Bento no. 8: Leftovers bento with garlic chive blossom fried rice
In an effort to keep my promise to post each bento as I make them, here is the report about the bento I made today. Pretty impressive, huh? …the same day. I made bento no 8 before bento no 7 because the concept behind No. 8 was leftovers. The idea was to use your leftovers in a new way. We had Lentil Almond Stir-fry for dinner on Monday 
and the main component of this bento was a fried rice with ham and lentils. Ideally the ham would have been leftover as well, but we have been trying to cut back on our meat consumption. I just purchased one thick slice of ham from the deli and used the leftover lentils.
One other modification was necessary. When shopping I have always compared the price of a head of broccoli to the cost of just buying broccoli crowns. Usually, I end up just buying the crowns rationalizing that I am going to throw away (or more recently compost) the stems. Brillant, except using the normally discarded broccoli stems was the whole point of the veggie side in this bento. Lacking stems, I steamed the broccoli and adjusted the side so that it was more of a fruit salad. I dressed apples and carots with the lemon-mustard dressing. It definately was not the intended flavor of the recipe, but it was alright. The fried rice, however was wonderful. I still have more leftover lentils and am contemplting making it again. Except then, I wouldn’t get to make Bento No. 7