Using Bento Boxes for lunches.
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Back to Bento! Thank you all for all of your beautiful posts and the inspiration to get back to bento'ing for lunch. Here is my lunch for today! Bottom tier: baby spinach, shaved parmigiano reggiano, raspberry balsamic vinegar in the fishes, & some Olive oil in the bottle. Top tier: pecans & guanciale for the salad, rainbow carrot strips for crunch. Dessert of fresh raspberries on the side. 394 calories.
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450 calories - curry tofu cubes, steamed broccoli, carrot, and water chestnut, 1 cup of rice, strawberries, and a little packet of soy sauce because I found it in the drawer.0 -
@piheart what is in your tamagoyaki that gives it the dark swirl?
@LilSweet2015 did you make the curry tofu? And if you did, can I get the recipe? They look delicious!0 -
@LilSweet2015 Seconded on the tofu! It looks delish.
Everyone's lunches look great today, high 5s all around. Got too lazy last night and got up late today, so no lunch for me
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I'm always so inspired when I pull up this thread. Some of you take lunch to the realm of art! I bought the shaped cutters, but haven't had a chance to use them much yet. What do you do with the scraps?
Today's dinner is more calorie laden than usual because of lots of cheese. Roast beef and goat cheese pita, spinach pie with lots of feta, and an arugula and caprese salad. The bottle has balsamic and there's mustard sauce for the pita in the purple pot. Around 740 calories.
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Narcissora wrote: »@piheart what is in your tamagoyaki that gives it the dark swirl?
@LilSweet2015 did you make the curry tofu? And if you did, can I get the recipe? They look delicious!
It's roasted nori! I found this great recipe from Just One Cookbook for quick easy tamagoyaki and it's perfect for the ones I put in lunch: http://www.justonecookbook.com/how_to/quick-and-easy-tamagoyaki/0 -
No bento for me today, made ramen last night and decided to take left overs instead. Since its wi term here in Aus, my soup cravings have kicked in
I did order a new container, now I can't wait to use it. You guys were right in saying that it is addictive !
@sagj I didn't know you could by vodka sauce in a jar! That's awesome
@piheart your tamagoyaki looks awesome!
Everyone's lunches today (or yesterday for most) look so tasty 0 -
I finally got a bento again! My husband and I made the zucchini turkey burgers that someone on here posted, but we never plan ahead so it comes out as more of a meatloaf than a patty - still delicious! That, some mixed veggies, and large elbows with cheese are in the big tier. The small tier has a salad with balsamic vinaigrette in the Hello Kitty sauce cup. (I've been thinking I need some of those little fish bottles so that my sauces can actually fit IN the bento! My sauce cups are too tall for my bentos!
)
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@Narcissora and @SpecialKitty7 - the curry tofu nuggets are a brand called Hodo Soy. It's a smallish newish company that makes all tofu products without bad ingredients. The make nuggets and noodles. I'm trying them out and they are pretty tasty.
@snugglesnax - the scraps are good for fried rice or salads. I'll keep a little bag going in the fridge with them.
@sagj - the Gouda sauce intrigues me - is it a recipe?
I'm loving all the gorgeous color and variety in these lunches. When I see you guys do it , I feel inspired and I have to admit it is way fewer calories and healthier than just grabbing something. It makes you aware of how little you can be satisfied with sometimes.
This is my lunch for tomorrow- my little veggie patties for protein aren't pictured because they were still cooling off. Bottom layer is salad with radish, chèvre, dried cranberries, pepper, tomato, cucumber. Top layer is oranges, a plum, some strawberries, and Greek dressing for the salad. The other two are for my daughter and boyfriend. I pack everyone's at the same time because it's easier and I don't weigh theirs. They are getting burgers with lettuce and mayo, granola bars for snacks - she gets oranges and carrots and he gets chips and berries. They both get a butterscotch candy for love.
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I was inspired when I saw those little cocktail rye breads at the grocery store, and I just had to make an itty-bitty sandwich bento out of them! There are two kinds of sandwiches: tomato and avocado, cucumber and dill. The other box has some greens with lots of other green stuff and some salt & vinegar roasted chickpeas.0 -
LilSweet2015 wrote: »
@LilSweet2015 Not really in this case. Take your favorite jarred Alfredo sauce, heat it up, and add shredded smoked gouda a little bit at a time until it each amount melts in while stirring gently. Easy peasy.
Hopefully I'll be able to post my picture in a bit but my phone is not playing nice with the network at the moment. If I'm not able to upload my lunch was: the last of the chicken enchiladas, blanched broccoli with some fajita seasoning on it, and black grapes.0 -
So today and tomorrow is it for lunches for a while, I think. We might still do a bento here and there with travels. I might take more time trying to make cute lunches and dinners to work on my skills.
Kind of boring but thrown together tortillas with leftover salsa pork, pinto beans, and cheese.
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@narcissora I love those little cocktail ryes, I never even thought of using those! Here's today's standard bento. Dumplings, carrots & italian dressing, rice with furikake seasoning w/ edamame. The little pink pot has three nonpareils in there for dessert.
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I have a bento for today but my cousin is in town and we're grabbing lunch, so into the fridge with the bento! I'll eat it tomorrow instead!0
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SpecialKitty7 wrote: »@narcissora I love those little cocktail ryes, I never even thought of using those! Here's today's standard bento. Dumplings, carrots & italian dressing, rice with furikake seasoning w/ edamame. The little pink pot has three nonpareils in there for dessert.
This looks sooo yummy. I might just have to go for dumplings, carrots, and edamame tomorrow for lunch!
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I've been working late nights at the moment and get home feeling wrecked, so I haven't done any bento making since Sunday night. I'm salivating right now
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Tomorrow's bento - breakfast is cottage cheese and pineapple and lunch is five spice tofu, kale, grapes, and bell pepper.
I'm doing really well during the day, but I'm so hungry when I get home
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LilSweet2015 wrote: »
Tomorrow's bento - breakfast is cottage cheese and pineapple and lunch is five spice tofu, kale, grapes, and bell pepper.
I'm doing really well during the day, but I'm so hungry when I get home
The only reason you don't generally see me packing an arvo snack with my Bento is because we have fruit boxes in our office, and I keep a stash of protein bars at my desk (they're about 140 Cal each and really filling). If I didn't have those for my 3pm munchies, I'd start eating my desk. I'm not sure what your Cals are like for the day, but maybe you need to pack an extra snack if you're having major hunger pangs before you get home.0 -
LilSweet2015 wrote: »
Tomorrow's bento - breakfast is cottage cheese and pineapple and lunch is five spice tofu, kale, grapes, and bell pepper.
I'm doing really well during the day, but I'm so hungry when I get home
I agree with @mangrothian I pack a two tier snack bento for my morning and afternoon snack along with my lunch one. I don't always get a chance to eat it (like today) and I end up staaarving.
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My office is in an organic grocery store (not Whole Paycheck )so I can literally just eat all day if I want (mixed blessing). Since I joined mfp I'm sticking to what I pack for lunch plus I have a stash of healthy bars like you suggested. I do 4 meals of about 400 calories each - I eat between 1600-1800 calories per day. I don't eat back exercise calories or the calories my Fitbit gives me back. I know some people eat much less, but my work and performance suffer when I drop to 1200 calories. I'm okay with going slow and steady.
About a week ago, I just lost the taste for meat. I don't know how to describe it, except that I was eating some yummy stuff off the grill and it just tasted "dead" to me. I just didn't enjoy it, which is strange because I've been a joyful meat eater all my life. Maybe it's just a phase. I'm not digging dairy right now either, but I didn't want to waste my cottage cheese so I dumped a bunch of pineapple on it. I have noticed in the past week that I stopped eating meat, I haven't had even one sugar craving. Fruit has been enough for once. No ice cream, no chocolate, no cookies - nada. Weird, huh?0 -
LilSweet2015 wrote: »My office is in an organic grocery store (not Whole Paycheck )so I can literally just eat all day if I want (mixed blessing). Since I joined mfp I'm sticking to what I pack for lunch plus I have a stash of healthy bars like you suggested. I do 4 meals of about 400 calories each - I eat between 1600-1800 calories per day. I don't eat back exercise calories or the calories my Fitbit gives me back. I know some people eat much less, but my work and performance suffer when I drop to 1200 calories. I'm okay with going slow and steady.
About a week ago, I just lost the taste for meat. I don't know how to describe it, except that I was eating some yummy stuff off the grill and it just tasted "dead" to me. I just didn't enjoy it, which is strange because I've been a joyful meat eater all my life. Maybe it's just a phase. I'm not digging dairy right now either, but I didn't want to waste my cottage cheese so I dumped a bunch of pineapple on it. I have noticed in the past week that I stopped eating meat, I haven't had even one sugar craving. Fruit has been enough for once. No ice cream, no chocolate, no cookies - nada. Weird, huh?
I think the body just wants what it wants - it's good that you're listening to it. Because of my exercise goals, I don't think I could eat the amount of non-animal protein I would need to meet my requirements. It's probably the only thing I truly struggle with when it comes to bentos; getting as much protein someone as tall as me needs (since my LBM is quite high), whilst trying to eat the smaller volume lunches is hard sometimes.0 -
I'm still trying to make good use of those cocktail rye slices.
This is a build-your-own sandwich bento: cocktail rye slices, turkey, cucumber, pickles, tomato slices, salt & vinegar roasted chickpeas, tuna salad (made with canned tuna, avocado, and hot sauce)
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@Narcissora those little cocktail rye slices are SO cute! I don't think we have those over here in Aus, not that I have ever come across anyway.
Tomorrows lunch is in one of my new boxes, yay! The bigger tier has beef bulgogi and rice with furikake, the smaller tier has a carrot and diakon salad, some lettuce, tomatoes and a sesame soy dressing in the little lion container.
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@Narcissora I love the way that tuna salad sounds & looks? Avocado?!? Did you use a recipe, or can you share the ratios you use for that?0
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@aSearch4Me no recipe, but this time I used 56g of canned white albacore in water (a little less than a can) and 41g of avocado (it was about 1/4 of an avocado if you don't weigh your food). I didn't measure the hot sauce, but I used Frank's (also known as Buffalo Wing Sauce or maybe just Buffalo sauce - I guess I don't know what people who don't live in Buffalo call it - we would NEVER call it Buffalo sauce here). I probably used 1/2 tsp of Frank's. I'm not really sure - I just shook a bunch in there and called it delicious. Oh! And I also squirted some lime juice in it, mostly because citrus helps keep the avocado from turning brown. I didn't measure that either, but it was probably around a teaspoon.0
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@Narcissora Great, the ratios above will help get me started! Thank you!! Adding the lime juice is a smart idea, nothing worse than opening your lunch to find an oxidized/brown avocado. Blech.
Haha, I'm not from Buffalo, but I don't refer to Franks as Buffalo sauce, either. For this recipe, I would probably use the Mexican hot sauce, Cholula, that I buy in bulk at Costco (I could seriously drink that stuff...love it).0 -
aSearch4Me wrote: »@Narcissora Great, the ratios above will help get me started! Thank you!! Adding the lime juice is a smart idea, nothing worse than opening your lunch to find an oxidized/brown avocado. Blech.
Haha, I'm not from Buffalo, but I don't refer to Franks as Buffalo sauce, either. For this recipe, I would probably use the Mexican hot sauce, Cholula, that I buy in bulk at Costco (I could seriously drink that stuff...love it).
Ahhhh, ok. Frank's is what everyone here uses on wings. I just assumed the world called it Buffalo sauce or something. We just refer to it as hot sauce. Sort of like wings - we call them just wings or hot wings, medium wings, mild wings, etc. We would never call them Buffalo wings. On a similar note, I always wonder if people in Philadelphia call a Philly cheesesteak just a "cheesesteak" or if they keep the "Philly" on it.0 -
Been using Bentos occasionally for both lunches and mains with a lot of Japanese inspired food. I bought a few Bento related and Japanese food related books. Not done any for a few days though
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