Everything E food related

Last post, I showed you my E bento, centered around brunch. But what else can you pack in an E bento lunch? Review the list below, and see what you can come up with.

Breads and Grains:
Egg bagel
Elbow noodles
English muffin
Ezekiel bread

Dairy:
Eggnog
Emmental (yellow, large-holed Swiss)

Desserts:
Eclair

Fruits:
Elderberry (small, round, bluish-black berry)
Ertrog (lemon-like citrus fruit)

Meats/Protein:
Egg
Egg salad
Escargot (cooked snails)

Vegetables:
Edamame
Eggplant
Endive
Epinards (French for "spinach")
Escarole

Combo:
Empanadas

Make your own Egg McMuffins

I love to healthify (yup, I made up a word) my favorite foods, like the Egg McMuffin. Delicious, but not terribly nutritious. For my homemade Egg Muffins, I opted for a whole wheat English muffin and reduced-fat cheddar cheese - a bit healthier and simply delish.

Here's a list of ingredients that you will need: cooking spray, eggs, shredded cheese, thin ham slices, and English muffins.

Let's begin! Spray a small, shallow, microwaveable container with cooking spray. Scramble an egg, and pour into prepared container.

Microwave the egg for 30-40 seconds, depending the strength of your microwave. Flip, and cook for 5-10 seconds more.

Slightly toast the English muffin halves. After that, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cheese onto one English muffin half.

Top the cheese with a cooked egg.

On top of the egg, place 1-2 slices of ham.

Sprinkle with another tablespoon of cheese onto the ham. Once the cheese melts, it holds the sandwich together.

Top with the other half of the English muffin.

These delicious breakfast sandwiches are amazing when they are fresh, but the good news is that they freeze well too! Here's how: tear off a piece of a waxed paper, about the size of a 12x12 square. Place Egg Muffin in the middle. Match up the ends of the waxed paper. Fold down the ends around the centered Egg Muffin, until the fold is snug against the sandwich.

Flip the sandwich over, and fold in ends, like you are wrapping a present. Secure with a piece of tape.

Presto! Homemade Egg Muffins.

To eat: remove from waxed paper. Microwave for 20-30 seconds, until cheese has melted. Enjoy the healthified yumminess!

E Bento Brunch

When you think about the letter E, what food pops into your head? For me, it's an egg. Well, actually an Egg McMuffin.

Not wanting to merely make a lunch containing E foods, I created a brunch-themed box, in which everything begins with E.

The main component of this brunch lunch is the Egg Muffin on an English muffin. (Later this week, I will teach you how easy it is to make your own Egg McMuffins at home.) If you will notice, in the main compartment, I placed the McMuffin in a flexible silicone cup. This keeps it away from any moisture of the salad, which would make the English muffin mushy.

Surrounding the English muffin breakfast sandwich, is a salad of Endive, Escarole and Epinards, which is French for "spinach".

For the fruit component, I wanted to find elderberries, but they don't seem to be in season. Instead I opted for an Elderflower Juice box, found at our local IKEA.

As a finishing touch, I added mini Eclairs. These things are the BEST! You can usually find them in the frozen section at the grocery store; I bought the ones made by Delizza Patisserie. They come in a large square plastic box, with about 30 mini eclairs inside. Pack a couple in your lunchbox, and they will thaw by lunchtime. OR throw one in the microwave for a few seconds, and you have a perfect portion dessert for those times when you have the munchies. Less than 50 calories per mini eclair. (Can you tell that I like these A LOT!)

So, that's it for today. Think about what you want to put into your E lunch. AND look for a special post about how to make your own Egg Muffins at home.

Foods Beginning with "D"

Time for making a Delicious D Lunch. Here are the foods I have discovered that begin with the letter D. Now YOU can create a lunch for your kids OR for yourself!

Breads or Grains:
Dirty rice (Cajun rice, chicken, onions & peppers)
Ditalini pasta (little pasta tubes used in minestrone, etc)

Dairy:
Danablu cheese (sharp, blue-veined cheese from Denmark)
Devonshire cream (clotted cream from England)
Dip
Dolcelatte (blue-veined, soft cheese - like a sweet Gorgonzola)
Double Gloucester cheese (English cheddar-style cheese from Gloucester region)
Dressing

Desserts:
Danish
Dark chocolate
Devils food cake
Donut
Dulce de leche (Hispanic "candy of milk")

Fruits:
Damson plum (small, sweet plum)
Dates
Dragonfruit (bright pink skin, white flesh with black speckles)
Durian (Asian fruit with a thick, prickly husk and a stinky custardy inside)

Meats and Proteins:
Deviled egg
Duck
Dungeness crab

Vegetables:
Daikon radish
Dandelion greens salad
Dill pickles

Combinations:
Dagwood sandwich (tall, many-layered sandwich of bread, meats, cheeses)
Dal (thick Indian lentil stew)
Demi-glace sauce
Denver omelet (omelet with ham, onions, peppers & cheese)
Dolmas (Mediterranean dish consisting of meat & rice wrapped in grape or cabbage leaves)
Dumplings (Seriously, get them at Trader Joe's. Yum!)

Other ingredients to possibly incorporate:
Demi glace - rich, brown sauce that is the base for other sauces
Dijon mustard
Dill

An Asian-themed Letter D bento lunch

While preparing to create a 'D lunch', I reviewed my list of foods beginning with the letter D. A few items presented themselves as terrific food pairings. Hence, a loosely-Asian-inspired Letter D bento lunch.

Forming the base of the lunch is a layer of pan-fried Dumplings - many thanks to Trader Joe's! Tucked in between the dumplings are leaves of a Spring mix salad. Not only does this add color and vibrancy to the lunch, but it also bumps up the nutrition factor.

The main vegetable component is a Daikon Radish Salad, topped with chives for color. Personally, my family found it to have an unfamiliar tanginess; however, if we ate it more often, we would probably grow to like it.

For the fruit aspect, I planned to add dates to this bento. However, my husband (yes, I send these bento lunches with him too) is not a big fan of dates. But what man can resist something wrapped in bacon! Presenting: Bacon-Wrapped, Feta-Stuffed Dates!  My husband LOVED them! My kids thought they were 'different' and 'just okay', but hey, I got them to try dates!

The cute, little containers nestled n the middle of the dumplings contain: (1) a Dumpling sauce in which to dip the dumplings, and (2) the Dressing for the daikon radish salad.

Lastly, I tried to round out the meal with something a little special: a Dragonfruit Drink. It was my intention to include slices of dragonfruit in the actual lunch, but at that time, I couldn't find any in the grocery store. Of course, NOW I can find them! Oh well.

Later on this week, I will post a list of more foods beginning with the letter D. What Delicious Dish will you create? (Sorry, I couldn't resist using those D words.)

Foods Beginning with the Letter C

Earlier this week, I blogged about one of my creations - a Letter C lunch, which contained foods that ALL began with the Letter C. In hindsight, I should have put in a Chocolate Chip Cookie, which (if we were playing Scattergories) would have earned me 3 points. Alas, there were no cookies OR chocolate chips in my house this week. Oh, well!

Below is a pretty extensive list of foods beginning with the letter C. Choose an item or two from each category, and craft your own lunch. Perhaps YOU will even throw a CCC (Chocolate Chip Cookie) in for "extra points".

I'd love to hear about your creations. Leave a message to let me know!

Breads and Grains:

Cereal

Chex

Corn Chips *** Extra Scattergories point***

Corn tortillas

Cream of wheat

Croissant

Couscous

Dairy:

Cheddar Cheese *** Extra Scattergories point***

Cheese

Cream Cheese *** Extra Scattergories point***

Desserts:

Carob Chips *** Extra Scattergories point***

Cake (Chocolate Cake for more points!)

Cannoli

Caramel

Cheesecake

Chocolate

Churro

Cookie (Chocolate Chip Cookies for 3 points!)

Cruller

Cupcake

Fruits:

Cantaloupe

Carambola (starfruit)

Cherry

Clementine

Coconut

Craisins

Cranberries

Currants

Meats and Proteins:

Calamari (fried squid)

Canadian bacon

Cashew
Caviar

Cheeseburger

Chestnut
Chicken salad

Chicken nuggets

Chorizo

Clams

Cod

Cornish hens

Crab legs

Vegetables:

Cabbage

Caesar salad

Carrots

Cauliflower

Celery

Chickpeas

Coleslaw

Collard greens

Corn

Courgette (zucchini)

Cress

Cucumber

Combos:

Calzone

Casserole

Chili

Chimichangas

Clam Chowder *** Extra Scattergories point***

Club sandwich

Cuban sandwich

Crepe

Curry

C is Not Just for Cookie

Cookie Monster says, "C is for Cookie". But C is also the letter of the day for this bento. I didn't include a dessert in this lunch, but if we were playing Scattergories, I should get extra credit for the Cheddar Cheese - 2 C's in one item!

Nestled in between slices of Cheddar Cheese and Carrot sticks, lies a tasty scoop of homemade Chicken salad, topped with Cilantro sprigs. The other layer of this lunch contains a miniature, flaky Croissant, along with a fruit salad of Cantaloupe Chunks and Craisins.

In order to preserve the integrity of each lunch component, it is oftentimes necessary to contain or separate certain problematic ingredients. For instance, the mayo of the chicken salad would create a sliminess on the cheese, so I placed a baran divider between the two. (Baran is a "decorative food divider".) Similarly, I place the fruit salad into a silicone cup, so that the delicious juiciness remained contained, without making the croissant soggy. Because who likes a soggy croissant, ya know?

Let your Creative juices flow. See what type of "Letter C" lunch you can come up with. And I'll post a more extensive list of C foods later on this week.

List of B foods

A few days ago, I posted a picture of my Letter B Alphabento. Here is an extensive, though non-comprehensive, list of foods the begin with B. I highlighted the foods that I used. What kind of lunch will YOU create?

Breads and Grains:
Bagel
Bagel chips
Baguette
Barley
Biscuit
Bran
Bread
Brioche
Brown rice
Buckwheat
Bulgur wheat
Bun

Dairy:
Babybel cheese
Bleu cheese
Brie cheese
Butter

Desserts:
Baby Ruth candy bar
Baked Alaska
Baklava
Black licorice
Blintz
Blondie
Brownie

Fruits:
Banana
Bing cherries
Blackberries
Blood orange
Blueberries
Boysenberries

Meats and Protein:
Bacon
Barbecue chicken
Bass
Beef
Beef jerky
Bison
Bologna
Bratwurst
Brazil nuts
Brisket
Buffalo wings

Vegetables:
Baba ghanoush (eggplant dip)
Baked Beans
Baked potato
Bamboo shoots
Bean sprouts
Beans
Beets
Bell pepper
Bibb lettuce
Black olives
Bok choy
Borscht
Broccoli
Bruschetta
Brussel sprouts
Butternut squash

Combos:
BLT sandwich
Burrito

My Letter B Alphabento

Keeping in the theme of the Alphabet Bentos, I present to you the Letter B!

For the Letter B bento, I crafted a picnic-style lunch, the kind where you can pick at a little bit of this and munch on a mouthful of that. Yummy! Chewy slices of Baguette, on which you place slices of Barbecued chicken, top with a spoonful of homemade Bruschetta, or smear with Brie cheese. Baked Beans constitute the vegetable part of the lunch, while Blackberries and Brownie Bites make up the sweet portion.

That is what I put into my Letter B bento. Later on this week, I'll post a whole list of foods beginning with B. Start thinking about what to put in yours.