Thursday bento – with SPAM stars
It was only a matter of time before SPAM made an appearance in my bento box.
Last Thursday I only needed to make lunch for myself again. What a great excuse to use a SPAM Single for myself!
On the left: fried SPAM stars on rice, a strawberry and pinwheel sandwiches (2 x strawberry jam, 2 x kaya – that’s coconut jam – read Wikipedia entry on kaya). On the right: blanched sugar snap peas and baby cos lettuce leaves, which I folded neatly. I threw in a few cherry tomatoes and a paper cup’s worth of Jac’s vegetable medley (corn, peas and carrot).
I used a star-shaped metal cookie cutter on the SPAM Single to make the stars. I fried them until they were crisp on the top and bottom, then let them cool down completely before packing them in the bento box. I knew I’d probably feel like something sweet after eating the salty SPAM – I packed myself an enormous juicy strawberry and made pinwheel sandwiches – I flattened a couple of slices of bread with a rolling pin (actually, I used a salad shaker bottle we had in the cupboard as I couldn’t find our rolling pin), spread strawberry jam on one, kaya on the other, and then rolled them up and cut them in half so they’d fit in the bento box.
I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to let hot food items cool down completely before packing. The SPAM stars still had a deliciously crispy texture on the outside when I ate them at lunch time, with not a hint of sogginess in sight.
Having used the cookie cutter to make my stars I was left with SPAM off-cuts. I decided I may as well eat them, so I turned the stove back on and fried them up. I zapped myself a little rice and ate the SPAM and rice for my breakfast before jumping into the shower and getting ready for work. So yeah, that means I ate SPAM and rice for two meals on Thursday. :)