TV dinner bento!

"Now back to your regularly scheduled program. err. sorta" Today I decided to take the idea of returning to theme and apply it to the bento. My inspiration, the noble hungry man salisbury steak dinner. That's right kids, "It's salisbury steak day!". I stayed gluten free, and amped up lunch with a nice twist on what you would normally find in a TV dinner.

I learned if I ground my own chuck roast I could get a nice ground beef for $2 dollars a pound less than buying ground beef! I'm paying someone $2 every pound to ground some meat. Unbelievable! I will say that the fresh ground beef tangibly tasted better than the normal ground I get from the store. Maybe it's the course ground I went with. Either way when you're making a batch of 4lbs of beef that's an $8 savings.





What can I say, salisbury steak it's the first thing I came up with when thinking TV dinner. As a child I treasured the the times my mother would make us salisbury steak. (it was always chinese food at our house) Salisbury steak has some interesting origins, it's not named after a place, it's named after the inventor. Dr. J.H. Salisbury during the Civil war suggested this recipe for soldiers to cure some of their ailments and recommended a dose of 3 portions a day. Either way it's a tasty recipe that stretches the dollar, esp in this current economic environment.




Mashed potato, classic on the TV dinner platter. Decided to mash up some nice white potatoes. Yes, I added a bit of butter and sour cream and then I spied a nice bottle of white truffle oil. Ok it's rare that I fawn over my own food, but this was super delicious! Again very simple dish that twisted the final product with an introduction of something foreign to the foil packed freezer package. The earthy taste of truffle with this traditionally starchy dish came out delicious.

Sometimes simplicity is best. This was no doubt the most expensive part of this bento, and I could have used frozen ears of corn or a canned alternative. Fresh sweet corn however, is by far better tasting, the fresh crunch and delightful sweetness gets lost in the canning and freezing process. A simply saute after boiling the ears you have a fresh snappy corn.



Lastly, I toasted up some almonds and sauted up some parboiled green beans and zested up some lemon. It's just green beans dressed up for a smarter occasion. Again fresh veggies provide a better texture than the processed stuff.





It's nice to be back in the kitchen cooking. It's my "zen" activity if you will. That said, the future of the blog is a bit uncertain right now. I'll try to continue to post but a theme change might be in my future. In the near term I have a trip I have to take for work, you'll likely see some posts from the road. As always, thanks for reading.

Box Contents:

• Salisbury Steak
• Mashed Potatoes with white truffle oil
• Fresh corn off the cob
• Lemony green beans with toasted almonds