Farmers Market Bento

I confess this week's box came from watching Food Network. I only made tweaks to the for taste reasons. The idea was to go out to the farmers market and see what was fresh and good. It just so happens all the fresh and good stuff I found conformed to the recipes for the show I was watching. It was a yummy menu so why not?

I'm not sure why but I've not really gotten around to visiting my local farmers market. It's a habit I intend to change, everything was so fresh and looked very inviting. Yes, in some cases the food is a little more expensive but it's nice to support my local farmer.

Well let's tuck in shall we? We start with a nice Pasta Primavera, originally a vegetarian recipe, I felt like I need some protein. I happened to have some marinated chicken breast in the fridge. A quick pop in the oven yielded not just the chicken I needed for my Bento-eaters lunch, but for my dinner tonight as well. I can't believe how easy it was to put together this bento, but the pasta especially. The pasta cooked up really fast, and fresh ribbons of carrot and zucchini gave it the right flavor and veggies to make it feel light.


Next we have a Chickpea salad, again another easy to put together, chopped some veggies, made a quick dressing with red wine vinegar, bang done! Were this a purely vegetarian bento, the chickpeas would have helped to backfill the protein. Either way it was easy to rummage the fridge for bits of vegetables that I needed to use up. A bit of a smorgasbord. Note to self: I think i could have used a bit more color.


I didn't take a closeup of the mini-caprese salad you get to see a pic of some of my pickings from the farmers market. I found this tub of "pearlini" sized mozzarella. To go with the wonderful tomatoes I found from the market. Simple dressing of whizzing together some fresh basil and olive oil with a touch of lemon juice and balsamic vinegar.


To further "economize" my efforts. These little pecan almond cluster bits happened to be on sale at the grocery story. Works out well to finish a healthy lunch with a light snack bit




Box Contents
  • Chicken Pasta Primavera
  • Chickpea Salad with Red Wine Vinegar Dressing
  • Mini Caprese Salad
  • Pecan almond honey clusters
Edit: got a nice invite to be linked to another blog ToEveryMeal Looks like a fun blog with great info

Comments

Julie said…
That looks really yummy! A great lunch.
September 10, 2008 at 3:20 PM
Kerry said…
Would you laugh if I told you that everyone I know knows I LOVE boxes, and while I've heard of bento lunches before...I never realized how appealing they are until now? The box-lover and food-lover in me is about to go crazy!

I'm hosting a "Farmer's Market Report" Mr Linky for food reports, recipes, stories and photos all inspired by farmer's markets. Maybe you'd like to submit this post? Come on by and check it out! : http://toeverymeal.blogspot.com/2008/09/farmers-market-report-sept-13th.html
September 13, 2008 at 4:22 PM
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