#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:

#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.

#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.

#12 Sandwich Bento

Top Tier: Sandwich with "Philly Steak"-style Tofurky, cheddar, and mustard on 9-grain bread; almonds filling in the spaces
Bottom Tier: Pickle slices for the sandwich in the blue cup, celery, English cucumber, strawberries, blueberries

This was my first time trying the Tofurky, and, I have to say, it wasn't bad. I recommend frying it a little first for more meaty flavor. Also, I just noticed that on their website, they recommend using this flavor for stir-fries and fajitas, so maybe I'll try that soon.