Beets and Sausage Bento

I used more of the delicious items from my weekend trip to the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market in today's bento. I roasted one of the chioggia beets from Singing Frogs Farm in a 425 degree oven, wrapped in foil, for about 45 minutes. I sliced big chunks of it and then cut those chunks with cookie cutters to make the flower shaped beet slices in this bento.

Also in this bento: beet greens, rice, Texas Style Hot Links from Franco's One World Sausages, sugar snap peas, and cherries. The little seeds in the middle of the beet are black sesame seeds.

I also sauteed the beet greens with olive oil, garlic, and shallots as a bed for the beets. After the greens were done, I squeezed a bit of lemon juice on them, then tossed them with a bit of crumbled Point Reyes blue cheese, toasted walnuts, and chopped Italian orange peel. Italian orange peel is preserved orange peel, similar to candied fruits you might find in a fruitcake. But not disgusting, ha ha. 

A big ol pile of assorted beets at the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market.

I hope you will join me on June 28th at the Sonoma Marin Fair for my bento demonstration. It will be at noon and I will show you how to pack a bento, and I will also have a starter bento kit for a lucky member of the audience. 

Bento Beet Down

Today's bento features delicious beets from the Redwood Empire Farmers Market. I roasted the beets in the oven, and also used the beet greens in a delicious saute.

In this bento: goat cheese quesadillas made with Tortilla Factory Green Chile hand-made style tortilla, french feta cheese, roasted garlic, and wild arugula from Triple T Ranch, lightly steamed broccoli from Triple T Ranch, a carrot, slices of kiwi and orange, and sauteed beet greens with a slice of roasted beet on top. 

This is the 'bento' box I used, which I actually found at Target in their dollar bins. It was labeled as a snack container, but works very well as a bento box. :)

Another view of my tasty bento.

Fresh Bento Part Deux

Ok, so this bento looks and tastes almost exactly like yesterday's bento, but that's cool, because it was tasty and I didn't have to cook anything! More yummy treats from Fresh by Lisa Hemenway (chicken salad and roasted beets), plus a few carrots, cuke slices, and a tiny cherry tomato from Ridgeview Farms. I really love the container, which I found at Daiso in Westlake Mall on my recent trip to Seattle. It's a Magic Round Bento with compartments! Double woot.

I wanted to share a couple of exciting tidbits: the Sonoma Bento blog made it to 10,000 hits this past week and to celebrate I am going to do another GIVEAWAY! Woohoo! Stay tuned bento buddies, I am pretty sure I will have it ready to go by this weekend, or Monday at the latest.

Also, my friend Maria Vieages, a fabulous chef and host of Maria's Non Pompous Food Talk has asked me to be on her show to talk about bentos! Yay! I am scheduled to be on the show this coming Monday, October 4th. You can stream her show Mondays from noon to 1pm online at kggvfm.org. Just click on the link that says STREAMING LINK. Plus, if you have any topics you think I should cover, let me know. I really hope that I can get more people excited about bento making.

And lastly, my hubby just started a new job (yay) and now I am making non cute bento boxes for him. So far it has just been sandwiches and veggies, but I am going to get all creative soon.

Fresh Bento

There is a new eatery/grocery store/wine bar in Sonoma County called Fresh by Lisa Hemenway. Lisa has been a fixture of the food scene for a while in Sonoma County, and people are really excited about her new endeavor. She came in to the station yesterday to talk about it, and lucky me, brought along some samples of the delectable food she has at Fresh. My hubby and I demolished the sausage and pepper stromboli for dinner last night, so I couldn't use that for my bento today. But I did save the delicious chicken salad and roasted beets for today's bento.

In this bento: rice topped with black sesame seeds, chicken salad and roasted beets from Fresh by Lisa Hemenway, cherry tomatoes from Ridgeview Farms, and steamed edamame.

The chicken in the salad is roasted on the rotisserie, with chicken from Mary's in Fresno. The salad is made with celery, basil, and garlic. SOOOO tasty. The beets are from a local farm and tossed with Lisa's Hare Hollow raspberry pear champagne vinegar.

I have included this bento in Shannon's What's For Lunch Wednesdays. You should really check it out for great bento ideas, and BONUS, Shannon is donating to her local food bank for every bento posted. Woo hoo!