Bento #112: Fish Salad

Though We strive mightily to be vegetarian, sometimes We crack.  Our love of delicious fish supercedes Our desire to eat low on the food chain and to live and let live.  Thus, this fishy salad was born.

Here is lettuce, tomatoes, miniature bell peppers, carrots, pea pods, and lightly pan-fried mahi-mahi with a honey-mustard vinaigrette.  Yum.

Bento #111: Hummus and Rye Crackers

Citizens, We love hummus.  And gosh, but We love those dang rye crackers!  You know the ones--they're fiber-tastic.

So here is hummus, rye crackers, carrots, plum, and a cookie that both neatly fills the little space and fills the dessert-shaped hole in Our soul.

This is Extra-Garlicky Hummus:

• 1 can chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
• 1 1/2 T. lemon juice
• 1 1/2 T. tahini
• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1 T. olive oil
• garlic, grated finely.  As much as you can stand!

Put everything but oil and garlic in a blender.  Put oil in a small saucepan and heat.  Add garlic and let it sizzle for about a minute.  Keep a close eye on it.  You want it golden brown, but not burnt.  Burnt garlic is Very, Very Nasty, citizens.  When it's golden, immediately dump it over the cool ingredients in the blender to stop the cooking process.  Blend, adding reserved bean liquid if necessary to make it process.  Eat your lovely garlicky hummus.

Bento #110: Chutney and Cheese

Nothing exciting to see here.  Sandwich on Kingdom bread, carrots, apple.

The sandwich innards are chutney and cheese.  Mmm, chutney and cheese.  One of Our favorite combos, to be sure.

We are so overcome by Our love of chutney that We meant to give  you the recipe for the plum chutney, but We cannot find it!  Oops.  So instead, We give you the most common chutney We make for sandwiches: Tomato-Pear chutney.

Tomato-Pear Chutney:

• 2 1/2 cups large chunks of tomatoes
• 2 1/2 cups diced pears.  Diced here means like 1/4" cubes; larger than that and your chutney might be sort of chunky.
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (can use regular, but won't be as attractive in color)
• 1/2 cup green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (We sometimes use more)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon dry ground mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (this will not make the chutney spicy.  For spicy, use 1/2 to 1 tsp.)
• 1/4 cup pimiento or other similar mild pepper (optional, or can use more bell pepper, etc.)

Put everything in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Simmer 45-60 min, or until fruits and veg are softened and chutney is thickened.  This chutney tends to be a little on the chunkier side.  If using pimiento and using canned, add this in right at the end.  For immediate use, pack in a jar and place in fridge.  If wanting to store, pack in sterile 1/2 pint jars and process. Makes 3-4 1/2 pint jars.

Now you, too, citizens, can make your very own chutney and cheese sandwiches!

Bento #109: Krabby Quiche

Ah, yes, citizenry, it is that most perfect of pie devices: quiche.  This quiche features a host of veggies: onions, greens, peas, and tomato as well as feta and fake crab meat.  Oh, how We love krab.  It is a Major Weakness--along with other processed seafood items, like fishsticks or those fish balls that show up in weird asian soups.  Yum.

Alongside the lovely quiche, We have carrots with some sort of dipping sauce, a plum, and a tiny yellow pear tomato.  Delicious!

Bento #108: Random Junk from the Fridge

Citizens, this is a weird one.  Our fridge was full of random stuffs, and We had not been shopping in a while, so here is a Very Strange Lunch.

The left tier has kind of a deconstructed California roll: sushi-seasoned brown rice, fake krab sticks leftover from something else, and avocado.  The right tier has greek yogurt, frozen blueberries, and plums.

This is not Our best lunch, citizens.  We admit to a certain lack of planning and forethought.  Fruit salad doesn't really go with fallen-apart sushi.  This is also not the most nutritionally sound lunch either, somehow.  Something is off.  We are somewhat shamed.

Bento #107: Squash Soup

Hello, citizenry!  Here is today's delicious soup-and-a-sandwich lunch!

The soup is a roasted-squash-and-apple type of soup.  It is crazy delicious.  Basically, you get a squash, an onion, some apples, and then you cube everything, throw it in a roasting pan with olive oil and anything else you think will make for delicious, and then you roast it.  Put it in a soup pan with some stock, hit with an immersion blender, season, and call it a delicious day!

On the side is bread with cheese for sopping up every last bit of delicious soup.  Then there are carrots.  Must always have carrots.

Snackbox: Mr. T's Cookie

Friend of the Kingdom T, who when his full name is in usage gets called Mr. T___, which is funny now for Reporting Purposes here, makes these cookies.

Mr. T is a gluten-free kind of guy.  He also does not eat rice.  These cookies, which are huge and hugely caloric but very tasty, are therefore made up of all kinds of peculiar flours: tapioca, coconut, etc.  And oatmeal and chocolate chips.  Being caloric but sweet and delicious, they make an excellent snackbox for a day with a hard workout ahead, something endurance-y and calorie-torching, like the ashtanga series.  Your King hates nothing more than feeling as if she is going to faint dead away mid-vinyasa.