not using shrimp or any other meat or veggie, just heat up a pan with a little olive oil and add some cream. Once the cream has reduced a little (about 3-5 minutes), add shredded cheese a little at a time, while stirring to combine. I used a mix of Pecorino Romano and Parmesan cheeses, but you can use whatever you like. Add your shrimp back in to heat up, and you're done!

#17 Squash Bento

Bottom Tier: Roasted half of a tiny acorn squash, sitting on top of some almonds
Top Tier: Manchego cheese cubes, chocolate raspberry sticks, strawberries, 2 halves of a Seckel pear

Roasted Acorn Squash:
Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds and gooey bits. Put about 3/4 of an inch of water into a baking pan, and put the squash in skin side up (so that the "meat" of the squash can get steamed by the water). Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Then, dump the water and flip the squash. At this point you can go one of two ways: (1) Add some butter, cinnamon, sugar, and little nutmeg, or (2 [this is the one I did]) drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and herbs. Bake for another 20 minutes or so.

#16 Salad Bento

Top Tier: Salad with purple cabbage, carrots, and English cucumbers with ginger dressing underneath
Bottom Tier: Cubes of Manchego cheese, roasted almonds, strawberries, blueberries