Vegan Bento

I recently got a bag of sweet cherries that are truly deliciously sweet! I can’t get over them! So I had them on the side today for lunch with another batch of the millet polenta and sun dried tomato pesto and a basic tomato and lettuce salad.

Right now I’m really interested in learning more raw food recipes because I’m still stuck in salad land. While at the bookstore recently I came across Rawvolution and the pictures alone made me drool. The recipes looked straightforward and havng lots of photos so I knwo what I’m shooting for helps me a lot. 

NUTRITION FOR ENTIRE BOWL

(59% carb | 8 % protein | 36% fat) 

Calories: 515
Fat: 21 g
Saturated Fat: 3 g
Carbohydrate: 79 g
Fiber: 12g
Protein: 12

Unofficial WW Points: 11.5

Quick fix today:

1 cup sliced mango, 1 cup stemaed broccoli, then 2 cups of the last of Italian Style brown rice with peas and artichoke.

NUTRITION FOR ENTIRE BOWL

(78% carb | 9 % protein | 12% fat) 

Calories: 547
Fat: 8 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Carbohydrate: 110 g
Fiber: 15g
Protein: 11

Unofficial Points: 11 

I packed up the last of the pasta salad to go since tomorrow is my turn to bring lunch for Carla at work.

Some orange juice, the pasta salad, asian rice crackers, steamed broccoli, cut up melon.

The "twist" is obviously the pasta. The "shout" is what happens if you eat too many of the green rice crackers — those are the wasabi ones and are VERY spicy!

Leftodors for lunch. Same dinner stuff — the Braised Kale and Garlic Roasted Potato with pasta.

Then 2 sliced oranges and a side salad made up of diced tomato and cucumber tossed with olive oil, garlic, basil, and green onion.

NUTRITION FOR ENTIRE BOWL

(67% carb | 10 % protein | 18% fat) 

Calories: 487
Fat: 10 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Carbohydrate: 91 g
Fiber: 11g
Protein: 12 g

For kicks, a day of eating.

Breakfast is never exciting. I’ve been eating the same cereal -fruit-toast variations for more than 20 years. In this case, 1 cup soy milk, 1 bread with tofu cream cheese, 1/2 a banana sliced on to 1 cup of cereal.  I don’t really eat my breakfast served this way, but so it would match the other pictures I used the same dish.

Lunch was better. An organic apple, 1 cup three-can chili, 1 oz of tomato and 1 oz red lettuce leaves with 1 tbs ginger dressing. A fast fix, but respectable. 

Dinner was tasty leftovers. 2 honey tangerines, 1 cup green velvet soup, 1 cup arroz sin pollo, and 2 veggie sausage patties.

No pix of snacks,  though I’m pretty sure I had a Luna bar since today was preschool and I generally have one of those when I go to work.

I’m a big fan of the Lock & Lock brand for containers. Stuff in there stays put and doesn’t leak. The only thing is that I can’t find any place online other than ebay where you might find the lunch sets.

So I when I found someone auctioning three of these….

…I snapped them up!

It’s not as nice as the Zojirushi lunch jars, of course, but at $10 each, a steal and perfect for the working lunch swap we do. Just a lunch bag is going to be close to $10 without all the cool containers!

So now I don’t have to have my food storage containers out on loan and then be struggling til I get them back, and I can approximate what other people are feeding me on my food log. I hope the gals like them when I take them to work on Sunday.

 I already love them and am plotting what to put in there when it’s my turn again to make work lunch. The drink one holds 10 oz, the main one holds 1.5 cups, and the divided holds 1/2 cup in each of the small compartments so you get 3 cups of food + drink.

(For comparison, the Tupperware Crystal Wave Bowl I like so much does 4 cups.)

The only things wrong with it is that the bag doesn’t have room to stick an icepack in and the drink container is #7 plastic. The other containers are #5.

Long day at church so we took along lunches today. It was a nice Easter service and we all had a good time. Just tired. I’m glad I packed lunch last night. I used the new tote I got at Target and it fits both sets.

Holds Mr Bento, Ms Bento, and both our Sigg bottles. Just wish it had space for my chunky wallet and two training pants.

Mr Bento caried steamed organic broccoli, organic pears, mock tuna tempeh salad and whole wheat mini pitas. 

Ms Bento has the same broccoli and pears, but pasta twists with peas and carrots with a bit of vegan "butter" on it. I don’t like that it makes everything all buttery when she eats with her hands.  So I have to remember to have naked pasta for travel.

Pears didn’t do well doused in OJ — they were brown by morning. Edible, but browning. So try lemon juice next time or go with apples.

Saturday lunch after errands. Last night I was poking around in the fridge and knew I needed to use up lettuce and tomato (salad with ginger dressing, duh) and then these mini pitas that were hiding in the door. But I didn’t want to make any hummus type stuff to go on the pitas so I settled on trying to make mock tuna salad from tempeh I had that I forgot why I bought.

 (It wasn’t until the tuna salad was made that I remembered I’d bought tempeh to try this new collard and tempeh recipe but ah, well. Will just have to get more tempeh later or do the collards a different way.)

 After errands this morning I ate my lunch. Not pictured is the 6 oz OJ I drank with it, but I include it in the nutrition.

NUTRITION FOR ENTIRE BOWL PLUS OJ

(48% carb | 16 % protein | 30% fat) 

Calories: 392
Fat: 13 g
Saturated Fat: 2 g
Carbohydrate: 56 g
Fiber: 9 g
Protein: 16 g