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
Like your bento, so healty!
Looks great but what actually catched my eye was your cutlery. Love it!
Oh so gorgeous megan! Elegant and lively combo of shapes and flavors amke this yet another artistic delight. Hope spring is gorgeous in NY this week!
I love this bento and your website!! Where do you usually get your bento box and accessories (like cookie cutter, mold etc)”?
[…] details at bento zen […]