Picnic Bento

This one is based on foods you might eat at a picnic.

Contents

Deviled Egg Halves

Insulated Container Baked Beans

Potato Salad

Cole Slaw

Pimiento Cheese Stuffed Celery Sticks

Watermelon Wedges

Chocolate Covered Graham Crackers

Grilled Cheese Sandwich & Tomato Soup Bento

This one is based on everyone's favorite kid lunch, but with adult flavors.

Contents

Grilled Cheese Sandwich on a Whole Wheat Sandwich Flat: Wrapped in foil to keep it warm.

Insulated Container Homemade Tomato-Basil Soup: Follow the link for the recipe.

Cucumbers in Sour Cream: Follow the link for the recipe.

Clementine

Brownie: Follow the link for the recipe.

Japanese Sushi Bento

This bento is a tribute to all things Japanese, the inventors of the bento box.

Contents

6 Pieces of Cream Cheese Roll Sushi: This is my favorite kind of sushi.

Potstickers: I get them frozen and heat them in the microwave. They go in my insulated container.

Mini Container Soy Sauce

Medium Container Sesame Steamed Green Beans: These are steamed green beans with a little sesame oil, a little rice vinegar, some sesame seeds, and a little salt.

Seaweed Snacks

Wasabi Peanuts

Clementine

Pocky

Fall Holiday Meal Bento

This bento is based upon my favorite foods from Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. And, like those dinners, it has way too much food in it; I usually have to save some of it for later.

Contents

Turkey Sandwich on Whole Wheat Bread: I use Oscar Mayer Carving Board Turkey, which tastes very close to leftover turkey from a holiday meal.

Small Container Roasted Baby Potatoes: Cut 4 baby read potatoes into quarters and put them in a baking dish. Drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Mini Container Turkey Gravy: I just use canned or jarred gravy; this is to dip the potatoes in.

Insulated Container Green Bean Casserole: I just make this on top of the stove. Mix together a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup and half a cup of milk in a saucepan. Add 2 drained regular-sized cans of cut green beans and half a big can of French-fried onions. Heat and stir until it's hot and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in the other half of the can of onions. Now it's ready to go into the insulated container.

Small Container Corn Bites: Mix up a small corn muffin mix (like Jiffy) with the ingredients listed on the package according to package directions. Stir in a 12 oz. package of frozen corn. Bake in a mini muffin pan according to package directions.

Small Container Honey-Glazed Baby Carrots: Follow the link for the recipe.

Celery Sticks Stuffed with Pimiento Cheese Spread: I've discovered Italian Rose Pimiento Cheese Spread, available at Walmart, tastes very close to the pimiento cheese my aunt Barbara used to make.

Fuji Apple

Mini Pumpkin Pie from Walmart

Sparkling Apple Cider

Chicken Nuggets Bento

This bento is based upon a great recipe for almond crusted chicken nuggets I got from Pinterest. It has a variety of dipping sauces, as well as a variety of dippers.

Contents

Large Container Almond Crusted Chicken Nuggets: Follow the link for the recipe. These are baked and coated with seasoned almond flour, so they're reasonably healthy.

Mini Container BBQ Sauce

Mini Container Honey Mustard

Mini Container Ranch Dressing

Medium Container Roasted Baby Potatoes: Cut 4 baby potatoes into quarters. Put them in a baking dish, drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Small Container Baby Carrots

Small Container Mini Sweet Peppers

Fuji Apple

Dark Chocolate Covered Graham Cracker

Pizza Bento

This bento allows you to make your own mini pizza. It is good cold, but if you take it to a place where there's a microwave, it's even better after zapping it briefly to melt the cheese!

Contents

Whole Wheat Sandwich Flat: Half of this makes the "crust" for your pizza. If you take a whole one, you have crusts for two pizzas.

Mini Container Pizza or Marinara Sauce: Spread a spoonful of this on a sandwich flat half with a spoon.

Mini Container Pepperoni Slices

Mini Container Diced Red Bell Peppers

Mini Container Sliced Mushrooms

Mini Container Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Spread the sauce on a sandwich flat half with a spoon, and top your pizza with the other toppings, ending with cheese. If you have a microwave, zap it for 30 seconds to a minute, just until the cheese melts. If you don't, it's still good cold.

Medium Container Casear Salad: This is just romaine lettuce, garlic croutons and shaved parmesan.

Mini Container Caesar Dressing

Mini Fruit Pizza: This is a soft sugar cookie spread with strawberry cream cheese spread and topped with assorted fruits, cut up small. In one in the picture, I used sliced strawberries, sliced kiwi fruit, and clementine sections.

Ice Cream & Bacon Bento

This bento is themed on two of my favorite foods, ice cream and bacon!

Contents

Bacon & Asparagus Roll-Ups: Just wrap steamed asparagus spears in bacon. Yummy!

Velveeta-Wrapped Bacon: I've been meaning to try this new Kraft product.

Red Jawbreaker with Seaweed Snack Star: This gave me a chance to use my star cookie cutter. Didn't work too well, actually.

Cauliflower Floret with Weevils: A concession to nutrition. I probably won't eat it.

ICE CREAM with Chocolate Sprinkles!!: This gives me a chance to try out my half frozen/half warm bento box! Hope it doesn't melt.

New Feature: Get a $10 Healthy Finds Gift Card for signing up for email updates!

NOTE: I received a free gift card and a small commission for this post, but the opinions are my own.

Healthy Finds is a website of various online retailers of health foods and supplements. If you sign up for email updates for this blog, Healthy Finds will send you a code worth $10 on one of their retailers, your choice. All you do is choose the retailer, select the radio button next to it, and enter your email address on the site. You'll get an email with a code worth $10 to use on the retailer's site. Please note that some of the codes require a minimum purchase (like $10 off a $25 purchase), but not all of them do. It will say on the description of the retailer what the $10 is good for. On sites without a minimum, it means free product, though you do have to pay shipping.

I just tried out one of the codes and selected Gustus Vitae, a specialty spice retailer. I got a $10 off $10 code for their site and used it to order some Dijon Mustard Sea Salt. I love Dijon mustard, so I am intrigued about how this will taste. The salt was conveniently $10, so I only had to pay $4.99 for shipping with the code.

The one hitch in the process for me is that it took a lot longer than it says on the site for me to get the email with the code for the retailer. I entered my email on Monday and it didn't arrive until Thursday. But other than that, the process was easy. Just be a little patient in waiting for the email.

So if you want to try some free or discounted health foods or supplements, just sign up for email updates to this blog!

Sign up for email updates plus a free $10 Healthy Finds gift card here.

Hummus & Dippers Bento

As I said on my Omaha Walks blog, hummus definitely makes everything taste better. Here's a bento with hummus and lots of stuff to dip in it.

Contents

Medium Container Hummus

Whole Wheat Pita: Cut it into wedges with a pizza cutter.

Medium Container Veggies: I like to include baby carrots, cucumber slices, broccoli florets, and mini sweet peppers.

Medium Container Roasted Baby Potatoes: Cut 4 baby red potatoes into quarters and put them in a baking dish. Drizzle a little olive oil over them and sprinkle them with salt. Bake them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Mini Bag Pretzels: You can get an 8-pack of these at Dollar Tree for a buck.

Clementine: Or 2 mini mandarins, as shown in the picture.

Mini Container Dark Chocolate Covered Cashews: Look in your supermarket's bulk section for these.

Garden Veggie Bento

This bento has a fresh veggies from the garden theme.

Contents:

Chicken Salad Sandwich on a Whole Wheat Sandwich Flat: I like to make my chicken salad with a can of chunk white chicken, diced celery, chopped walnuts, mayonnaise, and dijon mustard.

Spinach, Bacon & Egg Salad: This is similar to a salad I remember my mom making in the summertime. I fry 2 strips of bacon and boil one egg. I make the salad from fresh spinach, sliced mushrooms, sliced hardboiled egg, and crumbled bacon. I make the dressing by adding a little cider vinegar, a little sugar, and a little pepper to the leftover bacon grease. This goes on the salad and wilts the spinach.

Sliced Tomato Salad: This is my own take on a salad I like to have at Wheatfields. It's sliced tomatoes topped with shredded Swiss cheese, chopped fresh chives, sweet onion dressing, and sunflower seeds. Unfortunately, the picture here doesn't do it justice. It's really a lot better than it looks, folks.

Small Container Assorted Garden Veggies for Dipping: This includes scallions, radishes, baby carrots, and red bell pepper strips. This brings back memories of my dad's garden, where radishes and scallions were always the first to be harvested.

Mini Container Dill Veggie Dip: Or whatever dip I can get a deal on. In the picture, it's French Onion.

Small Container Strawberry Shortcake: This is a mini confetti cake from Walmart (only 50¢!) topped with glazed strawberries (slice some strawberries in a bowl, add sugar, and let them sit in the fridge for about an hour or so, stirring occasionally--this results in a glaze forming on the strawberries) and aerosol whipped cream. I've discovered that the whipped cream does not travel well, so now I just bring the can with me in my lunch bag.

Kosher Bento

NOTE: This bento makes no claims to be genuinely kosher, as I am not even Jewish. It is just based on the theme of the sort of stuff one might get at a kosher deli.

Contents:

Medium Container Egg Salad: I make my egg salad with 4 hard boiled eggs, some diced roasted red peppers from a jar, some mayonnaise, and some dijon mustard.

4 Wasa Crispbreads: These went in a Ziploc bag, which was placed on top of the other closed containers before the box was closed.

Small Container Lox

Mini Container Spreadable Cream Cheese: You can now get spreadable cream cheese at Dollar Tree!

Mini Container Capers: This had to ride shotgun.

Small Container Cucumber Slices: This time, I just peeled a mini cucumber and included it whole.

Mini Container Ranch Dressing: For dipping the cucumber in.

Kosher Dill Gherkin

Clementine: Or 2 mini mandarins, as in the picture.

Mini Container Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds: I just included a single-serve Brookside packet.

French Dip Bento

This bento has a slightly French theme (yes, I know that a French Dip Sandwich is not really French; that's why I said "slightly").

Contents

French Dip Sandwich: This is deli roast beef with horseradish cream sauce on a whole wheat mini bagel spread with mayonnaise. These are small, so I usually include two.

Mini Container Beef Consomme: From a can. For dipping the sandwich in; that's why they call it a "dip" (stop that snickering!).

Medium Container Steamed Green Beans in Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing: Steam the green beans for about 10 minutes. Here's the recipe for the vinaigrette dressing.

Small Container Baby Carrots

Mini Container Dijonnaise: That's just Dijon mustard and mayonnaise mixed together, for you puzzled Brits. For dipping the carrots in.

Brie Wedge

Cornichon: That's a French word for "kosher dill gherkin".

Small Container Grapes: AKA raw wine, for you raw-food fanatics.

Gingerbread Muffin: I ended up not liking this as much as I thought I would, so in future, I'm replacing it with a French pastry from the Most Interesting Convenience Store in Omaha.

Creative Sushi Bento

This bento is based on the concept that I got from Pinterest that you can make "sushi" from flattened bread and fillings, rolled up and sliced. These are basically based upon regular sandwiches, but making them sushi-style is a twist that I find to be quite tasty and fun to eat.

This bento is "creative" in the sense that I came up with a bunch of different "sushis" that you can mix and match to make the bento. I haven't tried all of them yet, but here they are, to give you ideas. The bento in the picture has Egg Salad Sushi, Indian Curry Sushi, Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese Sushi, and Pistachio Chocolate Banana Sushi.

Contents

Choose 3 main dish sushis and one dessert sushi to make for this bento.

How to Make Creative Sushi

1. If using regular bread, remove the crust from the bread and flatten it with a rolling pin (or you can use an unopened can of something if you don't have a rolling pin handy). After you flatten the slice, pick it up off your work surface before adding fillings, to make sure it doesn't stick to the surface and be difficult to roll. Lay the bread landscape-style on your work surface.
2. If your filling is a spread, spread it on the bread. If it's flat and thin, like deli meat, just lay some on the bread. If it's not flat, than arrange some on the bottom third of the bread. Less is more with the fillings.
3. Roll the bread slice up so that it is seam-side down. Take a sharp knife and cut it into four slices (this is for a regular slice of bread; if using a tortilla or some other flatbreads, it will be longer and you can cut more slices).
4. Lay the slices cut side up in your bento container. Now you have sushi!

Main Dish Sushi

Egg Salad Sushi: Make some simple egg salad with chopped hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise and dijon mustard. Put it in flattened rye bread with some cucumber strips and shredded carrots.

Indian Curry Sushi: Mix a drained can of chunk chicken with some mayonnaise and a little bit of curry powder. Put it in whole wheat naan with some cucumber strips and shredded carrots. When I tried this, I had trouble rolling the naan, so next time I will try flattening it first.

Mexican Sushi: Spread some soft cream cheese on a whole wheat tortilla. Add some salsa along the bottom third, along with some avocado strips and chopped green onions. This can be cut into 8 pieces, instead of 4.

Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese Sushi: Spread flattened rye bread with soft cream cheese. Add Chicken of the Sea Smoked Salmon, from a pouch, avocado strips, and cucumber strips.

Tuna Salad Sushi: Mix some canned tuna with mayonnaise and a little dijon mustard. Put this on flattened whole wheat bread, along with cucumber strips and shredded carrots.

Dessert Sushi

Berry Crepe Sushi: Get some pre-made crepes from the deli or produce department of a supermarket. Spread a crepe with strawberry cream cheese and arrange some raspberries and blackberries on the lower third.

Lemon Raspberry Crepe Sushi: Spread a crepe with lemon curd and add raspberries.

Melon Raspberry Spring Rolls: Dip a spring roll wrapper in water to soften it, then fill it with cantaloupe and watermelon strips and raspberries. This doesn't get sliced; it's just a spring roll.

Pistachio Chocolate Banana Sushi: Follow the link for the recipe.

California Cobb Salad Bento

This bento has a sunny California theme. It is based on my personal recipe for Cobb Salad.

Contents:

Cobb Salad: This salad is made from lettuce (preferably romaine, but I'll use any that I get a deal on), grilled chicken strips, sliced mushrooms, sliced avocado, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers and a sliced hard boiled egg.

Mini Container Ranch Dressing: This was the only item that didn't fit in the box.

Small Container Crackers

Clementine: I got a bag of tiny mandarins at Aldi, so I included two of them.

Mini Container Orange Chocolates: I was aiming for something made with dark chocolate and orange, like maybe chocolate-covered orange peels, but I couldn't find anything like that. The closest I found was Brookside Blood Orange & Peach Chocolates, which are in the bottom of the box, under the mandarins.

UPDATE: At the 42nd & Grover Mega-Saver, which I've officially awarded the title of Most Interesting Convenience Store in Omaha, I found a box of Mella Dark Chocolate Covered Orange Jelly Chocolates, which I can't wait to try the next time I do this bento.

New Lunch Kit Found at Family Fare Dollar Zone

I found this lunch kit at the Dollar Zone at Family Fare. Cost: one buck.

It comes complete with cutlery in the lid.

This should be the perfect box for my California Cobb Salad Bento.

Mexican Bento

This is a Mexican-themed Bento. It's also vegetarian, and vegan if you substitute a vegan cheese substitute for the cheese in the quesadilla.

Contents:

Whole Wheat Bean & Cheese Quesadilla: Spread half of a whole wheat tortilla with refried beans and top with shredded cheddar (or jack or marble jack or Mexican Blend, or...) cheese. Fold the tortilla in half and stick it in the microwave for a minute, just till it gets hot and the cheese melts. Cut it into 4 wedges with a pizza cutter.

Mini Container Salsa: I used the little container in the chips & dip container for my salsa.

Small Container Guacamole: Mash up 2 ripe avocados in a bowl with a potato masher. Add one 4 oz. can of diced green chiles, the juice of one lime, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and stir it all together.

Small Container Tortilla Chips

Medium Container Rice & Beans: Mix together in a bowl one package of ready-to-serve brown rice, one drained 15 oz. can of black beans, one drained 10 oz. can of diced tomatoes & green chiles, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Medium Container Corn Salsa: Mix together one thawed 12 oz. bag of frozen corn, 1/2 cup chopped green onions, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 chopped poblano pepper (if you can't find poblano peppers in your store, substitute a red bell pepper), 1 minced jalapeño pepper, the juice of one lime, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Small Container Cantaloupe Balls & Kiwi Slices

Dark Chocolate Squares: I usually just throw in a Dove Dark Chocolate Bar.

The guacamole, rice & beans, and corn salsa recipes will make lots more than what you will put in this bento. Just fill the suggested containers, and save the rest for later.

Here's how it looks all packed up the the Dollar Tree cupcake container. Not all of the containers fit, so two had to ride shotgun.

Comfort Food Bento

This bento is on the theme of favorite, comforting foods.

Contents:

6 Tuna Puffs: These remind me of tuna casserole, but they're portable. You'll find the recipe here.

Medium Container of Roasted Baby Potatoes: These are just 4 baby red potatoes, quartered and placed in a baking pan, drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled with salt, and roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Mini Container of Ranch Dressing: For dipping the potatoes in.

Medium Container of Sesame Steamed Green Beans: Steam some fresh green beans for about 10 minutes, then toss them with a little bit of sesame oil, rice vinegar, sesame seeds and salt.

Medium Container of Pea & Cottage Cheese Salad: This is my favorite thing to make at a salad bar. It's just cottage cheese, thawed frozen peas, ranch dressing, and sunflower seeds mixed together.

2 Watermelon Wedges: The ones in the picture look yellow because they are yellow. Yellow watermelon was on sale at Hy-Vee that week. Regular watermelon works, too.

Miracle Cinnamon Crumb Muffin: Get the recipe here. "Miracle" is my name for these. They are made from all healthy ingredients, wheat-free, refined sugar free, and are only sweetened with a little bit of maple syrup and a little bit of honey. And they taste exactly (and when I say "exactly", I mean EXACTLY) like cinnamon streusel coffee cake. They have coconut flour, coconut milk, and coconut oil in them but do not taste at all like coconut. They also have a banana in them, but don't taste like banana. I substituted stevia nectar (at half the amount) for the maple syrup because I don't like maple, and I substituted regular coconut milk from Dollar Tree for the coconut cream, and they still turned out completely awesome. Seriously, folks, you need to try these.

Here's what it looks like all packed up in the Dollar Tree cupcake container:

The Box

OK, so you start with this:

It's a cupcake holder from Dollar Tree. Cost: one buck.

You can find a whole host of different small containers to go in it, such as a snap-top sandwich container...

a veggie & dip container...

icepack-lidded containers in two sizes...

cups with lids...

smaller condiment cups with lids...

and snap-top containers in many sizes.

You can even get a cool bento-looking set of cutlery in the kids' dishes section. This matches the red of the box exactly and the fork and knife even snap together! How cool is that?

I was able to get several different combinations to fit in the box so that the lid would still go on it.

You do have to mess with the lid quite a bit to get it to go on right, but once you have all four sides clipped, it holds together quite well.

Here's a pic of my packed Mexican Bento. I couldn't find room for everything, so two containers had to ride shotgun.

Recipes and meal plans for what goes into the Dollar Tree Bento will come in later posts.

What This Blog Is About

This is a companion blog to my Omaha Walks blog. I've enjoyed making healthy bento box lunches so much for that project that I've started to come up with bentos of my own, which I will post here. It's also about my discovery that you can create a nice bento box container from stuff you can get at the Dollar Tree. See below for more.