Lunch Ideas For Work or Back to School & Healthy Meal Prep Recipes

Ttoday we’re gonna make packing lunch for work or school a bit more fun because we’re using bento boxes. Bento boxes are easily customizable with compartments that you can fill with a variety of ingredients colors and textures to create healthy balanced meals that you can enjoy. On the go or at home and because bento boxes are normally eaten cold or at room temperature this cuts out a hefty chunk of cooking time.
Ingredients that are cooked and meal prepped in today’s video the rest just require a little bit of chopping and assembly and you are done. Because bento boxes are great for both kids and adults alike I’m happy to have a few extra hands helping me in the kitchen today. Let me introduce you to my niece Nicolette and my nephew Nathan. I’m excited to partner with mom bento onto day’s video as they have so many amazing options when it comes to bento
and I say we just dive right in. So i can show you some of those options and a whole bunch of tasty mealsi’ve got two different bento box sizes today monbento’s mboriginal which is rectangular in sizeand their mbsquare which is taller and bigger forthose extra hungrybut i think it’s helpful to see themside by side each of the bento boxes istwo layers which is perfect for a mainmeal in one container and snacks in the
all day long and there’s a separate foodcup that’s perfect for nuts dips andspreadsyou can also get separate sauce cups fordressings or nut butters or things thatyou want to keep a lid onso it doesn’t spill but the great thingis that you don’t have to worry aboutleaking with these bento boxes asthey’re airtight and leak proof when youclose the silicone sealso once they’re full just stack them ontop of each other add the cutlery which
elastic strapthis very lightweight container is nowready to go wherever you may goand there’s tons of different coloroptions to suit your personalityand just for my downshifters i do have adiscount code listed in the descriptionboxthe first bento box we’re making todayfeatures a greek saladand nicolette is already hard at workslicing and dicing one large cucumberi should also mention that for all of
salads that you can meal prepthat means you can make a full batch aswe’re doing and enjoy it overseveral days and a quick reminder theprintable recipes for everything i’mshowing todayare in the description box below so addthe cucumber to a large mixing bowl andthen slice a pint of cherry or grapetomatoes and add those to the bowl aswellremove the seeds and stem from a greenbell pepper and then slice and dice it
about the same size as the cucumber andtomato thinly slice half of a red onionadd it to the bowl and add four ouncesof feta cheeseyou can use store-bought feta crumblesor buy a block of feta and cut it intosmall chunksand lastly add half a cup of pitted andsliced kalamata olivesto make the best homemade greek saladdressing add a third cup red winevinegar to a small bowlalong with the juice of one lemon one
two minced garlic cloves half a teaspoonof dried oreganoand a quarter teaspoon each of salt andpepper and while nicolette is stirringthat i’ll add a half a cup of olive oilandshe’ll keep stirring it until it’semulsified the great thing about thissaladand the others i’ll show you today isthat they’re really durableso feel free to add the dressing aheadof time give the salad a good stir to
and then add a portion to your bento boxin the snack side of this bento i’ll addone hard-boiled egg with a sprinkle ofsalt and pepperi have a separate video on how to makeperfect boiled eggs but it’s really easyand you know hard-boiled eggs are alwaysin my meal prep rotation to make themgently add a few eggs to a pot ofboiling hot water with a skimmerlet them cook for 12 to 14 minutes andthen remove them to an ice water bathafter the eggs have fully cooled you can
week and add one to your bento box forlunchnext to the egg nicolette is adding acouple spoonfuls of my homemade hummuswhich he’s obsessed with and a littlesprinkle of paprikato make the hummus just add two 15 ouncecans of drained chickpeas to ahigh-powered blenderwith a third cup of the aquafaba orliquid from the cansa half a cup of tahini a quarter cup ofolive oil
clovesone teaspoon of cumin and a half ateaspoon of saltadd the lid blend it on high for about30 seconds or until it’s nice and creamyand that’s how ridiculously easy it isto make homemade hummus that you canenjoy for the weekto finish off this bento i’ll addseveral celery sticks to scoop up thehummusand this greek salad bento is done[Music]
noodle caprese and baked chickennicolette is spiralizing the zucchininoodles and for a full batch of thisrecipe you’ll needthree to four zucchini once they’respiralized add them to a mixing bowlalong with eight ounces of small ballsof mozzarellaunfortunately they didn’t have thereally small mozzarella balls in themarketso she’s just cutting some of the biggerones in half
grape tomatoesalso sliced in half now what makes thisrecipe tasteamazing is the fresh homemade basilpesto which isso much more flavorful than store boughtto make the basil pesto justadd two tablespoons of pine nuts and aquarter cup of raw cashews that you’velightly toastedto a food processor then add one packedcup of basil leavestwo garlic cloves a third cup of olive
one teaspoon of lemon juice a quarterteaspoon of salt and a little blackpepperblend that until it’s fairly smooth butstill has a little bit of textureand you may need to scrape down thesides as you process it as wellthis is the perfect amount of pesto forthis zoodle caprese saladbut if you’re making an individualportion you can always freeze anyleftover pestoso give that all a stir to combine and
top it off with fresh basil leaves ifyou want to beextra fancy[Music]in the other container i’ll add ahandful of baby arugula and then topthat with my baked herb chickeni’ve shown you how to make this beforeon my very first meal prep video buthere’s what you dojust lightly oil both the sides of acouple of boneless skinless chickenbreasts in a casserole dish
your favorite herbsi usually do a blend of basil parsleyoregano thyme and garlic powderbake the chicken in a 425 degreefahrenheit oven for about 18 to 22minutesdepending on how thick your pieces arethen remove them from the ovenlet them rest for a minute or so andthinly slice themi already meal prepped this batch ofchicken the night before so it’s easy tojust add some cold chicken on top of my
i’ll also use some of the greek saladdressing from the first bento boxand you can either drizzle this directlyover the chicken or use one ofmonbento’s sauce cupslastly in the small food cup i’ll add ahandful of raspberries and blueberriesand bento box number two is now done[Music]our third bento box features a tunasalad sandwich along withsweet and salty snacksto make the tuna salad nathan is adding
bowlalong with a quarter cup of mayonnaiseone stalk of celery that’s been dicedtwo tablespoons of diced red onion onetablespoon of chopped parsleyhalf a tablespoon of dijon mustard andsome salt and pepperand i’m just over here trying to getnathan to break his very seriousconcentration faceonce that’s all in the bowl stir ittogether and add it to some gluten-freesandwich bread with baby spinach
collard green leaves for a tunis saladwrapi also love to add slices of freshavocado to tuna salad sandwiches so i’lllayer those on topadd the top piece of bread and slice thesandwich in halfthe great thing about the mb squarebento box is that they’re deeper whichis perfectfor sandwiches and next to the sandwichnathan is adding some plantain chipsplantain chips have surged in popularity
find some store-bought options withclean ingredients but they’re alsoreally easy to make at home just peel aplantain that’s a little bit on thegreen side and use a mandolin to sliceit on the thinnest setting possibleadd all of the slices to a small bowland drizzle a little avocado oil orolive oilgive them a gentle toss to make surethey’re all coated and then place themon a parchment-lined baking trayand i usually need two trays for all of
then sprinkle them with a little seasalt bake them at 350 degrees fahrenheitfor about 15 to 20 minutes or untilthey’re just golden along theedges and that’s it homemade plantainchipsand with those chips this container isnow donefor the other container nathan is makingmy melon mozzarella saladand i think he specifically chose thissalad because he just wanted to use themelon baller
on a roll making lots of littlecantaloupe melon ballsnow of course you don’t have to makelittle balls you can just slice thecantaloupe into bite-sized piecesbut i think i trust him much more withthe melon baller than with a knife andhe’s doing a great job so after he’sfinished up one cantaloupe he’s going tocreate little balls from one honeydewmelon as wellnext we’ll add one and a half cups ofmozzarella balls and i’ll just quickly
bowlthen i’ll toss in two cups of freshblueberries and one cup of basil leavesand you can always chop these smaller ifyou’d likefor a quick dressing add one and a halftablespoons of olive oilto a small bowl along with half ateaspoon of white balsamic vinegarhalf a teaspoon of honey and a littlesalt and pepper then give it a stir anddrizzle it on the saladit’s a simple dressing but really helps
fruitso give it a stir and then add it to thecontainer[Music]and in the food cup i’m just going toadd a half a cucumber that i’ve slicedup for nathan and this bento box is nowdoneand ready to be placed in the transportbag for easy carrying[Music]for the last bento box we’re makingsmoked salmon pinwheels
pinwheels nicolette is spreading someherbed goat cheese on one of my homemadecassava flour tortillasonce that’s in a nice thin layer she’sadding a handful of baby spinach leavesand spreading those outand then topping the spinach with smokedsalmon which just hasso much flavor she’ll then roll thetortillaas tightly as possible and i’ll give hera little help hereand then she’ll slice it into about one
the end pieces always go straight intomy mouth as they’re fairly emptyand the rest will go into the bento boxon top of a handful of spinachand that’s container number onefor the second container nicolette ismaking my watermelon cucumber and fetasalad which is perfect for summerit’s just five cups of cubed watermelontwo large cucumbers that have beenpeeled and diced and one and a quartercups of cubed fetathe dressing is one tablespoon of olive
teaspoon of honeyand after a quick stir that will getdrizzled on the salad after adding twotablespoons of freshly chopped mintleavesi’m such a fan of simple fruit saladslike this and it’s great because it willdefinitely lastthe entire weekin the last food cup we’ll add my matchapistachio bliss balls and to quicklymake those nicola will add threequarters cup of raw cashews to a food
along with a quarter cup of rawpistachios 12 pitted medjool datesa quarter cup of unsweetened shreddedcoconuttwo teaspoons of matcha powder and onetablespoon of coconut oiland then blend that for about a minuteor until it’s finely chopped and startsticking togetherthen we’ll use a cookie scoop to scoopout balls of mixture and roll it betweenour hands to create evenly sized blissballs
once all of those are donewe’ll roll them in more choppedpistachios that’s the final containerand nicolette has a cherry blossomcarrying bag to match her cherry blossombento boxi hope you guys enjoyed these four bentobox lunch ideasif you did give it a thumbs up for myniece and nephew and all of their helptodayand remember that all of the recipes arelinked in the description box below
recipe so if you’re not alreadysubscribed make sure to hit thatsubscribe button below without laughing okay oh okay okay here we go all right come here extra hands in the kitchen helping me today and they just stopped and because bento boxes are great for kids and adults alike i’m happy to havea few extra hands in the kitchen today.