Starry Penne with Meat Sauce Bento

Starry Penne with Meat Sauce Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

MisterMan gets carrot penne with meat sauce topped with fresh grated parmesan and stars. The top tier has an assortment of strawberries, white peaches, steamed Okinawan sweet potato sticks, and homegrown arugula salad with shaved Iberico and walnuts. So excited that my arugula is growing so vigorously; I love this peppery green! I'm going to try to make fans of my kids as well, by the end of the summer. That's my goal. ^__^

Penne with Meat Sauce Bento

Penne with Meat Sauce Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Tricolor veggie penne pasta tossed in the thermal food jar, with meat sauce spooned over, and cheese flowers (which promptly melted, of course) on top. If you want your child to enjoy the cheese shapes, I'd recommend you pack them separately and let them put them on just before they eat. There doesn't look like much sauce in the photo, but it's in there! It's kind of based on the bolognese recipe I used here, but with slight variations. The side box contains: blood orange chunks (which I forgot that TinySprite does NOT like because they're not sweet enough), broccoli, strawberry and grapes. This is a quick and dry post because I have to tune into Hawaii 5-0 in a few minutes. Heh. See ya tomorrow!

Bowties with Meat Sauce Bento

Bowties with Meat Sauce Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today I fell back on another standard: pasta with meat sauce. This time I used miniature bowties, which I boiled in water I used for cooking beets. I was hoping it might turn the pasta red, but the best I could get is reddish-brown. As a result, it kind of blends in with the meat sauce. Oh well! I topped with a piece of steamed broccoli "tree" and a bright orange kumquat to add some color.

We have lots of ripe blackberries so I sliced some up to flavor the cottage cheese and topped with crushed walnuts and wheat germ. In the third section I tossed some edamame along with a skewer of purple and yellow carrots. Is it a happy meal? I think so :)