Main: Baked ziti and rosemary & red pepper focaccia.

Sides: Roasted brussles sprouts and sautéed zucchini with tomatoes.

Fruits/Vegetables: Cherry tomatoes, blueberries, and pineapple chunks.

This is the kind of meal I love on cold days. Today is overcast and gloomy, the kind of day you want to eat something that makes you feel warm all the way through. Thankfully, the menu plan called for a bento made with the baked ziti leftovers in the fridge.

There’s nothing quite as nice as fresh-baked bread with a meal, so I started a batch of focaccia dough last night and let it do its second rise overnight in the refrigerator. I got up earlier than usual this morning to pull the dough out and let it wake up too. Then I shaped the loaves, proofed them, and baked them, while assembling the rest of the bento.

The plan called for orange chunks with today’s bento, but I picked up some perfectly ripe and sweet pineapple at Costco (of all places) last night, so I substituted that instead. Other than that, this bento was prepared exactly as planned.