asian pantry bento, redux

i know, spring has sprung, and i am psyched to try some new seasonal recipes… but i’ve been traveling like a crazy person for work, and haven’t had time to put together a blog-worthy spring lunch. until i can get around to doing that, i thought i’d share a lunch from a couple of weeks back. it was made with almost exactly the same ingredients as the pantry-based lunch i posted about here: same cannelini-rice mix (this time, with a quarter-cup of steamed spinach mixed in), same burdock namul (this time, with a purple potato flower garnish), same japanese pickles (the batch of veggies i pickled was a mix of lotus, daikon, and myoga ginger, and i’m still working my way through the jar). although this is super simple, the solid combo of carb-plus-veg-plus-protein (beans) is in keeping with the tone it up nutrition plan principles for meal 3 of the day (where meal 1 is breakfast and meal 2 is a mid-morning snack).

this came together quickly with a bamboo skewer of regular old canned black olives (leftover from another meal). the onigiri are filled with about a teaspoon each of white miso, and wrapped with a red shiso leaf from the pickle jar — these are what give my pickles the pretty pink color, although they go dark purple-ish in the jar after giving off their natural dye.

nutrition info below.

• 1 serving of gobo namul, 101 calories (4.5 g. fat [0.6 g. saturated, 1.9 g. poly, 1.8 g. mono], 621 mg. sodium, 33.8 mg. potassium, 13.3 carbs [0.8 g. fiber, 0.4 g. sugar], 64.6% vitamin C, 4% iron)
• 1 serving of rice mix (packed into onigiri; spinach nutritional info listed separately), 223 calories including furikake/ginger topping (0.9 g. fat, 470 mg. sodium, 40. g. carbs [1.9 g. fiber], 8.1 g. protein, 8.3% iron)
• 1/4 cup steamed spinach, 13 calories (0.3 g. fat [0.1 g. saturated, 0.1 g. polyunsaturated], 28.9 mg. sodium, 145.1 mg. potassium, 1.7 g. carbs [1.2 g. fiber, 0.3 g. sugar], 1.5 g. protein, 91.5% vitamin A, 15.8% vitamin C, 6% calcium, 4.4% iron)
• 2 teaspoons white miso paste, 27 calories (0.7 g. fat, 240 mg. sodium, 4.7 g. carbs [0.7 g. fiber, 2.7 g. sugar])
• 20 g. pickled myoga, 9 calories (300 mg. sodium, 1.5 g. carbs, 0.1 g. protein)
• 3 black olives, 23 calories (1.2 g. fat [0.8 g. monounsaturated], 57.5 mg. sodium, 0.5 g. carbs)

TOTAL: 396 calories