Salad and Mac & Cheese

School has just started now where I live, and I've been pretty busy. Here's a bento that I put together last week.

On the left, we have four homemade meatballs, a cup of homemade mac & cheese, leftover sauteed zucchini, and a small piggy-shaped sauce bottle with Italian dressing. On the right, we have a simple salad, with romaine hearts and home-grown bell peppers.

Believe it or not, all the bell pepper - red and green- is from the same pepper. Our bell pepper plant tends to produce peppers that don't completely turn red. In this case, most of the pepper was green, with just a tiny bit of red.

The mac & cheese was something that I threw together just for this bento. I whisked together one creamy cheese wedge with about a tablespoon of milk until it was no longer clumpy. I also added a pinch of spicy Hungarian paprika to liven this mac & cheese up. I combined the cheese sauce and some leftover noodles in a silicone cup, sprinkled some shredded cheese on top, and then baked it in my toaster oven for a few minutes.

Biscuits and Meatballs Bento

Here's a bento that I made a while ago.

On the left, we have some sliced up leftover biscuits. On the right, separated by several pieces of reusable silicone baran, we have some meatballs, bell pepper slices, and cucumber slices. Almonds also appear in this simple bento, filling the gaps between meatballs.

If you take a closer look at the cucumbers, you'll notice that they are sliced in an odd way. I used this crinkle-cutting tool to achieve that effect. The crinkle-cutting tool is very easy to use, and feels very sturdy.

Teriyaki Meatballs with Pineapple Chunks Bento

Here's a bento that I made a while ago from dinner leftovers.

The meal that this was based off was Teriyaki Pineapple kabobs, so here we have some teriyaki pineapple meatballs, grilled onions, grilled bell peppers, and grilled pineapple chunks. I added some rice with a pineapple-shaped cheese cutout.
The Teriyaki & Pineapple Meatballs are from Aidells. They are very juicy and flavorful!

Middle Eastern Inspired Bento with Lamb Meatballs

Long time no blog! I'm back with a great bento from the archives.

The main piece of this bento contains several (3, if I remember correctly) chopped up lamb meatballs, recipe courtesy of Sunset magazine. They made a great dinner, and an equally great lunch. I had to chop them up so they would fit in the box.

The rest of the box contains a checkered apple slice, green bell pepper, some sort of mixed whole grain rice blend, random basil leaves as a space filler, and homemade hummus.

Never heard of hummus? It's a Middle Eastern dip of sorts made from chickpeas/garbanzo beans and olive oil. My version of hummus is very easy, and can be made in your food processor.

Quick and Easy Hummus
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
Extra virgin olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced (fresh is preferred, but I've used garlic salt or garlic powder in a pinch)
1 tsp or so lemon juice
Sumac (Bitter dark red spice. It may be found in the ethnic isle of some larger supermarkets. I buy mine from the local Persian market.)
Cumin (Another spice. This one is a lot easier to find. Trader Joe's has this for a decent price)
Salt, to taste

This is very much a recipe that needs to be tasted quite a lot.
Put drained garbanzo beans in food processor with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Combine, adding olive oil and tasting every so often until you get a consistency that is relatively smooth, no chunks of garbanzo beans. You can add more olive oil as you wish, but I usually make my hummus pretty thick, so it can hold up well in the bento.
Add the garlic, lemon juice, sumac, and cumin, and combine them. You could leave out any of these, the most important ingredients are the garbanzo beans and olive oil. Taste, and add more of these as needed.
Add a sprinkle of salt or two as needed.
To serve the hummus (not in a bento), scoop out some hummus and place in the desired container. Use a spoon to make a small well in the hummus. Drizzle olive oil on top. Add a pinch or two of the sumac, cumin, or salt if desired.

To pack the hummus in a bento, I use some of that Press N Seal stuff to cover the top, or at the very least, some wax paper on top. If you have any of that clear plastic baran, that would work just as well as the wax paper.

Carnitas Taco Bento

This bento is a deconstructed taco bento.

 In the upper left of the bento box is some homemade carnitas, or Mexican pulled pork. We made the carnitas in the slow cooker. There's two different colors of bell peppers, some avocado, some onions, and some Monterey jalapeño jack cheese. The avocado doesn't look the best (it really needed to be used up) but still tasted fine.

I also packed three little tortillas for my tacos. They're a corn-wheat blend, which has a nice texture.

Tulip Bento

This is a little bento that I made the other day. I'd started experimenting with making little pictures in Jello.

The top tier of my bento box has a checkered apple slice, green bell pepper, roasted cauliflower, dried cranberries, some random mixed nuts, and a little container of Jello with a tulip decoration made out of apple and cucumber skin.

The bottom tier of my bento box isn't quite as cute, but it still tasted amazing. I have some homemade meatloaf. Underneath the meatloaf, there is some pasta. I put one of the noodles on top for the picture so you could see what I used.

Another view of my cute bento.

Horse Bento

This is a simple bento with a special cheese cutout!

Starting from the top, this bento has green bell peppers, leftover chicken strips, leftover carrots and onions Lyonnaise, leftover pasta, and a cheddar cheese cutout in the shape of a horse.
This little cutout was one of the more challenging cutouts I've made. Because I draw the templates for most of my cheese cutouts, this drawing took a bit longer. Even though this cutout didn't require lots and lots of tiny little detail work, there's a lot of little areas that need extra attention. This cutout also has an inside cut near the horse's neck. which isn't something I've ever done before.

Pasta bento with Meatballs and a New Bento Box

This bento features a new bento box!

 In the top tier: bell pepper, cucumber, cheese, almonds, and some jalapeño chutney.

In the bottom tier: meatballs, homegrown organic snow peas, meatballs, and some pasta (hidden underneath it all).

This new bento box has two tiers: the top tier is 200 ml and the bottom tier is 300 ml.

Cornbread bento with sausage

This bento was basically all leftovers. I liked that I didn't have to make anything from scratch for this bento.

 

In this bento, clockwise from upper right: green bell pepper strips, leftover kielbasa sausage, leftover cornbread (freshly made from a boxed mix), Medjool dates, peanut butter granola bar, and spreadable cheese triangle.

The dates are one of my favorite parts of this bento. You can't see it in the picture, because I did a sneaky cutting job, but I removed the pit of the dates (there's two in there, stacked on top of each other) and stuffed the dates with slivered almonds. A bit of a surprise, biting into a date expecting a pit and finding almonds! Also, that is an easy way to get some more food in the bento without taking up much space.

The granola bar is cut into triangles because I needed something to fit that space so the contents of the bento wouldn't slide around. I ate the scraps of the granola bar as I was making my lunch :)

Pancake bento with Sausage

I had some leftover blueberry pancakes in the fridge that needed to be used up. So I put them in a bento, sort of a "breakfast for lunch" type bento.

Contents of the bento:

• Homemade blueberry pancakes. The recipe is from the Bisquick box.
• Creamy cheese triangle
• Basil-garlic sausage
• Bell pepper strips
• A tiny bottle of maple syrup
• Baby carrots
• A checkered apple slice

This was my first time making the checkered apple. I'd seen it on other bento blogs before, but never attempted it. Making the checkered apple was the hardest part of the bento, and took up most of my time. I'm pleased with how it turned out, though. 

The box is a new bento box I got from a local Japanese supermarket. It came with three dividers: two 1/4 dividers and one 1/2 divider. It's a lot sturdier than my old orange box featured in other posts.

Bento "Rollups" with Garbanzo Bean Salad

 These rollups were pretty quick and easy to make. The secret is the Lavash bread/ flatbread. It comes in a big sheet that makes rollups a snap to make. Inside each rollup:

• Leftover breaded chicken strips
• Bell pepper strips
• Salami
• Small amount of mayonnaise

This garbanzo bean salad was also quick and easy to make. I tossed a can of garbanzo beans with some Kalamata olives, diced red onions, and some halved cherry tomatoes. The salad has a simple olive oil-lemon dressing.

Pasta bento with salami and cheese- two ways

Please note: this post contains pictures of two lunches from two different days. These bentos have almost the same contents, so I decided to lump them together.
In both bentos:

• Leftover pasta
• Salami
• Basil Oil
• Cheese (above, 2% medium cheddar, below, 2% provolone)

I found these cute Halloween picks at home, and decided that they looked perfect in this.
The provolone cheese tasted much better than the cheddar in the bento. Something about the cheddar just tasted....not quite right for the bento.Too sharp? I think the cheddar might be better for melting purposes.

 Above: Bell peppers and baby carrots. These were not mixed in, but probably could be
Below: Leftover beans. They were from some frozen steamy package, so they were very...juicy and slightly mushy. That's why they have their own little container.

Snack bento with israeli couscous

This bento contains:

•  Leftover Israeli couscous
• Genoa Salami
• Provolone cheese
• Sliced bell peppers

This bento was not intended for a full-sized lunch, but as a snack of sorts.
The box is the top tier of a two-tier bento.

Mexican-inspired bento with carnitas

In this bento:

• National-brand "Mexican flavor" rice dish (leftovers)
• Carnitas (leftovers)
• Jalapeño Chutney (from the farmers market)

 The chutney is very sweet, and not spicy at all.

In the side dish:

• Sliced baby carrots
• Sliced bell peppers

Sometimes I like to eat the side dish separately, but this time I decided to mix everything together, and add the chutney on top as needed.

Pasta bento with leftover chicken strips and bell peppers

 

In this bento:

• Leftover pasta
• Leftover chicken strips
• Red bell peppers
• Basil oil

The chicken strips are from a national-brand line that carries frozen, ready-made meat products. They were called "Crispy Strips"

I mixed everything together in the bento dish, with a few drops of basil oil.

Pasta bento with salami and provolone

 

In this bento: 

• Leftover pasta with "Italian Seasoning" spice mix
• Genoa Salami
• Provolone Cheese
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Basil Oil (to put on the pasta)

 The salami and provolone circles were cut in half, layered, and speared with a toothpick for a more decorative effect.

 

And in the side dish:

• Bell Peppers
• Baby Carrots

I mixed together all the pasta, salami, and cheese in the bento box and drizzled a little bit of the basil oil on top. The side dish(bell peppers & carrots) and tomatoes were eaten separately.

Overall, a tasty, filling bento.