Friday, September 25, 2009

Weekly Bento Round-Up #5

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This week, a shorter Bento recap, for a few reasons. First, one of this week's entries was such a hit that Jen requested to have it a second time this week. So that was good. As well, Jen had a lunch out with co-workers, and her biweekly Friday off. So this week, I only have a measly two Bentos to show you guys! That's a pretty weak week, but rest assured some more posts will be coming at you through the weekend--including some untraditional breakfast variatons--so be sure to keep your browser tuned into the BCC channel.

This week, the theme seemed to be dried cranberries and extra-sharp Cheddar. The dried cranberries were on sale in bulk at Sprouts, our favorite local grocer, so we loaded up on them, and they managed to find their way into Jen's lunch in both boxes. The extra-sharp cheese, we got at the Torrance Farmer's Market. Our apartment is just on the border of Torrance and Redondo Beach, so our mailing address says we live in Redondo Beach, but our voting district is Torrance, surely just to keep things interesting. Anyway, the Cheddar we purchased is Cabot, an excellent Vermont Cheddar we'd seen available all over the northeast but, until now, hadn't seen here in Southern California. It always used to be one of our faves when we lived in Northampton, Massachusetts, so we were pretty psyched to see it on sale at the Farmer's Market here. And now, checking Cabot's website, it looks like it actually is available in some local stores, so we should be able to find it more easily in the future, which is nice.

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Onward to this week's Bento boxes. This was a DIY sandwich of Italian peppered turkey on wheat, with Cabot extra-sharp Cheddar, and a Babybel Swiss wedge to spread on the bread, with dried cranberries on the side--or so I thought. As it turned out, Jen thought I put the dried cranberries there for her to put on the sandwich itself. Which is really exactly the kind of weird lunch idea I would have, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she thought that. In fact, I'm just glad she thought of it, because she called me up at lunch to tell me how great the sandwich was, especially with the dried cranberries on it. That way, the sandwich has kind of got a Thanksgiving-y vibe going on. I tried it out for myself, and it was pretty delicious. Jen requested I make this for her again on Wednesday, and so I did.

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This week's other Bento was a salad, so I packed Jen a Gladware container to mix it all up in, as well. The dressing was just a little EVOO and lemon juice, so I packed the olive oil in a small, separate container, and the lemon juice in with the apple/orange mixture in order to prevent browning. The other components of the salad were baby spinach, more Cabot, and more dried cranberries. The version I made for myself, also pictured above, includes a little leftover pork tenderloin, which is a nice lean protein perfect for this salad.

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That's all for today, so thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you all very soon for more posts. Have a great evening, and stay cool!

2 comments:

  1. Cranberry on a turkey sandwich is de bomb. What beautiful food.

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  2. Glad you like the Cabot cheddar. It's as good as some of the artisanals here.

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