Temari Rabbit Bento Bowl #18

A bowl of stuff that turns into soup when you add hot water (explanation below), apple slices, and chocolate peanut butter for dipping.

This concept is taken from Just Bento's miso soup balls, but involves slightly different ingredients.

I had some leftover rice pilaf, but wasn't in the mood to have it as a side again, so I made it into a soup (just add boiling water and stir). Here's how:

1. I sauteed finely chopped celery, onions, and carrots in vegan butter (Earth Balance).
2. I added a handful of bits of Beyond Chicken strips from my freezer and cooked those until they seemed done (I still don't fully understand when vegan meat is "done")
3. I added the rice and mixed everything all up
4. I put all this in the bottom of the bowl, then sprinkled with the green tops of chopped scallions
5. I added a tiny cup of Better than Bouillon to put in the broth later (If you haven't tried the "Not Chicken" flavor you should--I like it better than I used to like their actual chicken flavors)
6. At work, I added boiling water and stirred, then let it sit to warm up

It worked reasonably well and was at least as warm as soup in my insulated jar usually is.

And also there were apple slices.