Bento box #2, a little more involved

First, I had to cook the food, so I used my rice cooker (which is missing it's steamer basket) and my bamboo steamers.















Then, I got out my new find, Lundberg wild blend rice, which is beautiful...see?


I read about this rice in my bible, The Ultimate Rice Cooker cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufman.









Then, I got my green beans ready to steam and added my marinated chicken breasts to the steamer.



Ok the chicken looks ugly, but it tastes good. The recipe is from my rice cooker cookbook. The chicken is marinated in Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, herbes de provence and olive oil. Green beans are self explanatory, I guess.





So, the steamer gets put together with the beans on top so I can take them off once they are crisp-tender.
















Here is what the steamer looks like all put together. And, the most astute of you will note that I don't have a wok. My house has a way of "disappearing" items of clothing, cooking tools, socks, homework, and sundry other items. Where the wok went is anybody's guess. Obviously, I need to drive into San Antonio (tedious drive) and get a new one, or order one online. Small town living is great except when you need "stuff."
















Now for the green beans. They are steamed and ready for step 2. Again from my rice cooker cookbook, they are sauteed in a small amount of butter and olive oil with onion, celery, parsley, basil and bell pepper.














Final step, making the gingered tomato relish.












So, dinner was great! Now to put the leftovers in the bento box. Complete with a fortune cookie fortune stashed in hubby's lunch to make him smile! Working in the hospital can be so stressful that something to make him smile is a something I feel is most important. We have been married for 35 years, so we have learned just a few things here and there. Besides, using a bento box and fixing his lunch gives me a chance to do more than leave him a nice note on the back door telling him to have a nice day, love you, etc. [He gets up at oh dark thirty in the morning, I don't, so I stay up later than he does.]

This one is pretty, with lots of color. We'll see how I do with the salmon that I have planned.















I have had a great time so far, and we both love our lunches. Our motivation is spurred on by the fact that my sister and her husband both got food poisoning (Salmonella) from a TV dinner. Their illnesses were so severe that they were hospitalized. It motivates me even more to make ALL my food from scratch. I have mostly made everything from scratch from the time my children were born, but in my older years got a bit lazy, but not any more!