For lunch today I am having a sun dried tomato veggie burger with rice cheese and jalopeno pepper slices. The bun is white but fortified nutritionally to resemble wheat. The salad side is mixed greens with marinated mushrooms and tomatoes. Mini car of pickles and ketsup. Snack will be fat free rice pudding. Total points for this meal and snack are 4. Still on track with the program day 15!
In keeping with my need to reduce calories this morning's bento is in a small bento box with an even smaller snack container for afterschool. The glass bento is filled to the brim with a serving of brown rice, furitake, tuna and dried tomato salad, cherry tomatos and orange slices. The snack bento is filled with the remainder of half an orange, dried cranberries and a nibble of cashews. Lots of Mono Unsaturated Fats in this duo for the day.
What a lovely Thanksgiving Weekend with lots of food. Thus today's bento filled with lettuce, tomato, hearts of palm, chopped egg and sliced turkey. The container looks huge from this angle but it is around 600 ml. This turkey needs to get seriously low -fat this week.
I know that "Bento Purists" will not see the link between gourmet style pasta and bento, but for this busy mom it's perfect. During the holiday season I am noticing special edition shapes like pumpkins, fall leaves, and turkeys that make great bento salads when combined with brightly colored vegetables. I have been using cherry tomatoes, orange and red bell pepper and cucumbers for quick crunchy additions. Toss with a low fat salad dressing and maybe a little mozzarella cheese shreads and you are good to go.
Boo! to you today. Lunch bento is filled with whole wheat ghost and provolone cheese slices, lettuce, ghostly cookies. Snack bento is filled with cranberry and apple salad for later in the day.
Look carefully into my box and you will see what looks like shrunken heads of Jack-o-lanterns. Boo....I bought these irresistible pasta shapes that are Jack-0-lanterns with dreams of pasta salad and artichokes. Did you notice I forgot the artichokes? I think it is because I was at the point of brain freeze when it came time to make lunch. I had just finished two hours at Party City looking for Halloween costumes for my teenage daughters. We left the store empty handed. "Just shot me now!" and put me out of my misery, please. The bat box contains more of the yummy pumpkin bread with tiny Peanuts characters made out of fruit. Get it Charlie Brown in the pumpkin patch? Any hoot...the pumpkin box contains sliced pear with two caramels.
I tried to come up with some clever title for this autumn post but it's really hard to stay focused in October when it's 85 degrees outside. Our leaves only change two colors: green and yellow (then their dead). I vaguely remember reds, oranges, yellows and brown from my childhood in upper New York State. I think it may be time for a road trip. I digress. Today's bento is composed of a ham sandwich on whole wheat bread with a mixed salad filled with cashews, cherry tomatoes, provolone cheese leaves and mint. I am trying to work on incorporating some healthy nuts into my diet. My little snack is cheese and crackers with a sprig of mint for color.
This halloween bento is all vegetarian. It is made up of hummus and cheese stuffed mini bell peppers, cucumber pumpkins and a ghost tin stuffed with Asian Slaw. I am still trying to get the nack of working with nori as a decorative addition. I have a lot of new found respect for those bento artists out there that work with those tiny pieces of nori every morning. With my glasses on I could barely find them on the kitchen counter. I think tweezers will be my next addition to my bento kit. No snack today I get to go home right after school. Yeah!
Today's bento was low calorie and plenty filling. The single tier balloon bento box contained sliced turkey with arugula in whole wheat tortilla rolls on a bed of greens. The pumpkin box contains red seedles grapes and dried apricots. The lemon slice was for my afternoon cup of tea. Simple and sweet, bon appetite.
This bento lunch was part of last week's menu. It is filled with all of the components for an antipasto salad with fat free italian dressing. The top container has hearts of palm with marinated mushrooms,
