greek inspired pita bento

Wholemeal pita bread (x1, halved) with diced cucumber and meat balls (x3, halved) served with carrot sticks and spiced yoghurt.

This dish was loosely based on the Greek dish Souvlaki-Pita, which is meat served in a pita with various vegetables and tzatziki...

I was worried it would get soggy by lunch time, but it hadn't and was really, really tasty! (Despite the resulting garlic breath...)

I have been thinking you could quite easily make a vegetarian version if you replaced the meatballs with falafel or a lentil patty type thing (which I may try one day).

Calories: 413

Oh and by the way, I did manage to get the lid on my bento box!

oatmeal pancake snack bento

A plum, an oatmeal pancake and some maple syrup for dipping...

The recipe for the pancake was adapted from the Vegan Lunch Box book. Oatmeal isn't a thing here in Australia, so I don't know where you would get oat flour. Instead I used some rolled oats whizzed up in my Tupperware Smooth Chopper. They're a bit tricky to make, the pan has to be hot enough or they are impossible to flip! But they are very tasty, so it's worth it.

Calories: 273

apple and peanut butter wrap bento

Mission brand wrap (lite) spread with light crunchy peanut butter and slices of apple. With some spicy capsicum dip and celery sticks.

551 calories.

I think I over did the peanut butter.... Hmmm...

bento with x.o. beans

Teriyaki tofu, X.O. beans, baked sweet potato, grapes and nectarine and pretzels.

Snack box: strawberries, Wallaby Bites and air-popped potato chips.

X.O. beans is my favourite dish from my local Chinese restaurant, I can't get enough of it. It's spicy and garlicy and generally delish!

A friend who lives in Melbourne bought me a bottle of vegetarian X.O. sauce so I could make my own at home. To make the dish you stir fry the sauce with some garlic and then add the beans until lightly browned, it's very easy. This version tastes pretty good, but not as good as from the restaurant (it's a bit salty).

The calorie round up:

Main box: 517

Snack box: 261

afternoon tea bento

Wallaby Bite, half and orange, pretzels, strawberries and French vanilla almonds

There are a couple of really tasty treats in this bento. In the to left you can see a little chocolate morsel, it's a Wallaby Bite, and at the front right you can see some drool inducing French vanilla almonds.

I get the almonds from the local supermarket, they are so good it is really hard to stop eating them once you start. I HAVE to portion them out, or I'd eat the whole bag!! They are sweet and vanillary with a little bit of salt... yum!

Two Bentos

I have two bentos for you today...

Above there is some natural yoghurt with blueberries, water crackers and cheese and some Wallaby Bites. (Calories: 437)

Here is some poached chicken with teriyaki sauce, broccoli, roasted sweet potato and pumpkin, a banana, pretzels, corn dip and two Wallaby Bites. (Calories: 351)

Because I am looking to keep the fats in my diet low, I've been poaching chicken, rather than frying. For flavour I added some teriyaki sauce to the chicken in the lower bento.

A common factor for both bentos is Wallaby Bites. They are a tasty little treat! Seeds, dried fruit and puffed rice coated in dark chocolate... Yum! A little chocolate hit to keep me going at morning tea!

Pearl Couscous Bento

I know I've said this before, BUT, I'm back! I have the bento itch again and I really, really want to get back into bentoing on a regular basis.

So with a new year here I am.

A snack bento on the left and lunch on the right.

For a snack I've got some hommus and vegie dippers, some strawberries, sugar free dark chocolate and some baked wheat pretzels.

For lunch I have a yummy roasted vegetable couscous made with pearl couscous. I really like the larger pearl version of couscous, I think it's better than the smaller version.



Calories:

Snack bento - 344
Lunch bento - 394


Should be enough to get me through my first day back at work....

pasta and meatball bento

Pasta, meatballs, tomato pasta sauce, grades, Babybel, Timtam biscuit, cherry tomatoes and baby cucumbers.

Another take on the basic meatball idea. I made a very simple pasta sauce using tinned tomatoes, onion, garlic and a little red wine. Easy, quick and tasty!

sticky meatball and potato salad bento

Meatballs, potato salad, multi-grain rice crackers, Babybel and grapes.

The meatballs a bit of an experiment. I have made a batch of fairly plane flavoured meatballs and my idea is to add different sauces to them to add variety to my bentos this week. Today's are coated in kecap manis (sweet soy sauce).

The potato salad was well and truly thrown together. The fridge here is bare (doing the shop tomorrow, but I managed to find a potato and decided to give potato salad a go.

I cooked the potato in the microwave and while it was cooking I mixed from fat-free natural yoghurt with a little mayonnaise, grated carrot and green onions. When the potato had cooled a chopped it up and mixed it all together, it actually turned out really, really nice!!

cinnamon chicken and couscous bento

Cinnamon chicken, couscous salad, celery with peanut butter, a Babybel and grapes.

The salad was amazingly good, I adapted the recipe from a few different recipes. It has cherry tomatoes, cucumber, fetta, sultanas, curry powder and red wine vinegar.

The cinnamon chicken was okay, but I think I will work on the recipe before I make it again. All the marinade contained was ground cinnamon and olive oil, a bit bland.

If you have any ideas on how to spruce it up, I would love it if you shared!

I'm back!

After a long absence I am back to bento!

Here's my first bento of the year, a tuna and bean salad, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and crackers and a Babybel.

I got the recipe for the salad here: http://lunchinabox.net/2007/07/06/burgers-in-flowerpot-smoker-recipes/ and let me tell you, it is delicious!

lamb kebab bento

Mini Moroccan seasoned lamb kebabs, salad with lettuce, red and yellow capsicum, cherry tomatoes and olives, light Caesar dressing, light jelly (lime) and honey roasted macadamias.

Calories: 375

Very quick to make and the lamb is delish! Cut it into strips and thread it onto shortened skewers then coat with Master Foods Moroccan spice mix. Then grill. Yum!!

Process:

1. Start heating frying pan.
2. Make kebabs and place on heated pan.
3. Cut salad stuffs and place in bento box (while keeping an eye on and turning kebabs when needed).
4. Remove kebabs from pan and set aside.
5. Pack nuts and jelly.
6. Place kebabs in bento box.
7. Fill dressing bottle.

Time:

15 minutes!

jelly snack bento

Blueberries, strawberries, diet cherry jelly, crackers with peanut butter and strawberry jam.

Calories: 382

I found some great diet jelly (or jello in American). I made it using two sachets of crystals with the water for one sachet (to make a nice firm jelly) and put it in individual cups, each with only 14 calories.

I was scared to taste it first, my previous experiences with diet jelly have not been good, they always had a terrible artificial sweetener after taste. This one on the other hand doesn't and is very tasty. I'm interested in trying the other flavours.

Process:

1. Make jelly and allow to set for at least 4 hours (I left mine other night).
2. Spread crackers with peanut butter and jam.
3. Pack everything in bento box.

Time:

10 minutes (Not including jelly prep and setting times).

smoked salmon bento

Crackers, smoked salmon, tzatziki, celery with peanut butter, strawberries, blueberries and chilli flavoured peas.

Calories: 507

Process:

1. Rip salmon into smaller pieces and place in bento box with crackers and tzatziki.
2. Spread celery peanut butter place in bento box with berries and peas.

Time:

A snap at 15 minutes!

bo luc lac bento

Bo luc lac beef, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, couscous and capsicum.

I bought a few small pieces of beef for a bit of a change (I don't eat meat very often). I've made this into Bo luc lac, I found the recipe here, and reduced the quantities down. The marinade had fish and soy sauces in it, simple but tasty.

Calories: 330.

Process:

1. Cover beef in marinade and set aside for 1 hour.
2. Cover cous cous in boiling water, set aside for 5 minutes.
3. Cook beef in frying pan over medium-high heat, set aside to cool.
4. Blanch broccoli, set aside to cool.
5. Fluff cous cous with fork.
6. Chop cherry tomatoes and slice capsicum.
7. Pack bento.

Time:

20 minutes.

not chicken bento

Spicy honey Quorn fillets, roasted capsicum, blanched broccoli, strawberries, blueberries, baby bel and spicy broad beans.

Calories: 440

I've discovered a new Quorn product, fillets. They're great, like small chicken breasts without the chicken. Perfect for marinading and grilling.

The marinade I used for this bento is pretty hot, next time I think I'll halve the amount of chilli.
It is adapted from this recipe. I mix the rub and glaze together with the Quorn fillets, and let is all marinade for at least 30 minutes then grill the fillets following the instructions on their packet. Delish!

Process:

1. Marinade the fillets.
2. Roast capsicum
3. Grill fillets and blanch broccoli when they're nearly done.
4. Let fillets cool slightly.
5. Pack bento.

Time:

Well, with roasting and marinading it took about 1 hour. But it only takes about 10 minutes to assemble once it is all cooked.

schnitzel and salad bento

Capsicum, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, veggie schnitzel, grapes, fetta and celery.

Calories: 300.

Process:

1. Cook schnitzel in oven for 15 minutes.
2. While schnitzel is cooking chop capsicum, cucumber, celery and fetta.
3. When schnitzel is cooled, chop into bite-sized pieces and pack bento box.

Time: 20 minutes.

tuna soboro bento

Tuna soboro, egg soboro, baby peas, red capsicum, grapes, half a banana and some Japanese rice crackers.

I've been eyeing off soboro bentos for a while, and I finally decided to have a go at my own.
I am really happy with how it turned out and the tuna tastes amazing! I cooked half a 130g can of John West's "no drain" tune with some soy sauce (3/4 tbs), mirin season (1 1/2 tbs) and healthy amount of ginger (1 tbs), yum!

I followed Maki's recipe for the egg soboro from her book Just Bento. I used a beautiful free range egg, but I think I find it a little sweet, so next time I will make it with less sugar.

Calories: 427

Process:

1. Cook tuna then set aside to cool.
2. Cook egg and set aside to cool. (While egg is cooking, place peas in microwave)
3. Cut banana and pack in bento box with grapes and crackers.
4. Place tuna, egg and peas in bento box.
5. Slice capsicum and place in bento box.

Time:

20 minutes all, up. Quite quick, very little preparation required.

grilled tofu bento

Grilled tofu with ginger sauce, capsicum, sautéed broccoli, half a banana, blueberries and crumbled feta.

This was a quick bento that I threw together at the last minute with what I found in the fridge/fruit bowl.

It turned out pretty tasty, although, I will remember to put a barrier between the saucy tofu and the fruit next time, the blueberries had a bit of a gingery taste to them... haha!

Process:

1. Cook tofu in pan over medium heat, browning all sides.
2. While tofu is cooking mix up sauce (I just threw mine together with a variety of Asian sauces and some ginger, I don't think I could replicate it again.)
3. When tofu is cooling sauté broccoli.
4. While broccoli is cooling half banana, crumble feta and slice capsicum.
5. Pack bento box.

Time:

Around 30 minutes.

teriyaki beef kebab bento

I am so sorry for my extended absence, I was sick for quite a while and it has taken a while to get my motivation back. But not to worry, I'm back at bento!

Roasted broccoli and zucchini, mini teriyaki tofu kebabs, watermelon and natural yoghurt with cinnamon and honey.

Calories: 329 (1376kj).

The roasted broccoli doesn't look that nice but it tastes great!

Process:

1. Bake broccoli in a moderate oven, coated with a little olive oil for 25 minutes.
2. Slice beef and thread onto skewers.Then marinade beef in equal parts soy sauce, mirin and maple syrup for at least 5 minutes.
3. Heat a frying pan over a medium hight heat and grill kebabs for 2 to 3 minutes on each side then pour any remaining marinade over the top and cook for a few more minutes.
4. While kebabs are cooling chop water melon and mix yoghurt with honey and cinnamon.
5. Pack everything into bento box.

Time: 30 minutes.