Spring into Bento (and Chocolate Nests)

Today I made a spring themed bento with chocolate nests, and noodle nests, and egg chicks. I have a recipe for you too!, you can make your own Chocolate nests quickly and easily!

First up is my Fiance's bento. We both have the same lunch (except I have some orange slice in mine), but I always spend a little extra time on her bento to make it look nice.

• Steak and Mixed Vegetables with Teriyaki Sauce
• Cherry Tomatos
• Garden Delight Pasta Nest
• Hard Boiled Egg Chick (Sesame eyes, and Carrot beak)
• Peep Bunny
• Chocolate Nest (See below for details)
• Strawberry
• Pineapple

 My Chick is green with envy at all the people who can make their egg yolks come out yellow...

Chocolate Nests
What You'll Need:

• 2 Tbsp Peanut Butter (190 calories)
• 2 Tbsp Milk Chocolate Chips (140 Calories)
• 1/2 Cup Fiber One cereal (60 Calories)
• 8 Mini Cadbury Eggs (126 Calories)

Microwave peanut butter and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl for 50 seconds, Stirring every 10 seconds to evenly combine and make sure it doesn't burn. Add cereal and stir together to coat evenly. Divide into 4 portions (about 1 Tbsp each) Drop tablespoonfuls onto wax paper and form into nest shapes. Add two Candy eggs, and let sit in the refrigerator until hardened.
Take out and enjoy!

Could use other candy eggs instead of Cadbury, such as Robin Eggs,or Reese's Pieces eggs. And you can also make this without peanut butter if you have an allergy.

Fruit Bento

We were going to bring leftovers for lunch, but I wanted to make a bento, so I made a bento of fruit for me and my fiance to share. I love fresh fruit, and since I've been buying fresh fruit and cutting it at home both me and my fiance have been eating a ton of fruit now. It's just soo good we can't stop. lol

• Orange Slices
• Pineapple Chunks
• Cantaloupe Cubes
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Two picks so we can eat without using our hands

Here it is all ready to go. The two smaller containers have our lunch. It's home made Beans and Rice with Ground Beef.
Kidney Beans, Black Beans, Ground Beef, Brown Rice, Crushed Tomatoes, Garlic, Red Pepper Flakes, Ground Cumin, Black Pepper, Chili Powder, Oregano, Italian Seasoning Blend, Paprika, and a few other spices, I can't remember them all right now. I was going to add some chopped onion and pepper but we were all out. But it turned out yummy anyway.

Make Your Own Tacos Bento

We had Taco salad last night for dinner, and so I used the leftovers for bento today. The Homemade taco meat consists of Ground Turkey, Black Beans, Ground Cumin, Black Pepper, Garlic Powder, Oregano, Ground Red Pepper Flakes, Chili Powder, and Paprika. I also added a tiny pinch of salt.

• Two Whole Wheat Pita Breads
• Shredded Fat Free Cheddar Cheese
• Taco Meat
• Spinach
• Strawberries
• Pinapple
• Watermelon
• Cantaloupe
• Annie's Gummy Bunny Snacks (Berry Patch)

• Whole Wheat Pita Bread
• Spinach
• Taco Meat
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• 100 Calorie Pack Wholly Guacamole
• Salsa
• Strawberry
• Pineapple
• Watermelon
• Cantaloupe
• Annie's Gummy Bunny snacks (Sunny Citrus)

I didn't eat my bunny snacks because I was so full, and I was so full because I cut up the pineapple and the cantaloupe today, and I can't help myself from snacking on the fresh ripe fruit. It's so juicy and sweet. So I gorged myself on that fruit, that's why I only packed a little bit of fruit in my bento.

Peep S'mores

Last week, my brother shared a website with me where someone made peep s'mores. They looked yummy so I decided to try them out as well. Too bad the pictures didn't come out very good. But they tasted very yummy, so that makes up for it. lol

First of all I gathered the ingredients I wanted to use.

• Two Low Fat Graham Crackers (110 calories)
• Two Peeps (56 Calories)
• 1 Lindt Chocolate Bunny (60 Calories)

 I broke the chocolate bunny in half and got the graham crackers ready for the heat.

You can see the chocolate starting to melt, but the peeps don't look any different yet.

Here, the chocolate is completely melted and the peeps started to smoke on top so I got ready to take them out.

You can kind of see the toasted sugar on top of the peeps, I was careful taking them out of the toaster oven because sugar burns are the worst.

The sugar was crispy where it melted, almost like a Crème brûlée, but not nearly as fancy or sophisticated.

Here they are, ready for the taste test. The peeps don't seem to be very melty, but the chocolate is super melty and creamy.

The peeps were warm and a little gooey, but not as gooey as a regular marshmallow. The chocolate was delicious, but what else would you expect from Lindt? lol
All in all it was pretty tasty, but I wasn't too impressed with the peeps. Maybe I should try them in the microwave next time... that way I might be able to see them blow up a little. The crispy sugar was an interesting touch to the classic S'more.




 Now you can Peep Some More!!!!

Quick and Light bentos

I hope Everyone had a good holiday. I spent so much time with family, it was fabulous. My mother recently came back from a cruise she went on with my Aunts and Uncles. She brought me back some beautiful earrings and a beautiful bracelet from St. Lucias. I can't wait to have a nice occation to wear them. I also got to try on my dress for my sister's wedding. It fit great, and when we have the fitting The tailor will only have to take it in a little. So that's good news. I had a great time and I ate waaaaay too much. I was so full of food that I still felt full this morning when I woke up. Needless to say I am eating light today, so I only made myself a small bento for lunch.

Sorry for the crappy quality. I didn't spend much time on bentos today. I was busy with work and such, but I still made bento, so there. lol

• Mini Whole Wheat Pita sandwich (100 calorie pack of Wholly Guacamole, baby spinach, cucumbers, baby carrots, and tomato) This was really good, I loved the guacamole and I plan on getting it again. Yum!
• Apple Slices
• Peep (I'll be eating lot's of candy the next few weeks. lol)
• Strawberry

Not too pretty, but I got all the colors, and it tasted really yummy.
Next is my fiance's bento. She's been sick with a cold, so she has a quick and easy bento too.

• Hummus
• Whole Wheat Pita (These are really great, good size and only 45 calories each)
• Baby Carrots and Celery Sticks
• Apple Rabbits
• Strawberries

I didn't get any yellow in this bento. :/ I should have given her one of my peeps, but she didn't want one. Oh well.
Hopefully tomorrow's bentos will be a lot prettier. I'll try to dress them up nicer.

Earth Day Vegetarian Bento

Happy Earth Day!!!

My fiance and I were too busy for bento lunch so I figured we could make bento for dinner instead. And instead of making them both myself, I showed my fiance how to pack a bento box and we each made our own. I'm so proud with how they came out. They look really good.

This is my fiance's bento that she packed all by herself. I'm so proud. Not bad at all for a first (second actually) time. I am proud of myself too for showing her how to pack it.

Here's Mine! So Yummy!

• Morningstar 'chicken' buffalo nuggets, in a bed of Spinach
• Hard Boiled Egg (The last two of the ones we dyed last Sunday)
• Baby Carrots and Celery Sticks
• Container of Light Ranch dressing for dipping
• Strawbeeries
• Cantaloupe (my fiance didn't want any)
• Fresh Pineapple (sooo good and sweet, I can't stop eating it)
• Watermelon
• Blueberries

So yummy. The bento's a re a bit larger then I usually make, but that's because it's for dinner instead of lunch. We also ate vegetarian foods to be more environmentally friendly for Earth Day.

Now since it is Earth Day I have a suggested website for you. It's a list of 101 ways to heal the Earth, and has a lot of little suggestions that are easy to do to help save the planet. 101 Ways To Heal The Earth

What have you done to help the planet today?

Fast Snack/Lunch Bentos

Thursdays are my busiest days, so I don't usually get to make bento unless I have something easy and fast to put together. We had some leftovers to bring with us, but I also put together some snacks and sides for me and my fiance to eat along with the leftovers. I ended up packing more then either of us could eat, but oh well.

• Hard Boiled Egg (My fiance had for breakfast in the car)
• Light Babybel Cheese (Fiance's)
• Hummus (in the pink container, my fiance had this as lunch and snack)
• Baby Carrots and Celery for the hummus

• Banana slices (Mine)
• Blueberries (Shared)
• Crunchy Peanut Butter (Mine)
• Unsalted Saltines (Mine)
• Orange Slices (Mine)
• Strawberries (Shared)
• Late July Cookies (Shared)

 So that is that for our quick snacks and lunch. I tried to make it a bit pretty with the little time I had, and I used one of the eggs I dyed last Sunday to add a little more decoration.