No.74 Four Vegetarian Bento

Here are a few of my son's school lunches from November. My daughter is still taking in bento to school, but she doesn't like the food to be presented in a bento style any more because it draws attention. She takes hers in separate pots all packed into one larger container. 

November has been a month I'll simply call 'interesting'. With too many big highs and big lows to summarise here. On one of the high notes though, I did celebrate my 30th birthday, with a wonderful collection of friends old and new, some brilliant sci-fi costumes and plenty of laughs. 

I continue to use leftovers for bento main sections and add a fruit and snack layer too. 

Pasta parcels bento

 Feta cheese and caramelised onion pasta parcels bought at Morrisons, with a homemade pasta sauce made from simmered tomatoes, finely chopped onion and courgette with garlic and paprika. In the fruit layer are persimmon slices and a mini pealed satsuma.

Vegetable samosa and beetroot bento

 These mini vegetable samosas are big hits with my children. Four mini samosas, carrot sticks, a tub of sliced pickled beetroot. In the fruit layer a chopped plum and pealed mini satsuma.

Quorn goujons bento

 Every now and then I come across these Quorn goujons in supermarkets and they always go down well for lunches. Here I've sent them with a pot of ketchup, some cheese biscuits and a halved plum.

Falafel bento

This one got me lots of praise from my children. For some inexplicable reason they love coleslaw as if it's going out of fashion. I don't eat the stuff, but I recognise that they are getting some good nutrients out of it if I buy or make it with quality ingredients. Good chunky grated carrots, cabbage and onion, with reduced calorie mayonnaise. I should really try making it with vegannaise, then perhaps I wouldn't be so anti-coleslaw in my own diet. In this bento they have a good dollop of coleslaw, some leftover falafel balls, green olives, strawberries and a halved plum. Yum yum!

No.73 Foxy Pizza bento

Pizza Friday again for the bento! This time I've made one of the wedges into a foxy face with a chopped olive for eyes and nose and cucumber triangles for ears. There are three pieces of pizza in there under the olives. Grapes and strawberries in the second layer. My son is now the proud owner of a banana case, so he'll be taking along a banana. I draw a face on the banana as a surprise and tomorrow has a cat face (yesterday's was a Totoro).

Ahhh, more rain today. We missed most of it on our morning walk though. I've got nothing against walking in the rain, and usually enjoy it, but even though we are very well equipped for harsh weather this particular rain is torrential! Cold, wet feet aren't fun.

Tomorrow will be the 5th of November, and the children and I are greatly looking forward to going to a bonfire and fireworks display in the evening. We've never been to this particular one before, and we've been told it is the best in the region. I'll let you know how it goes along with the next bento.

No.72 Raccoon bento

Okay, so it could be any kind of animal! I agree, but when I put the raisin eyes and red icing mouth on this slice of crusty bread I thought instantly "raccoon!". So here is our raccoon bread in a layer with a plum and two ginger biscuits. In the main layer is pasta with a simple tomato based sauce I whipped up and a sprinkling of grated mature cheddar.

We didn't walk home from school today because we accepted the offer of a lift from a lovely friend of ours. It has been raining particularly heavily for the past few days. We're die hard walkers but every now and then the elements get the better of us and we just want to get home with dry feet! This morning however, we did have a nice walk into school. We found the most beautiful little frog. It was on it's way into the road and it wasn't clear where it might have come from, so I picked it up and gave it a lift to the opposite side of the road. We were quite happy thinking that the little frog would then make it's way into the friendlier territory of the fields and wetlands beyond.

Tonight I am exhausted. On top of the usual chores we went to our karate training. Good times! Good training. But it has left me contentedly tired and ready for a good snooze. We have our first belt grading on Saturday. Fingers crossed for us!

No.71 Persimmon Fishies bento

Ooo, we had a lot of fresh veggies and fruits today! Everything looking green and yummy. The children fancied a nice juicy salad for lunch tomorrow so I made them some fruit and veggie layers which I will give them along with yoghurt and a cereal bar. In the larger layer is shredded lettuce, cubed cucumber, green pimento stuffed olives and a spoonful of chunky coleslaw. In the fruit layer are grapes, strawberries and little persimmon fishies! Persimmon is a delicious, mildly flavoured fruit, for anyone who hasn't tried it. I think I'll try cooking a more savoury dish with it sometime. I'm sure it would add a pleasing sweetness to a curry. 

It's frosty on our school walks now. Although the mornings aren't cold enough to form a visible show of ice, the pavements are still slick with an invisible film of frozen dew. The grass crunches a little and the leaf drifts are crisp. It's truly beautiful to be walking just shortly after sunrise now that the clocks have gone back. We're awake before most of the birdies are now! Including our own pet pigeon, who snoozes away contentedly while I'm busy getting ready. My six o'clock starts in the morning are very wearing, but the Christmas holidays are so tantalisingly close. I'm such a holiday hopper, jumping tentatively across the days in between as if they were crocodiles.