Pasta Salad and Watermelon Bento

Temperatures have been climbing in Sonoma County lately, so this is a bento made from leftovers from last night's cold foods dinner: pasta salad and watermelon!

I added sliced olives, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, onions, and sliced pepperoncini peppers to bow-tie pasta and dressed it with greek salad dressing and a bit of pepper. In the other container are chunks of watermelon sprinkled with a bit of sea salt accompanied by a lime wedge. (If you are having an after hours version of this melon dish, add a little splash of tequila and simple syrup to the watermelon, it's sooooo good!).

I added this bento to What's For Lunch Wednesday! Check it out for great bento ideas. Stay cool bento pals!

Leftover Bento and Bentobird Visit

This is a bento I made with more leftovers from Sizzling Tandoor. I used both the chicken tikka masala that I ordered, and the leftover lamb vindaloo that my hubby ordered. Both were great with the rice, and I just turned the whole thing out into a bowl and warmed it in the microwave at work for lunch. Yum!

In the smaller container: a slice of tangerine from The French Garden, a cherry plum from De'Santis Farms, and a few flower shaped pieces of watermelon.

My friend Jenn, also known as Bentobird, has posted about her trip to the Santa Rosa Farmers Market! She also has some great photos and descriptions of a visit to Point Reyes. It is really fun to see your home through someone else's eyes, especially someone who loves color and whimsy as much as Bentobird. I encourage you to follow her bento and food adventures on her blog.

Speaking of adventures, I am about to head off to Seattle to go to my 20 year high school reunion (eeek) and spend time with my adorable and brilliant niece (she's learning German and French at 6 months old!) and family. I see an inflight bento in my near future!!

Willi's Wine Bar Bento

Dang, I love my job. Working in radio means cool people come in to talk about cool stuff all of the time. And sometimes they bring GOODIES. Yesterday, Mark and Terri Stark of Willi's Wine Bar came in to talk about their amazing flagship restaurant. Mark and Terri also own 3 other restaurants in Sonoma County: Willi's Seafood and Raw Bar, Monti's Rotisserie and Bar, and Stark's Steakhouse. Their food and service are both phenomenally good at each and every location, but not so expensive that you can't afford to go there a few times a year. I used to go about once a month to one of their places, but I've got to be more budget conscious these days. And so you can imagine how excited I was to see them at the station with goodies to share! They brought Moroccan Lamp Chops (which my coworker refused to share, and I don't blame him) and crab tacos. There was enough leftover crab mixture to use it in my bento today. Yesss!

I topped the crab filling with a bit of Chimayo Mild Chile Powder from The Savory Spice Shop in Santa Rosa. Also in this compartment: cold soba noodles tossed with olive oil and toasted sesame oil as well as a little splash of seasoned rice vinegar. I topped the cold soba noodles with green onion, julienned carrots, and julienned cucumber. For decoration, I added black and white sesame seeds.

In the lower compartment: steamed edamame, cherry tomatoes from Ridgeview Farms, watermelon 'flowers' from Ridgeview Farms, a slice of lime (for the watermelon) and a fish container of soy sauce for the cold soba noodles.

As you can see, I had to decorate one of the orange cherry tomatoes with a little face. He looks kind of like a Jack O'lantern! A Jack O'tomater.

So yummy, thanks Mark and Terri for your awesome restaurants. Feel free to bring goodies by whenever you want! :-)

Potato Croquettes

Not a lot of time to post today, still covering for my coworker. Today I made croquettes out of leftover mashed potatoes.

The croquettes have a little piece of fresh mozzarella inside, so they will be a little cheesy as well.

Also in this box: cherry tomatoes and watermelon from Ridgeview Farms, baby carrots, and slices of Armenian Cucumber from Redwood Empire Farms. I also have a little container of meaty tomato sauce to go with the croquettes. I got this box at Daiso in Seattle's Westlake Mall. I love it!

I have added this bento to hapa bento's September B.O.M.B. challenge. Potatoes feature greatly in my fall food repertoire. Check it out and submit your own fall foods bento.

Happy Heart Bento

Today I busted out the Magic Round Bento for a simple bento lunch. I used green beans (blanched) from Crescent Moon Farms, baby carrots, watermelon "flowers", a piece of lime, a few cherry tomatoes from Triple T Ranch, two teriyaki meatballs from Aidell's, and a heart-shaped onigiri. The face on the heart is made from black sesame seeds, nori (toasted seaweed), and a piece of pickled ginger. Hidden underneath it all are a few slices of cucumber, also from Crescent Moon Farms.

If you haven't yet, you should really check out the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market. I normally go on Wednesdays, because I work a lot on weekends. They are open year-round, rain or shine, and it's the perfect place to find hyper local food, and great artisan products. Today there was a big group of kindergarteners on a field trip. They were jumping around and just super excited to check out the market, so cute. And if you go to the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market this Saturday, you can enjoy FREE red, white, and blue shortcake! They will have mini shortcakes topped with whipped cream and local berries. YUM!

On a side note, I am trying out a few new items in my bento box lunches, namely pickles. I got some takuan (pickled daikon radish), umeboshi (pickled plum), and beni shoga (red pickled ginger). So far, I have only tried the beni shoga. I like it!

Also, I am featuring this bento box lunch on the What's For Lunch website. Fun!

An Apple A Day

No apples were harmed in the making of this bento box lunch. In fact, no apples were used to make this lunch, just an apple shaped cookie cutter. :-)

A quick bento made with leftover camping goodies. I made an apple shaped sandwich (with bologna and cheese), cucumber slices, carrots, and chive blossoms. In the lower compartment: watermelon slices (cut with my new bento food cutters! I super love these, and just got them from Amazon), slices of lime to squirt on the watermelon, and a few walnut halves.

The larger set of food cutters can be found here: Stainless Vegetable Cutter, Large, 6 Assorted Shapes, and the smaller set of food cutters can be found here: Stainless Steel Vegetable Cutters #K8444 "100% Made in Japan!!"
My coworker Danielle brought in some watermelon slices yesterday, and I also ended up seeing a gorgeous photo of watermelon chunks online with an amazing recipe for tequila soaked watermelon wedges. The watermelon slices in this bento are booze free! All of the watermelon stuff seeped into my brain and I couldn't get away from it. But do I recommend checking out this recipe. I tried it out on myself and my hubby last night and it turned out great! With the 90+ degree weather we've been having recently, this stuff is amazing. Oh, and the recipe on this page recommends boiling the alcohol in the simple syrup, but you should make the syrup first, then add the alcohol when it cools.