Leftover pitas, tortillas and other thin, bready products can make a superb, simple and salubrious baked snack.

For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

This impeccable bento looks like it belongs on some mid-century modern tabletop in the Design Within Reach catalog. Creator Vingt_Deux has filled round, stackable bento containers with (from left to right) 1) grapes, radish and rice cubes, tomatoes, 2) tomato, Japanese cucumber and mozzarella salad with basil, and 3) white bean and chickpea spread decorated with pepper tops, along with sliced peppers and mini-pitas.

For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. The boxes can range from austere lacquered trays to multi-tiered Hello Kitty confections of neon pink plastic. The meals themselves are anything from rice and leftovers to elaborate themed affairs of Pikachu-shaped dumplings with sesame seed eyes and carved radish trees. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's entry, by Vingt Deux, takes the bento to delightfully geeky heights with a re-creation of the scorched sand and double suns of planet Tatooine in Star Wars. The sky is purple cabbage and the sand is pita and hummus, hiding a nutritious pile of cherry tomatoes underneath. Our Jawa wears a robe of Philly steak Tofurkey, with nori ammo belt and hands, and a black rice face with carrot cube eyes. Utinni!

There are several standard ways I use up leftovers: an omelet the next morning, fried rice, and of course, just re-heating whatever it was, and eating it as is.

Another thing to do is make a sandwich, and if you have leftover lamb and asparagus from Easter Sunday, throwing them together with a little bit of yogurt-turned-tzatziki makes a great pita-bread-based sandwich. Of course, in my house, we didn't actually have lamb (we didn't have a traditional ham either), and asparagus on the table gets eaten before the salad is served.

Without the leftovers to make the pitas, the only other thing to do is -- gasp! -- actually cook the meal! The California Asparagus Commission has put together a recipe (after the jump), along with a whole list of recipes for asparagus on their website.

If you're tired of the typical dips (and we don't mean that weirdo who chatted you up at the bar last night), check out a lighter, spicier alternative: peanut chili dip from The 15-Minute Gourmet: Vegetarian, by Paulette Mitchell.

Peanut Chili Dip
Makes: 2/3 cup

You will need: 1/3 cup organic or natural peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
3 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. honey
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. chili powder
Optional dash of cayenne

Combine pb and water in a bowl, stir to make a paste. Stir in remaining ingredients and serve. You can keep this baby in the fridge until you're ready to eat - it's great hot or cold.

And don't forget dippers - forgo boring tortilla chips for homemade pita crisps.

I love pita bread. Pitas are a flat bread with a large pocket inside, which forms as it cooks quickly at high temperatures. The pocket is ideal for fillings and, in fact, this is how it is traditionally used in Middle Eastern and eastern Mediterranean cuisines, where the bread is a staple. I generally use it to make sandwiches and homemade pita chips, as well as occasionally using it to dip in soups, and always keep some on hand. Often, I buy fresh pita bread from the bakery at Whole Foods, but when I'm feeling ambitious, I use a variation of this recipe to make my own.

The dough is very easy to work with and comes together quickly. In fact, the only time-consuming part is cooking them. Each pita cooks quickly, but you have to be there the whole time to monitor their progress. The resulting pitas a delicious and well worth the effort. You can substitute 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour in this recipe without sacrificing anything in terms of the texture of the finished product. Click past the jump for the recipe.

I love pita chips. They're incredibly delicious, addictive and easy. They only take about 5 minutes to whip up and are so much fresher than anything you can buy, not to mention that homemade chips are healthier than anything you can buy. Serve the chips with hummus, guacamole, salsa or any other favorite dip. Feel free to vary the seasoning to your personal tastes by using chili or curry powders. You can make them in advance by letting them cool completely on a wire rack, then packing them in a plastic bag for a day or two.

Homemade Pita Chips

1 ½ tsp cumin
1 tsp Paprika
½ tsp Garlic Powder
Black pepper and salt, to taste
2 Pitas

Preheat broiler and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Mix together cumin, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Cut Pitas into 8-12 pieces and split each piece in half to make thin chips. Arrange in a single layer on baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray.
Sprinkle evenly with spice mixture, but use your own judgment in deciding how much to put on the chips.
Broil for 3-5 minutes, until golden brown.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]