Pastitsio Bento

Ahhh, Monday.  The sun is shining but it is as cold as all get out!  I've never been exactly sure what that phrase meant.  My grandparents used it a lot as I was growing up and it is now part of my brain function whether I understand it or not.  Might as well use it, right?  Today's bento of leftover vegetarian Pastitsio is perfect for this weather and it's all for me.  Happy Meatless Monday!

The package of sesame leaves that I picked up last night is the excuse for making myself a bento today.  They looked so pretty and it's been a long time since I've done anything experimental food-wise.  These are actually Perilla leaves which are related to Basil and Mint, but are often marketed under the name Sesame leaves.  Since I'm allergic to Mint, today's experiment is very cautious.  If I have no reactions today I will be more adventurous later in the week.  I love how the leaf looks in the bento - can't wait to actually try tasting it!

A-chan chose Starfruit as her food experiment.  So far she hasn't liked it, but I am so proud of her for trying it!  And since she doesn't like it that just means more for me...

In the bento:  Vegetarian Pastitsio, Perilla leaf, an almond, baby carrots, a huge cherry tomato, blackberries, steamed broccoli, a slice of starfruit and an orange slice.

Pastitsio is a Greek meat and pasta casserole.  I adapted a recipe to be made with Morningstar Farms recipe crumbles.  The recipe is posted on my other blog so if you're interested, go check it out.  It makes a huge amount!  (And you can substitute real meat for the fake meat if you happen to be a carnivore.  Just sayin')

Recipe - Spanikopitakias & Keftethes (Spinach triangles and Greek meatballs)

Spanikopitakia (Spinach & feta triangles)

1 pkg froz. Spinach
1 onion, chopped
1 TB olive oil
1/2 TB parsley
1 Ts dill
1 goodly shake of nutmeg
½ cup ricotta
1 cup feta
¼ cup parmesan, grated
1 serv. of tofu egg-replacement, recipe below (or 2 eggs)
salt
pepper
1/2 box of fillo sheets
1 stick butter (melted)

1. Thaw spinach, let cool, squeeze out most of the liquid. Fry onion in the olive oil until lightly browned.

2. Mix together spinach, onion, herbs, cheeses and egg-replacement (or eggs if preferred). Stir.

3. Roll out and cut fillo sheets in half longways.

4. One at a time, brush sheets lightly with melted butter. Place a generous dollop of spinach mix and fold into a triangle. ( I do this with the flag fold method. )

5. At this point you can freeze the triangles if you like. They freeze excellently! I place them in a large tupperware container, seperating the layers with wax paper.

6. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place ¼ pat of butter on top of each triangle. Cook 20 minutes if frozen, 15 minutes if fresh. Check after about 10 minutes to see if the corners are getting too browned.

7. For miniature triangles, cut fillo sheets into thirds longways instead of halves.



Keftethes (Originally this recipe was for meat patties, I transformed them into meatballs)

1 pkg morningstar farms crumbles
1 serving of tofu egg-replacement, recipe below (Or 2 eggs)
¼ cup bread crumbs
2 slices slightly stale bread, crumbled
1 onion, chopped really small
1 TB lemon juice
1 TB parsley
1 Ts cilantro
1 Ts paprika
1 Ts cumin
salt
pepper
2 TB parmesan cheese

1. Mix egg replacement (or eggs) with crumbled bread, onion, juice, cheese and seasonings. Let sit 10 minutes.

2. Cook MF crumbles with 1 TB olive oil & ½ TB soy sauce.

3. Add cooled crumbles to mixture along with ¼ cup bread crumbs.

4. Form into balls, roll in more bread crumbs.

5. At this point you can freeze the meatballs if you like, just like the spanikopitakias they freeze really well! I will place a batch in a tupperware container with enough room between each to not have any touching so that they won't stick together. Once they are well frozen I combine them into a large freezer bag to save space.

6. Shallow fry meatballs in butter until browned. You can put the frozen meatballs directly into the frying pan from the freezer. If frozen, place in 325 degree oven for 10 minutes, or microwave for 2 minutes. If fresh, microwave for one minute after frying in butter.

Tofu Egg Replacement

2 Heaping TB of silken tofu
3 TB water
3 TB all-purpose flour

Mix all ingredients together until mostly creamy. This amount will replace 2 eggs in the recipes above. For added stiffness 1 TB soy flour can be added. For a more liquid solution just add more water.

Greek Bentos

A-chan's bento has miniature versions of the spanikopitakias and keftethes. It was very easy to make the miniatures, I was pleased with how well that went!

These were fun to make and contained two of our absolute favorite foods, but we found out that they don't work very well in bentos.

Spanikopitakia (spinach & cheese triangles), vegetarian keftethes (meat patties that I made into meatballs), eggless Menemen (a turkish vegetable omelette that I made with tofu instead of egg), ichigo daifuku (strawberry mochi not in any way fitting in with the rest of the meal, but a traditional valentines treat for my family). My husband got hot chocolate flavored pocky as a valentines day chocolate from our daughter.

The spanikopitakias got kind of soggy in the bentos. They were still delicious, but without that nice crisp crunch that we expect from them. The keftethes were awesome!!! The menemen on the other hand came out very soupy after sitting for a while. So all in all this wasn't a great bento meal.