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 #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.

Bento #99: Split-Pea and Garlic Cheese Bread

Here We have a delicious soup lunch!  Every now and then, We get a freakishly intense craving for split pea soup.  And no surprise.  It's a delicious, protein-and-fiber heavy, warm food to eat during the sticky-cold FL winters.  So here is a thermos of homemade split pea soup, which We make in the Crock Pot, some of the ubiquitous carrots, and a super-delicious bread that We made when We and Our friends had a Sherlock-viewing party. 

Have you seen Sherlock?  It's this fantastic reboot of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but the gimmick is that it's not set in Victorian London, but modern-day London.  So instead of sending Watson aggravating notes, Sherlock sends him aggravating texts.  Ha!  It's charming.  Watson is the dude that was Arthur Dent in the Hitchhiker reboot, which is very pleasing; We love that actor's attention to body language.  And Holmes is played by--wait for it--Benedict Cumberbatch.  Isn't that the Best Name Ever?  Benedict Cumberbatch.  It's absolutely unreal!  And the dude does indeed do a wonderfully creepy/endearing Holmes, which We think is one of the benefits of the newer Sherlock versions--in the stories, Holmes is an utter jerk. Says the most awful, condescending things, besides being an addictive personality in about four different ways--which alwyas produces charming folks.  It's why House works so well--they demonstrate the jerky side of Holmes and the enabling side of Watson.  The Sherlock plots are new but full of fun easter eggs for people who are well read.

Here's the bread We made for that party: Garlic-Cheese Bread .  It was really, really tasty.

Bento #58: Pizza and a Salad

We do love lunches that make use of both halves of the tiffin.

In the back tier is a salad of spinach, cucumber, and lettuce, with a little green bird container of Newman's dressing (look hard; it's there!)

In the front tier is a slice of leftover anchovy-and-olive pizza from Decent Pizza, whose pizza is, in fact, pretty great.  There's also a plum and two strawberries to hold everything in place.

As it turns out, Our friend S's husband, J, loves anchovy pizza.  Oh, We do love someone who loves salty fish snacks.  And particularly on pizza, where nobody likes them!  Nobody except the discerning elite of pizza-eating, that is.

Bento #51: Spinachroll

Just like the Reubenroll, except a spinachroll!  With swiss cheese.  And here are some carrots, and some random soup, and two coffee candies.

The soup was a weird "But it's so cold in the office!" gesture.  It's a vegetable stock/soy sauce/Sriracha broth, with some frozen veggies, some leftover noodles, and some tofu cubes.  It would have been better with miso, but We are out.

The innards!

Bento #48: El Fiesta del Luncho!

Orale! 

We actually have no idea what We're doing with that word.  :)

But this was a seriously tasty lunch, though.  You see before you a lovely quesadilla with refried beans, cheese, and cilantro, with a bear face of black bean and corn salsa for dipping.  There's also a tomato-and-onion salad, which stunk up the Digital Studio wherein We tutor, some carrot sticks, and a sweet l'il kiwi.

We would have preferred to pack this lunch differently--more compactly, somehow--but We could not figure out how to do that in the time allowed Us in the morning. 

Strangely, We had a dream about bentoing last night.  We dreamed We went to an old junk store that, crazily, amid a huge pile of broken Christmas things, had a table crammed with bento boxes and tools and containers.  But nothing fit--We couldn't match lids to bases, chopsticks to holders, or box to bag.  A very frustrating dream that has left Us with the urge to make a perfect, perfect bento this morning.  If We do, We will be sure to post the Perfect Bento next.

Bento #15: Picnic Lunch!

This is Monday's lunch.  It is Spring Break, and We have realized that We are old.  Instead of thinking to Ourselves, "Woohoo!  Party time!  Let's get in the car and drive!  Let's drink beer on the beach all day!" We thought, "Woohoo!  I can work every single day!  I'll get so much stuff done!"  We are old and lame.  Bring Us the senior menu at Denny's--We are ready.

That said, We had a beautiful lunch on Monday.  We walked to school to drop off some photos for a friend's project, and then We ate Our lunch on a picnic table outside the Biology building.  It was finally pretty out, nice and warm, even in the dappled shade of the picnic bench.  We were so excited to eat outside!

Okay, okay, you say.  Enough with the chatter.  What was the lunch?  OK, the top tier was rye crackers with a Babybel cheese and some dates, and the bottom tier was carrots and hummus for the crackers.  Three Newman's Ginger-Os fit in the top of the lid, and an apple and a thermos of green tea finished it off.

So this was Our lunch view.  A book propped on the thermos of delicious hot tea, our delightful lunch, and a nice sunny view of some science buildings (and let me assure you, the science buildings are much nicer than Ours over in the English department).  This made Us so, so happy. 

Afterward, We graded Our students' midterms while lying on the grass in the sun.  If you've gotta grade, that's the way to go about it!

Bento #13: Quiche and Carrots (#11 Redux)

We apologize for the gray drabness in this photo.  We had to take the photo at our ill-lit breakfast table today, because We were not sure where We would be consuming this lunch. 

This is more of the same spinach/mushroom/onion/cheese quiche, with carrots and peanut dip, cherry tomatoes, and apple slices.  It was delicious.

Also, today several of Our officemates admired Our lunch!  We beamed with modest joy and wittered, "Oh, yes, well, you know, good nutrition is important blah blah blah, limited vegetarian options on campus yada ya," but inside we thought to ourselves, Everyone wishes they had my awesome lunch!  Ha, I'm cuter and shinier than all you peasants!  Much adoration of the Sneaky King!  Which, let's be honest, is one of Our goals--to be demonstrably skilled and adorable.

In other words, Royal Mission Accomplished. <3

Bento #11: Quarter-Quiche with Cheese

We admit it.  We love quiche.  Perhaps it's because of Our French minor and subsequent time in France (shout out to Our awesome French Maman from our home-stay!  We thank heaven that you were a kindergarten teacher and patient with Our ineptitude).  Perhaps it's because eggs are clearly a lunchtime nom of choice here in the Sneaky Kingdom.  Maybe Our love of pie just needs a savory expression.  But whatever it is, the King loves quiche!

Here's a quarter of a spinach, onion, mushroom, and cheese quiche, together with a tangerine, some dates, some carrots, some grape tomatoes, and some of the never-ending jar of peanut sauce.  In Our Santa tin.  Because you know who else loves quiche?  That's right.  Kris Kringle.  And James Schuyler, one of Our favorite poets--and the poet We taught Our students today, and about whom Our students gave not one fig.  Hmph.  Their loss.

Bento #9: Egg and Cheese

Here we have pretty much a repeat: Tea egg, Babybel cheese, tomatoes, carrots, spinach, peanut dip in the bear face, brown rice (w/out furikake!  I'm so sad to be out), instant non-vegetarian miso soup (don't tell, but there's bonito in there), and gingersnaps.  And tea.

Our love for instant miso soup at work is huge, especially as it's cold (or what passes for it) in this corner of the world.  We went on a miso-quest for a while, and found out that the only good instant miso soups are the 2-part kind: a dry packet and a wet packet.  Also, all the good ones are non-vegetarian.  All the veggie ones are terrible.  We could bring our own miso balls, of course, to be made into soup later--but they seem not as good as the terrible-for-Us-We're-sure-and-also-made-of-animals insta-kind.

Bento #8: Too Hungry for Photos!

This lunch was a delicious salad.  It had vast quantities of spinach, grape tomatoes, green bell pepper, carrots, a tea-egg, cubes of cheese, and a dressing of the ubiquitous spicy peanut dip thinned with rice vinegar. 

Why is it all gone?  Because We had a busy morning, and didn't get to eat it until after We taught.  And after We successfully dealt with / got the student out of our office afterward.  In other words, around 3 p.m.  We were far too hungry to remember photos for Our blog until this point.  The box was full.  You see Our ravenous, near-holy hunger.  After all, the King's mandate is divine.  Our lunch no less so.

The box, by the way, is the Fresh & Fit salad box, with a litle ice pack that snaps into the top and a little unscrew-able yellow widget that holds dressing.  A clever device, w/ 2 exceptions.  1) The knife and spork that came with it are useless--too flimsy for stabbing at raw veggies.  2) The handle-bit on the yellow dressing widget is hollow, so there's a teeny little crevice for dressing to get stuck into that's very hard to wash out if you don't rinse your dressing widget immediately after you eat your lunch.  Irritating when you have creamy or thick dressings.  Not an issue w/ oil and vinegar.  Otherwise a great contraption.

Bento #6: New Box!

We have a new box!  It's a yellow Lube Sheep Urara box w/ little flowers on the lid.  We bought it b/c We like yellow lately, especially as paired with gray.  Which is, as it unfortunately turns out, the color scheme of this picture.  All the color balancing in the world, it turns out, isn't gonna make the lights in Our office not-gray.  But who cares?  Our new box is a sunny yellow in Our presence, and We love it very much.

Anyway, the lunch.  Bottom tier: short-grain brown rice w/ a bit of sushi vinegar and an umeboshi. Top tier:  It's lined w/ a bottom layer of spinach. On top is all the parts of a salad, though We ate them separately: a tea egg, a Babybel cheese, carrot sticks, an orange tulip full of spicy peanut dip, and a handful of grape tomatoes.   

In the travel mug is some green tea.  It was so cold here yesterday, all rainy and wet!  Not enough tea in the world.