List of T Foods

On Monday, I posted my Letter T Bento. Below is a thorough list of T foods, so that you can create your own T Lunch!

Breads/Grains:
Toast
Tortellini
Tortilla
Tortilla chips

Dairy:
Tallegio cheese (stinky smell, mellow taste)
Tillamook cheese
Toscana cheese (semi-hard, slightly sharp flavor) - one of my FAVS!

Desserts:
Taffy
Tapioca pudding
Tart
Tiramsu
Toblerone
Toffee
Tootsie roll
Trifle
Truffles
Twix candy bar

Fruits:
Tamarind
Tangelo
Tangerine
Tomato
Thimbleberry (similar to a raspberry)

Meats/Protein:
Tilapia
Tofu
Trout
Tuna
Turkey

Vegetables:
Taro veggie chips
Tempura vegetables
Tomatillo
Turnip greens
Turnips
Truffles (mushrooms)

Combos:
Tabboleuh
Taco
Tamale
Tostada
Teriyaki

Letter T Bento

Back to alphabentos ... Today is Letter T.

Here are the ingredients that I included in my Letter T Bento. Terra Taro chips. Foster Farms sliced deli Turkey. Tangelo sections. Tortellini. Toscana cheese. Tootsie rolls.

First, I prepped my food - cooking the tortellini, and separating out the Taro chips from the rest of the veggie chips. (Don't worry - we ate the remaining veggie chips for snack.)

I placed the tortellini into the Easy Lunchbox.

The Taro chips are placed into a separate container of the lunchbox, in order to keep the freshness. (Actually, here's a hint: I didn't place the chips into the lunchbox until morning. This action also keeps the veggie chips fresher.)

Small chunks of Toscana cheese (one of my favorites) fill up a silicone baking cup.

Thin slices of deli turkey are rolled up and secured with food picks.

Once the turkey roll-ups are placed in the other silicone cup, the juicy tangelo slices fill another compartment. A mini tootsie roll completes the Letter T Bento.

Begin thinking of the T ingredients that you could pull together for a Letter T Lunch, and check back on Thursday for a thorough list of healthy T foods.

S Alphabento

It's been a long time since I've created an Alphabento - a bento lunch in which all of the foods begin with the featured letter. Today, I'm featuring the Letter S Alphabento.

Here's what I began with: Salad dressing, Salad, Skittles (for dessert), Starfruit, Swiss cheese slices and Strawberries, as well as Spinach, Sausage and Swiss Stromboli.

The longest part of the process was making the Stromboli. I winged it, using online recipes as a guideline. Basically, I took pizza dough and rolled it out, adding layers of Swiss cheese, baby Spinach and cooked Sausage crumbles. Rolling it up, I baked it at about 375-degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Next, I sliced the Starfruit. Here's how: using a sharp knife, I trimmed the pointy edges off of the starfruit. Laying it on its side, I cut star-shaped slices.

Into a small container, I dropped in a few Skittles for dessert. I tucked in a slice of Swiss cheese behind a condiment container of Salad dressing - happens to be our favorite - Hidden Valley Ranch!

Lastly, I arranged it everything in an EasyLunchbox. And presto, a S Alphabento lunch.

Letter R Alphabento

Back to Alphabet Bento Lunches again, or what I coined as "Alphabentos"!
This week is the Letter R.

Plump, juicy Red Raspberries fill a silicone cup in the top layer of the two-tiered bento. Ritz crackers are tucked into another silicone cup. In between those two baking cups, a small condiment container of Ranch dressing, a dip for the veggies, is securely snuggled.

Romaine lettuce is tucked into each bento layer as the background, complimenting the other foods with a pop of bright green. Bonus: we grew these romaine leaves in our milk jug garden on the back deck. I'll post about that another time.

Rolled Roast beef slices and strips of Red bell pepper make up the majority of the second bento layer, while Radish roses comprise the remaining space.

Come back to visit on Wednesday, and I will give you a list of other foods beginning with the Letter R. And then, return on Thursday for step-by-step directions on how I crafted this particular Letter R bento.

Q Bento

Q is the letter of the day. Honestly, this was a bit of a challenge. (But nothing like 'Letter X' will be. Still working on ideas for that one.) Anyways, I crafted several Q foods into a breakfast-themed bento.

The grains portion consists of Quakers oats granola. I made my own granola, but store-bought granola is pretty tasty too! I made sure to include a small Tupperware container of milk in the lunchbox as well. Granola is pretty dry without a bit of milk.

You might think that those nuts in that green silicone cup are macadamia nuts. And you would be right. Except that they are also called Queensland nuts. Macadamia nuts are native to Australia, and one of the regions in which they grow is the northeastern state of Queensland. Hence the name.

The Quetsche plum is the featured fruit of this Q bento. It is also known as the French sugar plum or the Italian prune plum. You know what ... I couldn't find any cute, little plums by any of those names. So my kiddos got a regular ole plum in the their lunch. And they didn't know any different. And don't you tell them either! ;-)

The protein and the dairy components were combined into a Quiche bites made with Queso. I poured quiche batter mixed with cheese into mini muffin tins, baking them for less time than a full-sized quiche. Presto! Lunch-sized mini quiches.

On Thursday, I will post a list of other foods that begin with the letter Q. Perhaps that will inspire your creativity to create one as well!

A "Letter P" Bento

Let me tell you ... not only does this Letter P bento look scrumptious, it tastes delicious too! I just might have sampled some tasty morsels while I packed my kids' lunches. For quality control purposes, of course!

First, I made grilled Panini sandwiches - layers of thinly-cut Pastrami tucked in between slices of Pumpernickel bread with gooey, melty Provolone cheese oozing out of it. Yum!

Surrounding this delightful sandwich are crunchy strips of red and yellow Peppers.

In the upper left corner is a fruit salad consisting of juicy Peach slices, tasty Pineapple chunks and bright red Pomegranate seeds.

To complete this perfect P bento is a flaky, raspberry-filled Pastry.

On Thursday, I will post a list of foods beginning with the Letter P. Until then, be thinking about what kind of P lunch you would create!

Letter O Lunch

This bento was SO fun to make, albeit challenging. Why so challenging? Name a meat or protein that begins with the letter O ... you thought of "octopus", didn't you? Yeah ... do YOU want that in YOUR lunch? Well, I can almost guarantee that most kids (and adults) don't want it in their lunches either!

I also thought of Ocean perch, Orange roughy and Oysters. Still none of those sound appetizing in a packable, to-go lunch. Time to get creative!

Presenting the "Octo-Dog"! Also known as "an-octopus-shaped-hot-dog". It's rather simple to do - carefully slicing the hot dog to create "legs" and then boiling in water for a few minutes. Click on How to Make an Octo-Dog for step-by-step instructions.

I laid the Octo-Dogs over a bed of lightly buttered Orecchiette pasta. This cute little pasta looks like tiny ear-shaped shells.

Into the corner, I tucked some green Olives. Note that I put them in a silicone cup, to contain the olive juice, keeping it from making the Orecchiette from tasting like a summer pasta salad. That is a delicious thought (and perhaps, I'll make that dish this week!), but it wasn't the idea that I was going for now.

In the second layer, I placed Oreos in a small silicone cup as a dessert. (Note to self and y'all: place the cookies into the lunch in the morning. Experience talking again.)

Oranges make up the fruit component as this Letter O lunch. Originally, I wanted to place Orange smiles into the lunch, but they wouldn't fit. So they became Orange quarters. Still delicious. I put these in another silicone cup to prevent the juicy oranges from soggifying the Oreos and Okra.

Fried Okra! I've never tried my hand at it before. However, the Letter O veggie choices are quite limited. Honestly, it wasn't awful. It was rather delicious. I can't wait to try it again, now that I am more confident in frying it.

What will you make for YOUR Letter O lunch?

Letter N Bento

The star of today's bento lunch is the Letter N. I believe this to be one of the most beautiful lunches that I have ever created. The colors are so vibrant. The food is scrumptious. All in all, it is a feast for the eyes AND tastebuds.

In the back corner of the Easy Lunchbox, I placed wedges of Naan (an Indian flat bread), as well as a small chunk of Neufchatel cheese, which may be spread on the Naan. In the USA, we commonly think of Neufchatel as a low-fat cream cheese, when in fact, it bears more likeness to a Brie cheese.

In the compartment in front of the Naan and Neufchatel cheese is a juicy salad of chopped Nectarines and Nuts.

However, the main delight of this lunch is the Napa Cabbage Slaw. Absolutely delicious and refreshing. A reminder to my tastebuds that perhaps Spring just might be around the corner. (At least, I hope it is!) I based my tasty concoction upon Napa Cabbage Salad found at Food & Wine, and then I tweaked it to fit my family's preferences. You simply MUST try it!

Lastly, I wrapped up the lunch by placing Nilla wafers in a silicone baking cup.

I pack my kids' and husband's lunches (and sometimes one for me too!) the night before, and I learned 2 things to pass along to you.

(1) In case you didn't know, it is SO much easier to pack the lunches the night before! Either enlist older children to help with making sandwiches and tossing veggies into baggies, OR wait until the kiddos are all in bed, turn up some music, and make some lunches happen.

(2) Here is the thing that I learned from packing and then eating this particular lunch. Pack the lunch the night before, but put the Nilla wafers into the lunchbox in the morning. The aromas from the Napa cabbage slaw slightly permeated the delicate, crumbly cookies, giving the Nilla wafers a mild taste of soy sauce and rice vinegar. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't exactly the taste that I was expecting. Lesson learned. And now you won't make the same mistake. You're welcome! :)

M Bento

"And now we return to our regular scheduled bento-ing..." It's been a while since I've posted any alphabentos on the blog. There's been quite a few wonderfully delicious interruptions. First, there was the Olympic Torch and the Olympic Rings - Take a Guess, followed by the Olympic Rings Reveal. Also wedged into February was Valentine's Day. Lastly, I followed up with some Olympic sports - Ice Hockey, Curling, Figure Skating and Snowboarding. What a busy few weeks!

So for now, I'm back to posting about what I call "alphabentos". In case you're new here (please tell your friends about my blog!!), I am working my way through the alphabet, making a bento lunch for each of the 26 letters. Here's how I began bento-ing. I hope to be an inspiration to you! You too can create a fun, delicious & nutritious lunch. Okay, enough about that. Moving on to the Letter M lunch.

The previous night, I whipped up Meatloaf and Mashed potatoes for dinner. After serving up the portions for my family, I reserved enough food for the next day's bento lunches. Then - and only then - did I allow seconds. I mean, I make a terrific family-recipe meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and my growing-like-weeds-kids know it. If I don't reserve some food for the next day's lunches, there might not be any leftovers!

Rolling up slices of Muenster cheese, I tucked these orange-rimmed "cigars" into a corner by the meatloaf.

On the second tier of the M bento, I placed Mandarin oranges and Melon into a silicone cup; this keeps the fruit juices from soggifying (yup, I just made up a word) the Mushrooms next door.

Lastly, for dessert, I added a silicone cup of Monkey bread, which is basically cinnamon-sugar, pull-apart bread. For sake of ease, I used a store-bought monkey bread from the freezer section; honestly, it was just alright, but it did the trick. I see that Pillsbury has its own Monkey Bread recipe. Click on the link, and you will be salivating in seconds. I sure wish I had used that recipe! Oh well, next time.

So if you decide to make your own alphabento, I'd sure love to know about it! Look for a more comprehensive list of M foods to be posted later this week. Maybe your first alphabento could be the Letter M!

Luscious, Lemony Letter 'L' Lunch

According to Webster's dictionary, the definition of luscious is something "richly luxurious or appealing to the senses." Usually, the word "luscious" makes me think foods full of calories, such as huge, decadent desserts or giant portions of delicious appetizers. Personally, I think a little bit of a luscious food is more than enough; knowing that you have a small amount to eat, makes you savor each and every bite.

With a bento, the portions seem small. That's because bentos are designed to carry the right amount of food and nutrients for its recipient. Therefore, in my own, non-nutrition-degree opinion, it is okay to include a luscious food in one's bento once in a while, especially since the portion size is much more in line with actual needed portion sizes, rather than the Americanized idea of portions.

This Letter L bento is a perfect marriage between lusciousness and portion-control.

Honestly, the components of this lunch are quite simple. And yet, because of bright lemony colors contrasted against hues of salad greens, this bento brings "lunch" up to a whole new level.

First off, the base of the lunch is Lasagna. Not to praise myself, but ... I make an amazing lasagna: ground beef simmered in herbs and red wine, homemade red sauce smothering the noodles, mozzarella & Parmesan melting on top. (Are you drooling yet?!) BUT I went the easy route for this lunch; here's my secret - it's a Stouffer's lasagna. Yup, you read that right - store-bought Stouffer's. We had it for dinner, and then I packaged up the leftovers into the bento lunches.

Next, I added a bunch of different Lettuces in the second layer. Squirt with a spritz of Lemon, and wow ... healthy deliciousness!

For dessert, I cut a homemade Lemon bar to fit into a heart-shaped silicone cup. These lemon bars are one of the best desserts ever - slightly sweet and yet a tiny bit tart. SO good!

This is something that YOU could easily take to work. In fact, I bet that all of your coworkers might be rather jealous of your lunch. Try it, and let me know how it turns out!

Colorful & Delicious Letter K Bento

Letter K Lunch - this is one of my favorite bentos. Featuring such an assortment of bright colors, it is just begging you to eat it!

The base of this cheerful lunch is Kabobs. I cracked wooden skewers to fit into the bento box, making sure that there were no splintered ends. I sauteed cubes of beef and chunks of zucchini. Once they had cooled sufficiently, I threaded them onto the skewers, adding in bite-sized pieces of red and orange mini peppers.

Tucked into the small, green silicone cup, is the dairy component for the day: cubes of Kasseri cheese, which is similar to feta cheese.

In order to fit everything into this packed lunch, I had to cut the Kipfel in half. Kipfel is a bread similar to a croissant.

Kiwi fruit is the obvious choice for a fruit beginning with the Letter K. I made sure to include a food pick, so that my kiddos would (hopefully) use the pick and not their fingers to pick up the kiwi. Hopefully, less sticky mess!

I threw in Kumquats on a whim. These are weird yet delicious, little fruits. They are strange, because they look like mini oval oranges. And yet you don't peel them. With a kumquat, you pop the whole thing into your mouth. It's an interesting taste. Try it sometime!

A mini Kit Kat bar comprises the dessert portion of the meal.

Lastly, my favorite! And now it is my kids' favorite: Kale chips! If I wasn't pushing myself to create a bento lunch for each of the 26 letters in the alphabet, I NEVER would have tried these fragile, delicious creations. (One time, I made 7 cookie sheets of these kale chips, and my kids practically inhaled 5 sheets-worth of kale chips in 10 minutes. I could have been upset that I spent SO much time prepping & baking them, and then I realized ... my kids just happily ate PURE VEGGIES!)

Anyways, here is the recipe for Heavenly Kale Chips. My dad just tried them the other day, and decided that they weren't that bad. Try them for yourself, and let me know what YOU think!

Letter J Bento

It has been a week or two since I've posted about alphabentos. To refresh your memory, my current purpose is to create a lunch full of foods beginning with one particular letter, slowly working my way through the entire alphabet. This week's letter is J.

Zatarain's Jambalaya Mix made it easy to create the main part of this week's bento. I simply cooked the rice mix according to the package directions, and then added in some cooked, smoked sausage. Tada ... my non-Southern-style of cooking. (If you're from the South, please pardon my attempt at jambalaya.)

Into the corner of the lunchbox, I tucked some slices of Jarlsberg cheese. This type cheese looks similar to Swiss, but it tends to have a buttery texture with a nutty flavor.

LydiBug thought of Jicama as the Letter J vegetable. You might be asking, "Umm, what is jicama?' It is a brown-skinned, root vegetable; once you peel it, the white flesh is crunchy and sweet. If you haven't done so yet, try it!

I made a Johnnycake, which is a type of fried, cornmeal flatbread. To be perfectly honest, it didn't taste all that great; twas rather bland.

Lastly, in a Letter J lunch, you simply MUST include Jelly Belly Jellybeans!

Foods beginning with I

Like I stated in my previous post, Letter I Bento, the Letter I proved a difficult challenge. However, I am not one to be easily deterred by hardships, especially when it comes to making a fun lunch. If you would like to make your own Letter I lunch, here are a few foods beginning with I. Create away!

Breads/Grains:
Italian bread
Integrale (wholewheat) pasta

Dairy:
Ice cream

Desserts:
Ice cream sandwich
Italian fruit tart

Fruits:
Iyokan (Japanese citrus)
Ita palm fruit
Ilama (like a cherimoya)

Meats/Protein:
Italian sausage

Vegetables:
Iceburg lettuce
Italian salad dressing (condiment for veggies)

Combos:
Indian curry

I Bento

Did you know that there are not many healthy foods associated with the Letter I? Therefore, this was a tricky bento lunch to create. However, I'm sure the the Letter X will prove to be much more difficult!

Today's lunch is simply centered around Italian foods. The main portion of this bento is Integrale (wholewheat) penne pasta, topped with Italian sausage, sautéed peppers and onions.

An Iceberg wedge presents a sophisticated twist on regular, boring salad. Present but not pictured: Italian dressing.

A slice of Italian bread is perfect for soaking up the juices remaining from the pasta and sausage. Delicious!

Please note: I did not include ice cream, because I had no way to keep it frozen for my kids mid-day meal. If you are doing these lunches at home, by all means, include ice cream! I would have. :)

Letter H Bento Lunch

Wow, this lunch was a bit hard to come up with! But I did it, and I have to say - it looks pretty AND tasty.

For the protein, I took a piece of Hake fish, encrusted it with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese, and broiled it. In order to preserve its shape and integrity, I place the fish fillet in a flexible silicone dish.

Since we had never tried them before, I tested my luck by adding Hearts of Palm. Although pretty salty, they were not awful, but they were definitely not a first-time favorite. Haricot verts, the French word for green beans, add beautiful color to this Letter H lunch.

Honeydew melon and Huckleberries combine to create a gorgeous fruit salad. Actually I couldn't find any huckleberries in season, so I used blueberries. Don't tell my kids; they still don't know.

A Hard roll and Havarti cheese round up this delicious, fresh-looking lunch.

A Grape-less Letter G Bento

Ever have an 'Aha!' moment? As I was beginning to write this post, I realized that I could have include 'grapes' as a fruit, but I forgot! Oh well.

Here is my grape-less G bento.

The top portion of the bento is filled with Gnocchi pasta, smothered in Genova pesto. A big thanks to Trader Joe's for this delicious sauce.

Using toothpicks, I made mini skewers of Genoa salami. Simply fold up the salami accordion-style, and then thread it onto the toothpicks. 

Surrounding the skewers of deli meat are cubes of Gouda cheese, which is one of the best cheeses in my opinion. My favorite Gouda is found at Trader Joe's.

(I promise that I don't purchase everything there, just a few delicious items!)

Next to the salami and cheese is a silicone cup of Garlicky Green beans. I made sure to include a spoon!

Besides missing grapes as a fruit, I think it is a pretty balanced lunch.

What will you make?

Ps. Don't forget to include the grapes! :)

Brought to you by the Letter F

Today's blog post is brought to you by the Letter F. (For all of you "Arrested Development" fans, I call this post ... "Bent-o F", set to the tune of "Mist-er F".)

I originally wanted to combine Fava beans and Feta cheese in a delicious-sounding vegetable side dish. Alas, Fava beans are nowhere to be found, since they are not in season. Instead, I sprinkled Feta cheese on top of spinach salad. The word 'Florentine' is Italian for "served with spinach". Therefore, I technically served Feta Florentine, "Feta served with spinach". I love using creative license!

Fruit cocktail adds a pop of color, while rounding out the meal.

The main course of the lunch is Farfalle, drizzled with olive oil, topped with Feta cheese, and sprinkled with scallions, salt and pepper.

The ending flourish is a dessert of Fig Newtons. Please notice that I placed the Fig Newtons into a silicone cup, in order to keep the dessert separate from the robust flavors of the olive oil and feta cheese on the noodles.

All-in-all: a light, delicious, packable lunch.

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.

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.)

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.