I've been very intrigued by bento in the last couple of years, and I finally decided I'd had enough of packing boring sandwiches for lunch! Time to try my hand at bento. I'll get in the habit of taking pictures eventually, but for now, I want to record what I've packed, along with any thoughts on making it better, faster, etc.
The first bento was just as boring as my usual lunch... I packed a turkey sandwich with Laughing Cow French onion cheese, tapenade and lettuce in my new stainless-steel ECOlunchbox from REI (http://www.rei.com/product/793860). I packed several carrot sticks and a few grape tomatoes along the edge of the sandwich, and filled the small container with carrots and radishes.
I got my bento box from Japan in the mail yesterday. It's the Lube Sheep Blue Dragonfly box (http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/bento-box-urara-blue-330ml-250ml-dragonfly). My goal was to pack a slightly more traditional bento style meal. I tried to do some of the prep work the night before, thinking that I could cut down the time making my lunch in the morning. I boiled whole wheat penne and tossed it with a bit of olive oil before refrigerating it. I also drained a can of white kidney beans, tossed them with red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and dried basil.
In the morning, I added "sweet and spicy" tuna to the beans. I lined the large (330 mL) tier with lettuce, packed about a 1/2 cup of penne along one side and filled the rest of the tier with the beans and tuna. The whole container was covered in some extra cracked pepper and freshly grated parmesan. In the small (250 mL) tier, I packed steamed asparagus, a few olives, grape tomatoes and some broccoli salad.
Despite the fairly simple meal, my second bento took forever to prepare. I packed the box full of penne and beans before I decided to line the box with lettuce... so I dumped it onto a plate and started over. Packing the second tier was easier, mostly because I just crammed whatever fit into it!
Regardless of the effort involved, the lunch was quite tasty. I'm looking forward to developing a few more skills in packing my lunches quickly...
