2 x Bento

Bento #62



This one was leftover sloppy joes made with ground turkey.
Served with slider flatbread rounds, green onion, and shredded cheese
For veggies we have celery and carrot sticks
And 2 chocolate covered macadamia nuts for a treat.

Sloppy Joe Recipe:
1lb ground turkey
1/4 c green pepper, diced
1/4 c onion, diced
1/2 c. ketchup
1 tbsp yellow mustard
a few dashes Worcestershire sauce
Spices to taste (I used chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper and a dash of salt)

Brown meat, breaking it up as you cook it. Drain. Add onion and green pepper and cook until just soft.
While meat is cooking, combine ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and spices. Add about 1/4 c water.
Coat the meat with the sauce (add more water if necessary), and simmer to reduce the sauce.

Serve on your favourite bread or buns (we used whole grain sunflower & flax bread when we had it for dinner) with toppings of your choice!

A lot of the recipes I found for sloppy joes called for brown sugar, and little to no spice. I didn't have any brown sugar on hand, so I skipped it, and added some of my favourite spices. This recipe had a nice slight sweet edge (ketchup already has sugar in it, and cinnamon is sweet), and just a touch of spice.

If you've never tried cinnamon in a tomato sauce, I highly recommend it. It adds such a rich flavour to the sauce. It works really well with meat sauces, but I often have it with just plain sauce. You only need a dash.

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Bento #63



Sorry, this photo is a bit blurry, I was in a rush that morning.
We have 3 round onigiri (l to r: Salmon Furikake, Plain (lightly salted), Umeboshi Furikake)
1 hotdog cut into 2 octopi and 2 crabs (black sesame seeds for the octopus eyes)
Mustard in the little blue container
Deviled Egg
2 apple bunnies

yum!

I haven't made onigiri in so long, and I forgot just how delicious they are - even just the plain ones!
I picked up some more furikake today: Veggie, Bonito and Egg.

I've never actually had an umeboshi ... I will admit that even though I'm all for trying new things, a pickled plum makes me hesitate. I like the umeboshi furikake though. I'm sure if the opportunity presents itself, I will try one someday.

Bento #44

Well, I guess this isn't quite a bento ... but just go with it ;)

Salmon Salad Sandwich
Mini Yellow Pepper
Mini Orange Pepper
Baby Carrots
Yellow and Orange Cherry Tomatoes
Mini Corn
Cucumber
Dill Pickles
Olives
pepperoncini
Cheese

Salmon Salad Recipe
-sorry for the lack of measurements, I was doing it all by the teaspoon (not the measuring spoon kind!) and just judged by consistency and taste!
Can Salmon
Cottage Cheese (just enough so the Salmon is still a bit dry)
1tbsp sour cream
Feta, crumbled
Cucumber, Grated and squeezed dry
Dill
Green Onion
Pepper
Seasoning Salt
Minced Garlic

Mix the cottage cheese with the salmon - just enough so it is still slightly dry.
Add everything else and mix well.
Serve as a sandwich or wrap filling, with crackers, add to the top of a salad ... it's very yummy - a little Mediterranean in flavour. Come to think of it, it might be good with a dash of Oregano. I'll try that next time

Bento #43

Egg noodles with sesame oil and soy sauce
Deviled egg with chives
Cottage cheese with shredded cheddar, green onion, salt and pepper.
Garlic Cornick (Filipino style corn nuts)
Bell Pepper Kinpira - recipe from the Just Bento cookbook
Black Grapes

The Mister's bento was almost the same - he got Carrot Kinpira, because he doesn't like peppers that much, and I gave him cheese cubes instead of the cottage cheese.

Carrot Kinpira recipe here (though I added some dashi as well)

The kinpira reduced a lot more than I thought it would - mine is 3 mini bell peppers and it doesn't even fill the container! His was about 8 baby carrots and, same thing!

The cottage cheese recipe comes from my great aunt - I really never liked cottage cheese before. One day she was visiting my granny and whipped out a container of it mixed with the cheddar, green onion and a dash of salt & pepper. She said she never liked it either, but once she tried it this way, she couldn't stop eating it - I agree! It's really quite good (you don't use much salt at all and can omit it entirely if you'd like. I just prefer adding a tiny amount to cut the slight sweet edge that cottage cheese has)

Bento #27

a bit of a mish-mash - I was running lower on rice than I thought - at least I have a stock of veggies!

corn pasta with taco-flavoured meat sauce, cheese, tomatoes, olives and green onion.
imitation crab and cabbage salad with mayo and black sesame seeds
pepitas (pumpkin seeds) with seasoning salt
black grapes and half an apricot