Bento #7: Sparkle J

This is yesterday’s lunch. No photo of #6, due to scrambling out the door Thursday morning. And no fancy lunch for today, either. I didn’t feel like taking the train in today so I’m working (read: blogging) from home, instead. Click through for JeT’s lunch.

Contents clockwise from upper left: baked beans and veggie dogs (in the shape of flowers), veggie rainbow cup (red pepper, carrot, celery, cucumber), fruit cup (mango, grapes), rice. Garnishes of tiny carrot flowers, grape tomatoes, and parsely, and mint leaves in the fruit. Not pictured is the container of dip for the veggies. I nestled it in among the fruit after I took the photo.

It was quite yummy, though I think brown rice would be better suited than white rice when served like this. White sushi rice is great for molding into shaped rice balls (onigiri), and for nori rolls, but I don’t like eating a big serving of it like this.

This was my first time making veggie dog flowers, and I think they came out pretty good for a first try. The centers are carrot bits. You need something fairly solid in the middle to spread out the “petal” sections.

Frozen mango chunks cut up into smaller bits work great in the fruit cup. They don’t defrost into a puddle of goo (like the frozen berry mix from the other day – remember purple sushi?) and so work great in the uncovered container.

This lunch was made the night before and refridgerated. I love that the little sections are removable, and microwavable, so I could heat up the franks-n-beans.