Smash that Bento!

1. I'm continually amazed at how much food can fit in a regular-size bento box. After the burrito went into one there was a little empty corner, so I started putting sliced carrots in that spot and the entire good-sized carrot disappeared into that little space!

2. Nevertheless the burrito was a little too fat for the parallel placement you see here and there was no other way so it was Smash Your Food time. This actually worked out OK because it gave the burrito halves a nice solid consistency by lunch.

This is Jan's bento with an egg and cheese burrito, carrots and olives, Fritos chips and a sidecar of yummy salsa he made on Sunday night.

Hasty Bento for a Thursday

Jan's bento for today had to be fast, because we were up late at his birthday dinner and watching "Flatliners" to celebrate. How appropriate for his X0'th birthday, to watch a movie about people visiting the afterlife! That didn't occur to me until this morning...

Anyway I had wanted to make inari zushi but that is going to have to wait. (I bought some ready made tofu pockets in Madison and froze them; we'll see how they do after freezing.)

Anyway one of my favorite hurry-up bentos involves tortilla wraps in whatever way. today they have cream cheese, soy vegetarian "taco filling" which is amazingly good, and spicy sprouts. I stuffed little sugar snap peas in amongst the pinwheels, and added a container of hot chili sauce.




I also made him some white peach and lime salsa which smells heavenly, and put in some celery for dipping. Peanut butter pretzels with a few recreational wasabi peas, in the lid of bear bento and he is ready for the day!!

MexiBento and Furoshiki

Jan gets: soy'meat' burrito roll slices with cream cheese, black beans, cottage cheese, and salsa; salad from last night's dinner salad with a little olive oil container and a slice of lime to squeeze over it, baked tortilla strips.

Today's bento being in the larger container which has no 'belt', I used a furoshiki to tie it together - so the pretty cloth is actually doing a functional job instead of being just decorative! Two jobs because it is holding a Cadbury cream egg also!!





This furoshiki (is that singular or plural??) came with instructions; Japanese people use these pretty cloth squares for gift wrap, lunch wrap, other presentation modes, shopping bags, purses, book bags, everything. And they are reused, gifted along, they live a life of their own. How much better than our endless throwaways and plastic bags! How did our culture get on this wasteful path?

Mexican Bento

A little bit Mexican anyway...whole wheat burritos made with soy filling and cheese. Jan has cottage cheese and salsa with avocado, carrots and sugar snap peas, and dessert of wasabi peas with M&M's and two wafer Bahlsen cookies.

I have burrito, sour cream and salsa; carrots & almonds, tangerine and a strawberry crammed in the side with Pocky on top.

Very faint little "ole!" for an icy Tuesday!