Yesterdays Bento

I forgot to post this yesterday but as I have completely failed to make anything for lunch today I have time to talk about yesterday!

This was a really last minute thrown together bento but it was really nice; proving that bento's don't have to take a lot of time.

The tub on the right has mediterranean rice salad in it - well OK, a Rice Fusions from Birds Eye left to go cold, really very nice. The othe one tuna mayo - erm tuna, mayo, a spring onion; do you need instructions? - which I ate with the crudites and some crackers (which I forgot about til after I had taken the pic which is why they're not in it!)

I think this might be my next bento box - too cute for words!

Bento Book

This is THE book for Bento's - handy info for beginners and tons of recipes! Click on the title to go to it on Amazon.

I heartily recommend it whethet you've just decided to make your lunches healthier & more interesting or have been doing the bento thing for a while and need some new ideas. She also has a website and you can follow gher on twitter too. One of my fave sites!

Ideas & Time To Blog

I have masses of ideas to blog but I might have a bit more time coming up to blog in so they might actually get done ... we shall see!

Back to work Bento

Back to work after my wee op* & amazingly back into the bento straight away!

Tucked into the little paperchase tubs are tamagoyaki (This is the recipe I use from Just Hungry) which admittedly i didn't do a great job of on some watercress and pork belly & sweet potato (ie left overs) sushi rolls. I don't have a very sharp knife so they didn't get sliced!

In my miffy lunch bag was also a chocolate bar (which didn't make it past 10am), some grapes and an apple along with some gf pretzels. Have been beyond hungry since the op but that might also be down to not taking the amphetamine based tablets!

*for more on this you need to check out my tumblr!

My Wednesday Bento

Bit pleased with my bento today! From top left, clock wise: sushi rice sprinkled with furikake (the rice is a bit overdone admittedly), vegetables (a predone pack from waitrose that I microwaved this morning), a hard boiled egg sprinkled with togarashi seasoning & burger wedges with wasabi mayonnaise. The whole lot took me about twenty minutes to make - the burger, rice & egg cooked while I was showering. I badly want one of those rice cookers with a timer so you can wake   up to perfectly cooked rice!

Now, if you don't mind I'm going to continue eating my lunch & feeling pleased with myself!

Nandos Tacos

Not strictly a recipe but it was so good I had to share! I had some taco shells, I fancied nandos take out - I combined the two & bingo! From nandos I got:
A butterflied chicken breast with medium + mango & lime
Side salad
Coleslaw
Red pepper dip
(i also got chips & perinaise but they didn't go in the taco)

Once I warmed the taco shells I loaded them with salad, coleslaw, sliced chicken & red pepper dip. Then I ate them & they were good! I <3 tacos & I <3 nandos so this was a very happy marriage!

Mondays Bento & Sundays Supper: Gluten Free Vegetable Tarts

Hopefully @MsCurlysue will be happy that I've finally posted something vegetarian - and they're gluten free to boot. As I did this pretty much as is I have put the link into the title (click to go to foodista). The only think I swapped was the flour for Doves farm. I am planning variations though (the sweet potato was the best bit, so sweet potato + something pie will be coming up soon!) 

I had these hot out the oven for sundays supper :

and cold in my bento with some ham & rubbish stuffed vineleaves from M&S.

I do love cute little boxes; these were from paperchase.

Tuesday's bento & last nights rabbit dinner

I have decided to stop worrying about being "behind" and just blog stuff as I do (eat) it - noone but me knows the stuff I forget to post anyway!

So this is my bento lunch, as packed in my miffy bento bag which I <3. The tall container is a thermos one which has basmati rice & left over rabbit in (see below) and the smaller container contains one of the vegetable tarts I made on Sunday, recipe from foodista, which I'll blog when I'm back at my PC. There are some little choc mint creams - there are some grapes on my desk, I promise!

The whole bento lunch concept fits much better for those of us on restrictive diets & I just love all the little tubs & things! Lunch at work is something a lot of people ask me how to do gf/df/lf so I'll try to keep track of my bentos! It doesn't need to be Japanese & Mediterranean tapas & antipasti suits really well. When I am back sat at my pc I'll update my links to my fave bento ones.

Last nights rabbit dinner.
So, I had this recipe to try but I forgot to get some of the ingredients s I thought I'd bung what I had in the oven & see what happened & it was good so I'm sharing it! It'd work with chicken too I think but rabbit is tasty, healthy & cheap so forget about beatrix potter & her friends and tuck in!
1 rabbit, jointed.
Red onion
Roasted garlic (i had some left over, I'm sure unroasted would be fine!)
3 tbsp(ish) of dijon mustard
Bunch of fresh tarragon
Carton of coconut cream (not creamed coconut - they're very diff! I promise there isn't a hint of coconut in the finished dish)
Generous glass of dryish white wine

In a shallow dish arrange the rabbit pieces, onion wedges & garlic. Spread the mustard over the rabbit and snip some tarragon over (im mad for tarragon so it looked like a meadow but use your own judgement) then splodge* the coconut cream on top, topping with a bit more tarragon. Pour the wine in the dish & bake at 200c for about 45 mins. Take the rabbit out & reduce the sauce if needed.

* a technical term for coconut cream coming out the carton