Spaghetti & artichokes

I've made a really funky looking bento today because I had a specific set of things to work with, namely spaghetti and artichokes. I bought the artichokes as a bag of four from Costco 2 trips ago and keep forgetting about them because they're hiding behind the huge gallons of milk in the fridge. While trying to figure out what to put into my spaghetti bento, I finally remembered the poor lost thistles.

I hadn't eaten one since I was a kid but do remember loving them a lot. Mayonaisse was the only thing I could remember us eating it with so I looked online and every place says to eat it with mayo dang it! Since I didn't even know how to cook one, I looked around for a guide and eventually found this one. It has great pictures and step by step instructions! Adding the garlic bulb and bay leaf actually did add a lot of taste and it was quite good with no mayo at all.

Pay close attention to where it says to cut off the tips, Mr. Pikko actually poked himself on one of the thorns bringing the bag in from the car and his thumb was actually oozing blood. And now that I think about it, artichokes look a little like the Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors! zomg!


There's a bed of artichoke petals underneath obviously, then the heart is chopped up and on top of the spaghetti, which I mixed up this time. This is organic whole wheat spaghetti, so I don't need to count it as points today, though I did cave in and just eat the regular spaghetti noodles for dinner last night. I fried some chopped bell peppers with a bit of pam, pepper, and garlic powder to add color since the artichoke hearts really didn't look that appetizing. I'm also packing a small green salad that I took from dinner leftovers last night. I don't have any avocado cause the one that I bought was like half black inside, but the crab alone should taste great anyway.

While I was putting this one together it occured to me that my very first bento post was spaghetti in Baby Girl's pink Hello Kitty bento box. That was on April 26, about 1 1/2 months ago! I should go back and count how many bentos I've made since then!

Edit: I just so happen to peek outside with a flashlight at the garden and holy crap my tomato plants were doing straight leg toe-touches! I ran right outside to water the poor things and noticed white larva looking things under the leaves. Curses up on you, leafminers!!! Out of our whole garden, Baby Girl's watermelon is doing the best. They've got little vines now!