Fresco Bento (#18)

I have literally been running around the past two weeks like a headless chicken! This is the first day that I actually have a moment to post a picture.

I have to say that the frozen spaghetti nests were a hit. Granted, its basically chilled pasta, but it still looks nice when it thaws...not to soggy not too dry. I also have been using them as a pseudo ice pack. Hands down my favorite part about them is that I can just pull it out of the freezer and stick it in my lunch box. I'm curious to see if using a green pesto sauce would work as well.

You'll notice in this bento that I have actually included a shape! I made some really yummy rye/wheat bread earlier in the week. I still haven't figured out a way to make the crust turn out softer. My teddy bear cookie cutter was the perfect size for the bread slice with minimum wastage, so I just kept the remaining crusts for breadcrumbs. Other than that, its just a turkey sammie with provolone cheese and spinach. I don't eat sandwiches much because I'm not a fan of deli meat. However, I did find some nitrate-free meat in the grocery store the other day! And it was basically the same price as the other nitrate-laden brands. I was very happy with my purchase. :)

I managed to get lucky with some out-of-season oranges. I love fruit, but don't often purchase it in the winter...its just so difficult to find something that tastes good. I just wish I had picked up some more from the same batch! Too bad you can't sample fruit before you purchase it!

Happy Weekend to everyone! I'll trying to post the rest of my creations soon.

Sandwich Bento (#4)

Leftovers and sandwiches adorn today's bento. I hung out with my best friend yesterday: cleaned house, got pedicures, went grocery shopping, and showed her the latest nonsense I've been into (sushi making of course :P).

We found some crabsticks while running around town, which prompted a session of "roll-play" in my kitchen that evening (ahahaha). I discovered that it was much easier to roll the sheet when there was a firm ingredient in it. We also gave hand building of sushi a try, but didn't have much success. Too much rice was made, resulting in the leftovers in the bento today. Not sure how well the refrigerated sushi will hold up, but here's to experimentation!

I made buns for sandwiches as well yesterday. We have a bread machine and I'd like to try to use it more often. The problem is that we don't have a good way to slice the bread. So I figured I could make dough in it and make rolls and buns for sandwiches and such for now. I used a recipe with wheat flour, so I can't quite tell if I over browned them in the oven or not. Nevertheless, they made a yummy looking chicken sandwich!

In my attempt to be creative, I ended up arranging some carrot curls, cheese, and smoked sausage on toothpick "skewers." Here is a close up: