starry, starry bento

Slow cooked beans, beans, polenta stars, cheese and carrot sticks, roasted garlic dip and grapes.

Calories: 480 (2006kj)

Wow it has been a while! I have been SO busy with work and other stuff I that just haven't had time to make any sort of food (my fella has been cooking) let alone make bentos. But things have settled down and I'm back at it.

The slow cooked beans loosely follows the recipe for this casserole. But I I substituted a few things, browned the onion and cooked off the spices and garlic then threw it all in my slow cooker.

I've had the slow cooker for a while, but I haven't used it because I haven't really known what to cook in it. Today I just decided to have a go with the beans, turned out tasty, different to the original but just as yummy. If you use a slow cooker, and have any good vegetarian recipes feel free to share! ^_^

One of the reasons I've been absent from bento blogging, is that I was recently in Melbourne with my sister. While there I when to a store similar to a 100-yen shop in China Town. I snapped up a few cute bento things, including the star shaped cutter used to make the polenta stars (and the little container filled with stars).

Process:

1. Brown onion and cook spices and garlic for beans
2. Place the above in slow cooker with remaining casserole ingredients cook
3. Cook polenta as per instructions here
4. Cook green beans in boiling water
5. Chop cheese and carrot into sticks
6. Place cheese and carrot in bento box with dip and grapes
7. Place cooled casserole, beans and polenta in bento box

Time:
Well, slow cooking took about 6.5 hours, making the polenta took 1 hours (this includes the boiling and baking time). Assembling the bento was quite quick, 20 minutes.