Contents of...bowl: Spanish Saffron/Lemon chickpeas, under white and brown mixed rices, decorated with carrot.And yes, I did cut those carrot hearts by hand. I used a knife to cut an elongated heart shape out of a baby carrot, and then cut slices to make hearts. They actually don't look that bad from this distance. They looked a little anemic close up. I have included the quarter for a sense of scale. In case you were wondering, yes, this is an enormous HB-sized portion.
The Rest of dinner: Cucumber-radish salad (with white wine vinegar, shallots, marjoram, a little lemon juice, and honey and cranberry for sweetness), two tiny pieces (in a sauce-bowl) of BBQ chikn-wing-a-ling pizza.Actually, I'm not too sure what all I put in the dressing on the cucumber salad. I felt a little like I made it in a trance. All's I know is that it's mostly vinegar and there's no oil in it. It was also super tasty. I thought it would be a nice spring-type salad. Though I suppose cucumbers aren't in season yet...whooops.
HB was very pleased (I believe "Oh wow!" was what he actually said). I've been struggling with wanting to make him ai-bento, but not being able to make them the way he eats (large portions of one thing, not tiny portions of lots of things--which is how I eat.) So this was a good compromise. And you know, it's just nice to do something nice for your HB once and a while.
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Awww! Those carrot cut outs are SO cute! What a fun surprise for HB! It's almost as cute as the broccoli dwelling septapus. The radish cucumber salad looks really tasty, I wish you could remember what is in the dressing, I always forget how easy it is to make homemade dressings and how much healthier the homemade ones are. I've made a really great honey mustard dressing before- a little too sweet when I made it, but still soooo good and it makes you notice that the stuff you buy tastes a little funny (I suppose like preservatives...)
ReplyDeleteOk, here's my best guess on the dressing:
ReplyDeleteWhite wine vinegar
Shallots
Dijon mustard
Cranberry apple juice
Lemon Juice
Honey
Salt
Pepper
Marjoram
Water
I think that's all that was in it. The dressing part got bright pink as it sat in the fridge and leached the color from the radishes. It was pretty neat.
The shallots are totally key. They make dressing taste awesome without the firey power of fresh garlic. This particular dressing had no oil in it because it was for someone else's special dietary restrictions. But usually I use olive oil, or sometimes sesame. The trick to good dressing (IMHO)is emulsification. My favorite emulsifiers are mustard and honey (sometimes together!) but pomegranate molasses, regular molasses, maple syrup, peanut butter, hoisan sauce etc. also work in a pinch or if you're looking for a different flavor.
That sounds awesome, I got's to work on my dressings!
ReplyDelete