Here’s what I packed in Jac’s bento box last Wednesday: mini meatballs on a bed of English spinach, bread and margarine, salad (English spinach, cucumber, red capsicum, mini roma tomatoes, carrot), topped with a couple of orange wedges, aioli (for dipping meatballs or eating with salad), Babybel cheese and a couple of prunes.

Jac was crook* on Monday and didn’t end up going to work or hockey the next day, which is why the note says “Hope you feel better today”. Jac said later that she thought this note was a sad one, because of the black cloud and the sad-faced heart. Maybe I was feeling a little down when I drew the doodle.

Because I was meeting Chad for breakfast before work on Wednesday morning and wouldn’t be get to the office until closer to 9AM, I used my Lunch to Go lunch box so that the ice pack could keep my lunch cool and fresh in my backpack (see this previous post about the Lunch to Go lunch box). I packed myself a slightly bigger salad, threw in a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese spread, and packed myself orange, prunes and a pack of mini Sesame Snaps. I packed tomato sauce for dipping my meatballs into. The Lunch to Go ice pack really did keep my lunch chilled and fresh. I popped it into the fridge when I got to work.

The meatballs were the last ones from a batch Jac made recently (see this previous bento lunch featuring the mini meatballs) – they’d been in the freezer. We thawed them out in the fridge overnight. They were a little freezer burnt, but I was able to wipe off most of the icicles off with a little paper towel before packing them in our lunch boxes. I zapped my meatballs in the microwave, still sitting on their bed of spinach (I didn’t zap the tomato sauce though) – they smelled and tasted fantastic, just like fresh! And the microwave cooked the spinach too, which was a bonus – I love cooked spinach.