Ieniemienie Bento (#141)

I couldn’t wait to use my new, super tiny bento so on Saturday I filled it up with snacks for our hike with @Petra_Utrecht and R. in the Betuwe; a district famous for its fruit production, surrounding the Linge stream, that is very popular at this time of year because of the blossoms. Last week I went to explore another part of the area with the Wandelgrrls.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to eat the ‘ieniemienie snack bento’ till we were home, so Petra & R. never even saw it! :(
‘Ienieniemie’ is Dutch slang for Súper Tiny ;)

Contents: fresh date, dried fruits (cranberries & apricot) and cinnamon coated almonds. The nuts were store-bought (organic) and not really cheap, so I may try my hand at making them myself, tweaking the recipe of sweet ’n spicy nuts I’ve posted before.

Every once in a while when we go hiking, we get to see something marvellous. This time it was an occupied stork’s nest, with adult & baby! You’ll have to look closely, but the picture is proof!

Have you been going out, enjoying the wonderful spring weather?

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Arigato Bento (#122)

This snack bento was a Thank You present for elm@, who was kind enough to lend me her copy of Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea. It was sort of a “mea culpa” at the same time, because I’ve held on to the book for way too long!

Elm@ is the same sweet person who gave me a load of bento goodies in March, so this seemed like an appropriate gift.

Contents

• Lollo Rosso lettuce
• emmental Babybel cheese
• mint
• usagi ringo (apple bunny) with sesame eyes and Smarties candy nose, which refused to stay stuck, sitting on..
• a container of powdered sugar for the home-made pumpkin cookie
• sweet ’n spicy nuts (pecan & almonds) with dried cranberries
• mini plum tomato ‘pears’ with basil
• baby fig
• Dove chocolate
• vodka filled chocolate candy
• fake hamburger sweet (hiding under nuts)
• rice crackers

The sweet & spicy nuts make a great bento stash so let’s share the recipe!

Sweet ’n spicy nuts

We have enjoyed this nutty snack on picnics, shared it at ‘bring a dish’ buffets (potluck) and even served it as mezze.

Ingredients

• 250 g white almonds
• 250 g pecans
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• just a pinch of ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

Preparation

• Preheat oven at 180 ºC.
• Line griddle with baking paper and spread almonds & pecan nuts over it. Roast for 5-10 minutes in oven until golden.
• Let them cool.
• Mix sugar & spices in a bowl.
• Heat a large skillet.
• Scoop nuts into pan and toss sugar/spice mix over them.
• Bake for 5 minutes on medium heat while stirring: the nuts need to get covered by melted sugar. Shake pan when necessary and use a wooden spoon to keep the nuts from sticking together (too much).
• Spread the nuts on a baking sheet to cool down again.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Servings: plenty :)

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Join Beth Fish’s weekend cooking with a food-related post!

On-the-way-back snack bento

Today I got some visitors at work that I had to take for lunch so I brought bento #69 as a treat on the way home at the end of the day. You’re looking at nacho chips and homemade salsa picante. The bottom tier contains some raw vegetables to dip as well.