Quail Egg & Tomato Skewers - 199 calorie Bento

I had a few quail eggs and was wondering what I could pack with them - why not skewers? I looked in my bento-stuff bin for picks or skewers and settled for the wooden ones. I have to say that the tiny eggs held up pretty well - I thought they would fall apart, but they didn't!

Bento Content:

• Quail Egg & Grape Tomato Skewers (64)
• Red Pepper Strips (9)
• English Cucumber Strips (3)
• Trader Joe's Sea Sa;t & Pepper Crisps (63)
• Catalina Dressing - Light (60)

Total Bento - 199 calories

Skewers and Creamed Spinach - 230 calorie Bento

I love creamed spinach but I avoid it like the plague. It is usually high in calories, but I found a pre-made one that comes in the microwave steamer bags that is not too 'calorific'. The container I used is great for bentos that have something liquidy. It has a separate lid for the center part and another lid covering the whole thing. I'm guessing it was meant for dips and crudites, maybe? I'm not complaining, specially since I found it in the $1 store! Yay!

Bento Content:

• Grilled chicken patty & Black Olive skewers (167)


• Creamed Spinach (50)


• Shredded Lettuce & Shredded Carrot (13)

Total Bento: 230 calories

Chickenless Nuggets & Veggie Skewers - 181 calorie Bento

This one turned out to be a bit low in calories so I had to add a Banana to this lunch. The banana is not shown in the picture nor in the calorie count. It was tasty, though!

Bento Content:

• Trader Joe's Chickenless Nuggets (130)
• Romaine & Cucumber Salad (9)
• Black Olive and Grape Tomato Skewers (42)

Total Bento : 181 calories

plus Banana (120)

Total Lunch : 301 calories

Pastrami 'Bacon' Sammie - 358 calorie bento

Today I was a little scatter-brained...I wanted to heat up some pastrami and I put a few slices into the microwave. A bit too long it seems, because instead of heating the pastrami, I made 'bacon' strips out of them! Surprisingly, they were quite good! Hah! I now have a bacon substitute! Gotta love when that happens! I think I will be repeating the 'mistake' often!

Bento Content:

• Pastrami 'Bacon' on Whole Wheat with Spicy Mustard and Shredded Romaine Lettuce (325)
• Carrot and Cubanelle Pepper Skewers (33)

Total Bento : 358 calories

Chili Lime Chicken & Tomato Skewers - 258 calorie Bento

The meat for this lunch came from Trader Joe's. One Chili Lime Chicken Burger sure went a long way for this bento! I basically cooked it and cut it up into squares, added grape tomatoes and skewered them all. For skewers I used food picks I found at The Cristmas Tree Store. This was one spicy meal!

Bento Content:

• Chili Lime Chicken Burger (150)
• Grape Tomatoes (21)
• Shredded Romaine Lettuce (4)
• Savory Thin Mini Crackers (53)
• Spicy Fat-Free Black Bean Dip (30)

Total Bento : 258 calories

Skewers & Sweet Pea Stuffed Mini Peppers - 204 calorie Bento

Today had skewers made out of Organic Lite Italian sausage, grape tomato & an olive. I found these sausages (Neshama brand) that are quite low in calories (just 90!) and surprisingly low in sodium (250!). Unfortunately, I had to mess it up with the olive (high in sodium). But, they were yummy...what can I say.....

I also have a large bag of raw red, orange and yellow mini peppers. I wanted to include sweet peas, so I stuffed the peppers with them. Prevented tons of rolling around in the bento box!

Bento Content:

• Skewers on top of shredded Green Leaf Lettuce (124)
• Mini Peppers stuffed with Sweet Peas (30)
• Blackberries (30)
• Grapes (20)

Total Bento : 204 calories

Roasted Chicken plus Black Olive & Tomato Skewers - 180 calorie Bento

This was a very low calorie bento and partly a 'deconstructed' chicken soup.

Let me explain : the night before I had quickly roasted some skinless and boneless chicken breasts to make hubbie a quick chicken soup (he has a cold and is convinced chicken soup makes him better). I always have frozen homemade chicken broth for such an occasion - just add roasted chicken, celery, carrots, seasonings and at the vey end some spinach!

So, I put aside some of the roasted chicken for this bento - plus the carrots, celery and spinach.

Bento Content:

• Roasted Chicken (110)
• Black Olive & Grape Tomato skewers (25)
• Baby Spinach (7)
• Celery (10)
• Carrots (18)
• Lime Juice (4)
• Ken's Lite Italian Dressing Spray - 6 sprays (6)

Total Bento : 180 calories

Holdover Bento for 2 - 373 calorie Bento

I made this bento for a car ride with hubbie. We tend to grab things on the way during these drives and the calories just pile on - most of the time with food that isn't worth the calories.

So, I made this bento just in case hunger pangs kick in on a highway. I made just the one bento to share. The pic came out rather crooked...Oh, well...

Bento content:

• Pinwheels made out of Flaxseed Rollup filled with Cream cheese & Red Pepper Spread (163)
• Strawberries (24)
• Cheeries (36)
• Grape Tomato & Black Olive skewers (50)
• 2 Babybel Lights (100)

Total Bento = 373 calories

Per person = 187 calories