Feisty Bento #82: The Last of the Ribollita

Lunch jar: the last of the ribollita
Left side dish: "cuties" orange segments, these are so good and seedless!; toasted pumpernickel cocktail bread with butter
Right side dish: cauliflower, carrots, and celery lightly cooked with a dab of butter

I first read about "cocktail bread" on (of course) Lunch in a Box, and was surprised to come across it in a specialty Italian gourmet store last night.  They had both rye and pumpernickel, but I only picked up pumpernickel- it's been ages since I last had pumpernickel anything.  It is good, too.  I'm wondering if it'll sog up from the moisture in the orange segments (which wouldn't fit whole, so I had to peel it).  I will definitely let you all know (sometimes I don't have time or the inclination to put in dividers; anyway the segments aren't wet, but have a lot more moisture than the toasted bread, so it might just be drawn over anyway...).

Oh, and so you know, the jar keeps my lunch totally piping hot, like I almost burned my mouth two days ago hot.  Nice.  I love it.

Happy bento and have a great weekend!!!

Feisty Bento #81: Thanksgiving, Deconstructed

The last of my Thanksgiving leftovers... boo...

While I was eating my lunch yesterday, my delightful coworker Orzo said to me, "You're violating the rules of bento!  I think covering anything in gravy immediately negates any healthy effect your bento might have."  I responded by staring at him and slowly eating the rest of my delicious side dish of stuffing and turkey smothered in gravy.  Do I care?  Nope!  (Also that's not a rule of bento; deep fried stuff makes it way into bento all the time, case in point.)  So, today's super-gravy-bento is dedicated to him.  It says, "Eat me."  *grin*

Top tier: slices of stuffing, pan fried- that's right I said pan fried!!! crispity goodness; shredded turkey off the "small" drumsticks
Bottom tier: green beans with mushrooms; gravy baby

This is the very last of all of my Thanksgiving leftovers... sniffles... I wish I had more!  Ah well... I can't wait for lunchtime!

Happy Bento'ing!!!

Feisty Bento #80: Thanksgiving Redux

Oh, the yumminess abounds.  Almost the same as Monday's bento, but not.

Lunch jar contains more ribollita.

Left side dish contains turkey and stuffing, both smothered in gravy... yummmm.
Right side dish contains green beans and mushrooms.

Ooh, I can't wait!

Happy Bento'ing!!!

Feisty Bento #79: Perfect for Today's Rainy Weather

Yumminess of the best kind...

In the jar: my version of ribollita, kept piping hot by the thermal jar.  I cannot wait for lunch!
Left side dish: stuffing with giblet gravy generously poured on top
Right side dish: green beans and mushrooms

So this long weekend, I began feeling the onset of something gross.  By Friday morning I was convinced I was getting the flu and decided to make myself some soup.  I remembered making ribollita before and liking it, so I tossed together the ingredients- it's mostly stuff I keep in my panty/freezer anyway, and we're golden.  I actually didn't have carrots but had the leftover "sauce" from making pot roast last weekend, along with the super mushy vegetables that'd cooked along with it, so I used that.  The end result was super flavorful, the BF loved it again, and though I had to tweak the recipe a bit to match what I had on hand, it still came out delicious and my buddy Orzo, who'd come over to hang out, ate three bowls.  I was thrilled!  (Since I didn't have ciabatta but had fairly fresh Italian bread, I just sliced that up and put it in the bottom of each bowl.  It softened more than ciabatta would have, but was still really delicious.)

After we'd all eaten, what was leftover was fairly "dry"- less liquid and more stuff, so I added another can of diced tomatoes this morning and heated it all up on the stovetop.  More cheese, more spinach, whatever I could find, just threw that in, too.  It changes as it goes, by the end I expect there to be hardly any beans but some potatoes in there (there's a bag of "stew veggies" in my freezer that I've got an eye on, haha)...

I started feeling better immediately and am looking forward to my lunch immensely.  Gotta love that stuffing with sausage, and bacon-based stew...

Happy Bento!!!

Feisty Bento #78: Hibachi Leftovers

Top tier: hibachi'd filet mignon
Bottom tier: horseradish sauce for the filet; hibachi'd noodles and veggies

Leftovers from dinner last night.  Still feeling that oily grease in the bottom of my tummy, yuck.  Still tasty the next day, though.

Happy Bento'ing and to all of my readers in the US, happy Thanksgiving!!!  Hope you eat plenty and take lots of leftovers for next week's bentos!!!

Feisty Bento #77: Something New

I'm not sure how this is going to work out, because, well, I kind of messed up the base.  Ah well.

So as you may know from reading Feisty Foodie, I'm pretty big on making my own stock.  How hard is it, just throw your veggie scraps and maybe some bones from some meal into a pot, some water, and let it go over low/medium-low flame.  I did that this morning with the bones from the rotisserie chicken I'd bought and some veggie scraps from making pot roast over the weekend.  I planned on making a sort of chicken noodle soup to bring to work.

***Side note: yesterday, my rice was piping hot and soft and delicious.  This thermal lunch jar thing is amazing.  I LOVE IT! 

With the way time ran down for me this morning, I was running around and wound up ladling the boiling hot broth into my jar, threw in some shredded chicken, and then threw in some dried egg noodles without cooking them.  I'm hoping/guessing the soup will cook the noodles until I'm ready to eat- I hate overcooked noodles, but what can you do?  Hopefully this will come out just right. 

Unfortunately, my veggie scraps were a little onion heavy so when I went to drink some broth this morning, I was surprised and a bit taken aback by how onion-y it came out.  Boo.  And since I was in a hurry and hadn't the time to season the broth right there, I poured some kosher salt into the little blue bear container to season it with later.  Tossed some chopped scallions on top and sealed it up.

The two side dish containers hold three gyoza with gyoza sauce and bean sprouts, respectively. 

Will update later with how my soup turns out!

Happy Bento'ing!!!

Feisty Bento #76: Quickie Bento!

Running late this morning so I threw together whatever I could find in the fridge.  Result?  "Fried rice" lunch jar! 

In the jar: white rice mixed with garlic shoots and beef, just heated through in a skillet- I wanted to add a beaten egg to this, but we have no eggs!  What gives?!  I always have eggs...

Left container: gyoza with, of course, gyoza sauce!
Right container: sauteed mustard greens, or some sort of greens, found these in the fridge

Happy bento'ing- have a great Monday!!!