Flatbread Pizza and Jacks Bento

Flatbread Pizza Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Yes, I know we just had flatbread pizza like, 2 weeks ago, because I see it in my flickr photostream there. Actually, we've had it even more recently than that for dinner. Okay, we probably have pizza and calzones every week. The kids clamor for it, and they love it, and it's so easy. I'm thinking we should have been doing this all summer, in fact. Today's version is meatless. We used zucchini, baby portobella mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. I added steamed corn and broccoli, a bat-shaped Okinawan sweet potato, pluots, strawberry, and carved orange cherry tomatoes. I carved these tomatoes into jack-o-lanterns for our twitter tomato party, and decided to use them in the bento here for festive fun. Is it too early for jack-o-lanterns and Halloween decorations? Last year I was on a mission to carve as many jack-o-lanterns as I could, from as many orange foods that I could find. You can see the collection in my set here. (I also did it in 2009, here.) I discovered there are quite a few orange colored foods that can be carved. Should I continue the tradition? ^_^

I've been asked: how did I carve the tiny tomato?

With a tiny knife.

Here's a tutorial I made showing how I carved a mini sweet pepper. The technique is basically the same for, well, all the little foods I carve into jack-o-lanterns. ^_^

Pizza Face Bento

Pizza Face Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Look at those luscious lips! Okay, you might need a bit of imagination to see it, but there are supposed to be tomato eyes and red pepper lips on this cheesy, salami, arugula flatbread pizza. I used Mediterranean whole grain flat bread, which is thick enough to stand up to toppings, but which bakes crispy for a cool mini pizza. The other sections of this Sistema double-sided box contain Okinawan sweet potato, corn on the cob, pluots, nectarines, strawberries and blackberries. Smooch!

Squash Blossom Pizza Bento

Squash Blossom Pizza Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

We made squash blossom pizza a la our favorite pie from Pizzeria Mozza and Scala's Bistro. I used whole wheat flatbread rounds for the kids' bento since they are such a cute size and perfect for little hands. I sliced the zucchini thinly, and sauteed briefly, then scattered on the flatbreads along with chunks of mozzarella. I layered fresh squash blossoms (a whole bag from my farmer's market for $2) on top and baked. For the adults I added peppers (Scala's uses padron) and for the kids I added garlic powder. Super yum! These happened to fit just right in the two-tiered stainless steel tiffin, and I was able to keep the fruit and vegetables separate on the top: corn, cauliflower, tomatoes, grapes, cherries and pluots. Looks like a pretty sunflower, kind of. ^_^