Bento #8

Today’s bento feature one of my favourite meals: meatballs made mini for bento!
I use the following recipe, found on Taste.com.au, modified using lean pork mince and lean beef mince instead of the pork and veal mince suggested in the recipe.
For bentofied meatballs, I just roll them in balls about 2cm in diameter.

Meatballs in Rich Tomato Sauce

Ingredients (serves 4)
500g veal mince
500g pork mince
1 onion, grated
1 lemon, rind finely grated, juiced
1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
1/3 cup basil leaves, finely chopped
2 x 400g cans diced Italian tomatoes
1 cup chicken stock
Method
1. Combine veal [or beef] and pork mince, onion, lemon rind, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, breadcrumbs, basil and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Roll tablespoonfuls of mince mixture into balls. Place meatballs on a tray lined with baking paper. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes or until firm.
2. Combine tomatoes and stock in a deep frying pan. Bring slowly to the boil over medium heat. Drop meatballs into tomato mixture. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.
3. Serve with pasta and more fresh basil.
Notes
To freeze: Spoon meatballs into single-serve airtight containers. Freeze for up to 8 weeks.
I line a large Tupperware container [something like a slice and store, or similar] with silicon cups, and fill each cup with just one bento sized serve of meatballs. That way, I can just grab one of the cups out of the the freezer the night before, and it defrosts perfectly in the fridge overnight. All I have to do for preparation is boil up some pasta – too easy.

Original Recipe Source: Super Food Ideas - June 2005, Page 80

Back to the bento; to go with my meatballs and pasta, I have a nice fresh fruit salad with apple wedges, nectarine halves and you guessed it – blueberries.
I did try to liven up the pasta a bit with ham and nori flowers, but the colouring wasn't right and it blended in with the background a little too much for my liking. Would normally have used carrot for this, but I still haven't gotten around to buying any!
Anyway, below is a pic of my frozen mini meatballs stash.

Just stuff...

OK, so the rest of last week kind of got away from me there. Wednesday night was MILTB’s birthday, so we headed over there laden with flowers and ended up staying till late.
Thursday night was BILTB’s birthday, and we ended up having pizza over at in-laws house again. Got home late. Again.
Kept up my gym routine, so that was good, but alas, missed it this morning – didn’t get any sleep last night [neither did boyf] was very annoying, though I suspect we will both sleep heavily tonight.
Friday night, boyf and I went to see comedian Danny Bhoy at our local theatre. Boyf had got me the tickets for Valetines Day, as I’m absolutely in love with him. Was so good; now I want to be a DB groupie, and follow him around the country. [Think this upset boyf a little, but to be fair, I wouldn’t actually do it – I just wanted to :-)]
Saturday night [yep, still going – told you I had a busy one] we took boyf’s 4yr old nephew to the Monster Trucks. Was actually really good; didn’t expect to enjoy it much, but it was really entertaining, and something new to experience.
Sunday I mulled about at home – can you blame me? I ended up making a tomato and bacon quiche for dinner, of which we have the leftovers for lunch today. Not the best looking meal, so didn’t take any pics.
Blueberries were on special this week at supermarket for about $4, so I eagerly scooped them up - who can afford $6 for what they call a punnet [personally I would call it a handful – measured by a baby] So anyway, blueberries will feature heavily in this week’s bento. I’m stuck for ideas on what else to pack though…Will have to check out some blogs for ideas.

Bento #7

Ok, so I didn't get to upload the photo last night, but here it is now.
My bento looked fairly bland yesterday because I ran out of time; Fall back plan was a quick and simple salad of cucumber, capsicum, olives and some fetta cheese in the top tier of my bento, and some pre-made salad from the supermarket, in the bottom tier. The pre-made salad is spinach ravioli and egg and potato salad. For snacks I have coconut and wasabi peanuts, a packet of Ovalteenies and a Babybel cheese.
The lack of colour is also due to me forgetting carrots and tomatoes in my mini shop on the weekend :-(
Have decided that I don't have enough time in the evening to hit the gym, make dinner, and make our bento lunches [amongst other things], so am going to try the gym thing in the mornings.
Got up at 5.30 this morning to get there for the 6am workout. I know this isn't early for all you bento fanatics who are up at 4am lovingly whipping up darling bentos for hubs and the kidlets [no I am not being sarcastic, I actually applaud you for it], but for me it is crazy - I usually roll out of bed at 7.50 to be at work by 8am!
Anyway, can't believe how great I feel right now; instead of my usual grumpy, sluggish, 'gimme the coffee before I slap you' attitude, I actually feel really energised. Woot!
Haven't got bento today. Sorry. Went around to MILTB's house [Mother-in-law-to-be] last night and hung out with boyf's brothers and SIL, so time kinda ran out for cooking up a storm. Will be back into it tomo. [Hopefully...]
BTW, Sorry about the photo - am still working on my photography skills. Have to try and figure my camera out.

Just stuff...

Have been really slack on the bentos of late, but it's a long story [and it’s not at all to do with me being lazy – this time] so I'll try to cut it down by omitting all the drama.
Last week we had absolutely no food whatsoever in the entire house. The Monday bentos were the last of it. Meant to go shopping on the Tuesday but didn’t get to; blame it on the Vics [OK that’s a bit harsh, seeing as I’m an ex-Vic myself, but keep in mind, I'm going for a light and breezy post, sans drama - I'm not here to upset anyone by my glib attitude]
There have been horrific fires in Victoria in the last week, causing much damage and destruction - not to mention the incredibly sad death toll that just seems to keep rising.
*Much love to the victims of the Victorian bush fires, we’re thinking of you, and doing all we can.*
Anyway, Coles announced last week that on the Friday they would donate all of their profits from all of the stores in Australia to the Bushfire appeal. Wanting to do my bit, I decided to put off the shopping until Friday. All week we were eating absolute garbage – ie, packet pasta with crackers and tins of yucky soup [where does that stuff come from? I don’t remember buying it…] – just so we could support the cause. The week was hellish [well nothing compared to those in Vic, but pretty bad food wise] Anyway, Friday rolls around, and we forget to go! Completely FORGOT to do our shopping!!! So mad at myself. So anyway, Saturday I’m thinking, just gotta get this shopping out of the way, and someone tells me Woolies is doing the same thing as Coles for a day, only they don’t know when.
I’d had enough of eating crap by that stage, so I went and did a mini shop to get us through, until Woolies has their special day. [Am feeling so helpless, I just want to keep giving]

Enough ranting; back to the bentos. I finally got to make a bento today, albeit a very speedy one, cause I ran out of time, but I haven’t uploaded the photo yet. Will do that tonight, and fill you in on all the details.

Bento #5 & #6

Pretty simple bentos today; plain rice balls, silverside cubes, and carrot and cucumber 'shapes' with capsicum centres in the top tier. I call them 'shapes' because boyf commented that they kinda looked like bums, but with the limited shape cutters I have here in Oz, 'bums' will have to do. There are two olives holding the rice balls in place, and mustard for the silverside in the little monkey container.
A bright pink devilled egg, strawberries and a nectarine half is in the bottom tier.
[I keep giggling every time I look at the 'bums' now - thanks SJ]

Boyf has pretty much the same, except it's been 'butched up' [well as much as I could whilst still using mini picks and sauce bottles] - see previous post on the consequences of making your boyfs lunch cute.
Anyway, boyf has carrot sticks [manly] capsicum sticks [manly] cucumber rounds [not cut into bums - read: manly] and cheese wedge for said 'manly' vege sticks, and rice balls on the top tier.
A green devilled egg [well, more manly than my pink one...] strawberries and a nectarine half takes up the bottom half.
Learned a little from this bento - the joys of working with dye! Note to self: 1 part dye to 4 parts water is a very strong mix - need to dilute more.
Boyf also had a snack box - if you can call a Tupperware Sandwich Keeper a 'snack box' - containing two silverside sandwiches to keep him going.

Bento #4

This is a snack box I made for boyf and I to share. The bottom layer is wombok cabbage, with two sauce containers of dressing, and the top layer containes some babybel light cheeses and fried egg noodles.
I just mixed the noodles in with the cabbage at snack time, poured on the dressing, and we had Changs wombok salad all fresh and ready to go.
The dressing contains white vinegar, castor sugar, sesame oil and soy sauce. Usually the recipe calls for olive oil too, but I prefer it without.

Bento #2 & #3

The red bento is boyf's lunch - mine is the yellow - and boyf got a snack box to go with his bento.
The bottom tier contains hot dog sea themed critters [crabs and octodogs] on a bed of rocket. The top tier had our standard salad of cucumber, capsicum and olives, and a cup of chopped strawberries. Pocky in the lid for dessert.
Boyf's snack box had some crackers and a cup of tuna.

We both work in the industrial mining industry [I'm just in the office; boyf is a labourer type] and after pulling this out for lunch in front of all his work mates and getting a bit of a ribbing for it, boyf casually mentioned later that night that 'his bento lunches don't need to be so cutesy and that I didn't need to put in that much effort for him' lol. And also, 'could I find him a more manly bento box?'
Am trying, but for now the red one will have to do [unless he wants a pink HK box...]

My First Bento - Yay!

Ok, so I think I've got this blog & photo thing worked out, so am catching up on previous bento lunches I have made; and here is the first bento lunch I ever made!

I have spaghetti and mini meatballs in the bottom tier, and some parmesan cheese in the little monkey container. In the top tier I have a salad of cucumber, capsicum and olives, a babybel cheese [yum!] and some coconut roasted peanuts. I also had some pocky in the lid of this bento box, along with the fork.

I loved taking this to work, it made lunch time so much more fun than just unwrapping a regular sandwich. The bento craze has definitely hit on something here...

My First Post

Hi Guys,

Welcome to my bento blog - provided I can work out how to upload photos! [Not very good at this technology thingy]
I am so excited to share my bento lunches with you all. I have been bento-ing for a little while now, and I love checking out all the other bento blogs for ideas, so I thought I'd give this bloging thing a go myself.
A little bit about me, I am 26 and Australian. I love creating a beautiful lunch to take to work everyday, and depending on the mood my boyf is in, I'll usually make one for him also.
A little warning though - I don't always have the time to make a bento everyday [OK sometimes it's just because I'm lazy and need a break] - but, I'm hoping the pressure of a blog will coerce/bully me into doing it more often.
Anyway, hope you enjoy!