Moar Bento!

Sundays have turned into Bento Day (really, only about half an hour to an hour after church).  I've only eaten out three times for lunch since starting to use a bento box for lunches a few weeks ago.  I'm putting more effort into getting things ready for the week so I can easily pack the box in the evenings.  I'm enjoying lunch a lot more, and an added bonus is that I've noticed one pair of pants and a skirt I wear a lot are a little baggier.

I cooked an entire box of Ronzoni Smart Pasta and divided it into one-cup servings, which I froze separately and have bagged in the freezer.  One serving, with a tablespoon or two of pesto or marinara, makes a decent entree.  I did the same thing with spaghetti squash, and bought a bag of small, frozen turkey meatballs.  The spaghetti squash also gets the pesto or marinara treatment, but I add the meatballs for protein.  I've been taking the marinara in a separate container because heating tomato sauce in plastic food containers sometimes damages the container.

Sunday is vegetable-and-fruit-preparation day.  I slice apples and pears, and put them into storage containers in the refrigerator with some lemon juice sprinkled on to keep them from browning.  I slice peppers and store them, and get lettuce torn and washed, then stored.  Last week, I made a fresh green bean salad.  This week, I chopped celery and peppers and mixed them with soybeans and dressing to make a French-style bean salad.

Fresh Green Bean Salad

Fresh green (string) beans
Grape tomatoes (or tomatoes seeded and cut into strips)
Red onion, cut into thin strips

Wash the beans and cut off the ends, then cut into bite-size pieces.  I like to use a Chinese cut-and-roll technique that gives me slanted ends on the pieces--to do it, line up the beans and cut across them at an angle, roll your hand across to turn them a bit, then cut again at an angle, and so on.  Put the beans in a microwave-safe dish and microwave for a couple of minutes.  You'll have to do this to suit your taste; I like mine very raw and crunchy, but you can soften your beans as much as you want.  Drain the beans.  Cut and seed the grape tomatoes, or use them whole, whatever you like.  Toss the tomatoes and onions in with the beans.  You can use a commercial balsamic viniagrette dressing, or make your own:  Combine olive oil (I like extra-virgin for dressings because of the taste), balsamic vinegar, a little minced garlic, and salt and pepper in a small container with a lid, and shake before using.  This bean salad is tasty and filling, and it's a break from plain lettuce salads.

French Bean Salad

1 can cooked soybeans
1 celery stalk, diced
1/4 each red or yellow and green bell pepper, diced
Commercial French herb blend (or thyme, tarragon, garlic, onion powder, parsley, etc.)

Wash and drain the beans to get the canning juice off them.  Combine everything in a bowl and mix (I use herbs to taste--but maybe a half teaspoon of each thing or three teaspoons of the blend).  You can use the same balsamic viniagrette for this as for the green bean salad, or something different if you're making both salads the same week.  I used the balsamic this week, but I have some Girard's Champagne Viniagrette that I'm thinking of trying next time.  The classic French bean salad uses small white beans, but soybeans have a little more protein, I think.  Soybeans are a natural plant estrogen, so if you're eating a lot of soy, you could switch back to the small white beans.

I acutally chopped two celery stalks and twice as much of the peppers as for the salad recipe, and used half of it for the salad and half to mix with a can of tuna.  A great plus to using tuna is that it not only supplies lean protein and Omega 3, you get exercise fighting off the cat.  I have a 20-pound Maine Coon, and he is a freaking annoying persistent animal, so I'm figuring I burned a few calories.

I'm looking forward to lunch this week!