*Welcome to Bento Box Saturday. Every once and awhile, I post photos of one or more of my bento lunches from that week.  I use a Laptop Lunches bento box and I love it because it helps me to reduce the amount waste I create, since I don’t produce a lot of extra garbage from throw away packaging.  I also love how it creates perfect portion sizes.  To learn more about how I pack and carry my bento, check out this post and this post too*

• Salad – Spinach, sautéed mushrooms, avocado, grilled steak (added in), and olive oil
• Hard boiled egg
• Carrot sticks
• Strawberries and blueberries for dessert

Back to full-time work, which means bentos five day a week.  Yay!  I’ve found that since I’ve become more strict about my Paleo way of eating, junk food at work is a lot less tempting.  Why would I want to waste my time with dry, tasteless cookies, greasy pizza, or other “treats” loaded with high fructose corn syrup and other nasties, when I could be eating delicious whole foods like what I pack in my bentos?  Even with foods that might taste really good in the short term, I know what will and won’t work with my digestive system, so it’s so much easier to pass on the pizza and cake and cookies that seem to be so prevalent at workplaces.

My bigger concern this year is how I can keep the students healthier.  I’m in charge of several events throughout the year that usually involve pizza, cookies, ice cream, popcorn, etc.  It’s not easy to affordably serve a large group things that are healthy and good for you.  I’m going to have to get more creative this year.  I know most of the kids will still be eating junk food anyway, but I’d like it if they were at least exposed to more whole foods when they’re at programs I’m hosting.

• Salad – lettuce, broccoli, roasted red bell pepper, olive oil
• Grilled chicken drumsticks
• Hard boiled egg and olives
• Carrot and celery sticks
• Berries for dessert