The Lunch Project

Trying to balance health, work, love and fun.

[work-eat-play-party]

Tuesday

So many fresh fruits and veggies that i have no need for the carb filler of rice/noodles.  Though we did have bread for breakfast, along with a yummy chocolate cupcake batter chia pudding....  yum.

My lunch today is light today, after a heavier breakfast: edemame, tomagoyaki, oranges and strawberries.

Naruto used the tupperware today because he needed to put his lunch in his backpack without worrying about it spilling.  His lunch has all the same things as mine. 

[work-eat-play-party]

Delivered to my door!!! Farm fresh fruits and veggies... Mmm!

[work-eat-play-party]

Farm fresh veggies

Today I received my first delivery of farm fresh produce along with a few extras: pizza dough, marinara sauce, mozzarella, milk, and black beans. The produce is pretty substantial, I think it's going to be difficult to consume everything this week. I did plan out my weekly menu with the items in the box though!

[work-eat-play-party]

Monday Lunch! Lots of veggies, yummy tomagoyaki, easy meatballs, rice, Apple.

[work-eat-play-party]

Wednesday Bentos

Very rushed pics this morning, but that’s because Naruto requested Panda onigiri for snack this morning and it took an extra two minutes! :-o

Naruto is eating today: fried chicken, rice, edemame, bell pepper, cherries, and a panda onigiri for snack. 

My lunch (vegan): Iri dofu, pepper and onion confit, rice, edemame, cherries.  I also got a panda onigiri for snack... because why not? :)

[work-eat-play-party]

Tuesday Lunch

Making healthy lunches, especially when they get Naruto excited about lunch too, makes me really happy. 

This morning I made up a quick batch of Iri Dofu: sauteed green onions in sesame oil with grated ginger and chopped garlic, added tofu and scrambled it in (pro tip: microwave the tofu for 3 minutes to get rid of some of the moisture, it cuts down on cooking time), once the tofu is getting pretty crumbly i add in some miso and soy sauce in hot water and cook until the tofu is dry again.  It’s so flavorful, it pairs well with plain rice.

My lunch today: Iri dofu over plain rice, soy-simmered sweet potatoes, edemames, fresh tomatoes.

Naruto’s lunch: blue ramen with ham, cheese, sweet potato, tomato and a small piece of fried chicken, cherries and edemame in the second layer. 

[work-eat-play-party]

Monday!

I’m impressed when i pull off pretty decent lunches when I’ve delayed grocery shopping and can’t make the planned lunches.  My lunch is really simple today: rice with an umeboshi plum, gomashio (salted sesame seeds), tomagoyaki, and some sweet potatoes simmered in soy sauce.  Easy and light lunch.  I added a tiny chocolate also.

I was experimenting with color a little bit this morning with Naruto’s lunch.  I would like a proper star cookie cutter too!  I added some soy sauce and some blue food coloring to the noodles I cooked for them, a bit of sesame oil after draining and they were pretty delicious.  Ham and cheese stars for fun, tomagoyaki (rolled egg omelette, and some dehyrated snap peas with one slice of sweet potato hiding under it.  I bet the sweet potato will be still there when he gets home from school.  He also got a tiny chocolate snack! 

Happy Monday!!!

[work-eat-play-party]

Easy: beef teriyaki noodles, with veggies, apples, bananas, mochi

[work-eat-play-party]

I tried cute lunch today: inspired by Beekle, the unimaginary friend. Rice, meat soboro, broccoli trees, fruit mochi.

[work-eat-play-party]

I made teddy bear bread! With nori faces. How'd I do? Next time I'll make more!

[work-eat-play-party]

Lazy Friday

Today was the day to use up leftovers!  I was surprised that the bentos looked so nice and I used up 90% of the weeks leftovers.  It was an easy, no chop, no cook kinda morning.

My bento: lentils and rice, hiding under the confit, last of the iri dofu, sweet potatoes, edemames, and 1/2 and orange. 

anddddddd

Naruto left his Samurai lunch box at school today so went back to the trusty tupperware.  He’s got: ramen with sweet potatos and edemame, side of teriyaki sauce, fried chicken, and grapes and oranges. 

[work-eat-play-party]

Bento Thursday

It’s almost Friday!  And I’m excited for that.  I had a wonderful Wednesday!  My boyfriend sent me some amazing cranberry orange bread, his grandmothers recipe!  So that’s what we ate for breakfast, it was soooo yummy.  I snacked on it as I was making this mornings bentos up. 

Mine:

That yummy scrambled tofu, hidden bell pepper and carrot confit, edemames, orange slices, and tamagoyaki. 

Narutos:

He got fried chicken and sweet potato stars over ramen, with tamagoyaki and grapes for dessert, he promised some of his friends at school our japanese kitkats :(  so he gets 4 today to share, but no more!

[work-eat-play-party]

Lunch just got cute!

Are you excited!  Our box arrived from Japan yesterday, yes Japan!!

Here is my box, it was smaller than I expected... but volume wise it’s actually perfect for a portion-controlled bento, it’s not for your fluffy salads.  The black part seals it and holds cute white chopsticks!  As you’ll see in the lunch pic below.  It can fit in my purse! 

Naruto was going nuts over his new Samurai bento box and chopsticks.  He wouldn’t stop playing with it last night for long enough for me to wash it.  He’s pretty excited about his lunch. 

Now... for what’s inside.  :-)

My bento has: yakisoba egg cake, 1 egg tamagoyaki, edemame, raw tomato, non-fried ramen, and sweet pepper and carrot confit.  (420 cals)

The noodles also have one piece of fried chicken in them as it’s leftover from Naruto’s lunch yesterday that he didn’t finish...

Narutos lunch and snack: panda onigiri, (too bad the pic is dark..), rice with sweet potato flowers and turkey meatballs, he also took a side of teriyaki sauce not pictured, oranges, mochi cyclops, and tamagoyaki.

[work-eat-play-party]

Bento Tuesday:

Mine (top): non-fried ramen noodles, iri dofu, pepper and carrot confit, edemame, honey fried bananas and grapes.  (400 calories)

Narutos (bottom): Fried chicken, pepper and carrot confit, ramen, edemame, hot cheetos, honey fried bananas and heart grapes.

I think Naruto will like his lunch much better today!  I also gave him no onigiri for snack which will encourage him to eat more at lunch time.  I also hid the veggies in with the ramen noodles so he’ll have to eat them, ha!  The hot cheetos were just a leftover bit from his unhealthy weekend snack but he’ll be pleased to find them. 

I feel like I could have plated mine better, the colorful confit is hiding under the boring colored iri dofu so it’s not as pretty as it could be.  I do aim to have nice colorful presentation as I think it makes lunch more fun and more appealing. 

These are probably our last tupperware bentos!  We ordered some bento boxes from Japan (Bento&Co) last week and they’ll be here tomorrow!  Very fast shipping!  I’m excited for them for two reasons, mine will actually have a slightly smaller capacity (6/7), not by much, I will either pack it denser or lower my carbs, both of which are a good thing.  Narutos will have about 2/3 the capacity, which is a very good thing because he doesn’t eat as much as I pack and I really can’t help but fill the box.  There are also a few other cute making supplies coming in the box that I’m pretty excited about!  Wait for a post tomorrow on the new supplies!  :-*

[work-eat-play-party]

Monday Fun Day Bentos! 

Mine (on top): Iri dofu, rice, sweet pepper and carrot confit, 1/2 an orange and 10 grapes.  (440 calories)

Narutos: Rice with gomashio, rice, sweet pepper and carrot confit, 1/2 an orange and 6 heart grapes, and tamagoyaki.

Notes:  Mine had 1 full cup of rice, which I actually found to be a bit much, I’d put 3/4 cup of rice in next time, maximum.  I also found the tangelo orange to be really sweet, almost too sweet.  My entire bento box though was very filling and came to about 440 calories.  Lessons: a little less rice, a less-sweet dessert.

Narutos: He ate only the fruit and the tamagoyaki, his first question when he got in home was, “what was that egg cake thing?” and he slowly admitted that he loved it.  It wasn’t super hard to make, and I actually kind of enjoyed the almost therapeutic carefulness with which i had to roll the egg as it cooked.  I tasted a few bites off the ends, so i know it was pretty yummy.  Lessons: hide the veggies, seriously, compartmentalizing them instead of mixing them in is almost a sure fire way to make sure he doesn’t eat them, even if they look pretty.  Lesson 2: he’s sick of rice, and i need to give him less food.

[work-eat-play-party]

Bento Day 2, 4/21/2016

[work-eat-play-party]

Bento boxes #1 4/20/2016

Me: Onigiri, Broccoli carrot cabbage teriyaki, smoked salmon, fruit cup.

Naruto: Broccoli, carrot cabbage teriyaki, fried chicken, onigir, fruit cup, fruit mochi.