🌱Saladbook For Lunch Bento!🌱

 Getting our greens in early this week! 🌱🌱🌱🥗🥗🥗

I got inspired by all the beautiful grain bowls I saw this weekend flying through my instafeed so decided to pull out the Smart Planet Home Saladbook and pack one of our own. This box is perfect for tossing together whatever your favorite salad fixings might be and making them look appetizing in this shallow round box. It looks like a ton of food but it's really only about an inch deep. What's great is you can go ahead and put the salad dressing on if you like since the lid is leakproof. Nice!

In our Saladbook: quinoa/millet/buckwheat, romaine lettuce, cucumber, red onion, mushroom, corn, tomatoes, egg, kimchi, and a drizzle of homemade oil and balsamic citrus dressing. Instant healthy lunch!❣😊💚🍱🥗🌱

Mediterranean Life Without Plastic Bento

There's actually a theme to this bento, kind of, instead of just a hodgepodge of miscellaneous foods, for a change! It's also vegetarian. I was going to make a bento grain bowl, but then I realized I could use one of the dividers in this Life Without Plastic container to keep the fruit separate. So now it's a ¾ bento bowl. The cauliflowerettes and purple carrots are roasted with olive oil and whole garlic cloves over lentils and quinoa topped with halved cherry tomatoes; cumin-spiced crispy chickpeas; and a beet-yogurt romaine salad. The kids like these beets because of the vinegary honey yogurt sauce. Also, I told MisterMan that beets are a natural stamina booster, so he asks for it on P.E. days now!

The cut fruit are a variety of orange-fleshed honeydew called Golden Dewlicious. It's pretty good but not as sweet as cantaloupe. I think the summer season for melons might be drawing to a close pretty soon. We'll have to take advantage of the last remaining fruit while we can. So sad! Has Fall arrived yet where you are?

Crispy Spiced Chickpeas

• 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed 
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder

Method:

Toss chickpeas with olive oil and spread in skillet (you can also roast in oven instead),

Fry (or roast) over medium heat until crispy, about 20 minutes.

Sprinkle with spices to coat all chickpeas.

Experiment with your favorite flavors, such as garlic powder, curry powder, cayenne pepper, Chinese five spice, Japanese togarashi - anything you like!

Beet Yogurt Salad

• 3/4 pound beets (2 large or 8 small), trimmed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons honey, or to taste

Method:

Wash and dry beets, place in foil wrapper, and roast at 450F until fork tender, about 45 minutes, depending on size. When cool, rub off skins and slice into half rounds or smaller. Whisk together oil, vinegar, yogurt, honey, salt and pepper. Mix in beets - they turn the dressing a pretty shade of pink! Eat as is or atop salad greens of your choice.

Teriyaki Salmon Eshly Deli Box

Are you ready for back-to-school? It's coming up too soon for me! We're going to max out the rest of the summer while we can but I'm also excited to get back into bentomaking. Especially when there are so many different kinds of bento supplies and boxes to be used! 

Today's Eshly Box (first used and reviewed here) contains teriyaki salmon (pan-fried and then drizzled with teriyaki sauce) sprinkled with furikake (can also squirt with kewpie mayo first) and wrapped in romaine, some brown rice and quinoa with Okinawan sweet potatoes in a silicone food cup, steamed broccoli, grape tomatoes, and mandarins. Really kind of loving the look and feel of this wooden box more and more. The lightweight quality and the clean lines make me feel healthy and ecologically sound. I paired this box with stainless steel chopsticks, which are small enough to slip under the elastic band securing the lid. A perfectly portable lunch!

Mermaid Pasta Quinoa Bento!

Hi! This one is a "just for fun" snack bento that I made for a contest. I wanted to try making a mermaid using pasta for hair and quinoa for sand. I know now why I don't regularly make decorative charaben -- it is very time-consuming! At least for me. I knew I was going to use a quail egg for her face, and cheese for her body, and Okinawan sweet potato for her colorful tail and bikini, but the execution and cutting and placement took a lot longer than I envisioned. Luckily my miniature garden kale came in handy as seaweed stand-ins, and carrots and strawberries added color as other sea creatures. It was fun though, and the littles got a kick out of it. ^__^

Furikake Salmon and Potatoes LunchBots Bento

It's one of my go-to, super simple salmon preparations; today featuring kewpie and furikake. I also tossed some baby potato wedges into the pan since it was already hot, and sprinkled furikake on those too. You can't see it too well, but I packed the salmon over quinoa inside the lettuce cup for added protein. She also gets a tiny satsuma mandarin, carrots, and strawberries inside the LunchBots Quad. Happy Wednesday!

Quinoa-Crusted Salmon Bento

Quinoa-Crusted Salmon Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

I heard from a nutritionist on twitter about this method of gluten-free breading -- using cooked quinoa. What? That's what I thought too. I asked her to clarify and she said to use cooked quinoa just like panko. Hmm, okay. I decided to try making a quinoa crust on salmon for a change of pace. The quinoa didn't stick on by itself (I tried) so I dipped the fish in egg first, then in the quinoa, then shallow-fried in a pan. I used lemon and garlic to flavor it. I thought it tasted all right; nothing that spectacular. Not sure I'd try it again. The rest of this simple bento contains green beans, a little tulip shaped "flower", grapes, strawberries, and among the last of the homegrown cherry tomatoes.

Pretty Quinoa Salad Bento Bowls

Pretty Preschool Quinoa Salad Bento Bowl, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

This is the third meatless bento so far this week. Wow! I didn't plan for us to go meatless this long but decided we could try it and see how it felt. So far I haven't heard any complaints at all. Today's bento was inspired by a recipe I saw over the Christmas break which looked like bibimbap to me, or a kind of somen salad. It's actually a red quinoa salad, topped with wilted spinach, parboiled carrots, edamame, cucumber strips, wakame and fried egg. I packed along a little cup of vinaigrette dressing for them to pour over right before they eat. The top tiers contain fruit: oranges, strawberry, blackberries and cherries. I'm showing both kids' bento because they're so pretty. Fresh and colorful, almost like a warm weather cold salad. I really will start making more hearty bento meals, but the weather has been so mild and warm lately that I just haven't thought of it. They haven't even been wearing jackets when I pick them up. How's winter where you are?

Quinoa Salad Bento

Quinoa Vegetable Salad Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Has it really been over a year since I made quinoa salad? Oops. Can't imagine why I hadn't made it this summer. It's a great way to use summer squash, along with colorful bell peppers and crunchy celery, for a protein-rich meatless lunch option. Quinoa is an ancient grain that comes in a variety of colors (see my picture here). I used a tricolor mix today for this salad. The non-recipe is an easy one: simply saute the peppers and minced garlic in olive oil until crisp-tender, then add 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups water (or broth of your choice). Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add sliced zucchini about halfway through cooking. Season with salt to taste, and I also added cumin. It's done when the quinoa is tender but not mushy. Turn off the heat and add celery and nuts for crunch. This recipe is very adaptable - you can add any vegetable you like. Try tomatoes or kabocha, or top with chopped apples; it's refreshing and nutritious. I tucked a piece of corn on the cob, an Okinawan sweet potato "spaceship", some carrots, and a cup of Greek yogurt with berries and sunflower seeds into this EcoLunch Box to round out a fresh meal. Happy little bento!

As a side note, my recent Domokun sandwich bento has been receiving attention from ParentMap magazine (see article here) and Happy Daddy magazine (a French blog here). Coincidentally, the PBS.org article I mentioned last time also featured a (different) Domokun sandwich bento I had made. I guess it's the season for Domo. RAWR! ^_^

Quinoa Salad Froggie Bento

I made quinoa salad for this bento. There are several different varieties of quinoa, which you may know about. I took a picture of the four that I happen to have in my pantry right now: clockwise from top left. Black, regular, red (Peruvian) and tricolor (which is just obviously the previous 3 kinds, already mixed together).

This time I used tricolor quinoa. It's so easy: just saute the veggies first (I used yellow capsicum, onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini), then add the quinoa and broth in a 1:2 ratio. It cooks in 15 minutes. After taking off heat, stir in diced celery, spring onion and almonds for crunch. Use your favorite flavorings: I used garlic powder and cumin this time and it was pretty good. This meal is healthy and tastes good at any temperature; even as a cold salad, making it perfect for bento. Quinoa is also a "perfect" protein, as it contains essential amino acids and yet is a (plant) grain. Plus, it's quick and easy to prepare. It's also good mixed in with oatmeal or other hot cooked cereal for breakfast.

In addition, he gets carrots, grape tomatoes, romanesco, and a cucumber frog. For fruit he has cherries, kiwi flowers and sliced kumquats. Ribbit!