Couple of things to go in my bento box lunch today (beets, mushrooms, noodles)

[Guest guest]

To keep from making my poor husband eat cutsie pootsie things, I make him the

same foods as I eat but without the fancy silliness. Today I took some cold,

sliced beets (canned ones since I ran out of fresh) and made a rose or lotus

flower out of them. I put a little cooked sticky rice mixed with a bit of the

beet juice to turn it a lovely pink into the bottom of my rice bowl, then lined

the bowl with slices of beet, working from the outside in. As I got closer to

the center, I ended up cutting part of the beet slices off (and eating them, of

course). We had a few cooked snow peas left over from last night so I stuck them

in the bowl as leaves. I took a tiny bit of carrot and did very tiny, short

matchsticks to put in the center. It was pretty but I doubt that it would have

kept the shape if I was still working and tossing the bento box every which way

but right side up as I juggled my bento, graphinc calculator, books and assorted

junk. It would make a

lovely cold side dish if you used pickled beets (which neither of us like),

some pickled radish for the center (gorgeous things, tasty too) and something

green for the leaves. It was very simple to eat with chopsticks, so I think

people new to using them would find this easy. Fingers worked as well and Carl

probably used the fork I sent with him.

 

Next I took some leftover, cooked small mushroom caps and made tiny onigiri

(rice balls), rolled in toasted sesame seeds, placing the prepared tiny onigiri

into the center of the mushroom caps. It was very fast to make and tasted good

at room temp.

 

I had some leftover fettucinni and wanted to use it up, so I did a simple carrot

flower (take a raw carrot, carve down the sides removing some carrot and making

it look like a flower, then cut into slices), leaf carved cooked snow peas (cut

out sections down both sides of the leaves), diced, cooked mushrooms and tossed

together with a little teriyaki sauce.

 

It was yummy.

Jeanne in GA