today's bento for husband person

[Guest guest]

Since the dear man has put up with fast food for a week plus now, I really

wanted to do something special for him until I stood up so it's back to the

freezer for his lunch. He'd go hungry sometimes if I didn't always make

intentional leftovers.

 

Baked, sweet glazed baby beets, sliced and fanned out in the bottom box.

Bite sized onigiri with a small ball of refried black beans inside.

Cooked glazed carrots which were sliced paper thin the long way. After cooking,

I carefully rolled them into flower shapes, secured with toothpick and dunked in

ice water. After a thorough chilling, I carefully removed the toothpick and put

the sweet glazed carrot flowers on top of the glazed beets. So at this stage he

has sweet (the carrots and beets), then salty (onigiri)and needed a savory. He

always likes the pinto or black beans cooked in a Mexican style sauce, so I

heated up some frozen leftovers and put them on top of a nice lettuce leaf cup.

I toasted some canned rice and sprinkled the kernels lightly over the beans.

Some asparagus logs were stacked next to the beans. Not sure if all of that will

quite go together but he likes it, sooooo.

 

The second box has his salad. Cucumbers cut into dices and marinated in su (rice

wine vinegar, sugar, water), lettuce, sliced tomatoes, sunflower seed kernels,

finely grated raw carrots and a couple paper thin slices of red tomato

(marinated in su overnight takes the heat away, leaving the sweet). On top of

that is a scoop of macaroni salad (cooked macaroni, mayo, tiny bit mustard,

finely diced red peppers, diced onions, grated, cooked eggs, tiny bit of sugar,

which is an old Amish trick from Mother's friends) Since he didn't devour all of

the deviled eggs from dinner last night, there are 4 halves next to the salad

and sitting on a lettuce leaf with more cherry tomatoes. (Well, I might have

hidden them but I'm not telling him.) There isn't enough green stuff in his

lunch but we're having spinach and mushroom lasagna tonight.

 

The smallest box has a nice banana pudding (the old Southern classic - vanilla

pudding, vanilla wafers, sliced bananas). There is enough room in the middle box

to put a small reusable ice block (I keep them handy in the freezer), and that

will keep his lunch cold until it is time to eat.

 

By using things that had either been in the freezer (I like freezing in serving

size portions), part of last night's meal, or a quick mix (macaroni salad and

the almost instant tossed salad (do everything you can ahead of time, let it

stay crisp in fridge), it took under 10 minutes to assemble.

 

Hopefully the fanned out beets and carrot roses won't be too off the wall cute

for him, but the presence of his favorite deviled eggs should make it better.

After all, I COULD have made a little cream cheese hedgehog for him as I did for

the kids. (cream cheese or soy cream cheese formed into basic hedgehog shape,

sliced almonds stuck in for spines, crackers to scoop up the cream cheese.) Even

worse, I could send him to work with a turtle sandwich (bread shaped like

turtle, cut shell off, clean out some of the bread, stuff with whatever the kids

liked or wanted, put the shell back on, slice mouth open and insert lettuce

leaf.

 

Le sigh. I knew the boys were growing up when they started asking for " normal "

sandwiches and not turtles or alligators.

 

Goodie. He's up, dogs are in, so I'm going back to bed. Hugs, Jeanne