September 22nd Bento Lunch

A note to my readers: Hi Everyone! I've been starting to feel like my blog has only been covering a small part of my kitchen adventures and as a result, it's been slipping away from its focus of bento lunches and cupcakes (muffin post, anyone?) because I want to share so much of what I create in the kitchen with all of you. So rather than fill this blog with all kinds of other stuff, I've decided to start a second blog. That way, if you want to see bento lunches and cupcakes, there's no other 'filler' here, but if you're interested in finding out about the other foods I've been exploring, it's all online for you to see.

My new blog is here: http://jacki2.blogspot.com, and there's a link to it in the right sidebar of this blog too. I'll also be linking back to it from here from time to time if I put a food in a lunch for which the recipe isn't very 'bento'.

Hopefully this works well and isn't too confusing. Basically, everything will continue as per normal on this blog, but there is a second blog if you would like to check out additional content. Enjoy!


Okay, on to today's lunch!!!

No Japanese food today! Today's bento lunch was mostly made of leftovers from last nights very North American supper.

The main component of the bento is BF's amazing chili. He makes it from scratch in the slow cooker and it has everything from sausage to lamb pieces to okra to peppers. And it's super spicy! He made a tonne, so we'll be eating it for a couple of days. The thermal bento really came in handy for this.

In the larger side container are hearts cut out of cornbread I made last night (recipe is here) and a few pieces of steamed broccoli and sugar snaps. This is one of the very few times I used a plastic food divider in a bento lunch and that is because I don't want the natural moisture of the vegetables to make the cornbread soggy in parts. Generally I don't include bread products in a bento lunch, so this usually isn't an issue.

I cut the cornbread into small hearts so that BF can easily mix them into his chili if he likes. The dark hearts are cut from the bottom of the cornbread and the light hearts are cut from the tops (right now I'm snacking on the pieces left over from where I cut out the hearts. Yummy!)

I added the veggies mainly for color this time. Because there are so many vegetables in the chili, I think the lunch would have been balanced just fine without the additional greens.

In the small container is some apple crisp, also from last night (recipe is here) and placed in a silicone muffin cup, as well as some strawberry slices and blueberries.

This is definitely a heavier lunch than I typically make, but BF is working late tonight, so I think he will appreciate it.