I cut up kiwis, green grapes and blood oranges, marinated some sugar plum tomatoes with fresh mozzarella balls, made tuna salad, and rolled up some ham/muenster cheese in a tortilla with mayo/mustard.
Today I made two bento boxes, one for Mike and one for another coworker's birthday. I know I said I wouldn't make different things for everyone again...I did make these just slightly different:
Mike's bento has a half tuna sandwich on squaw bread (it's a delicious, slightly sweet dark bread from The Bread Man at the Hollywood Farmer's Market), rosemary ham/cheese roll ups, Trader Joe's baked cheese crunchies, and on the right, cut up string cheese, kiwis, blood oranges/green grapes, and a few Bunny Gummies and Friends (these all natural gummy candies from Trader Joe's).
I am using lots of these new bento toys I found this weekend at Daiso Japan - the Japanese version of a dollar store. I got 6 silicon flower cups and 6 silicon square cups for $3.00! And the silicon "grass" that you normally see on sushi trays was only $1.50 and totally reusable, which I like. There's tons of paper/foil/plastic disposable things for bento boxes, but I try to minimize my trash in the world, so I really love these reusable dividers.
My coworker's bento has fruit salad on the side, tomato/mozzarella balls (under the parsley leaf) with crackers on the side, a few ham and cheese roll ups and an open faced cucumber/dill cream cheese/squaw bread heart sandwich. I also found a bunch of kumquat bushes outside a strip mall this weekend and plucked some! The kumquats add a nice color pop around the heart sandwich. Plus, it is important to try and fill gaps around the food, so there is not too much movement during transport.
The bento heart sandwich looks like it took a lot of time, but it's not that bad. I just cut up the cucumber nice and thin (you can do this quickly with a mandoline or any small, sharp knife) and laid it down overlapping each other on half a paper towel (to soak up extra moisture). Next, I cut the heart out of the bread and spread it with cream cheese. I used the exact same heart cutter to cut the cucumbers and removed all the excess cucumber around the edges. At this point you just fold the rest of the paper towel over the heart and flip it over. Open the paper towel, put your heart bread on top and flip it back, and voila!
REVIEW: Mike loved everything in his lunch but the baked cheese crunchies were still stale, even though I put them into the box in the morning. We probably won't use them again in bentos, which is fine because they're not really that healthy anyway, and I'm pretty sure they use GMO corn, even if all the products in it are "natural." The crackers in my coworkers lunch stayed fresh and crispy, even after sitting all morning in the fridge at work. I have been making a habit of putting things that should be crunchy into the boxes in the morning, rather than prepping everything the night before.
The bento heart sandwich looks like it took a lot of time, but it's not that bad. I just cut up the cucumber nice and thin (you can do this quickly with a mandoline or any small, sharp knife) and laid it down overlapping each other on half a paper towel (to soak up extra moisture). Next, I cut the heart out of the bread and spread it with cream cheese. I used the exact same heart cutter to cut the cucumbers and removed all the excess cucumber around the edges. At this point you just fold the rest of the paper towel over the heart and flip it over. Open the paper towel, put your heart bread on top and flip it back, and voila!
REVIEW: Mike loved everything in his lunch but the baked cheese crunchies were still stale, even though I put them into the box in the morning. We probably won't use them again in bentos, which is fine because they're not really that healthy anyway, and I'm pretty sure they use GMO corn, even if all the products in it are "natural." The crackers in my coworkers lunch stayed fresh and crispy, even after sitting all morning in the fridge at work. I have been making a habit of putting things that should be crunchy into the boxes in the morning, rather than prepping everything the night before.
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