Happy 4th of July!

We had lots of leftovers this evening so I decided to prepare tomorrow’s lunches with a little Bento/American mix.  The Love and Kaboom food picks were custom made by me.  The burgers were cooked by my wonderful second half.  Unfortunately, the burgers were a little too tall for all of my usual bento boxes so I had to resort to some good old fashioned food storage containers (I.M.O. they work just as well)

Featured in this Bento:

2 – 1/4 burger slices, Corn on the Cob nestled into a bed of lettuce and some homemade potato salad in a foil cupcake wrapper.  A small container of mustard was also placed in the box for dressing the burger tomorrow.

A trip to the Asian Supermarket inspired me to make a stir fry.  As I feed two people and use entire recipes, that leave plenty of leftovers for bento lunches!  My newest addiction are green onion pancakes that I pan fry in a teaspoon of olive oil (picture 1)

Picture 2: Close Up of Bento 1Tofu Stir Fry, Star Molded Jasmine Rice with Nori Stars, and Green Onion Pancakes

Picture 3: Bento 1 and Bento 2 – Pickled Baby Corn, Fresh Cherries, Lychee Jelly, and small soy sauce containers.

I decided to do a different take on Bento during our mexican inspired vegetarian dinner.  The spanish rice was made at home and then formed with rice molds into bite sized shapes.  The tortillas were handmade from scratch and formed into miniature “two-bite” size tortillas.   This entire meal is vegetarian.  While I can’t share the secret to the tortillas, as they are my mother-in-law’s recipe, I will share the rest.  The spanish rice was made by cooking 2 cups of jasmine rice in my rice cooker.  I then mixed in a can of HOT diced tomatos mixed with Habaneros and a little bit of salsa to add more red color.  The “meat” is from Morningstar Farms and was cooked in a skillet with extra chili powder and paprika seasoning.  I just love the little individual packs of salsa and quacamole that I picked up from a local organic store.  Hope you Enjoy!

Bento Box Ingredient Breakdown:

Box #1: Salsa Pack – 3 “two-bite” size veggie fajita tacos

Box #2: 4 spanish rice bites – Quacamole 100 calorie pack.