Tag Archives: salad
20 Sep

salad with shredded chicken bento

Sometimes when it’s crazy hot out, nothing sounds better for lunch than a big salad. Luckily, my kiddo loves salads so last week when the temps were in the mid 90’s, sending her off to school with a salad in her lunch box was a no-brainer.

In this simple salad lunch from last week, Camryn had mixed spring greens, cilantro, sliced carrots, tomatoes, shredded cheese, a shredded chicken breast, corn chips, and strawberries.

The chicken breast was leftover from dinner the night before.  It simmered low and slow in salsa verde, chicken broth, and a little taco seasoning, so it had lots of flavor and was still plenty moist by lunch time the next day.

I also packed a small brownie in a separate container but that came home uneaten. This container however, was mostly empty.

Daily Bento

25 Aug

 

For lunch today, Camryn has cheese pizza rolls, a little salad leftover from yesterday, a mandarin, and an apple.

I love making pizza rolls for the kids because they come together so quickly and easily. I actually make them while I’m cooking dinner, set them aside to cool while we eat, and package them up while I’m cleaning up after dinner.

Lunch is in our new Yumbox Panino.

 

Daily Bento

24 Aug

 

It’s the first day of school!

For her first lunch as a fourth grader, Camryn has a hearty salad that contains romaine, spring greens, chicken, pasta, bell pepper, corn, tomatoes, and orange slices on the side.

For dessert, she has a ridiculous brownie with fudge on top and a few pieces of her favorite candy pressed in for good measure.

I normally wouldn’t send candy to school for lunch but first days can be tough so… over-the-top fudgy candy brownie it is.

I hate to admit it but it took me forever to figure out what I was going to do for today’s lunch. I finally settled on some scrapbooking stickers that I bought with a 40% off coupon yesterday at the craft store.

I stuck them onto the inside lid of her bento box so they’ll be a cute surprise when she opens it up.

How cute is that pencil pouch sticker!?

A Salad for Saturday

13 Jul

saturday salad

 

I get it.

It’s salad. Salad isn’t hard.

You don’t need a recipe for salad.

I’m sure when you saw the title of this post, you wondered for a second why I would take time out of my day to sit down and write a whole post on a salad and probably now why you’re taking time out of your day to read it.

Understood.

And in my defense, I almost didn’t post it because I thought it was too simple.

But then I came across this. And this. And then I didn’t feel so weird about posting it.

Also, this salad is just a tad more involved than say, throwing some leafy greens onto a plate, drowning them in dressing, and calling it a day. This one requires just a few more steps.

It’s totally worth it though because it was really good, and really filling without being heavy. So how could I not share it?

It’s hot out, let’s eat things that fill us up without filling us out.

This is one of those “no-recipe recipes” meaning that the amounts are not exact and you can use the same ingredients and steps that I used or change them up to suit your taste. If you don’t like beans, leave ’em out. Want cheese? Add it.

It should be simple… it’s just salad, remember? 😉

For the chicken:

Chicken (for obvious reasons)

The juice of 1 lime*

1 Tbsp of taco seasoning

Extra virgin olive oil

Agave syrup

Pinch of sea salt

For the dressing:

1 ripe avocado

1 small container of plain yogurt – approx. 6 oz.

1-2 tbsp fresh lime juice*

Agave syrup

Small handful of cilantro

1 tsp taco seasoning

Sea Salt

For the salad:

Greens of your choice

Tomato

1 ripe avocado

Beans – cooked

Here’s how I put it all together:

I whisked together the juice of a lime, a tablespoon of taco seasoning,  a sprinkling of sea salt, a squirt of agave syrup, and a little evoo and poured it into a big plastic bag along with my chicken to marinate for about half an hour. Then I grilled it until it was cooked through and sliced it up.

While the chicken was cooking, I rinsed and drained some canned black beans and seasoned them with onion powder, cilantro, lime juice, and cumin. Then I nuked them in the microwave until they were heated through and added sea salt to taste. If you’d rather use dried black beans, go for it. The end result will be the same.

Then I sliced up a tomato and an avocado and set them to the side.

For the dressing, I added another avocado, yogurt, a small handful of cilantro, a good squeeze of lime juice, a small squirt of agave, taco seasoning, and a pinch of sea salt into my blender and gave them a good blitz.

Then I arranged everything nicely on a plate so that I could share it with you.

Only when all of that was done, did I pour an obscene amount of that dressing all over that bowl of salad and then promptly shoved it in my face and immediately wished that I had grilled some fresh corn to throw in there too.

Seriously, if you happen to have some freshly grilled corn just lying around, it needs to be in this salad.

* To get more juice out of a lime,  heat it in the microwave for 8-10 seconds and then roll it on the counter before slicing.

Daily Bento

20 Feb

I’m not sure why I waited so long to buy a set of Easy Lunchboxes.

I mean, I’m not a lady who makes rash purchases. I do a ridiculous amount of research before I buy anything, but all the reviews I read for Easy Lunchboxes had been overwhelmingly positive. And the great majority of my bloggy friends love them and use them often.

Not that I’m a gal who gives in to peer pressure but if that many people think these containers are so fantastic, how could they be anything but? Right.

Maybe it was the non-conformist in me. I’m glad she got over herself.

When my big box of bento goodies came the other day and I unpacked my new set of Easy Lunchboxes “Brights” – I have to say that I was happily surprised at how sturdy they felt. The lids are brightly colored and just so happen to be Cam’s favorite colors too. Naturally she assumes that I planned it that way. I’m not telling her any different. She’s happy, I’m a genius – Winning.

Pictured below is Cam’s first ELB lunch just before it made its maiden voyage to school this morning.

 

In today’s lunch:

  • Israeli couscous with sweet peppers, feta, sun-dried tomato, lemon zest, & parsley
  • A mandarin
  • 2 star-shaped cookies from The Fresh Market
  • Strawberries
  • Salad – green leaf lettuce, carrots, grape tomatoes, star-shaped rice crackers
  • Pumpkin and sunflower seeds in the rainbow box