Valley of the Muse

You can tell this bento is from earlier in the summer, when cherries were in season. I also found a new brand of tofu with italian seasoning that didn’t need a sauce to go with it. I included  a little container of soy sauce (upside down in this pic, but if you look closely you’ll notice the little animal face and ears). When I went to San Francisco in July, I loaded up on bento supplies, including different sized containers for sauces and dips. I also started using a silicone mufffin cup back then to contain the cottage cheese, but it’s also handy for things like mixed nuts.

• Tier 1 – barley with container of soy sauce, fresh peas, tofu with italian seasoning
• Tier 2 – mini oreo cookies, carrot and cucumber sticks, cherries, blueberries, cottage cheese decorated with cherry tomato, blueberries and cucumber

This is one of my rush bentos, where the main is a frozen meal. I like this brand because it’s tasty, it isn’t loaded with additives, and it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare.

Bento #6:

• Top tier: mango, mini Oreo cookies, Baby Bell cheese, pita chips
• Bottom tier: pasta with shrimp, asparagus and cherry tomatoes in a white wine sauce

I took out my cookie cutters for this one and made stars out of orange peppers for decoration. I also like that the colours are mostly brown and orange.

This bento consists of:

• brown rice and tofu, with orange pepper stars
• mini chocolate chip cookies, orange pepper stars, apple slices and peanut butter for dipping

I like the mix of colours, especially on the top tier, but as with my other early bentos, I’m not completely happy with it. I should have reversed the banana slices and strawberries, so that the colour balance is better. And there’s too much cheese in the top tier. Not pictured is a small bag of blue corn chips.

Contents of bento:

• Bottom tier – homemade vegetarian chili with hidden layer of rice on the bottom and grated cheese on top
• Top tier – cheese squares, banana slices, strawberries, grapes

This bento was super easy to put together. I always use leftovers from dinner. I also put the bento together right before dinner is plated, just to make sure I get it done. This bento also has toothpicks from before I found decorative picks to use.

Contents of Bento #3:

• Main Tier – sautéed mushrooms and green peppers, veggie ground round (love this stuff!), pasta, and tomato sauce made with tomato puree plus a mix of spices (basil, garlic, marjoram, oregano, sage and thyme)
• Top Tier – sliced bananas, chocolate hazelnut wafers (napolitanke), light Baby Bell cheese, grapes to fill the gaps, and mixed nuts (walnuts, cashews, almonds and dried cranberries)

Here’s another of my earliest attempts. In this one the bottom tier (mains) is nicely packed and colourful, whereas the top tier (sides) is mostly taken up by rice cakes and I’m really not happy with how it looks now. Granted this was during my first week, and going back like this has really helped me identify what I need to do more of and what not to do ever again *cough*rice-cakes*cough*

Bento 2 contains:

• white and wild rice, tofu, red peppers and chard sautéed in mirin and sesame oil
• sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, apple slices and peanut butter, rice cakes

This is one of the first bento’s I made for my husband.

It’s a vegetarian bento:

• The first tier contains beans and rice in homemade tomato sauce, with triangle mozzarella on top
• The second tier contains mixed nuts (almonds, cashews, pecans and dried cranberries), cherry tomatoes, shaped cucumbers and carrots, and grapes.

I need to get some flower shaped cookie cutters, but other than that, I’m pretty pleased with how this one turned out (although the rice and beans doesn’t look as appetizing as it tastes). I find that my second tiers (the ones with veg and fruit) always look much nicer, mostly because there’s a variety of colours and shapes, whereas the mains all tend to look smooshed and jumbled together.