Look, Ma: No Rice!

If you haven't jumped on the bento bandwagon yet, I am guessing you don't want to eat rice everyday. Or, you run through fast food for dinner on a regular basis, and don't have any extra McNuggets to make into a cute bento.  Fear not!  There are other options.

I present for your consideration, today's bento:

No leftovers, no rice.  A ham sandwich, some veggies and a little bit of hummus.  What could be simpler?

And who could say "no" to this face?

Add a couple of extras if you have a long day ahead of you.  I chose an apple and some ZFruit.

I put it into my new pink URU thermal tote:

 And it is all ready to go!

Happy bento!

Another Little Thing

Today when I made myself a snack between shifts at the theater, I couldn't help but wonder what little thing could make it better. I decided on sprinkled paprika:

Suddenly, my midday snack has more class than before.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Hummus Snacker Pack

I've had some people curious about the hummus packs I am using. Here is what it looks like:

There are 16 individual hummus packets in it. The price at Costco is about $5, if I remember correctly. The one I have currently says it is best when used by the 8th of November, and I've already had it awhile, so they stay fresh for quite a long time (since they are sealed and refrigerated).

On another topic... I have decided to sign up for NaBloPoMo - which is short for National Blog Posting Month. I will valiantly attempt to post every day in the month of October. Three days down, twenty-eight to go...

Related posts:

Hummus Snack Bento

Basic Hummus Recipe

Hummus Snack Bento

Today I was eating homemade gumbo for lunch, so I just packed a side of veggies and hummus:

I still just love my little hummus things from Costco. So convenient!

By the way, yesterday while my husband was at school, I re-did my blog banner from this:


to this:


I was wondering what do you think? Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Anyone think the old one is better? Please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

Happy bento!

Related posts:
Basic Hummus Recipe

Homemade Convenience Foods

When I am in the middle of working on a play, as I am now (stage managing Steel Magnolias at Magenta Theater, whoo!) I tend to eat whatever I have on hand that I can grab and go. So I took an evening and made up what I think of as homemade convenience food. I prepared a number of veggie trays with little snack hummus packs that I got at Costco. See:

I made up a bunch of them and then when I was on my way out the door I could just grab and go!

What are some of your favorite grab and go snacks?

Little Onigiri Man

Bento #12 features my first attempt at making onigiri (basically, a Japanese rice ball). I made this man using Saran Wrap and a cookie cutter, as described in Biggie's tutorial. I used a bit of cut up (left-over) Shake & Bake chicken for the filling, and used olive peices for the face (as I have yet to purchase any nori).


Though the onigiri was the main accomplishment, let me describe the rest of the meal:

Beside my little man are green apple slices, and gap fillers include cashews, an almond, grapes and dried appricot. In the smaller container below are little wraps made of tosted torilla spread with hummus, mujaddara, and carrot (for color). I stuffed them in there a little too tightly, though, I think, because you can't really tell where one leaves off and the other ones begin. I tried to fix this by putting a bit of parsley in the gaps (such as they were) with limited success.

Basic Hummus Recipe

My basic hummus recipe is so simple, it occupies a Post-it Note in my spice cupboard, rather than a page in my recipe book. I took some to work in my bentos, and my co-workers were so impressed, they wanted the recipe. So here it is:

• 2 cloves garlic - roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 14 oz can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup of Tahini
• 1 tsp sea salt (or table salt, if you've run out like I have)

Put it all in the food processor, and blend it until smooth.

Serve with home grown sprouts for a delicious, healthy snack! Pita pockets, carrot sticks and tortillas browned in a skillet are all great ways to get the hummus from the plate to your mouth.


Thanks to mediterrasian.com where I originally found this recipe.

Today's Lunch

My lunch for today is very similar to yesterday's (because not only was it super delicious, but I had the ingredients all made up and could put it together quickly).

On the left is mujaddara topped with an olive and carrot and tomato slices. On the right are some cracker pretending to be Saltines, my attempt at carrot butterflies, lots of sprouts, some hummus, grapes and tiny cookies.

I am amazed how filling these lunches are, even though they are packed into such a small space. I almost couldn't finish mine today, and I'm a pretty big eater.

Note to self, the sprouts work fine as a divider for the hummus, but don't stop moisture from getting through like the foil did. Result? Soggy crackers. :P

Greek Cuisine

For these bentos, I really went overboard cooking three items from scratch for it. But it was all in the name of the theme: Greek Cuisine!

In the larger container I placed homemade hummus, home-grown sprouts, browned tortilla strips, tomatoes, grapes, and itsy bitsy Nestle chocolate chip cookies baked from scratch. (Okay, I know that these cookies aren't Greek, but I can't exactly eat baklava as it has butter in it, right?)

The smaller of the two containers I put homemade mujaddara, decorated with tomato slices and steamed broccoli.

I also packed up a box for my co-workers who have been drooling over my new and improved (tasty!) lunches. It contains the same ingredients, with the addition of an olive.