The Elaine Benes Bento

Sometimes you just need a big salad. Inspired by watching nothing but Seinfeld this week (my boyfriend and I have two seasons left, I believe), I decided to just have a big salad like Elaine for my lunch. I made a chicken taco salad and the only thing that makes it remotely taco related is guacamole as a dressing! I used up my baby spinach, added some rotisserie chicken, cucumber, cheese, and Trader Joe’s Reduced Guilt Guacamole (it’s made partially with Greek yogurt). It was delicious and filling!

The Vegan (out of necessity) Bento

I ran out of money and subsequently regular food for this bento. Thus I had to excavate through the freezer to find some edible protein. I found some Gardein chick’n strips that I bought MONTHS ago at Kroger at a decent discount that I threw in the freezer for just such occasion. I threw some Trader Joe’s Eggplant Punjab on top to give it more flavor and it turned out to be tastier than I expected. I don’t think I will repeat it but it was enjoyable out of necessity.

Above it is some polenta that I pan fried and seasoned with salt and pepper. To the left is some mango I cut up while frying the polenta, nearly torching my apartment to the ground. It was all smoke and no flames, but enough to make me panic and double check the burners and even the oven (which I didn’t use at all).

And, of course, there are green beans that I sautéed in coconut oil with rosemary seasoning below the mango. They are my go-to vegetable choice!

The Oatmeal Bento

For the past few weeks, I have actually just been bringing a small bowl of oatmeal with me to work because it is super convenient. But sadly it doesn’t always fill me up and is sometimes not appetizing enough to eat. When I make that oatmeal, I use the BSN Cinnamon Roll Protein Powder mixed with some almond milk. It’s rather gelatinous but pretty tasty if mixed well.

For this oatmeal I just mixed in some vanilla extract and a Splenda packet. There was also a fried banana recipe that is floating around Pinterest lately that I used. It calls for honey, which I did not have, but I just fried them in spray coconut oil and added some cinnamon. It turned out pretty tasty. To the right are sautéed green beans and avocado.

The 2.5 donuts that I consumed after this, however, were completely unnecessary and negated all healthy eating habits for the rest of the day.

Going to India Bento

As much as I would love to announce an impending trip to India, I regretfully disclose that I was only singing the Flaming Lips song while cooking. This bento was a little more labor intensive than I had intended in that when I made the tandoori chicken pictured on the top right, I was not aware that you have to soak wooden skewers before putting them in the oven so they won’t set fire to your kitchen. It seems stupidly obvious and I have many honorary blonde moments as a brunette, so feel free to laugh at me, embrace the schadenfreude, and let us now move on. The tandoori mix was a little marinade packet I picked up from World Market, I believe, and you marinate it with yogurt and chicken. I marinated it all day and after nearly setting my kitchen ablaze, replaced the chicken on some metal skewers I had thankfully already purchased. The yogurt helps the chicken stay moist and it was absolutely delectable. I will definitely use it again.

I cheated and used frozen Baigan Bharta from Trader Joe’s because I needed more supplementary Indian food for this bento. But the white concoction in between the two is some homemade raita! When my mom and I eat Indian food at restaurants, we fight over this stuff. And when I was living with my folks and she would make it, we would also fight over it. Ultimately, she would get the last of it because she made it, but that was not the case today!

To the left are some cucumber slices and freshly cut honey mango. This was a savory, sweet, and spicy bento and I highly recommend that everybody recreate it!

Raita Recipe

1 Tsp crushed garlic
A wee bit of salt
The juice of .5-1 lemon (I used a whole one but started with half)
1 tbsp mint
Half a cucumber, diced
1 cup NF Greek yogurt (or throw caution to the wind and use the whole fat stuff- it’s also AMAZINGLY delicious)
.5 tsp cumin (this was an afterthought. I used zat’ar because I had it and didn’t know about the cumin until later)
1 tsp Splenda (or the equivalent of your choice of sweetener)

Crush the garlic with the salt and set it aside for a few minutes to allow it to amalgamate. Then stir in the lemon juice. And after that you can kind of just dump all the ingredients in and stir. Around then is where I tasted it and added the rest of the lemon juice for more acidity. Use it with your own tandoori chicken, curries, or burgers!

Exploding Pudding Bento

In this bento I made a salad with power greens, alfalfa sprouts, a chicken patty, and balsamic glaze. The white concoction in the red cupcake container was my failed attempt at chia seed pudding. I put in too much liquid and not enough seeds to soak it up. This was the most presentational this bento ever got because when I opened it, chia seed pudding when EVERYWHERE on my steering wheel. Epic fail.

The bottom half consists of eggplant caponata on the left and the new superfood pilaf from Trader Joe’s. It has quinoa, kale, carrots, and sweet potatoes. While I love all these things, the sweet potato chunks were a little big and did not match with the size of everything else. It was kind of weird but none the less tasty.

Megan’s Guest Bento

I got my friend Megan to start making bentos to take to work! I went and bought her a bento box at World Market and schlepped down to her house so she could make it that day. Her bento consists of homemade sweet potato fries, roasted red cabbage, haricots verts (French green beans), and turkey meatloaf with some ketchup.
You will also see my variation of the meatloaf soon because that will be in my bento this afternoon!

Below is the recipe for it.

Turkey Meatloaf

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons ketchup, divided
1 3/4 pounds ground turkey, 97% lean
3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375°. Heat oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, broth, and 1 tablespoon ketchup; transfer mixture to a large bowl, and cool.

2. Add turkey, breadcrumbs, egg, egg white, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to mixture in bowl, and mix well. (Mixture will be very moist.)

3. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and coat lightly with cooking spray. Form the turkey mixture into a loaf, and place on the pan. Brush meatloaf evenly with remaining 2 tablespoons ketchup. Bake 1 hour or until thermometer inserted into center registers 170°. Let meatloaf stand 5 minutes before serving.

Slapdash Salad Bento

I ate this same bento for two days last week. To the right is half a pink lady apple with a mini Brie wedge, sweet potatoes, and a bit of edamame. The salad has cucumber, baby lettuce, broccoli slaw, clementines, balsamic glaze, and half a cut up Trader Joe’s roasted chicken patty. It was good for protein, but honestly when it’s cut up like that, it kind of looks like Spam. Which does not seem appetizing to me at all. It was good, though! I might shoot for salmon next time if I can get my act together.

Breakfast Bento!

Today I had to work at 4am so I brought my breakfast! Since I work at a grocery store, there are lots of delightfully detrimental snacks I could chow down on for breakfast that I need to stop eating. Like cookies and turnovers! So today I brought protein pancakes; cottage cheese and frozen raspberries (it’s not great so don’t try it. It was the only fruit I had and it was terribly sour); sautéed Trader Joe’s sweet apple chicken sausage; and garlicky kale and mushrooms. Along with my vanilla Met-Rx protein shake with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, this all allotted to about 550 calories. The goal is to keep me full until I get home. I’m on my lunch break now, have two hours left of my shift, and it looks like I’m achieving my goal! I’m still pretty full! I highly recommend everyone BYOB (breakfast, that is)!