Bento-style Monday

I packed this lunch for Jac for last Monday: tuna pasta salad she’d made on Sunday afternoon, korma turkey meatballs, a couple of fresh mushrooms and grape tomatoes. To separate the pasta salad from the meatballs I used a strategically placed washed celery stalk, which Jac could eat with dip if she wished. She has an assortment of dips and spreads at work for exactly that purpose.

Tuna pasta salad, korma turkey meatballs, tomato and mushroom

Jac bought me this new lunch box from Howards Storage World. It’s called “Lunch on the Go”, and it’s from a range called Fit & Fresh. It’s going to be especially useful for hot summer days as it includes an ice pack that will keep food nicely chilled and fresh. The ice pack sits in the middle of the lunch box, like a shelf; underneath the ice pack, there’s room for a sandwich, salad or whatever else, and there are two separate containers that sit on top of the ice pack, perfect for keeping flavours separate.

My new fancy lunch box

I packed myself a large garden salad in the main compartment, tuna pasta salad in one of the small containers, and korma turkey meatballs in the other.

Garden salad, tuna pasta salad and korma turkey meatballs

You may have noticed from the recipe in the previous post that the turkey meatballs had finely chopped celery and carrot in them. I love the colour and texture variation that vegetables add to meatballs. I was going to eat these with tomato sauce, but they were so flavoursome that sauce was unnecessary. Strangely, their flavour reminded me of satay more than curry, but they really were good.

The turkey meatball contains vegetables

The tuna pasta salad was fantastic. The mayo, mustard and lemon rind and juice in the dressing went beautifully with the tuna, and the pop of the corn kernels and the crunch from the other vegetables made eating the salad so very pleasurable.

Tuna pasta salad

I got the recipe for the tuna pasta salad from The Australian Women’s Weekly Cook: How to Cook Absolutely Everything , ACP Magazines Ltd, Sydney, 2006, p.152. We halved the recipe, and it still made a truckload of salad for two people. The very first taste was a little too lemony – a little extra mayonnaise, and it was perfect.

I’ve got a couple of bento boxes and a few accessories ordered and on the way. It’s going to be such fun packing lunches using the cute and practical bento gear. Stay tuned for that!

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