2 Bento #238 - Cucumber-Bacon Sandwiches & Cherries

This idea was WAY cuter in my head!  I had envisioned thin slices of cucumber with a strip of bacon and topped with spinach artichoke cream cheese and rolled up and secured with a pick.  Unfortunately, my hand-slicing wasn't quite thin enough.  I really needed to bust out my mandolin.  In any case, we have cucumber sandwiches instead of rolls.

Fresh cherries, and a side of almond-raisin granola and Goldfish crackers.

Bento #238 - Cucumber, bacon and spinach-artichoke cream cheese sandwiches, cherries, granola and Goldfish crackers.  Snack - Clementine and roasted peanuts.

0 Indian Spiced Nuts with Coconut

I just love these toasted nuts!  This is Aarti Sequeira's recipe called Newspaper Nuts: Indian Spiced Nuts with Coconut from her Food Network show Aarti Party.  This was a fun snack to prepare with Miss E.

Just three differences in the way I made mine.

1. I used peanuts and almonds (that I had to crack myself...that's some perseverance!  E helped me a lot.) instead of all pecans since I only had a few.

2.  I added 2 tablespoons of Modern Day Masala organic garam masala instead of 2 TEASPOONS, (whoops...but it totally worked anyway.) By the way, Modern Day Masala has some amazing spice mixes!!  Their Butter Chicken mix is out of this world good.

3. I added a fair sprinkling of brown sugar.  There is nothing like a sweet and salty snack.

Voila!  Highly recommend.

0 Bento #203 - Hello Kitty Onigiri & Thai Chicken Peanut Salad

My version of Thai peanut chicken salad was soooo good!  I made enough for lunches for all three of us.  I picked up some Amylu Caramelized Onion Chicken Burgers for the first time, and they are delicious!  They are all-natural, gluten-free and excellent.  I cubed a couple of patties and sauteed them in a bit of canola oil, along with some ginger-garlic paste, fish sauce, toasted sesame oil and a small handful of halved roasted peanuts.  In about 7 minutes I had a savory-sweet salad topping that everyone loved.  I had initially planned to do lettuce wraps, but I realized that all my lettuce was small-leaf variety.  This would be awesome on Boston/Bibb/Butter lettuce.

I also made a Hello Kitty onigiri of plain, cooked rice.  She is decorated with a few decorative sprinkles to liven up her appearance.  I also froze a container of vanilla yogurt, in lieu of the ice cream they allow the kids to have on Fridays.

Bento #203 - Thai chicken peanut salad over fresh artisan lettuce, rice onigiri, and frozen vanilla yogurt.  Snack - organic baby carrots, dip, multi-vitamins, and fresh raspberries.

0 Bento #180 - Grilled Ham & Cheese "Apples"

Today's a PlanetBox lunch with grilled ham & cheese cut into apples.  I think you can tell when I need to get to the store when we have dried fruit, but it's still healthy and very convenient, and they come unsweetened.  I always have a few bags on hand for lunches and as additions into quick breads.

Bento #180 - Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, carrot chips, roasted peanuts, dried blueberries, cherries and banana chips and vitamins (multi/iron, calcium and Omega-3.)