Laptop Lunches #25

Tortellini "pizza" salad, sliced starfruit, snow peas and cherry tomatoes with yogurt-ranch dipping sauce, and a white chocolate lemon mini cupcake in a silicone baking cup.

The tortellini salad was better on day one, over the weekend, and had absorbed all of its dressing, so I added some ceasar-yogurt dressing this morning while packing the lunch. It tasted better than it looked, but if I was truly thinking clearly I would have used Italian.

The cupcake is evidence of the value of planning ahead. I baked a two-layer cake (click link for recipe) for an event on Sunday and took some of the batter (about what you have left from scraping the bowl after pouring the batter into the 9 inch cake pans, roughly 3 tablespoons) and put it into two silicone baking cups. I baked the cups along with the cake, and frosted them with the leftover frosting. This was a good idea for two reasons: One, I got to have cake with lunch. Two, it meant I got to taste the cake--I expected leftovers but this was the most popular thing on the dessert table and was quickly gone.

Isn't starfruit cute? It's a bit pricey and I'd never tasted it before, but I thought I'd splurge (better that than a box of cookies). The flavor and texture is reminscient of melon--very subtle--a nice lesson for today.