Weekly Bento Round-Up #6

Welcome back to another Bento Round-Up. From this past week, I have three different lunches to share, one of which I'll go into a little more detail than usual about, as it again uses the roasted garlic I made last week. We got a lot of mileage out of that one head of garlic (and even more bad breath, I'm sure). Without further ado, let's take a look at these Bentos.



This first Bento was a DIY baby spinach salad, because the last one was a big hit with Jen. This time, the salad is made of baby spinach, Cabot extra sharp Cheddar (the same kind I used in that apple-Cheddar pie), and dried cranberries. There's a little Madrange imported French ham, too, which could be added to the salad or eaten separately--I believe Jen opted for the latter option. In the bottom-right container is a slice of the apple-Cheddar pie.



For this next Bento, I also packed a bunch of bagged snacks and fruit, because the "main entree" of this Bento takes up the entire container. Here we have a DIY turkey/bacon/avo club, which is one of Jen's favorite sandwiches, and one of mine, too. I cut the sourdough bread into triangles to better simulate the club sandwich experience, and Jen toasted the bread at work. The turkey we got was Sprouts' Italian roasted garlic, which we were trying for the first time and really liked. Lots of roasted garlic this week. Roasted garlic overload, almost. In other news, California police are reporting a record low number of vampire sightings in the Redondo Beach area.





















For this final lunch from last week, let's first take a look at the turkey and cheese spread I made for the lunch. While that's not a terribly appetizing name for a dish, it is a pretty delicious little spread for crackers. I made it once before, earlier in the year, for a meeting, and it went over surprisingly well. The last time I made it, I closely followed a recipe from Epicurious, but this time I substituted the mayonnaise for the roasted garlic aioli I'd just made the day before. I also added another clove of roasted garlic to the spread itself, and some fresh thyme from the plant on our windowsill. The result was a pleasantly garlicky version of the spread. The turkey was the same one used in the previous lunch, which worked well, although the smoked turkey I'd previously used resulted in a better spread. This lunch was pretty much cheese and crackers--Gorgonzola, Cabot, and Colby, along with the remaining Madrange ham and a clove of roasted garlic, with Petit Toasts. Every lunch this week also came with a slice of the apple-Cheddar pie, and the usual bagged snacks and fruit.





I also wanted to take a moment to talk about one of the items that comes in really handy when making these Bento lunches. You can see these baking cups in use in the third lunch above, where I put one variety of cheese, and the ham, into one cup each. These baking cups are frequently used in Bento lunches, as useful food dividers that prevent separate foods and flavors from mixing with with each other. You can find them in the baking section of your grocery store, or the Bento area of your Japanese grocer. They should be a dollar or two for a pack of 50+ cups. This pack was $1.79 or so for 72 cups.



Thanks for stopping by Beach City Cooking, and I'll see you all tomorrow for another edition of Windy City Cooking. Have a great night, and stay cool!