American Bento

Friends,

School is letting out shortly and I am getting ready to make a wonderful trip to Russia.  My husband and I are adopting three beautiful children and have a court date shortly before Christmas.  I hope to be back in time to post some fun, bento inspired, healthy snacks for the holidays.  I may not make Christmas but will do my best to have something special for New Years.  Please keep my family in your prayers.  Next month may be filled with meals for toddlers instead of teenagers!  At least, that is what we are all hoping for!

Thank you all and I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Fontevrault

I've been asked to share my recipe for baguette here.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't be ethical to share the recipe itself since it comes from a wonderful book:  Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.   If you click on the title, it will take you to Amazon.com.  I don't participate in a referral program but thought it might make life easier for you to be able to click and read reviews. 

I like this method of making bread because it is fast and easy and yet healthy.  Fast and healthy rarely describe the same food, so it is nice to support an effort to help families (a) eat real homemade food and (b) offer ways to do so without spending all day in the kitchen.  Don't get me wrong; I enjoy cooking.  But, I also have a lot of other projects to work on. 

The premise of the cookbook is that you make a basic recipe and keep that dough in the fridge.  When you want to make bread, you simply pull out the amount of dough needed and shape your loaf (your 5 minutes of work).  Then, you allow the bread to rest and later bake it.  There isn't a lot of kneading involved or even proofing yeast.  Instead, the recipes in this book use more moisture and add vital wheat gluten. 

Some loaves should rest for as much as 50 minutes.  Baguettes require less rest time and bake more quickly (since they are more narrow).  This works for me because I get up at 5 am to make lunch and breakfast for my family.  I really don't want to have to get up any earlier than that.  So, I make baguette and sometimes hit the snooze button.  :) 

The baguette pictured in my "A Sandwich Bento" entry is the basic whole wheat bread recipe.  I've made some changes. I use white whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour.  I also made small "mini" baguettes.  These are approximately 4 inches long.  Once I've allowed the dough to rest, I moisten the baguette with water and sprinkle a mixture of rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper on top.  I then slit the top of the dough. 

I do hope you will consider looking at this book.  It might even be available at your local library.  I have found that I bake more frequently because I have the dough ready.  I also find I spend much less money on bread.  I think my total cost for a conventional loaf of bread might be $0.50 with these recipes.  Fancy breads like a herbed baguette would cost far more at the store.  I have spent as much as $4 for a nice loaf of bread at Whole Foods.  Now, I can just make it at home!

This bento is made from leftovers.  Tonight we've had a lot going on.  Dinner was an afterthought: a rotisserie chicken from Walmart and a quick salad.  This bento grew out of that simple meal. 

Layer 1:  Cucumber sandwiches and mini tomatoes start off the meal.  A muffin, yogurt, strawberries, and orange slices make for a sweet ending.

Layer 2: A main course of chicken leg, potatoes tossed with herbs, green beans, onions, and carrot.  There is also some mashed sweet potato and a small salad.

This bento is a single layer meal made of leftovers from a delightful dinner.  Here are ravioli filled with cheese and topped with tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted red pepper and more cheese.  I've used cucumber slices to hold the ravioli in place so that I could add some fresh veggies: tomatoes, carrots, and peppers. 

This is a bento that DD tells me is her personal favorite.  She enjoyed the lunch so much that she has asked me to make it several times.  It's nice to feel appreciated, especially when the lunch requested is so easy!

Layer 1 is my usual assortment of veggies and a dip.  Dessert includes plums, strawberries, and low carb cheesecake.  I make the cheesecake in advance and then freeze individual portions.  I can then pull out a treat whenever I need to.


Layer 2 is a small salad and a chicken sandwich on homemade baguette.  The baguette is whole wheat and topped with a rosemary herb mix. 

I have only just noticed that I haven't been posting much!  I am sorry to report that life has gotten busy and I got overwhelmed.  But, I am now able to focus much more on my bentos!  :)

Today I present a pulled pork bbq bento with homemade cornbread.  This is comfort food - plain and simple.   It's even in a one layer bento. 


Here you can see a small cup of pork bbq.  I had some stashed away in the freezer and pulled it out to make this bento.  It seemed like a way to make DH smile when he had a long day of teaching ahead.  The cornbread has minced onion and green pepper in it.  There is also a little bit of coleslaw topped with sliced yellow pepper. 

They predicted 5-10 inches of snow last night.  We only got 4 - officially.  I think it's more; well, at least it looks like more.  The roads are slick and horrible.  But, guess what?  School's in.   I wanted to have my family home today.  We would have baked bread, made soup, and sat around the fire enjoying one another.  It's too bad PSD didn't get the memo.

So, we have a rather reluctant bento that I threw together this morning all the while hoping for that elusive snow day.  Four inches really isn't enough to close school over but I had high hopes for a 4 day week. 

Layer 2:  Veggie pasta cut in harvest shapes - pumpkins and autumn leaves.  The pasta is tossed with a purple basil pesto made with herbs from my garden (clearly not today - I pulled it from the freezer).  There's also some chicken here.  I made chicken stock yesterday and put the "bits" of chicken into lunch.

Sistema puts out the bento box I use and my family loves it.  Unfortunately, the only place in town that carries it is Safeway and I haven't seen anything but the box.  Sistema's website shows a number of other nifty products.  My husband and I went shopping in Denver this weekend and I found more Sistema products! 

World Market now carries Sistema boxes and other supplies.  I bought the "Cutlery to Go" kit in pink (the only color they had).  So, I imagine DD will be using it.  It's a little too feminine for DH. :)  Let's take a look:

This little box holds quite a bit.  The cutlery options are quite nice and seem fairly sturdy.

The only problem I see with the set is that it only contains two bottom pieces.  You can't have a knife, fork, and spoon assembled at once.   I'll report more once my daughter has an opportunity to use the set. 

In honor of Halloween, I have made a harvest themed bento.  Tonight we had a lovely dinner that was remade here.

Layer 1:  An appetizer plate of veggies and cheese with a jack-o-lantern pepper.  Dessert is a spice muffin and fresh fruit. 


Layer 2:  Roast pork with onions, apple butter, acorn squash, and pumpkin pasties. 



You will need:

• pie crust (either store bought or home made)
• a can of pumpkin
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and allspice

Combine the pumpkin, 1 egg, brown sugar, and spices in a bowl.  Mix in spices to taste.

Beat the second egg with a tsp of water.

Cut rounds or other shapes of pie crust and fill with the pumpkin mixture.

Paint the edges of the shape with the egg and water and press the shape closed.

Paint the top of each shape with egg and sprinkle with spices and brown sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees until brown.

The other evening, I made a low carb beef stew.  That means I left out the carrots and potatoes and didn't thicken it.  Then, I boiled those separately for DH and DD.  This allows me to eat the same as they do but slim down a bit in the process.  This bento is leftover beef stew (among other things).  I hope you enjoy!


Layer 1:  Crackers, cheese, veggies, gold fish, and a little something special: a white chocolate truffle.  I don't usually keep truffles in the house.  If I did, I would be a chunky lady indeed!  :)  But, DH and I celebrated 12 years married recently and my sister sent us the most decadent basket of goodies as a gift.  There were some truly lovely truffles in there that I decided to make part of this bento.  It was a cold morning and I wanted to make sure the bento itself was hearty.  So, I went heavy on protein and light on fruit. 


Layer 2: Beef stew.  This is a big portion.  I added a bunch of potatoes and carrots and then topped it with the "low carb" beef stew."  I made this at night so that the flavors of the two elements could mingle as they cooled.  The result?  DD shared some with a friend and he thought it was "perfect!"  :) 

Her teachers have started speculating on her lunches these days.  One has made cracks in class (when she pulls out a snack) that I have too much time on my hands.  If only they knew how little time this takes!

Have a wonderful day!

The other day, I commented that I was out of bento basics.  This is one of the last bentos I made with basics in it.  In fact, I think this is where I used up the meatballs and the mini quiches.  :)  It was a quick, OMG I have nothing in the fridge bento.

In honor of a link from Nikki and her site Fascinating Womanhood Alaska, I would like to renew my bento challenge!

Thank you, Nikki, for encouraging others to visit here and consider making their own bento!

If you would like to try your hand at bento making and share your endeavors with others, I always welcome bento contributions.  Please email me a picture or two of your bento and a description.  I will share your work with my readers.  Hopefully, together we can encourage more people to make lunch memorable with a bento meal!  My email is fontevrault at comcast dot net.

This challenge is open to anyone, anywhere in the world!  It does not have an end date.  Just shoot me an email and I'll post your work!

Did you read that correctly?  Yes, I really did say "hot pocket."  I did not throw a hot pocket into a bento box and call it good - I promise!  :)  I made soup for dinner last night and am out of some of the basics I usually make.  Gone are the meatballs, the terrine de volaille, mini quiches, preroasted chicken breasts.  I have used them all up and need to make more.  This morning, that just wasn't going to happen.  Indeed, I'm in a bit of a holding pattern until this weekend when I should have more time to make bento basics.  I am still getting caught up on adoption paperwork and other little things I've neglected along the way.  So, I took out some leftover pie crust I've had in the fridge for a bit, some sliced ham, and some cheddar cheese.  Viola - easy homemade hot pockets!


Layer 1:  Cheese and veggies for an appetizer/snack and fresh and frozen fruit for a dessert.  As far as fruit, I've got orange slices, plum slices, peach slices (all fresh) and some frozen strawberry and pineapple bits.  DD loves pineapple, so when I found I had some holes in this bento, I stuffed it in. 

DH and I have been working on adopting for 3 1/2 years and hoped to travel in November.  Last week, we received a request for more paperwork.  As you can imagine we were frustrated beyond belief.  We ducked down and finished the paperwork in the hopes of travelling before Christmas.  That's why there were no updates here.  I made some lunches but was more focused on getting through paperwork and dealing with the emotions associated with this project than anything else.

I am sorry!

There are few pleasures in life like a snow day in October.  Waking early, looking at the snow falling against the moonlight, feeling that anticipation of an entire day spent doing absolutely nothing that you were supposed to do, all these wonderful sentiments crept through my head at 4:30 am and then came to smashing and terrible halt.  Poudre School District schools are open, which means that DH and DD need to go out in weather better suited to reading by the fire.  What's more, DH has parent-teacher conferences tonight!  It is going to be a very long day for both of them. 

In honor of snow day disappointment, I give you my bento - full of hardy, warm food meant to fill them up and get them through a day of utter disappointment.  It is comfort food - fast and easy - but comfort food nonetheless.

Layer 2: I had some leftover rice in the fridge that needed to be used.  I also had some leftover sauce from beef stew the other day.  There were three tiny pieces of meat left for my lunch yesterday but massive amounts of veggies and yummy sauce.  So, here I've combined the sauce from our beef stew with some meatballs I had in the freezer.  It should be hot and filling for a cold afternoon.  I've sprinkled some of the herbs I used in the stew on top of the rice as well.

I hope your day is warmer than mine.  Our high, here in Colorado, will be around 34.  My bet is that we don't quite hit 34.  Overnight it will be in the teens and tomorrow the snow will all melt away. 

DD had a lot of homework last night, so I made her favorite meal: dim sum!  That got remade into a bento box that should be really filling.

Warning: This bento is **not** truly healthy.  It was fun to make though.  Portion sizes are at least small - on everything but the rice.

Layer 1:  Veggies with no dip, soy sauce for the next layer in the cup, and a dessert of almond cake, plum and peach.


Layer 2:  Rice with peas and peppers, dim sum, and General Tso's chicken. 

DH made a lovely dinner last night - just for the two of us.  Indeed, I'm typing this after some wine and thus am a little toasty.  :)  Luckily, DH is here to proofread.  This bento is a replica of dinner. 


Layer 1:  Veggies and cheese, as usual, along with goldfish (the snack that smiles back).  Dessert is plum, peach, and grapes along with a single piece of dark chocolate. 

The other day, I had a kitchen disaster. I didn't set anything on fire.  Nothing expensive shattered.  But, it was a disaster all the same.  I had made chicken cacciatore.  We had a lovely dinner and then I saved the rest for another meal.  When I went to warm the chicken, I pulled out some of the sauce to toss with pasta.  Then, I went to pop the rest into the microwave.  The only problem: I missed.  How do you miss?  I have no clue!  I think the container was moist along the sides.  Maybe my hands slipped.  It was terrible!  I dropped chicken cacciatore all over my kitchen floor.   What a mess!  I had guests coming for coffee and a meeting at my house and the floor and I were covered with dinner.  With 30 minutes to spare before people started to arrive, I was in a bit of a state.  What did I do about dinner?  We had Subway.  DH purchased sandwiches while DD and I cleaned up the mess and I cried a bit.

Remember that somewhere in the story I had pulled out some of the sauce?  Well, I salvaged that into this bento.


Layer 1: Veggies and cheese, leek quiche, and fresh fruit: plum and orange slices, and grapes.

Perhaps I am easily amused.  Well, I guess that's obvious because I'm having so much fun packing lunch.  :)  This morning, I decided to play with circle shapes.


Layer 1: Veggies and cheese, some crumb cake, slices of orange, and chocolate.


Layer 2:  Onigiri interspersed with meatballs and green beans.  The meatballs and green beans have been tossed with a light sauce.   The only real problem here is that I cooked a mixture of white and brown rice that wasn't quite sticky enough to hold together well.  For some reason, these onigiri worked just fine but when I went to make some for DH's lunch, they just fell apart.  I don't know what I did wrong . . .  

Just over night, the air has turned crisp, the leaves have begun to change color and fall is certainly in the air. I harvested pears from my trees this week and put together an Autumn bento. 


Layer 1: The first course is the usual cheese and veggies.  I've added a miniature leek quiche as well.  Dessert is a small piece of a free form pear pie I made last night (from our own pears) and slices of plum and orange.

Layer 2: I started with about 1/2 cup of rice in each bento.  I then added pork cooked with thyme, garlic, onion powder, salt, and pepper.  Once it was done, I deglazed the pan and simmered it briefly in sherry.  I then took butternut squash and tossed it with the sherry pan drippings and a little butter. 

The other night was date night in our house.  Usually, we'd go out but we just took delivery of a freezer full of meat from Town & Country Foods.  We're stocked for the year and it seemed silly to pay someone else to cook steaks that I've got in my freezer.  Well, I didn't really notice the size of the steaks I took out - until I thought about portions.  We ate one of the two steaks and cooked the other.  It turned into a rather substantial lunch for 2. 
Layer 1: The first course is the usual veggies and cheese.  There are more mini peppers here than usual.  I had a package that needed to be eaten and I usually only use 1 a day.  Today each bento contains 3.  Dessert is sliced peach with miniature grapes.  These grapes are the cutest thing I've found at Walmart in a while.  They are lovely sweet grapes but tiny enough that they seem scaled for the bento.  Ok...  They were a little pricey for grapes, but they are cute!!!  :0) 


Layer 2:  Here we have steak, sliced so that it is easy for DD to eat in the middle of class.  I've combined the side dishes: potatoes and green beans that are tossed in brown butter with rosemary and almonds.

I love it when DH cooks!  Tonight he made a very manly meal:  steak, rice, and grilled asparagus.  It tasted fabulous.  We actually had a piece of steak leftover and that got remade into this delicious bento box.


Layer 1:  The first course is some rather predictable veggies and some gold fish.  Dessert looks decadent although it's really healthy.  It's 0% fat Greek yogurt mixed with a little Truvia.  I topped it with fresh raspberries (a gift from a good friend) and a little more Truvia. 


Layer 2:  I cut up the steak and the asparagus.  Then I added some green and red pepper chunks and a champagne vinaigrette.  The steak salad is separated from the onigiri with a piece of celery - just to keep things neat.  The onigiri look a little different today.  That's because they are made out of a blend of white and brown rice with some minced onion and butter mixed in. 

The other night we had roast chicken for dinner.  It's fast, easy, and tastes great.  Well, dinner made it into the bentos again.  This time, I remade the side dishes a bit.


Layer 1:  The usual fresh veggies and cheese.  Dessert is plum, peach, and orange slices.  There's some frozen strawberry in the center.

We had soup for dinner and I needed to use the leftovers . . .   I looked at different sized ramekins to place inside the bento covered with plastic wrap. - This didn't work.  I didn't want to make anything new and we had precious little in terms of leftovers.  How do you remake soup?  Well, I turned it into a pasta sauce.  Take a look!


Layer 1: Appetizers of fresh veggies, a prosciutto and mozzarella roll, and some gold fish.  Dessert is mini grapes (so cute!), orange slices, and mini Reece's PB cups. 

Sunday dinner was a lovely roast chicken.  So, this is the leftovers packaged for school on Monday.  This took just a few minutes after dinner to make.  The morning was so much nicer because I got to sleep in!  :)

 Layer 1: Veggies and Laughing Cow cheese.  There is a mini quiche that I pulled from the freezer.
Dessert is fresh fruit: strawberries and oranges.

Last week, my husband and I went out to dinner with some relatives from out of town.  It was a lovely evening filled with conversation and good fun.  But, at the end of the evening, we had leftovers to take home.  In the morning, I tried to hand off a plastic container from the restaurant filled with jambalaya.  Would you believe he actually pouted and said it wasn't the same as taking a bento to school!?!?!  So, here's the jambalaya bento.

And here's the jambalaya.  It looks rather boring but just the simple act of putting it into a bento container made DH smile.

Ok.  I have a confession to make: I just went grocery shopping last night and the options in my fridge are looking rather slim.  I have no leftovers to use in bento making.  Indeed, we had "breakfast for dinner" last night (because it was quick and easy) and I was scrambling to make this bento.  :)

I happened to have some ground beef in the fridge that I was planning to make into meatloaf, so I decided to try "mushi" again.  Please, dear readers, help me come up with another name for this dish! I can't believe I'm using DD's name for it!


Layer 2: I've got ramen noodles tossed with butter, Parmesan cheese, and rosemary.   This is topped with carrots and broccoli tossed in more herbs and butter.  (It sounds like the meal is dripping with butter but I think I used 1 tsp of butter for 2 people's lunches here folks.)  The "mushi" is on the right. 

As you can see, it looks very different from the last time I made it.  Indeed, I don't think it turned out as well.  At least it smelled good while I was cooking it.  I used black forest ham and lined it with a cabbage leaf.  I then put in the ground beef, some pepperjack cheese, and some green onion.  The cabbage leaf kept the ham from sticking to the beef and this made the whole thing difficult to cook.  I may try an egg wash on the ham next time to see if that helps in terms of structural integrity.  The cheese slices posed another problem.  They were rather brittle and kept things from forming a proper roll until they started to melt.  I might try a cheese stick next time, if I decide to do cheese again at all.  I miss the pop of color the carrot provided in my last attempt and I still think I might try this with turkey or chicken.

After day 5's failure, I decided to make one more evening bento and see how it went.  That evening we had sandwiches, so I had very little in terms of bento making leftovers.  I ended up digging around the fridge to pull this one together.

Layer 1: The first course is comprised of carrots, tomatoes, and bell pepper with laughing cow cheese.  This is the standard starting point for my bentos.  Dessert is fresh fruit: peaches and strawberries with candied walnuts and little sandwiches of cream cheese and strawberry jam.  The sandwiches are cut in the shape of tulips but it didn't photograph very well.


Layer 2: Roast chicken (pulled from the freezer), broccoli, and a roasted tomato.  I made onigiri, which are Japanese rice balls.  Typically, they add vinegar and salt to them.  I tried it out and really like the added flavor of the vinegar.  DH loved them.