Thermos 3-Tier Bento #34

Garlic toast made with homemade bread (my recipe), steamed broccoli, and what turned out to be an amazing vegan rendition of America's Test Kitchen Cooking for Two 2009's skillet pastitsio. I took a lot of shortcuts with niche ingredients but I think this can be done with mostly basic ingredients available everywhere, so I'm going to tweak it a bit more before you get my version.

Pastitsio is a bit like a Greek lasagna, which looks quite complicated to make as a casserole, but as a skillet version it's more like sophisticated Hamburger Helper--perfectly doable for the frail of body like me. When I first made this recipe as an omnivore, I thought the reason I loved it had a lot to do with the lamb, but having had more veganizing experiences I suspected the reason I loved it had more to do with the spices (nutmeg, cinnamon), the layering of other flavors as the pasta cooks in the garlicky tomato sauce, and the creaminess (I used the new vegan half-and-half by Coffee Mate to accomplish that this time around, but I'll be experimenting with coconut milk and/or cashew cream next time). I substituted Follow Your Heart non-dairy Parmesan for the romano cheese in the original recipe and it did the job admirably.

Broccoli was 99 cents a pound this time around so prepare to see a lot of it.