Bento 194

Today's bento was packed at mid day because #2 and I went to see the doctors in the morning.

We're down with sore throats, flu and cough. #3 had it, but recovered, looks like #1 is also experiencing some tightness in the throat. Everyone in the house is having signs of a cough or something now!

I made a pledge to add a non plastic bento box before my 200th post and so here it is. It's a huge 700 ml box.

#2 requested for more fruits and ideally, this metal box packed in enough fruits. It was a good size for lots of fruits!

In it was persimmons and kiwi fruits - there was more than one in each silicon cup.

I finally found a box huge enough to use these humongous silicon cups which has been in my bento drawers since I opened them from their package. One contains alfalfa and some thinned down sesame seed dressing (added some plain yogurt). The other contained couscous and my freezer stash of Ratatouille.



The same things packed in a 480 ml box.



The Ratatouille tastes just as good if not better today! A couple of days back, #2's friends came over for group study and since all of them were abstaining from meat for Lent, I served them Ratatouille. Surprisingly enough they enjoyed it very much and one of the boys said that he was going to suggest to his mum to make it since it's meatless. Yummilicious!

Ravioli update

Saturday night was a busy night for #2 and I. We worked till past 11p.m. making ravioli. We've been talking and dreaming about making our own ravioli for a long while already but we've never had the time or the enthusiasm. After #2 found a ravioli recipe in her "Recipe keeper" which I bought her, she couldn't stop talking about it and so we went grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon.

I spent quite a tidy sum on the cheeses and ingredients! At one point I wondered if it was worth the effort to make rather than buy them from the supermarket? But this was an interesting experience!

We made the dough with freshly steamed spinach, strong flour, olive oil and eggs.


Rolled out the 'be-speckled' dough.

Putting the Ricotta and spinach filling onto the dough.


Covered the filling with another piece of dough.


The 'roughly' cut ravioli, waiting to dry out before putting into a container and into the freezer.


We boiled a few in salt water to try. The filling was excellent but I thought that the texture of the dough had a little too much 'bite' to it. It wasn't hard but what I have tasted in restaurants are more 'tender'. I was thinking that maybe I should use ordinary flour rather than strong flour? #2 said that maybe we should have rolled the dough even thinner. Honestly, it was already threatening to tear apart so I can't see how much thinner it could get. I think we'll give it another try and see how the dough turns out. The filling is just too good and I'm thinking that it probably makes a great dip too!!