Pasta Bento for Feb 28

I'm a bit behind on the Reddit Bento challenges - and I'm the one running it!
I really only missed the Chinese New Year one ... but I haven't made a bento in 2 weeks.

This week's theme was pasta - here's what I did:



Linguine with Capers and Green Olive Sauce (recipe here) - this is my go-to pasta sauce, I just use basic tinned tomato sauce as my base (I'm sure I could get fancy and make my own, but I often don't have time). I could eat this for days.

The rest of the box is filled with: blanched asparagus with lemon pepper, grape tomatoes, cocktail sausages (with fish shaped skewers, because why not?), quick pickled cucumber (recipe from the JustBento Cookbook), apple bunnies.

Pasta Salad and Cocktail Sauages

I've been on a Greek salad kick - cucumber, tomato, pepper, onion, olive. So simple, so delicious.
Yesterday's lunch was packed in 15 minutes in the morning, and it was a full-sized version of the salad I had on Thursday, with the tomatoes cut in, and some olives added.

Today's bento incorporates the same flavours into a pasta salad, dressed with a feta salad dressing.



The pasta is one of those 'smart' ones, fortified and all that jazz.
The main protein today comes in the form of cocktail sausages (weiners!). I did 3 cut in half, and a 4th cut into an octopus, because it's hard to resist doing. There is a grainy mustard and mayo dip in the container.
I also have a tamagoyaki in there as a secondary protein. I didn't season it with the usual soy sauce and sugar - I used seasoned pepper instead, which is amazing on eggs.
Filled the space with 1/4 of an apple (not bunnified today, the other slice is hidden), broccoli and matchstick carrots.

Bento #40

I said I was going to ...

My Sailor Jupiter Bento box - it's not exact, but it's fairly close, and I was working with what I had on hand just to see if I could do it. Also, my bento box is smaller in size, so I couldn't fit as much as there is in the one from the cartoon.

Here is what I put in it, with comments.

2 round onigiri with furikake with lettuce baran - Jupiter has 3 onigiri and it looks like they are in a long divider cup.
tuna croquette (recipe from Alton Brown) - I only put in one, again due to space constraints, but it looks like she has 3 and they have some sort of sauce on them. I had to cram mine in, so I skipped the sauce.
pasta salad (whole wheat rotini, carrot, cucumber, honey ham, mayo, a dash of sour cream, onion spice mix) - If I used regular pasta, it would be closer in colour, but I like the whole wheat stuff, so ...
mini octodogs (hot dog cut into 4 pieces, only cut 4 legs on each one) - I didn't put faces on mine.
tamagoyaki slices - if I wanted it to look exactly like the picture, I could have used nori in the middle, but I didn't like the flavour when I tried that once.
juliened carrot and snap pea wrapped in honey ham slice (sealed with a dab of cream cheese) - it looks like this might have been wrapped in beef in Jupiter's
cherry tomato - this is the only thing that is exactly the same - hah!
Strawberry - I didn't have anything to replicate the pink things - I think it might be mochi, but the only mochi I have wouldn't have fit, and I didn't want to take the time to make some, because I was running out of steam.

This was a lot of fun ^_^
I'm sure I'll do it again someday.

I showed The Mister ... he kinda stopped and went "oh" - I think maybe he thinks this one is a bit too silly - haha. Thankfully his is different - it's got a lot of the same stuff, but it's laid out differently and in a square lock & lock container.

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

Bento #21

Chickeens!

The onigiri are filled with teriyaki salmon (I know chicken would have been more appropriate, but I used it all for dinner) - turned them into chickens with corn, corned beef and nori. I made 3 - one got eaten right away, because it fell apart. The one in the bottom of the photo is starting to fall apart ... I guess it's okay for a first try.

The egg is a deviled egg, the yolk was mixed with mayo and finely diced olives - turned it into a chicken using carrots and black sesame seeds.

The cup has leftovers from dinner - I made a chicken mushroom noodle casserole (diced chicken breast, diced brown and white mushrooms, low fat cream of mushroom soup with a bit of skim milk mixed in, 1/2 a small tub of low fat sour cream, and about a cup of shredded cheese, mix it all together, bake @ 350 until bubbly. I topped it with some dried chives)

used 1/2 a clementine, 2 asparagus stalks, 3 grape tomatoes, the last of my baby carrots, 1/2 a mini cucumber and 2 snow peas to fill up the rest of the box.

The Mister got a plain riceball with a strip of the wasabi nori wrapped around it.
I did give him a chicken deviled egg - his is mixed with chive.
He came into the kitchen, saw it and told me he thought it was awesome. I'm so happy that he likes the odd cute food now and then.
He got more of the casserole (filled the bottom tier of his red bento box), the other half of the clementine, some carrots and some snow peas.

Bento #11

Whoops - It's been a month since I last updated!

Today's lunch is:

Pasta stars cooked in chicken stock with parsley
Mini Crustless Broccoli Ham & Cheese Quiche (recipe below)
Deviled Egg
Carrot Sticks
Snow Peas (hidden)
Grape Tomatoes
Rice Crackers


Mini Crustless Broccoli Ham & Cheese Quiche (makes 4)

frozen broccoli, thawed and chopped fine (or fresh broccoli, lightly cooked)
ham slices, chopped small
cheddar cheese, grated
2 eggs
milk (not sure how much I used - just a splash)
2 tbsp sour cream*
chives

Put some cheese in the bottom of foil or silicone cupcake liners, add broccoli and ham, sprinkle some more cheese on top
Mix eggs, milk and sour cream until smooth, pour over broccoli ham and cheese
Sprinkle with chives and bake until set.

* All the recipes I found call for milk and heavy cream, I used skim milk and sour cream because it's what I had on hand.