This week’s theme on the Bento Blog Network is Alternative Boxes: anything that wasn’t meant to be a bento converted to a lunch, snack, dinner or breakfast carrier.
Finding something to hold dry foods is not much of a problem; take for example the ‘nut case’ ;) I used for this Arigato Bento. Bringing wet foods provides more of a challenge.
But I found something — pretty obvious really: a mason jar! I would have preferred to use my Bonne Maman jam jar, but it holds our current batch of home-made veganaise so I picked another from my pantry — which was a little bigger anyway. :) This one previously held soup from De Soepfabriek.
I had just the right food to fill up this alternative bento! Layered from top to bottom:
- cucumber & chives
- leftover chackchouka (Moroccan ratatouille made of roasted peppers and tomato)
- slices of pickled lemon and black olives (picture of the work in progress)
- leftover Moroccan spinach
- couscous with golden raisins, paprika, cumin and cinnamon
- wonderful lentil soup that Mr Gnoe whipped up on Queen’s Day from red lentils, tomato paste, white wine, red bell pepper, leek, onion and garlic
You can have a closer look of the Moroccan B-day buffet leftovers in my “Bring Your Own” Bento.
A great advantage of using a glass jar as container is that it can be put in the microwave to heat up your lunch (without the lid of course). On the downside: there are probably types of food that won’t work layered like this. Yet that isn’t a problem today. :)
And that’s not all! I used a sakura body butter container from The Body Shop to bring some additions to my meal. There’s a picture of its previous life in the Hello Japan! post about My Sakura Collection (upper right corner of the first photo). Of course it was thoroughly cleaned and I soaked it in lemon juice to neutralize smell. Then I lined it with wax paper so that there’s no contact between food and container anyway.
The box holds:
- bruscetta (made of leftover baguette bread)
- radishes
- parsley
- pistachios
This office bento for Wednesday May 2nd contains mostly leftovers and stash, except for the couscous which was done in under 5 minutes: mixing grains with spices and a handful of raisins, pouring over the boiling water and 4 minutes of waiting (which have been put to good use ;).
Now I hope this lunch is a lesson to all persons thinking that one needs to have a real box before you can start bento-ing. You really don’t! Check out the other submissions for even more alternative ideas.
Themes for the upcoming two weeks are:
- No Cheese
- Leftovers
For me that’ll be no challenge at all. ;)
4 reacties
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woensdag 2 mei 2012 bij 05:07
sherimiya
what a super fun idea, and I love the way you can see all the layers in your bento glass! Cool!
woensdag 2 mei 2012 bij 18:17
Diana
Excellent addition and creativity!
Diana
Diana Rambles
Bento Blog Network
woensdag 2 mei 2012 bij 19:43
eclecticlamb
So clever! and a wonderful meal!
donderdag 3 mei 2012 bij 15:22
Gnoe
Thank you all! I love the look of the layers through the glass as well :)