- Today we 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. In fact, there's just
a couple of ingredients that are cooked in meal
prep in today's video, the rest just require a little
bit of chopping and assembly and you are done. And 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
Monbento on today's video as they have so many amazing options when it comes to bento boxes. And I say we just dive right in so I can show you some of those options and a whole bunch of tasty meals. I've got two different
bento box sizes today; Monbento's MB original, which is rectangular in size, and their MB square, which is taller and bigger
for those extra hungry. But I think it's helpful
to see them side-by-side. Each of the bento boxes is two layers, which is perfect for a
main meal in one container and snacks and the other to
keep you full all day long. And there's a separate food cup that's perfect for nuts, dips and spreads. You can also get separate sauce cups for dressings or nut butters or things that you wanna keep
a lid on so it doesn't spill. But the great thing is that you don't have
to worry about leaking with these bento boxes as they're air tight and leak proof when you close the silicone seal. So once they're full, just
stack them on top of each other, add the cutlery which fits
under the lid perfectly, and add the elastic strap. This very lightweight container is now ready to go wherever you may go, and there's tons of
different color options to suit your personality. And just for my down shifters, I do have a discount code
listed in the description box. The first bento box we're making today features a Greek salad, and Nikolett is already hard at work slicing and dicing one large cucumber. I should also mention that
for all of the bentos today, I specifically chose salads
that you can meal prep. That means you can make a
full batch as we're doing and enjoy it over several days. And a quick reminder, the principle recipes for
everything I'm showing today are in the description box below. So, add the cucumber
to a large mixing bowl and then slice a pint of
cherry or grape tomatoes and add those to the bowl as well. Remove the seeds and stem
from a green bell pepper and then slice and dice it into chunks about the same size as
the cucumber and tomato. Thinly slice half of a red onion, add it to the bowl, and add four ounces of Feta cheese. You can use store-bought Feta crumbles or buy a block of Feta and
cut it into small chunks. And lastly, add 1/2 cup of pitted and
sliced Kalamata olives. To make the best homemade
Greek salad dressing, add 1/3 cup red wine
vinegar to a small bowl along with the juice of one lemon, one of Dijon mustard, two minced garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. And while Nikolett is stirring that, I'll add 1/2 cup of olive oil and she'll keep stirring
it until it's emulsified. The great thing about this salad and the others I'll show you today is that they're really durable. So feel free to add the
dressing ahead of time. Give the salad a good stir to make sure everything is well combined and then add a portion to your bento box. (upbeat music) In the snack side of this bento, I'll add one hard boiled egg with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. I have a separate video on how
to make perfect boiled eggs, but it's really easy. And you know, hard boiled eggs are always in my meal prep rotation. To make them, gently add a few eggs to a pot of boiling hot
water with a skimmer. Let them cook for 12 to 14 minutes and then remove them to an ice water bath. After the eggs have fully cooled, you can store the rest in
the fridge for the week and add one to your bento box for lunch. Next to the egg, Nikolett
is adding a couple spoonfuls of my homemade hummus, which she's obsessed with, and a little sprinkle of paprika. To make the hummus, just add two 15 ounce
cans of drained chickpeas to a high powered blender with 1/3 cup of the aquafaba
or liquid from the cans, 1/2 cup of tahini, 1/4 cup of olive oil, the juice of two lemons, two garlic cloves, one teaspoon of cumin
and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add the lid, blend it on high for about 30 seconds or until it's nice and creamy. And that's how ridiculously easy it is to make homemade hummus that
you can enjoy for the week. To finish off this bento, I'll add several celery
sticks to scoop up the hummus, and this Greek salad bento is done. (upbeat music) The next spinto features
my zucchini noodle caprese and baked chicken. Nikolett is spiralizing
the zucchini noodles. And for a full batch of this recipe, you'll need three to four zucchini. Once they're spiralized, add them to a mixing bowl along with eight ounces of
small balls of mozzarella. Unfortunately, they didn't have the really small mozzarella
balls in the market, so she's just cutting some
of the bigger ones in half. And then at eight ounces
of cherry or grape tomatoes also sliced in half. Now, what makes this recipe taste amazing is the fresh homemade basil pesto, which is so much more
flavorful than store-bought. To make the basil pesto, just add two tablespoons of pine nuts and 1/4 cup of raw cashews that you've lightly toasted
to a food processor. Then add one packed cup of basil leaves, two garlic cloves, 1/3 cup of olive oil, one teaspoon of lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a little black pepper. Blend that until it's fairly smooth, but still has a little bit of texture. And you may need to scrape down the sides as you process it as well. This is the perfect amount of pesto for this doodle caprese salad, but if you're making
an individual portion, you can always freeze any leftover pesto. So give that all a stir to combine and then add it to one container and you can top it off
with fresh basil leaves if you want to be extra fancy. (upbeat music) In the other container, I'll add a handful of baby arugala and then top that with
my baked herb chicken. I've shown you how to make this before on my very first meal prep video, but here's what you do. Just lightly oil both sides of a couple of boneless,
skinless chicken breasts in a casserole dish. Sprinkle those with salt and
pepper and your favorite herbs. I usually do a blend of basil,
parsley, oregano, thyme, and garlic powder. Bake the chicken in a 425
degree Fahrenheit oven for about 18 to 22 minutes, depending on how thick your pieces are, then remove them from the oven, let them rest for a minute
or so and thinly slice them. I already meal prep to
this batch of chicken the night before, so it's easy to just add some cold chicken on top of my frugal now. I'll also use some of
the Greek salad dressing from the first bento box, and you can either drizzle
this directly over the chicken or use one of Monbento's sauce cups. Lastly, in the small food cup, I'll add a handful of
raspberries and blueberries, and bento box number two is now done. (upbeat music) Our third bento box features
a tuna salad sandwich along with sweet and salty snacks. To make the tuna salad, Nathan is adding a can of drained
tuna fish to a mixing bowl along with 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, one stock of celery that's been diced, two tablespoons of dried onion, one tablespoon of chopped parsley, 1/2 tablespoon of Dijon mustard and some salt and pepper. And I'm just over here
trying to get Nathan to break his very serious
concentration phase. Once that's all in the bowl, stir it together and add it to some
gluten-free sandwich bread with baby spinach, or you can place it in lettuce
or colored green leaves for a tuna salad wrap. I also love to add slices of fresh avocado to tuna salad sandwiches. So I'll layer those on top, add the top piece of bread, and slice the sandwich in half. The great thing about
the MB square bento box is that they're deeper, which
is perfect for sandwiches. And next to the sandwich, Nathan is adding some plantain chips. Plantain chips have surged in popularity the last couple of years, and you can now find
some store-bought options with clean ingredients, but they're also really
easy to make at home. Just peel a plantain that's a
little bit on the green side and use a mandoline to slice it on the
thinnest setting possible. Add all of the slices to a small bowl and drizzle a little
avocado oil or olive oil. Give them a gentle toss to
make sure they're all coated, and then place them on a
parchment lined baking tray. And I usually need two
trays for all of the slices. Then sprinkle them with a little sea salt, bake them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 to 20 minutes or until they're just
golden along the edges. And that's it, homemade plantain chips. And with those chips, this container is now done. For the other container, Nathan is making my
melon mozzarella salad, and I think he specifically
chose the salad because he just wanted
to use the melon baller. So after I showed him how to use it, he's on a roll making lots of
little cantaloupe melon balls. Now, of course you don't
have to make little balls, you can just slice the cantaloupe
into bite-sized pieces, but I think I trust him much
more with the melon baller than with a knife, and he's doing a great job. So after he's finished up one cantaloupe, he's going to create little balls from one honeydew melon as well. Next we'll add 1 1/2
cups of mozzarella balls, and I'll just quickly slice these in half and add them to the bowl. Then I'll toss in two
cups of fresh blueberries and one cup of basil leaves, and you can always chop
these smaller if you'd like. For a quick dressing, add 1 1/2 tablespoons of
olive oil to a small bowl along with 1/2 teaspoon
of white balsamic vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of honey and
a little salt and pepper, then give it a stir and
drizzle it on the salad. It's a simple dressing, but really helps to enhance all
of the flavors of the fruit. So give it a stir and then
add it to the container. (upbeat music) And in the food cup, I'm just gonna add a half a cucumber that I've sliced up for Nathan, and this bento box is now done and ready to be placed
in the transport bag for easy carrying. (upbeat music) For the last bento box, we're making smoked salmon pinwheels and some very tasty nibbles. To make the pinwheels, Nikolett is spreading
some herbs goat cheese on one of my homemade
cassava flour tortillas. Once that's in a nice thin layer, she's adding a handful
of baby spinach leaves and spreading those out, and then topping the
spinach with smoked salmon, which just has so much flavor. She'll then roll the tortilla
as tightly as possible and he'll give her a little help here, and then she'll slice it
into about one inch pieces. The end pieces always go
straight into my mouth as they're fairly empty, and the rest will go into the bento box on top of a handful of spinach. And that's container number one. (upbeat music) For the second container, Nikolett is making my watermelon
cucumber and Feta salad, which is perfect for summer. It's just five cups of cubed watermelon, two large cucumbers that
have been peeled and diced, and 1 1/4 cups of cubed Feta. The dressing is one
tablespoon of olive oil, the juice of one lime and one teaspoon of honey. And after a quick stir that will get drizzled on the salad after adding two tablespoons
of freshly chopped mint leaves. I'm such a fan of simple
fruit salads like this, and it's great because it will definitely
last the entire week. (upbeat music) In the last food cup, we'll add my macho pistachio bliss balls. And to quickly make those, Nikolett will add 3/4 cup of raw cashews to a food processor along with
1/4 cup of raw pistachios, 12 pitted Medjool dates, 1/4 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut, two teaspoons of matcha powder and one tablespoon of coconut oil. And then blend that for about a minute or until it's finally chopped
and start sticking together. Then we'll use a cookie scoop
to scoop out balls of mixture and roll it between our hands to create evenly-sized bliss balls. This recipe makes about 14 balls, and once all of those are done, we'll roll them in more
chopped pistachios. That's the final container, and Nikolett has a cherry
blossom carrying bag to match her cherry blossom bento box. (upbeat music) I hope you guys enjoyed these
four bento box lunch ideas. If you did, give it a thumbs
up for my niece and nephew and all of their help today. And remember that all of the recipes are linked in the description box below. Next week I've got a
tasty new chicken recipe. So if you're not already subscribed, make sure to hit that
subscribe button below. (laughing) Okay, here we go. (laughing) Okay, come here. (Nikolett chattering in the background) Extra hands in the
kitchen helping me today. (laughs) Nate just stopped. - [Nathan] I'm frozen. - And because bento boxes are great for kids and adults alike, I'm happy to have a few extra
hands in the kitchen today. (laughing) Done, you guys are done. (laughing) (upbeat music)
