Middle Eastern Lunch Box Feast

Today's Lunch Menu:

A meze is a combination of palate pleasing foods often served as appetizers at Middle Eastern gatherings. Like much of the region’s cuisine, the meze often features dishes made of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes with a variety of spices. After having our own Middle Eastern feast for dinner last night, we decided to create a personal sized meze to enjoy today for lunch.

Menu

• Falafel Balls
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Baba Ghanoush
• Tabbouleh
• Whole Wheat Pita

Preparation Notes

Use leftovers or make the night before:

Use your favorite falafel mix and either bake or fry balls. Once cool, put into one of your large containers.

Add a handful of cherry tomatoes to the large container with your falafel balls.

Prepare the baba ghanoush and put into your medium lidded container. Following is the recipe we used:http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/baba-ghanoush-2/Detail.aspx.

Prepare the tabbouleh: http://veganconnection.com/recipes/tabouli.htm and put into your other medium container.

Cut up a whole wheat pita and place into your remaining large container.

Lunch Jar Makes it Easy to Add Hot Items to Your Bento Lunch

Bento users often ask “How can I keep food hot?” Well, we’ve got the answer for you: we’ve just re-launched our stainless steel Lunch Jars, now available in our web store at www.laptoplunches.com.

The Laptop Lunches Lunch Jar features insulated walls and a vacuum seal that maintain food temperatures for up to six hours. Whether you want to pack some hot tomato soup or a chilled fruit salad with your bento lunch, our stainless steel Lunch Jar will keep it at the perfect temperature for you to enjoy at lunchtime.

Made out of 18/8 food-grade stainless steel with a black or pink cap, the Lunch Jar won’t impart or retain flavors. It’s BPA-free and has a capacity of 17 fluid ounces. It’s a reusable, recyclable, and eco-friendly solution to transporting hot foods with you while you are on the go for work, travel, school, or anywhere your life takes you!

Lunch Jars Expand Your Bento Lunch Options

Our bento boxes and insulated carriers are great for keeping food fresh until lunchtime, but these Lunch Jars expand your options by keeping temperature-sensitive foods hot or cold for hours. They work well with a number of our bento lunch boxes and make a great accessory item for your Laptop Lunchbox!

Carry a Lunch Jar to work with your Casual Lunch Date and enjoy a hot or cold food item to go with the other healthy choices you include in your bento box.


Pack the Lunch Jar inside your Bento Carrier, along with a drink bottle and Bento Buddies, for a complete on-the-go meal.


Add a Lunch Jar to your Power Lunch System and open the door to a range of new lunch menu combinations that will power you through your busy day.

Hot Bento Lunch Jar Recipes

Looking for some delicious menu ideas to pack in your Lunch Jar? Here are some of our favorite hot food recipes that make a great addition to a balanced bento lunch:

• Pumpkin Curry Soup – Featuring a savory blend of seasonings combined with pumpkin puree, this tasty soup will warm you up on chilly days.

• Hearty Chili: Spice up your lunch with this simple yet so delicious chili recipe that will fill you up at lunchtime.

• Miso Soup: You won’t want to miss this miso soup! A flavorful combination of red miso paste, tofu, and dried kombu seaweed, it goes well with rice crackers and lemon-ginger cookies.

How Will You Use Your Lunch Jar?

Do you have a favorite hot or cold recipe that you’re planning to pack in your new Lunch Jar? Leave a comment to let us know!

Veggie Omelet

This Week's Photo

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it is often also the most rushed. Having breakfast for lunch is a great way to enjoy some of your breakfast favorites--but in slow fashion.

Menu

• Vegetable and Cheese Omelet
• Home Fried Potatoes
• Orange Segments
• Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin

Preparation Notes

Make an omelet with cheese and your favorite steamed vegetables to put into your large lidded container.

Cut a lemon poppy seed muffin in half and put both halves in your other large container.

Prepare home fried potatoes, let cool and put into our medium container.

Peel and cut an orange into segments to put into your other medium container.

Almond Butter and Bananas

This Week's Photo



If you're facing a stressful day at school or work, this is the lunch for you. Bananas play a starring role in this meal and their unique make up will help boost your energy, reduce your stress level and lighten your mood. All that and you get lemon cookies for dessert! How could your day not turn out great?

Menu

Almond Butter and Banana Sandwich
Steamed Broccoli

Ranch Dressing
Lemon Cookies

Preparation Notes

Spread almond butter on both halves of a whole wheat English muffin. Thinly slice half a banana up and add to the muffin. Put your sandwich and the second half of the banana in your extra large container.

Steam broccoli crowns and add to one of the medium containers.

Fill the dip container with ranch dressing and add it to the extra large container to enjoy your broccoli with.

Fill your other medium container with your favorite lemon cookies.

Four Cheese Ravioli

This Week's Photo



Ravioli are easy to prepare and, with the seemingly endless combination of fillings and toppings, are sure to be a hit amongst the entire family. We served our four-cheese ravioli with a fresh green salad, oranges and chocolate squares for dessert which made for quite the lunch time treat.

Menu

•Four Cheese Ravioli with Marinara Sauce
•Green Salad
•Tuscan Salad Dressing
•Orange Slices
•Dark Chocolate Squares

Preparation Notes

Cook the ravioli and put into your large container. Top with marinara sauce and fresh basil.

Toss your favorite greens with dried cranberries and walnuts to put into your other large container.

Fill the dip container with Tuscan dressing to drizzle over your salad.

Fill one bento divider with dark chocolate squares. Store chocolate and Tuscan dressing in your medium container.

Slice oranges to put into your other medium container.

Lunch Boxes for Adults Help to Fulfill 2011 New Year’s Resolutions

Whether your 2011 New Year’s Resolutions involve eating better, living greener, or spending less, making the decision to pack your lunch every day can help you achieve all of these goals. We all know that New Year’s Resolutions are easy to make but hard to keep, so you’ll be happy to hear that our lunch boxes for adults are here to help!

Adult Lunch Boxes Make it Easy to Eat Smart and Go Green

The unique design of our adult bento lunch boxes helps with portion control and encourages balanced, wholesome meals. You’ll enjoy building a healthy lunch by filling the inner bento containers with a variety of healthy foods! To help you get started, each lunch box system comes with The Laptop Lunch User’s Guide, which is filled with healthy lunch ideas and recipes.

If you’re looking to become more eco-friendly in the New Year, you can feel good about leaving wasteful baggies, foil, plastic wrap, and plastic utensils behind. Using a reusable, recyclable bento lunch box will eliminate the need for all that disposable lunch packaging. Plus, by packing a lunch instead of eating out or ordering in, you can save money each week!

Planning Your Bento Lunches

To help you stick to a healthy eating routine, we suggest planning out your weekly lunches using our Bento Menu Worksheet (see below). Find inspiration for a wholesome lunch by checking out the list of nutritious food items under “What’s in a Lunch?” Then, fill in the lunch menu with healthy choices to create a balanced meal for each day of the week.

Extra tip: Bring along the Bento Worksheet when you go grocery shopping. You won’t be tempted to stop in the junk food aisle if you already know exactly which healthy items you need to follow your lunch menu!

Go Bento in 2011 with a New Adult Lunch Box!

Start the New Year off right with a new Laptop Lunches adult lunch box, and make 2011 your best year yet! If you’re planning to bring a bento lunch to the office, check out our top picks for Work Lunch Boxes. For those of you who rack up the travel miles each year, take a look at our Travel Bento Boxes and find the perfect lunch box to take on your next trip.

Now, it’s time to sound off. We want to know, what’s your 2011 New Year’s Resolution? Leave us a comment below.

Bento Menu Worksheet by Laptop Lunches

View more documents from Laptop Lunches.

Organic Cotton Napkins Now Available at www.laptoplunches.com

We’ve just added some brand new 100% organic cotton napkins to our Web Store at http://secure.laptoplunches.com. Available in a rainbow assortment of colors, they’re the perfect addition to your Laptop Lunches bento lunch box!

These new Laptop Lunches organic cotton napkins are a great way to reduce your environmental footprint. Replace your disposable napkins with colorful cloth napkins to add an instant touch of elegance to all of your on-the-go bentos! These organic cloth napkins are not only the perfect size for packing with your Laptop Lunches, but they’re machine washable too.

Select your favorite organic cotton napkin from our eight color options or choose a few to complement your bento set or carrier:

• Avocado Organic Cotton Napkin
• Brick Red Organic Cotton Napkin
• Lime Organic Cotton Napkin
• Magenta Organic Cotton Napkin
• Orange Organic Cotton Napkin
• Periwinkle Organic Cotton Napkin
• Plum Organic Cotton Napkin
• Purple Organic Cotton Napkin

Organic Cotton Napkin Features:

• Environmentally friendly
• Brightly colored
• Doubles as a placemat

Dimensions for Organic Cloth Napkins:

• 10” square

Cloth Napkin Materials:

• 100% soft organic cotton


Add a new cloth napkin to your lunch and feel good about indulging yourself with an eco-friendly choice! What are some of the other steps you take to make your healthy meals more eco-friendly? Leave a comment to let us know!