*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*

Morning Snack: FAGE 0% Greek yogurt, strawberries, slivered almonds
Lunch: Beef stew, spinach and steak salad with bacon
Afternoon snack: Hard-boiled egg, cheddar cheese, pistachios

I’m still experimenting with the Paleo diet, and this bento is about 75% Paleo, which is how most of my diet is.  There’s a lot of information out there about the Paleo diet; if you’re curious, I would recommend this Nerd Fitness article in particular.  Basically, it emphasizes eating meat and protein and de-emphasizes carbohydrates.  (my apologies to my vegetarian friends).  For me, this means eating almost no refined carbs, and a limited amount of unrefined carbs.  The reason this meal is only 75% or so is the potatoes (and small amount of flout) in the stew, and the sugars in the yogurt.  It was tasty and delicious and I loved it.

*Welcome to This Week in Bentos!  Every week, 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*

Morning Snack: FAGE 0% Greek yogurt, blueberries, chopped walnuts

Lunch: Roast chicken (thigh), turkey, bacon and cheese roll-ups,  spinach with feta, red pepper and olives; apple

Afternoon snack: Hard-boiled egg, cheddar cheese, and carrots

I made good use of my new bento tools this week.  It’s amazing how much cuter your lunch can look if you only spend a few extra minutes on it.

Morning Snack: FAGE 0% Greek yogurt, blueberries, chopped walnuts

 Lunch: Spinach with chicken sausage, feta, red pepper and olives; apple; almonds and chocolate

 Afternoon snack: Hard-boiled egg, cheddar cheese, and carrots

*Welcome to This Week in Bentos!  Every week, 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*

Morning Snack: FAGE 0% Greek yogurt, blueberries, chopped almonds

Lunch: Romaine lettuce with chicken sausage, tomatoes and feta; apples with almond butter

Afternoon snack: Hard-boiled egg, cheddar cheese, and broccolli

You might notice a shift in my bentos this year.  I’ll post more about it later, but I’ve been gradually changing the way I eat, lowering the amount of carbs I eat and raising the protein and fat.  I started this after reading the book Why We Get Fat.  I’ve always been extremely skeptical of low-carb diets like Atkins and the Paleo/Primal diet, but this book has changed my thinking.  I read a lot about nutrition, health and food, and this is the first “diet” book I’ve read that actually has real, well-researched science to back up what they say.  I really recommend that you read the book, but the basic premise is that carbohydrates and sugars raise our insulin levels, which makes it more difficult for our cells to burn fat for energy.  I’m not ready to completely cut out sugars and carbohydrates, but I’ve cut them back considerably, and I’ve seen a great difference in my weight loss.  Anyhow, that’s why you’ll see more meat in my bentos now.

Morning Snack: FAGE 0% Greek yogurt, blueberries, chopped walnuts

Lunch: Roast chicken (thigh and drumstick), romaine lettuce with feta; apples with almond butter

Afternoon snack: Hard-boiled egg, cheddar cheese, and carrots

I tend to be a creature of habit when preparing bentos each week, so that’s why you’ll see a lot of similarities between each one.  Once I find something that I like, I tend to stick with it.  My morning snack is always yogurt, fruit and nuts.  My lunch always has meat, salad greens, maybe more veggies, and fruit with nut butter for dessert.  My afternoon snack is generally a hard boiled egg with some cheese and veggies.  I do try to switch it up on occasion, but I really love my routines.

Morning Snack: FAGE 0% Greek yogurt, blueberries, chopped almonds

Lunch: Chopped roasted chicken breast with broccoli, tomatoes and feta; apples with almond butter

Afternoon snack: Hard-boiled egg, cheddar cheese, and celery

*Welcome to This Week in Bentos!  Every week, 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*

Morning Snack: Oikos vanilla yogurt with cherries, hemp granola, and walnuts

Lunch: Hummus and spinach sandwich, Chicken minestrone soup (not shown), apple with Nutella

Afternoon snack: Hard boiled egg, Babybel Gouda, brocolli

The first week back at school is crazy exhausting and busy, which is why I haven’t posted much lately.  But back to school also means back to bentos  and I’ve had some pretty awesome ones lately.  I’ve discovered that the best method of eating to keep my metabolism where I want it is to eat every three hours and eat smaller meals, so I’ve started packing morning and afternoon snacks with my lunch bento.

Morning Snack: Fage 0% greek yogurt with frozen blueberries and hemp granola

Lunch: Spinach salad with quinoa, chicken sausage, tomato, feta and olive oil; nectarine and Lindt chocolate square

Afternoon snack: Celery, Triscuit whole wheat crackers, hummus

You might remember these awesome Japanese bento boxes that Katrina of PuglyPixel gave me.  I’ve been using them regularly lately to hold my snacks.

Morning snack: Fage 0% greek yogurt with nectarine, hemp granola and walnuts

Lunch: Spinach salad with tomatoes, celery, feta, hard-boiled egg; grapes and cheddar cheese

Afternoon snack: Carrots, celery and hummus

Personally, I think that one of the best ways to eat healthy more often is to make it fun.  And what better way to do that than with fun bento accessories?

I got these at my local Asian supermarket.  If you have one near you, check it out!  If not, then try some of the shops listed on Just Bento.  Many of them have a fantastic selection of fun bento accessories.

The ones I got are a cookie cutter set (mainly for veggies and fruit) and a crinkle cut knife.  The cookie cutter is great for making cute flower shapes.  So far, I’ve tried carrots and bell peppers, but I’m sure I’ll find more fun ways to use it.  The crinkle cutter is great for making carrot chips.

It really doesn’t take much extra time to use tools like this while putting together lunches, but it makes the lunches so much more fun to eat.  What do you do to make lunches more fun?