Middle Eastern Inspired Bento with Lamb Meatballs

Long time no blog! I'm back with a great bento from the archives.

The main piece of this bento contains several (3, if I remember correctly) chopped up lamb meatballs, recipe courtesy of Sunset magazine. They made a great dinner, and an equally great lunch. I had to chop them up so they would fit in the box.

The rest of the box contains a checkered apple slice, green bell pepper, some sort of mixed whole grain rice blend, random basil leaves as a space filler, and homemade hummus.

Never heard of hummus? It's a Middle Eastern dip of sorts made from chickpeas/garbanzo beans and olive oil. My version of hummus is very easy, and can be made in your food processor.

Quick and Easy Hummus
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
Extra virgin olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced (fresh is preferred, but I've used garlic salt or garlic powder in a pinch)
1 tsp or so lemon juice
Sumac (Bitter dark red spice. It may be found in the ethnic isle of some larger supermarkets. I buy mine from the local Persian market.)
Cumin (Another spice. This one is a lot easier to find. Trader Joe's has this for a decent price)
Salt, to taste

This is very much a recipe that needs to be tasted quite a lot.
Put drained garbanzo beans in food processor with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Combine, adding olive oil and tasting every so often until you get a consistency that is relatively smooth, no chunks of garbanzo beans. You can add more olive oil as you wish, but I usually make my hummus pretty thick, so it can hold up well in the bento.
Add the garlic, lemon juice, sumac, and cumin, and combine them. You could leave out any of these, the most important ingredients are the garbanzo beans and olive oil. Taste, and add more of these as needed.
Add a sprinkle of salt or two as needed.
To serve the hummus (not in a bento), scoop out some hummus and place in the desired container. Use a spoon to make a small well in the hummus. Drizzle olive oil on top. Add a pinch or two of the sumac, cumin, or salt if desired.

To pack the hummus in a bento, I use some of that Press N Seal stuff to cover the top, or at the very least, some wax paper on top. If you have any of that clear plastic baran, that would work just as well as the wax paper.

Carnitas Taco Bento

This bento is a deconstructed taco bento.

 In the upper left of the bento box is some homemade carnitas, or Mexican pulled pork. We made the carnitas in the slow cooker. There's two different colors of bell peppers, some avocado, some onions, and some Monterey jalapeño jack cheese. The avocado doesn't look the best (it really needed to be used up) but still tasted fine.

I also packed three little tortillas for my tacos. They're a corn-wheat blend, which has a nice texture.

Bento with Chard

It's getting about to the time when my family rips out our winter garden and starts planting the summer garden. We planted lots of Swiss chard last fall, so it is in no short supply now.

This bento has white rice with furikake, the infamous chard, thinly sliced salted cucumbers, and some homemade meatballs.
Furikake is a sort of topping that you put on your rice. This furikake contains seaweed, sesame seeds, sugar, and salt. I picked this up from the local Asian grocery store.
The chard is sauteed in olive oil with some garlic.

Tulip Bento

This is a little bento that I made the other day. I'd started experimenting with making little pictures in Jello.

The top tier of my bento box has a checkered apple slice, green bell pepper, roasted cauliflower, dried cranberries, some random mixed nuts, and a little container of Jello with a tulip decoration made out of apple and cucumber skin.

The bottom tier of my bento box isn't quite as cute, but it still tasted amazing. I have some homemade meatloaf. Underneath the meatloaf, there is some pasta. I put one of the noodles on top for the picture so you could see what I used.

Another view of my cute bento.

Horse Bento

This is a simple bento with a special cheese cutout!

Starting from the top, this bento has green bell peppers, leftover chicken strips, leftover carrots and onions Lyonnaise, leftover pasta, and a cheddar cheese cutout in the shape of a horse.
This little cutout was one of the more challenging cutouts I've made. Because I draw the templates for most of my cheese cutouts, this drawing took a bit longer. Even though this cutout didn't require lots and lots of tiny little detail work, there's a lot of little areas that need extra attention. This cutout also has an inside cut near the horse's neck. which isn't something I've ever done before.

Easter Bento with Pho Salad

This cute bento has Vietnamese pho noodles!

Under the giant cheese (cheddar and swiss) Easter egg, there are pho noodles. I also have jalapeño pepper slices to the right of the pho. In the little pink cup is chicken and peas. I have some herb salad mix, balsamic salad dressing in the little piggy, and a lime.

Not familiar with pho? Pho is a Vietnamese soup, with thick, flat rice noodles. Most of my bento is leftovers from a "make your own pho soup" dinner. Soup doesn't pack well in this bento box, so I made the pho into a salad.

Reptile Bento with Pasta

This is a simple reptile-themed bento that I made to practice my cheese figures.

This Bento has a cheese turtle and a cheese snake on a bed of penne pasta. Also in this bento are leftover carnitas (Mexican pulled pork) and cucumbers. In the cute little tomato bottle is salsa dressing.
I've tried to practice as much as I can with the little cheese figures. I've gotten better at carving the figures. I actually use a double-ended grapefruit knife to cut them. It has really small blades that help with detail.