Breakfast Sandwich

For a while now I have been on the hunt for a protein filled breakfast that my son would enjoy. His current favorite breakfast is a single pancake. I felt that we could do better for this growing boy. So I was elated when he tried a breakfast sandwich made from my homemade sourdough english muffins and pronounced it a winner. 

Awhile back, I had purchased this little doohicky in the hopes that it would help me make breakfasts for my son that imitate the egg on the McGriddle sandwiches that he enjoys. So I dug that back out, and spritzed it with a little cooking spray.  (The picture below is when I was making a second sandwich, which is why the left side of the container has steam droplets on it. You needn't put water in there with your egg unless you want to.)

Put an egg in the bottom of the container, and pierce the yolk with a fork.

If you do not pierce the yolk, your egg (and microwave) will end up looking something like this.  This is how not to cook your egg in the microwave.  I provide this non-example as a warning.  What a mess!

Add a bit of salt and pepper, or some bacon bits, if you like

Close the lid and put it in the microwave.

Set the microwave for 37 seconds and start cooking the egg.

While the egg cooks, go ahead and pop your english muffin in the toaster, and spread it with butter.

This will take longer than 37 seconds.  This is good.  Leave the egg in the microwave, finishing off cooking in its own steam. Then remove the container from the microwave.

Now you have a tasty egg to go on your breakfast sandwich.

If you can have cheese, I strongly recommend you either add a slice now, or put some shreds in with the ingredients above.  Yum!

I'm curious, what are some good breakfast suggestions for growing kiddos?  If you have any recommendations, leave them in the comments below.

Happy cooking!

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!

Playing With Our European Food

This summer, my husband and I took the trip of a lifetime and toured around Europe.  We did the Railpass thing with our backpacks, and even stayed in a few hostels along the way.  But the main thing that really stood out to us was the food.  We had a great time trying all the local specialties and enjoying the sometimes novel presentation of favorite foods.  Take a look at a few snapshots from our trip:

These flower shaped ice cream cones came from Amorino.  We loved the fun presentation.

This was a delicious meal in Austria that we ate on a terrace.  You will have to imagine the accordion players in the background.

This was me trying the (surprisingly tasty) lentils cooked in bacon lard.  In my hand is a glass of new wine.  We were in a wine garden outside Vienna.

Here is the special cake the folks at Princess Cruises made us for our anniversary dinner.  Happy 7 years of marriage to us!

This is a waffle that Bryan got at one of the Greek isles.  He said it was delicious.

Here we are outside the vatican with our tremendous ice cream cones.

Pizza was a must in Italy.

We also had sandwiches.

And big sandwiches on crusty baguettes.  This and the next two dishes were in Carcassonne, France.

Bryan's artfully arranged salad.

 My more down to earth cassoulet.

And of course, we had to try the local wine.

And Bryan even got to BBQ for us while we were away.

Hope you enjoyed this little "taste" of our trip to Europe!

Simple Friday Bento

I waited as long as I could this morning to take this picture, hoping for more light. In the end, I just set it up in the window to catch a few rays:

This bento consists of:

• Turkey sandwich (1.5 WW pts)
  
• 8 BBQ Soy Crisps (1 WW pt)
  

I've crammed an apple (1pt), some dried blueberries (2pts), a Z-Bar (2pts) and my water bottle in my purse as well, so I am all ready for our community outing.

Then it will be a three-day weekend!!

Happy Bento!

3.5 Bento

Did anyone else have the misfortune to get on the scale after the holidays? I knew I'd been eating a bunch of junk, but it is always a shame to find that those foods have "gone to waist," if you know what I mean.

So I decided I would "hit the reset" button, so to speak, on my eating habits by counting Weight Watcher points for a couple weeks. Always a good idea to remind oneself what a serving looks like, and so on.

So here is my 3.5 point bento (according to the old Weight Watchers plan from about 5 years ago which is the one I am familiar with, since I used it to help me lose 30 pounds):

The bread is Sara Lee Delightful. It is remarkable in that you can have two slices of bread for one point. Yay! Inside is 3 deli slices of ham (for half a point), some lettuce, and low-cal no-fat condiments.

The Z-Bar, surprisingly, is only 2 points. The carrots, according to the package, have few enough calories that I can have two carrots for zero points. Any more than that, and I would have to start counting them, though.

Happy Bento!

Jack-O-Sandwich Bento

This silly jack-o-lantern face turned out looking more like a bunny than I had originally intended, but that is okay:

Contains:

• Ham sandwich
• Nori accents
  
• Candy corn
• Mixed nuts

My sandwich was so stuffed full (mostly of lettuce) I could barely get the lid on my bento. But what a satisfying *crunch* my sandwich made come lunch time!

Happy bento!

Pink Bento

Over at Bento Challenge they reminded us that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In honor of that, we were challenged to come up with a lunch that had something pink in it.

I decided to do a simple pink ribbon out of ham. Here is my bento, photographed on the window-sill because it wasn't very bright out this morning:

Contents:

• Turkey sandwich on a "Sandwich Thin"
• Cucumber
• Carrots
• Grapes

Happy Bento!

Related Posts:
(AKA: other bentos featuring Sandwich Thins)
Smiling Sandwich
Kitty Bento

A Sandwich in Two Tiers

This sandwich has it's insides out:

In the smaller container I packed all the wet ingredients for my sandwich:

In the larger container I packed the rest of my sandwich, with the mayo and mustard "sandwiched" between the lettuce and turkey. The bread was not soggy in the least come lunch time.

The fork was for adding the wet ingredients, and worked well.

Happy Bento!

Dos Bentos

Today for Bryan's dinner I packed him a simple chicken and rice bento:


I made one of the compartments into a little "relish tray" like they have at Sayler's. (That is one of his favorite restaurants.)

As for my own bento today, I blame Yvo. Her post had me craving a plain ole PB&J. So here it is:

On the side are some raisins and sunflower seeds. Or, "Poor Man's Trail Mix." ;)

I know from this bento it looks like our cupboards are bare... but it isn't true. I had the most glorious salad for dinner. In any case,

Happy Bento!

German Bento?

This weekend I got to go to Gustav's as part of a birthday celebration for my aunt. It was delicious, and half of my sandwich became my lunch for today:

It was very tasty and extremely filling. Thanks again, Nana!

Contents:

• Turkey sandwich
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Lettuce
• Hummus

Happy Bento!

Smiling Sandwich

Today I made a straight-forward sandwich with a smile:

The face is made of nori, with mayonaise for the whites of his eyes. Wet ingredients were again kept off to the side, so the bread wouldn't get soggy by lunch time.

This time, I managed to fit my hummus into a bento container. I get these little single-serving hummus (what is the plural for hummus anyway? Hummuses? Hummi?) at Costco.

Happy Bento!

Pun Sandwich

After my bento from yesterday, I was a bit puzzled as to what to pack for lunch today. So I settled on a sandwich:


Hurray for being "back in the box"!


Happy Bento!

Bear Bento

It is such a beautiful morning! The frost melted away as I made lunches for Bryan and I, and by the time Dioji and I went out for a walk, it was sunny and gorgeous. The birds are singing, the trees are flowering... and I just got to thinking that I am so happy that Easter is early this year. Because I don't know if I could wait much longer to celebrate His resurrection! Everything seems to be coming to life around me.

Whew! Without further twitterings, here is bento #88:

The bear sandwich is peanut butter and (what else?) honey. It is surrounded by trail mix. On the other side of the divider are some left-over oven roasted red potatoes, ample ketchup to enjoy them, and a Rice Krispy treat for dessert. Not pictured is an apple.

I got my inspiration for this bear sandwich here. Want a closer look?

Well, have a great day everyone! (If I come home feeling half as perky after work as I am now, I will feel truly blessed.)

Happy Bento!

Heart Sandwiches and Banana Sushi

Here are two pictures of the lunch I took to work today. Peanut butter and jelly heart sandwiches lay on top of some peanuts. Next to them is a flower made of dried apricots, almond slices, and a grape. Next comes left over apple pastry. Yum!

In the container below I did my take on banana "sushi." The banana slices each have peanut butter and a raisin in the center. They are hemmed in by grapes.

Twinkle Twinkle

This is my second attempt at bento, created on September 13th:

These cheerful stars were cut out of two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a large cookie cutter. Then I used a toothpick and some honey to "tattoo" on the smiling faces. I made small holes for the eyes and filled them with a chocolate sprinkle each for pupils.

Cherry tomatoes from my garden and green apple slices fill in the gaps. Small heart shaped PB&J cutouts topped with honey and red sprinkles serve as dessert.