Bento lunches are a great way to get your kids to eat their lunches that they bring to school, and the best part is you can fill them with many things and leftovers work any time. In this bento I used some leftover stromboli that I made along with granola, corn cob, sliced plum and carrot curls. You could add a salad or any fruit. Of course bentos are a great way for you to want to bring your lunch to work too! This is sorta like a cultural connection…
Now for how to make the stromboli…
You can use a pizza dough from your favorite pizza place or supermarket, or make it like I did from the bread machine dough cycle. Two recipes that would work well for stromboli…one from my garlic knots recipe on The Tiny Skillet or a simple pizza dough here:
7-8 oz water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
Put ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed and set it on dough cycle. When the cycle in finished place the dough on a well floured surface.
Roll it out into a rectangle. Sometimes you have to walk away and let it rest, then come back to it. Make it the size you want. I throw a little Parmesan cheese down to keep it from sticking. Layer your stuffing…now here is where you can get creative, and the best part of making your own is you can make it the way you like it. Just don’t let the stuffing get too full to where it spills over and won’t seal, but then I don’t mind if it oozes out a little.
I used fresh (you can use frozen) spinach, cheese, Italian seasoning, mozzarella cheese and shredded chicken. My daughter doesn’t add the veggies at this point. She would rather eat them at a later time.
You can really add anything you like just make sure it’s not too juicy.
Oooo, bad photo of my shredded chicken, spinach and mozzarella cheese, but I think you get the idea.
Then you roll it like you would if you were making cinnamon rolls. Make sure you squeeze out all the air and pinch the seam closed. Lay the seam side down on the baking pan. I like to use use a stoneware bar pan, and dust it with Parmesan cheese or corn meal or flour first.
Then I brush it with good olive oil, and sprinkle it with garlic salt and Parmesan cheese, and slice a few slits (not all the way through) in the top.
Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.
Mmm…right out of the oven nice and golden and smells wonderful!
Serve with a marinara sauce, and enjoy.
Then you can use the leftovers for your lunch, and you can see how well it worked in a bento box lunch.
What will you put in your stromboli?