Mr. Bento for the Soup Win Again!!

When you need soup for lunch, nobody does it better than Mr. Bento. The containers never leak, the outer tube is insulated, and miso soup that starts out blazing hot in the morning is still tasty-warm by noon.

I also had some lemongrass ramen with some of the new crop of bean sprouts I grew in my kitchen window, my little winter farm:



They are so snappy and good! They make a very nice addition to a sandwich, omelet, or tortilla wrap.


Everybody bento!

Sprouted Rice is my New Obsession

Red Thai Rice, sprouted 5 days

I have always loved growing my own sprouts, but never tried rice until this batch.

In the past my mung bean sprouts and alfalfa sprouts have been grown in old pickle jars, with happy success. This Christmas I bought myself an actual 'sprouting jar' with mesh draining lids of varying density for smaller or larger seeds.

Sprout growing takes me back to my hippie days in Gainesville Florida, where my first-ever health food restaurant meal was a grilled cheese sandwich with alfalfa sprouts and a mango smoothie. Aahhh that was an experience. Because it was in the early days of health food, this sandwich also had fake bacon bits, probably made from petroleum products. But it was awesome. "Far out" even.

I have been reading about sprouted rice and other grains, and at www.sproutpeople.com there is a ton of information and encouragement for home sprouting.

This red Thai rice has a sweet nutty flavor and cooked up beautifully with the little sprouts still attached, in my fuzzy logic rice cooker. It is going to be dinner tonight with green curry and coconut orange salad.

Here's my sprouting jar from the SproutPeople:



It's flat-sided, so it rests nicely in your kitchen window on its side to give the sprouts a large area to air themselves; and it's nice and large so that you can grow a big week's worth batch for bento delights!

I am now soaking mixed beans and grains, also purchased from the SproutPeople and guaranteed to send my health quotient skyrocketing into the New Year!!

Live food, just as Nature intended it....maybe. I don't know about the nutritional magic but fresh sprouts are certainly tasty.