#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.

#11 Stir-fry Bento

Bottom Tier: Vegetarian stir-fry
Top Tier: Three quarters of a blood orange, cherry tomatoes, roasted almonds, chocolate square

This stir-fry recipe starts with the pan-fried tofu recipe from Bento #9, and then...
Cook whatever rice you like. When the tofu is almost done (about 5-10 minutes left), toss in some veggies, in the order that you want them from most to least cooked. For example, this time I first put in some carrot slices, waited a couple of minutes, then added some finely diced garlic and fresh ginger for a few minutes, and finally put in some purple cabbage and haricots verts for a few minutes. When all that stuff is done, put the cooked rice into the pan, add some cooking oil and soy sauce, and mix everything up. Then, turn down the heat to medium-low, cover, and leave it for about 5-10 minutes. Then eat it!
If I start out with a pound of tofu, and a cup or 2 of rice, I'll end up with enough stir-fry for about 3-4 meals, and I never get sick of it. This is one of those dishes that inexplicably gets better when you reheat it.

#9 Tofu and Couscous Bento

Bottom Tier: Tri-color couscous with pan-fried tofu cubes, with soy sauce and curry powder.
Bottom Tier: Laughing Cow Cheddar, broccoli, baby carrots, strawberries, and a chocolate square hiding underneath.

I love tofu, and this is my favorite way to cook it:
Get either firm or extra firm tofu. Cut it into cubes (or buy the cubed version). Drop the cubes into a pan (I prefer cast-iron for this) on medium heat, and add a splash of soy sauce, plus whatever spices you like. I currently prefer a a mild yellow curry powder, and some fresh-ground pepper. Cover the pan, wait around 7 minutes, and check on the tofu. It will have shrunk slightly from the water evaporation, and the sides should be starting to get brown. Stir and continue frying until its done to your satisfaction. Throw it on top of some rice or pasta or whatever, add another bit of soy sauce, and you're done!
I also sometimes like to add various veggies to this to make different sorts of stir-fries.