Monday Bento: Fire up the Week!

I'm getting better at cramming food into every square centimeter of these bento boxes. As this little sakura bento shows! Today I have: kamut tabouli salad ringed with strawberry slices, pickled winter squash, green olive soybean hummus (yum); upper tier: baby carrots, almonds, celery heart, sugar snap peas, apple slices. Mango pudding for elevenses. I think I'll make it through Monday.

Jan has:


Red cabbage and pickled winter squash; rice and fiery hot Thai curry to which I added a few too many red peppers, making it great for him and inedible for me; green olive soybean hummus with cherry tomato border and brussels sprouts, coconut tapioca pudding with pepper-lime mango topping - yum.

This was the first time in my life I've made tapioca pudding. Jan adores it; it's in his family of "little things to smash inside your mouth" comfort foods. It was fun to make, stirring in the dark hours of a Sunday morning and watching the little tapiocas grow transparent and shimmery as they cooked. I'm not completely happy with the texture - it got a little too stiff and plasticky, perhaps need more liquid or cream next time - but it tastes heavenly. I used this recipe from Epicurious. I can wholeheartedly, 100% without reservation, recommend the mango lime topping. This would be great just on yogurt.

Have a great start to the week of bento fun!