Broccoli Bites

I was grabbing a recipe today from Low Carbing Among Friends Volume 2. Sometimes we food bloggers get so wrapped up in trying to think up new recipes, we forget about some of our favorites from years past. This is one of those. I love my cake pop appliance. This is one recipe I need to make again. Broccoli Bites are so fun to make and eat. This machine does not have to make cake, I promise!

Even though this fun treat was good enough to put in the book, it was among the recipes I published in the Diner News rather than here on the blog. Afterall, if we share everything we make on our blogs, would you still buy our books? I dunno. But, because I just put these on my menu for the week, I decided to share this fun one with all of you...especially those I have convinced to buy a cake pop machine. But don't worry, you can make them as mini muffins too. Just not quite as fun. If you happen to be looking for creative lunch box items, give these a try. I love having something fun in my lunchbox.

Broccoli Bites

1 cup broccoli, chopped 

¹/₃  cup Parmesan cheese 

¹/₄ cup water 

2 eggs

2 tbsp coconut flour

2 tbsp olive oil 

¹/₂ tsp baking powder 

¹/₄ tsp salt 

¹/₂ cup shredded Cheddar cheese 

4 oz Cheddar cheese cubes (1 per bite) 

In food processor, chop broccoli. Remove from food processor and measure 1 cup  broccoli. Add Parmesan cheese, water, eggs, coconut flour, olive oil, baking powder and salt. Process until mixture is blended. Stir in shredded cheese and chopped broccoli by hand.

Place a scant tbsp of batter in the cavity of a cake pop machine or mini muffin tin. Press a cheese cube into the batter. Add additional batter over the top of the cheese cube, making sure to seal the cube entirely with the batter. Bake until golden on the outside. Cake pops bake in about 7 to 8 minutes. Mini muffin bites bake in a 350°F  oven for about 15 minutes.

Helpful Hint: I cut up Cheddar snack sticks for the centers. String cheese would also work well.

Makes about 22 pops. 2 per serving:  70 calories     1 net g carb

These Broccoli Bites are listed in the cookbook as appetizers, but they are great as a side dish, picnic food or lunchbox treat. What a fun way to eat your veggies.

Speaking of lunchbox fun, I am really happy to have a teaching assignment starting after Labor Day. I love teenagers...especially the ones who need a little extra understanding. I am only promised 9 weeks at part time at this alternative school, but I hope things will go well and I can continue. After closing my own school, I was in such a funk. I think this will be a good thing. With teaching part time and blogging, recipe developing and working with the diabetics group, I think I will have full time hours again! Giving up control has always been tough for me. I am trying desperately to go where God leads. So far, he seems to be sending opportunities to do a lot of good for a lot of different people. That makes me happier.

Get more great  low carb recipes at Low Carbing Among Friends.

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or the latest version for couples and singles, A Table for Two here.  

Three Cheese Breakfast Puffs

Sometimes I just need some cheese. I love cheese. Did you catch that this new recipe has three different cheeses? Oh yeah! These little breakfast puffs are almost like little cheese souffles. They are puffy and light. Simple to put together and fun to eat. I made this recipe for 2-3.

Three Cheese Breakfast Puffs

4 eggs
1/4 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese

In a medium bowl, lightly beat eggs. Stir in the cheeses. Spray mini muffin tins or silicon cups with oil. Fill each cup a little higher than you would with a cake batter. Place into a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. They will puff up and turn golden on top. Let the puffs cool 5 minutes before removing from cups. They will fall just a bit with cooling.

16 mini puffs:  42 calories each  <1 carb per puff
As a breakfast for 2:    335 calories  2 g carb



I didn't add a lot of other flavors to these because I wanted to really taste the cheese. That, I got. Can't help thinking that a few green chiles would be nice. But this morning, they were excellent with my giant cup of coffee. It makes the puffs look small, but they are the size of mini muffins, I promise.

The cottage cheese makes the texture light. I love adding cottage cheese to eggs. It makes scrambled eggs all tender and yummy too. I had a recipe for those in a Diner News last year. The Parmesan cheese is the canned kind. I love fresh more, but this is a staple in my kitchen. It adds flavor and body to the eggs.

I didn't get this batch done before the hubby ran out to work, so we did have leftovers. I tried them cold, and they are even good that way. These don't deflate, so go ahead and make a batch for your brown bag--or road trip or picnic. They will travel well.

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Scary Treats That Are NOT So Sweet!

I am really much more of a Christmas kind of girl, but this time of year, some of these spooky treats are fun. We have been reading Edgar Allen Poe at school, so creepy is a good thing! I do love a good scare from time to time.

I have to say the students all loved these eggs when I packed them up in my bento box this week. Yes, I eat with the kids. We don't even have a teacher lounge. I think the spiders were the biggest hit among the teens. From a distance they are totally scary. Especially since we seem to have more than our share of spiders in the old house that serves as our school.

These decorations are not my own invention, I admit to seeing pictures of similar ones floating around Pinterest. What is different about mine is the taste factor. These scary bites are not laden with food colorings, To get the creepy colors, I used pesto. Talk about a flavor boost there! That made them extra fun and extra tasty. Super easy too. Make a batch for your family this week. Or just for you to scare your co-workers!

This one is more of a process than a recipe. I didn't make a full batch of any of them. I have confidence that you can figure out the numbers and make as many of each as you like. You are smart like that.

Scary Eggs

hard boiled eggs
basil pesto (or any green pesto)
sundried tomato pesto (or any red pesto)
Caesar dressing or mayonnaise
Kalamata olives for spiders
Green olives with pimentos for eyeballs
Hot sauce
Green onion, chive or slices of green bell peppers for pumpkin stems

Hard boil eggs. I do mine in my electric pressure cooker. Easiest peel ever!
Cut the cooled eggs in half. Remove the yolks.

For Pumpkin Eggs: Place yolks in a bowl. Add 1 tsp red pesto for each full egg. Stir to combine. Moisten with Caesar dressing until creamy. Spoon the orange tinted egg mixture back into whites. Round the mixture and add a sliver of green bell pepper or green onion for the stem.

For Eyeball Eggs: Place yolks in a bowl. Add 1 tsp green pesto for each full egg. Stir to combine. Moisten with Caesar dressing until creamy. Spoon the green tinted egg mixture back into whites, making an iris. Round the mixture. Slice a green olive with pimentos in half. Place the pimento half into the yolk mixture making a pupil. Use a toothpick to drizzle hot sauce on the whites to create a blood shot look.

For Spider Eggs: Place yolks in a bowl. Moisten with Caesar dressing and whip with a fork until creamy. Spoon  egg mixture back into whites. Cut olives in half lengthwise. Press one half into the yolk.  Use another half to cut legs. One half will make 4 lengthwise cuts, creating 4 legs. Repeat with another half olive. Press the legs into the yolks, forming spider legs.

Each spider egg (2 halves) has approximately 117 calories and 2 carbs. 
The eyes have 121 calories and 1 carb
The pumpkin has 113 calories and 1 carb.

I like the purple spiders, but if black olives are what you have, go for it! I used pestos from Aldi. If you don't have a low carb Caesar dressing, go ahead with mayo or ranch dressing. Like I said, a process not a recipe here.

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Order my original e-book or the latest version for couples and singles, 

A Table for Two here.

Chorizo Mini Quiches

Wow has life been crazy as of late.  I am just now getting settled back into the normal routine...even though normal is still hectic. Yes, here it is almost midnight, and I am still packing my lunch for tomorrow. No prep this past weekend since we were still in the midst of wedding entertaining. Yes, my boy is now a husband. Hard to believe that they grew up so fast!

I did fall victim to some of the wedding treats. I certainly was not going to pass up the carrot cake the bride chose for her cake. Back on track this week though. I love mini quiches for lunches. They are more substantial than salads. This one takes advantage of some of the Spanish style chorizo--the aged, thinly sliced type, not the fresh Mexican style. I just shredded it with a knife to add to the egg mixture. Chorizo is flavorful, so you don't need to add much more in the way of flavor. I added some kale for nutrition and some sun dried tomatoes for flavor too. If you don't pack a lunch, these are excellent brunch food as well. I love packing bento style meals though. All those little compartments challenge me to add in more variety. This particular box is made from a  pencil case filled with silicon baking cups. It works great.

Chorizo Mini Quiches

6 eggs
3 oz Spanish Chorizo sausage slices
2 tbsp sun dried tomatoes
1 large leaf  kale, diced finely
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and black pepper to taste

Beat eggs in a medium bowl. Finely slice the chorizo sausage and add it to the eggs. Stir in the tomatoes, kale, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour into 6 silicon baking cups and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serves 6:    142 calories 2 net g carb

For the rest of my bento style meal, I added some grape tomatoes and green olives. Olives would be excellent in these mini quiches, but hubby is not a fan, so I left them separate for my lunch. Then there is this really interesting cheese. See those brown flecks in the cheese? That is chocolate. I bought this for the dessert buffet I put together for the rehearsal dinner (smashing success by the way). It is not sweet at all, but tastes similar to a chocolate cheesecake--only savory. I like it, but in very small doses. It is so flavorful, one small bite is enough. I will stick with this while the kids at school eat up all the leftover cookies and cake pops.

Our Diner website has been down for some time. The problems are all worked out now, so if  you missed being able to order the e-book or Diner News, everything should work now. Remember, every order directly supports our educational program's scholarship fund....and we really need the help! I have a teenager who just lost her mom and is having trouble coping at public school. She would so benefit from our program if we can find scholarship money for her. I am so thankful that my cookbook earnings have helped make a difference in the lives of our teens. So tell everyone you know about the Diner.

Get more great  low carb recipes at Low Carbing Among Friends.

 https://www.facebook.com/LowCarbingAmongFriends

 Order any of our great cookbooks at  http://amongfriends.us/24-7-LCD.php

Order my original e-book or the latest version for couples and singles, A Table for Two here.  

Spoon Salad and Cauli-rice Cups to Go

Cauliflower. You could consider it boring. I mean, it really doesn't taste that amazing. Kinda bland on its own. Growing up, my mom could only get us to eat it one way--with cheese sauce. Good news is that cauliflower adapts so well to all sorts of flavors. You already know the drill. We low carbers mash it to replace mashed potatoes. We boil it for "tater" salad. We roast it to replace popcorn. We bake it into desserts. We even cut it up really fine to replace rice. That is one of the things I did today with a fresh head of cauliflower. But I do it a little differently sometimes. Alright I am lazy.  I admit it.

My sons refuse typical cauli-rice. Just not their thing. Well, one son actually calls cauliflower "nature's snot." Guess I overcooked it for him on some occasion. A whole head is a bit much just for the hubster and I, and ricing it is a mess. So here's what I opted for today, and I think it is working out fine.

I had planned to put a Spoon Salad on the menu this week. That requires finely chopped cauliflower. I do that in my Ninja. Even a girl trying to eat more salads can only eat so much, though. So the rest, I packed into little silicon muffin cups and froze. These are going to be great for work lunches. They reheat in the microwave and can still be doctored up to go with so many things we may be packing for lunch. So which first? The spoon salad or the Cauli-rice cups?

The Spoon Salad is nothing new. I have had the recipe in my Diner News before. The idea is to chop sturdy vegetables really, really finely. Make sure to chop things that don't have too high a water content or spoil too quickly. You can add those in just before you dine if you like.

Start with hard veggies. I like mostly cauliflower and cabbage here, but a bit of carrot or jicama is good too. Process those together in a food processor. I use my Ninja. Maybe not quite as good, but it does the work. Don't try it in a blender.

Next choose some medium textured veggies. I like all colors of peppers and a little red onion for flavor and color. I have heard of using zucchini, but it can get a little watery. Process them until finely minced. Stir them in with the hard veggies.

Next, I do the softer, leafy greens. I like kale the most, but you can also use spinach, like I did today. Add in some fresh herbs. My choice today was rosemary and chives. Mint is good, basil is wonderful. I also like Lemon Balm. Process those and remember to pulse to avoid turning them into mush. Add those in with the hard veggies, and stir well. Store the salad in a covered container. I like wide mouth jars. Don't add dressing yet.

When lunch time rolls around, spoon some salad on your plate and drizzle with your favorite dressing. I like vinaigrettes here with a bit of feta cheese sprinkled on top. Sometimes I add a pinch of chia seeds for extra nutrition. Don't put those in the day you make it or you will get sprouts. These salads should stay good for the work week as long as your ingredients were fresh. The proportions are up to you. Again, method not recipe.

Now with that extra minced cauliflower I had. This is a little finer than I make with my usual cauli-rice. I like it that way so that it gets more tender with very little cooking. For today, I pre-cooked it in the microwave for three minutes, along with some diced bell peppers. I was going for the confetti rice look. Partially cooking keeps the cauliflower from totally becoming mush in its upcoming meal, when it will finish cooking when I warm the dish.  Stir in some sea salt to taste, or add in some tamari.


I scooped this mixture into silicon muffin cups and froze them. These are going into a gallon bag. Then, I can easily add them to lunches when I have leftover sauces from dinners. This week they are matched with chicken curry. They will also be great to eat with teriyaki steak, fajita chicken bites, basically anything we would typically like rice with. If you don't have a sauce, you could even just thaw and eat these with some salad dressing.


So nothing too fancy here. Just a couple of Diner style time savers. I only have to clean the food processor once, and several meals have a side dish covered. That is how I do it.

Bento Cube Lunch to Go

I haven't done a lot of Bento style lunch features lately. Taking a short break from working on the school house today--got to let some polyurethane on the floors dry well. So I have a minute or two to show the lunch I am sending off with the hubby.

He gets 4 lunchmeat roll ups. Granted, not the healthiest of meat choices, but better than what he might end up with on his own. Two have cheese in the slice, and the others are salami wrapped around dill spears. Then he gets an assortment of veggies--leftover steamed broccoli, celery sticks, grape tomatoes, and yellow pepper rings (NOT hot). I also added a cup of sliced chicken breast to boost the protein content a bit. He keeps some dipping goodies in the fridge at the office.

What I love about Bento is the way those containers help me to add more variety to a meal. Once you get going with the colors and flavor matching, you get a better meal. Plus, the small portions allow for better use of leftovers too. Although some people hate leftovers, they are among my favorite things ever!

Deli Roll-up Laptop Lunch

This is nothing new, but it was so gorgeous with all that red food, I had to take a picture. Red is my favorite color. This is my hubby's lunch for today. I don't give him too many processed meats, but they sure can be a time saver once in a while! I do try to get the nitrate/nitrite free when I can find it. I have tried making my own home made cold cuts but never met with any success. In fact the ground chicken attempt was just gross. I will spare you the details.

That's all for now; I am getting the last minute details finished up on this month's Diner newsletter. It is all about grilling. My favorite part of summer! Not too late to order a subscription! http://www.247lowcarbdiner.com/html/newsletter.html

Cheezeburger Quiche Bento

I love having lots of little mini quiches around to pack in quick lunches. This was my lunch at school today. Three of my favorite silicon cups baked with some super yummy Cheezeburger Quiche. THAT recipe is in the e-book. I think they really do taste better than real cheeseburgers because they are all the good stuff. One change, now I use Wright's liquid smoke in mine.

In addition to my little quiche cups, I had some sliced red bell pepper. I also tried the jicama slices coated with lemon juice then sprinkled with an orange and chili pepper blend. They look like seasoned fries, but didn't taste much like them. They weren't bad, just not a fav for me. Could have been because I used lemon rather than lime. I found the lime juice upside down empty in the door of the fridge. I guess now I also have some dried juice to clean in the shelf, but I refused to look. There are simply too many other projects this weekend! I also packed some strawberries. They are gorgeous this time of year, and cheap too. A single peanut cheesecake dib was my dessert.

Lunch is way more fun when you eat bento style. Not only is it pretty, but I tend to pack far more variety in there.

Busy weekend here. It is prom weekend, and I am coordinating a formal dinner for 17 teenagers. Then I get to be a chaperone. That will be fun. I have never been to a prom before. At least I am getting that in before I hit 50. I am so glad I have such wonderful kids who don't mind sharing this special event with their parents.

Salsa Beef Bento Lunch

I had a lesson planning session today for the American History class I am teaching next fall. Because we were devoted to making some real progress, we started early and worked through lunch. This is the bento I packed for me. The Salsa Beef is not so pretty, but it sure is tasty. I took it for lunch and left some for the boys I left at home. My middle boy at his like a dip with tortilla chips.

I used frozen Minute Beef. Just heat that up in a skillet. Add cream cheese--about 8 ounces per pound and a half of beef crumbles. Then stir in salsa to taste. I think I use almost a cup. Ours was mild, so I may have added more. That is it.

I ate mine like a spread--putting it on zucchini slices. Also in my bento are green onions, blueberries and cherub tomatoes. All that produce balances out the richness of the cream cheese and beef. This is a meal that is really speedy to put together.

I made the cute little napkin ring from a freebie I found here. I have been into my crafting lately. I need a break from academics! I printed these and mod podged both sides so they will be durable. LOVE the colors.

Tilapia Bites Bento

My half price Laptop Lunch set arrived last week. I broke it in today. I have been experimenting with new no oven needed recipes for the upcoming newsletter. I made this yummy fish and decided it would work great on food picks in my new bento set. Isn't it cool? Of course, you don't need a special bento set to enjoy this treat. It is seriously yummy and embarrassingly easy!

I went ahead and tried out a low carb version of a Japanese bento staple--onigiri. It is traditionally made with rice--sticky, starchy rice that is, so low carbing this recipe is a challenge. I had never tried it, but found a great tutorial over here at Alecto's blog, Low Carb Foodie. The addition of a low carb staple--cream cheese--adds the stickiness needed for cauliflower to hold together into a ball, or in this case, a triangle. Alecto stuffs ongiri with bacon, but I left mine plain today. Cute idea, huh? I added a little garlic hot sauce in the little sauce container. Yum.

The other cups in my bento box hold a green onion and a mix of fresh strawberries and blueberries. So much color. Gotta love it. I can do without the seaweed faces; this is pretty enough!

Tilapia Bites

1 Tilapia fillet, partially frozen
Old Bay Seasoning
Coconut Oil

Cut a partially frozen fish fillet into bite sized chunks at the thickest part. The thinner sections can be cut into a long strip. Then roll the fish and secure with a toothpick. This way, all chunks will cook in the same amount of time. Sprinkle both sides of the fish with Old Bay seasoning. Allow spices to flavor the fish for 10-20 minutes. Heat a tablespoon or two of coconut oil in a skillet. Place fish into skillet and pan fry until done, turning only once. When done, drain on a paper towel. If desired, thread the fish chunks on a food pick, alternating with fresh veggies.

I let the Tilapia come to room temperature before loading it on the food picks. It held up very well although I expected it to fall apart. I think I like it best at room temperature when the texture has firmed a bit. Who needs a hot meal this time of year anyway? That makes this perfect for a lunch on the go. This was a nice treat, full of various flavors and textures. That is what I love about Bento. The variety I load into the compartments makes for a much better dining experience.

Bento at Home

Love to pack my bento lunches. In fact, I have a new bento system on the way after I found a great online sale last week. I can't wait til it gets here. In the mean time, the Carby Boy and I were out junking today. He needed some new shorts, so he was my captive in the Goodwill Store. I found the most awesome set of divided baking dishes. This is kinda like a small TV dinner tray, only better. Granted, there is not room for a lot of food, but then, I always use a small plate anyway to trick my brain into thinking I am eating more. Bento meals always pack in more than you'd think--just because they use space so efficiently. This dish is great, because not being plastic, it can go in the oven or microwave. I took advantage of that feature for tonight's meal.

I had already prepared Chipotle Chicken Shreds for our dinner tonight. Filling this new dish was a snap. In one section, I simply microwaved an egg with a cube of defrosted green chilies. A sprinkle of Jalapeno Seasoning and a pinch of cheddar is all I needed to finish that up. It filled the space perfectly and baked in a little over a minute. That was easy. Next I made some cheese crisps in the microwave--my replacement for tortilla chips and extra yummy. I sliced some grape tomatoes and sprinkled them with some Jalapeno Seasoning too. Then, out of the crockpot came the shredded chicken. A sprinkle of cheese and some salsa, and my meal was ready to go!

It is almost like eating chicken enchiladas--just no tortilla. All the same great flavor, though. Even if you never find a wonderful little dish like this, a ramekin would work just as well for the egg and green chili bake. This is a great meal when you don't want to fire up the stove or the oven.

I'm thinking this dish would also come in handy on Burger Buffet Night. The divided sections would be excellent for extra condiments to choose from. Can't you see pickles, onion, ketchup and mayo in there? My guys can put away the burgers, that's for sure!

Tuna Bento

What a wonderful spring day it has been here. I packed up a nice bento lunch to take to my school co-op today. I was in the mood for something light, so I grabbed a can of tuna from the cupboard.

Light Balsamic Tuna Salad

1 can tuna
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar-- more if you like it sharper
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
touch of sweetener
sprinkle of garlic powder
1/2 small zucchini

I mixed the vinaigrette, but bottled would work too. Dice the zucchini and stir it in with the tuna. Add the vinaigrette.

This was very simple, but tasty.

I also added a wasabi mustard hard boiled egg. That is interesting if you like the flavor of wasabi. Some frozen berries and some roasted almonds rounded out the lunch.
It would be nice if the berries were fresh, but summer is coming.

Now for dinner, the hubby is grilling out some sirloin. The salad is made and the kids will get some rice as a side. Life is good.

Lunch and Dinner at the Office

John has a game tonight, so he will be working late. These are the days when I not only need to pack a low carb lunch, but also something for a light dinner. He often wants a bit of what we had after he finally drags home. But I certainly don't want him hungry and running to the snack bar or What-a-burger up the street.


For lunch, I packed him a bento box with deli items. He got three deli roll ups, meat and cheese only. He also got some sugar free sweet pickles. I swear he can eat the whole jar in a day. Wish he liked bread and butter pickles. I know how to make low carb versions of those at home for way less money. He got some leftover Nana's Coleslaw with a Kick, some sliced onion and some pepperoni. I also added some Ranch dressing to dip the roll ups into. That set him for lunch.

For a light dinner, I made a Pizza-in-a-bowl. I found this adorable valentine baking dish yesterday at Michael's. I only paid 38 cents for it. This can go in the microwave or the toaster oven at work. I just piled in cheese, jarred spaghetti sauce, onions, Minute Sausage, and pepperoni. We like green bell peppers in there too, but they were a dollar each, and I am not doing that! He also got half of a lavash bread to toast. That will make it more like real pizza, but not send his blood sugars up. The bowl of toppings is just as good without it though. With the company this weekend, my shopping schedule was off. I just got my groceries yesterday, and haven't had time to make our big salad for the week. This morning, I ran out of time to get John's side salad, so he can buy one at the snack bar for a dollar, or he can wait til he gets home.

Now I am off to prep for school, and get some laundry done for our trip to JBU this weekend. It will be fun to see the boys and some of John's friends from his college days there. Of course, it will take some planning to stick to our way of eating. We are bypassing all the meals at the school cafeteria, and skipping the coffee and doughnuts at the President's home. I am sure we will find some good salads along the way, and our hotel room has a mini fridge so I can pack some goodies to keep us on track. The continental breakfasts at hotels usually have nothing BUT carbs.

Shrimp Bento

I haven't been showing as many Bento lunches lately, being off school with the holidays and all. This is a photo of one I took today. I told you that I really liked that Cilantro Shrimp so much I would make it again! It was almost as good cold. In fact, this whole meal was cold, seeing that I had to use frozen strawberries. I absolutely refused to buy fresh ones at the price Walmart was charging this week!

The cucumbers are placed on a skewer. That made them fun to eat, although some of the centers did get a bit wiggly. I made a delightful fat free, sugar free marinade for these. It definitely made a bigger cucumber fan out of me. I have often added them to salads, but seldom made them the main ingredient. This way, the are light and slightly sweet.

Lisa's Marinated Cukes

1 cucumber
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 packets Truvia or equivalent sweetener
a sprinkle of garlic powder
a sprinkle of onion powder

Slice the cucumber into disks. You may peel the edges into strips for a pretty effect. Mix the marinade ingredients and pour over cucumbers. Marinate over night or for several hours. To serve, drain off remaining marinade.

A full cup of cucumber slices has only about 4 carbs and 16 calories. That's a pretty good nutritional bargain. They are also said to aid digestion and help lower cholesterol.

For dinner tonight, we had Teriyaki Chicken as a Freezer Favorite. It is so good just to add some already prepped meat to a skillet. Just a quick veggie on the side and dinner is on the table. On super busy Fridays, this is always a blessing to have a no brain meal. Sorry no photo this time. We did have some leftovers with no bigger guys around, so maybe I will feature them in a salad. Be sure to check back in.

Dinner on the Road

Usually when dinner is on the road, it means a trip around the drive thru lane. Not for my guys tonight. I made some Bobby-Q Pork for them to take along on the trip back to the campus. I am sad my holidays are over and that my oldest two are back at school, but still I am proud of them too.

I thought you might like to see this nifty little food container we use often. It is a divided container that folds over on itself to make lids. Pretty darn cool. Not quite bento, but cool none the less. It doesn't take up much space and yet holds a lot of food. John got a large serving of pork in one compartment, and some onions, tomatoes and pickles in the others. I bought mine at Garden Ridge. It is made by Sistema if you are looking for them. I wouldn't try soup or puddings in them, but most lunch foods are fine.

Christmas Bento

So, these may not exactly be Christmas foods, but I did get a really cute Christmas napkin set for my pencil box bento lunch. Aren't the smiling Christmas lights fun? Besides being washable and reusable, homemade fabric napkins make me smile. I picked out this fabric, but my mom sewed it up for me. Thanks, mom. Yes, I am still spoiled... even in my forties!

The lunch was simple, but tasty. I used Joseph's Lavash bread to make ham and cheese spiral sandwiches. I added some green onions and purple cauliflower as sides. Purple cauliflower tastes just like the white, but it is so much more fun. I added a cup of blue cheese dressing as a dip. A small skewer of olives, and lunch was ready. Fast and fun like a good holiday lunch should be.

Teriyaki Steak Bento

My Asian inspired lunch was so good. Even though I didn't stand in line to use the microwave to heat it up, it was still tasty. I had some Teriyaki Steak strips for my protein. That marinade recipe is in the e-book. That's the one I ran a correction for a few months ago. The ginger in the recipe should say fresh ginger. If you want to use powdered, just use 1 teaspoon.

Since stir fry veggies are not too lunchbox friendly, I added some finger food vegetables. For a dip, a cup of leftover Pineapple Glaze from the Mega Meatballs recipe. Aren't leftovers great for packing lunches? The veggies are so good dipped in this sweet and sour sauce. Today, I brought steamed cauliflower and snap peas. Love those things.

For color, I had a small serving of cranberry sauce. So, this didn't fit the Asian theme so well, but it is very pretty. It is amazing how far one recipe of cranberry sauce will go!

Tonight, I will be planning my major grocery shopping trip for Thanksgiving. We are doing two turkeys, one baked and one smoked. I am having trouble finding a bird which is not injected with a solution. I am planning to do my own brining, and just need a plain bird. Why DO they have to inject this perfectly good bird, anyway? Seems wrong to pay more for a turkey that has had less done to it! But then when did much of anything in the food industry make sense? Guess since we are paying by the pound, solution is cheaper than white meat.

Good luck on your holiday shopping!

NABS and Spirals from L & L

By the title of this blog entry, one would never know I was talking about food. Probably, lots of you know about NABS. (I did find out it was not the North American Bigfoot Society, good thing) Funny, but in my humble hills of Oklahoma, we never called those packages of cheese crackers filled with peanut butter by that name. Not that we didn't eat our share, mind you, we just never called them NABS. In fact, I don't think they have any special name at all. Maybe it is regional, the way so many of us have our pet names for our favorite (or not so favorite) caramel colored, caffeinated, carbonated beverages. 'Round here it is known as pop, but my college suite mate insisted my Dr. Pepper was a coke.

Back to the NABS. A great new friend and Diner, Lynn, shared her idea for making a low carb treat that tastes very much like the high carb counterpart. My hubby will be in Lynn's debt forever. He was always a peanut butter cracker fanatic. He really missed his office stash of crackers and his personal jar of PB. The one the boys were not allowed to get into while they were little. Now, he can have the flavor again. According to Lynn, just make cheese crisps by cutting the American cheese into fourths. Then microwave them until crisp. Spread all natural, no sugar added peanut butter on one and press them together in a little sandwich. The taste is great. The peanut butter rather dominates the flavors a bit, as is true with the carby snacks, but the crackers stay crisp. Lynn is inspired!


In addition to those, I made some Carnita Spirals for today's lunch using Joseph's Lavash bread. I cut one in fourths lengthwise making one long strip similar to a lasagna noodle. To that, I added Pork Carnitas, my sweet and smokey pork recipe from the ebook. Being very moist, the pork packs down nicely and stays put in the little spiral sandwiches. I also added one slice of cheese down the center of the Lavash strip, under the pork. Once the filling is in and patted down a bit, roll the bread in a tight spiral shape. This is great for lunches. Everything is moist and flavorful, not soggy or stale. If you have a great low carb idea to share, please do like Lynn and let me know, so we can all share.



My Bento Lunch for today featured these spirals, some cheese crisps, bell pepper strips and grape tomatoes, olives and a container of sour cream for dipping. It was just right. These bentos hold more food than it looks like. I am always the last to finish among the teachers in the lunch room. Not that we don't talk a bit too! Maybe that means that I just talk too much.

Porky's Bento

Yesterday was a full day! It was one of those days, that if you can stay low carb through this schedule, you can do it anytime. We were out the door early for classes, managed to be home for dinner just an hour before teenagers invaded our home for a movie night and sleepover (little to no sleep involved).Although I do admit to succumbing some carby snacks from time to time, I was able to keep my diabetic hubby on the straight and narrow. After all, he wasn't the one who had to pop the popcorn and bake the pizzas for the teenagers. I promise to get back my discipline today.

Yesterday's bento lunch was so yummy, and easy to put together in a snap. I used canned luncheon meat--okay almost like Spam, just the Aldi brand. I have heard that Spam is really popular in Hawaii. So I took that lead and made a wonderful little pineapple sauce to go with it. That was just mayo and pineapple DaVinci syrup stirred together. It was great with the ham chunks and with cubes of butternut squash too. Besides those dippers, I took along a low carb brownie and a hard boiled egg. The egg was especially good with the piggy theme, since it was a bacon stuffed egg. I just made a deviled egg as usual, but added bacon bits to the yolk mixture, and sprinkled it with bacon salt. Tasty stuff.

With all the teenagers on their way in the evening, I was so glad that I already had a casserole prepared in advance. We feasted on a Mama Mia chicken casserole from the Multiply Meals section of the e-book. It is rich and good. Amazingly, dinner went from fridge to plate is less than ten minutes. On days like that, my meal planning system is truly a survival tool!

Suprise Bento Lunch

For this bento lunch, I had planned the Deli Delights. The rest was just a surprise from the goodies I keep on hand. My favorite new thing is the cheese crisps. That is the find from the grocery store last weekend. Usually, I make my cheese crisps from the American/Swiss cheese we buy at Sam's. But I saw this processed cheese at the grocery store and John told me to go ahead and try it. We both knew he wouldn't like it and because it is CHIPOTLE flavored.

Oh my heavens these are good. For a girl who really misses her Doritos, this does the trick. In the past, I had tried adding a jalapeno to the microwave baked treats, but the pepper always made the cheese stay wet and leathery. These, however, are crispy through and though. Even better, they take only 45 seconds in the microwave oven to have a batch ready. I cut each slice into 16 pieces, so I get lots of little crisps. Warning. These are spicy and these are addictive.

Each slice has one carb and 60 calories. The brand just seems to be called Chipotle Pasturized Processed Cheese Food Slices. The real sign is on there. I got mine at Food Pyramid.

Now on to the rest of the lunch I have packed. I found these fun skewers at the dollar shop. They make deli roll ups feel like a party. Those are just ham wrapped around pickle spears and string cheese. Red bell pepper and olives are on the kabob too.

I also packed some home made vanilla butter nut yogurt. Too good to believe. There is a brownie made with the master mix I made last weekend. Next to the cheese crisps are some leftover green beans sprinkled with lemon pepper.

That is better than a Lunchable any day!