Vegetarian bento #4 - Greek Salad

One of my favourite songs to listen to in summer is Rufus Wainwright's Greek Song (I am listening now as I type!), which is the inspiration for this bento - warm weather, beautiful people, cocktail glasses pearled with drops of water and colourful salads for lunch.Best of all, it's unbelievably simple.

For the top layer, I used some cucumber, cherry tomatoes, leftover feta and black olives

Those are pretty much the ingredients of a Greek salad, of course, but I have LOADS of lettuce from my veg box which needs to be used up before I go away tomorrow afternoon, so in the bottom layer I put a generous handful of lettuce and a little panda pot full of homemade lemon dressing.

Lemon dressing

(makes 4 little pots)

2 dessert spoons olive oil
juice of half a lemon
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp parsley (freshly chopped or dried)
salt
pepper

Put all your ingredients into a clean jar and shake vigorously, then decant into pots as you need it.

Mix and match bento #1

This is a mix and match bento because while my version has meat in it, it doesn’t have to. I just used what I had to hand – you could easily swap in some tofu or more veggies or whatever you fancy, or leave that element out altogether.

It’s still really grey and muggy here in London and I’ve been trying to find dishes that fulfil my need for stodge, but are still healthy enough for Weight Watchers. And on top of this, I want my meals to look summery. Yes, I am demanding!

Today’s bento has a roasted vegetable salad and a lot of protein in the form of cheese and a pigeon breast :) I need to fill up today, it's Tuesday and I have exercise planned before lunch, and an 8km walk after work (and before dinner). 

Top layer: This aubergine salad by Abel and Cole is simply delicious. I adjusted the oil quantities in the dressing to reduce the WW points and left out the red onion because I forgot, but it still tastes really good and is probably less, um, fragrant, if you know what I mean. 

Bottom layer: I dusted a pigeon breast with lemon zest, salt and pepper, pan fried it and sliced it up. I then filled the box up with shredded gem lettuce and added 30g of cheese to go with my apple for dessert. 

The whole thing (30g cheese included) came to a modest 7 WW points and I felt very full after eating it, so mission accomplished!

Meaty bento #2: Bears in the Wood

Today's meaty bento is  a quick, cute bento:

Bed of rocket - The easy part. Remove rocket from packets and spread over the bottom of your bento!
Bear onigiri - I used my onigiri mould to make rice balls in the shape of a bear's face, and my nori punch for the faces.
Venison burgers - For the bears' bodies I used venison mince mixed with a little redcurrant jelly and onion and then shaped into oblongs. I pan-fried them and placed them under the onigiri to make a body
Carrots - Bears need paws! I used small carrot rounds for this. 

Stars and salads

A very quick entry on today's bento, which is actually not for lunch. I have Thai food at a local pub for lunch on Fridays, but this evening I am going to the cinema straight after work and I don't want to feel like falling over if I have acouple of drinks after that, so I've prepared a light bento.

Rice stars:

I know there are some wonderful people who do these by hand, but I use rice moulds I bought from Bento & Co and then I pat them with some sesame furikake I got at the local health food shop.

Marinated tofu:

My quick tofu marinade is 50/50 lime juice and soy. I dip the tofu in the mixture and then dry fry it.

Salads:

On the left I have some steamed broccoli, and below it some iceberg lettuce (no dressing). In the middle is a serving of Makiko Itoh's delicious cucumber and nashi salad.