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.