Avenna sometimes my husband goes crazy when i make japanese style bentos as im still practicing. But when i do make our cultural foods ( we're both Persian) i make chickpea chaat. I get the chickpea masala seasoning from indian stores which looks like this: http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Shan-Chaat-Masala-Big.gif 1 Large can of chickpeas (29 oz) or two small cans 1 onion finely chopped 2 to 3 tablespoons of Chaat masala (more or less of your choice as its spicy) 1 tomato chopped into cubes 1 teaspoon of dried mint (optional) 2 medium sized potatoes Juice of 1 lemon

Good afternoon to all!! :D I thought it would be a nice idea to have a mini-resource of bento-friendly recipes for olives, even if they are good on their own. There are lots of different ways for prepairing olives so i thought it'd be cool so we don't get tired of them! :) Here's an idea: - 1 can/bag of black olives - 1/2 french onion - mild paprika (pimentón) - olive oil 1.- drain the olives 2.- cut the onion in small pieces 3.- mix with the olives with the onion 4.- add olive oil to taste 5.- add paprika to taste.

So Not too long ago, I bought some mixed frozen japanese veggies at the asian grocery store. The bag consists of mainly Lotus Root, SHiitake, Taro, and Gobo. The problem is...I have no idea what to do with them...I made a stirfry once but it didn't work out so well....I don't really care for frozen vegetables really, I usually only buy fresh lol I'm not really sure why i bought these...bleh but now i have to use them up haha...any ideas?

What are your favourite recipes for simmered pumpkin; kabocha no fukumeni and simmered daikon radish; furofuki-daikon. They are inexpensive and can be kept in the fridge for several days. Regards. Balifly

(from the forum) Hi everyone, I'm now in my new house, surrounded by stuff I never realized I had and feeling all out of sorts. What's more homey than cooking and making the house smell awesome? So this weekend I'm planning a cooking bonanza to fill my freezer with tasty bento things. My list so far is only those spicy lentil snacks which isn't much of a bonanza :( What do you have in your stash? What things would be in your stash if you managed to keep enough aside to freeze?

I tried making onigiri from barley rather than rice and I was happy with the results. It's not that I don't like rice, but barley is much better for me because it helps lower cholesterol. I made the barley and followed the onigiri method where you wet your hands and form the onigiri that way, although I found I had to let the barley cool just a bit first. I found that it was sticky enough to hold together and it was also able to hold onto the nori. I didn't try stuffing them with anything but I'm sure it would have been possible.

I have packed numerous vegetarian/vegan sandwiches in the past with any number of variations on cheese and vegetable sandwiches in addition to the ever present peanut butter and/or jelly sandwich. I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas for vegetarian/vegan sandwich fillers that pack well?

I like the recipe on just hungry for lentil snacks, but I can't have wheat gluten anymore, so bulgur is out. I need a substitute for it, and I was thinking about cooked brown rice. It's a little nutty, which I think would replace what might be lost from the bulgur. Does anyone who's familiar with these have any ideas about alterations to make them gluten-free? Does the brown rice sound like it would work?