My husband thought he was being pretty funny yesterday.
I asked him to stop at the grocery store for me after work, and among the things he brought home was one of the things I hate the most: Lunchables.
Lunchables? Seriously?!? He knows very well how I feel about those things! They are anti- Clean Eating, and anti-food! They are bento's evil twin!
What my husband didn't know was that I had already packed his lunch for the next day, and it was a delicious lunch of Homemade Chicken Nuggets (ha!), veggies, fruit, hummus, and fried rice.
Once he found out he was getting *real* chicken nuggets for lunch, he thought it would be funny to do a side by side comparison of the two ( ahem) lunches:
Our lunches ( because I had the same thing for my lunch) contain: chicken nuggets made of ground chicken breast; fried rice with carrots, lean ham, and edamame; cantaloupe with blueberries and strawberries ( under the cantaloupe flowers); celery, radish star, mini tomatoes stuffed with lite cream cheese, and hummus to dip the veggies in.
The Chicken Dunks Lunchable contains: 4 chicken nuggets, ketchup -with added starch ( ! ), an Airheads candy, and a Capri Sun drink. Hard to believe, but see for yourself:
I feel sorry for the kid who gets that for lunch. That is a snack, at best, but a very unhealthy one.
Here's how the lunches look side by side:
The biggest part of the Lunchables lunch was actually the Capri Sun! See why I call it Bento's Evil Twin? Sheesh! And the only vegetable in that meal is the ketchup "with starch added"!
Once I got into the habit of cutting fruits and vegetables with mini cutters instead of a knife, and preparing proteins and starches a week in advance, it became a lot easier to pack healthy lunches for us all. In fact, when I realized our son was going in to work with my husband this morning, I quickly threw together some healthy food for him to take as he waited by the front door. It didn't look as good as our lunches, but he got fried rice, a chicken and cream cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, some fruit, and a frozen smoothie. I threw his lunch quickly into an Easy Lunch Box, and he was out the door!
Packing lunches is a routine I've developed as part of my busy schedule. I make the time to prepare food because it's important to my family, and contrary to what some people believe, I don't have to put a lot of time into it... but sometimes I do, SOMEtimes... because I love to have fun with our food, and I love to make my family happy : )
Since it is What's For Lunch Wednesday, I need to tell you all what I'm eating today:
breakfast - rice, super lean sausage, and egg ( and some strawberries, not pictured) :
snack - a Right Light protein shake ( in my favorite Fit n Fresh shaker):
lunch - a bento, a lot like my husbands pictured above ( I just didn't want to take any more photos) but with less food. Mine has 3/4 cup fried rice, 4 nuggets, 1 cup fruit, and 1 cup veggies.
snack - egg salad ( 1 egg plus 2 egg whites, greek yogurt, lite mayo, pickle relish, celery) with a radish garnish, and 1/2 cup cherries:
dinner - cassoulet ( a french bean and sausage stew), salad, and a GF roll
Exercise: yoga : )
* Added to What I Ate Wednesday and What's For Lunch Wednesday
Here's some of the things I used to pack lunches and snacks today:
I asked him to stop at the grocery store for me after work, and among the things he brought home was one of the things I hate the most: Lunchables.
Lunchables? Seriously?!? He knows very well how I feel about those things! They are anti- Clean Eating, and anti-food! They are bento's evil twin!
What my husband didn't know was that I had already packed his lunch for the next day, and it was a delicious lunch of Homemade Chicken Nuggets (ha!), veggies, fruit, hummus, and fried rice.
Once he found out he was getting *real* chicken nuggets for lunch, he thought it would be funny to do a side by side comparison of the two ( ahem) lunches:
Our lunches ( because I had the same thing for my lunch) contain: chicken nuggets made of ground chicken breast; fried rice with carrots, lean ham, and edamame; cantaloupe with blueberries and strawberries ( under the cantaloupe flowers); celery, radish star, mini tomatoes stuffed with lite cream cheese, and hummus to dip the veggies in.
The Chicken Dunks Lunchable contains: 4 chicken nuggets, ketchup -with added starch ( ! ), an Airheads candy, and a Capri Sun drink. Hard to believe, but see for yourself:
I feel sorry for the kid who gets that for lunch. That is a snack, at best, but a very unhealthy one.
Here's how the lunches look side by side:
The biggest part of the Lunchables lunch was actually the Capri Sun! See why I call it Bento's Evil Twin? Sheesh! And the only vegetable in that meal is the ketchup "with starch added"!
Once I got into the habit of cutting fruits and vegetables with mini cutters instead of a knife, and preparing proteins and starches a week in advance, it became a lot easier to pack healthy lunches for us all. In fact, when I realized our son was going in to work with my husband this morning, I quickly threw together some healthy food for him to take as he waited by the front door. It didn't look as good as our lunches, but he got fried rice, a chicken and cream cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, some fruit, and a frozen smoothie. I threw his lunch quickly into an Easy Lunch Box, and he was out the door!
Packing lunches is a routine I've developed as part of my busy schedule. I make the time to prepare food because it's important to my family, and contrary to what some people believe, I don't have to put a lot of time into it... but sometimes I do, SOMEtimes... because I love to have fun with our food, and I love to make my family happy : )
Since it is What's For Lunch Wednesday, I need to tell you all what I'm eating today:
breakfast - rice, super lean sausage, and egg ( and some strawberries, not pictured) :
snack - a Right Light protein shake ( in my favorite Fit n Fresh shaker):
lunch - a bento, a lot like my husbands pictured above ( I just didn't want to take any more photos) but with less food. Mine has 3/4 cup fried rice, 4 nuggets, 1 cup fruit, and 1 cup veggies.
snack - egg salad ( 1 egg plus 2 egg whites, greek yogurt, lite mayo, pickle relish, celery) with a radish garnish, and 1/2 cup cherries:
dinner - cassoulet ( a french bean and sausage stew), salad, and a GF roll
Exercise: yoga : )
* Added to What I Ate Wednesday and What's For Lunch Wednesday
Here's some of the things I used to pack lunches and snacks today:
Your fruit and vegetables are very cute! I also enjoyed seeing the comparison between your healthy lunch and a store bought lunch.
ReplyDeleteThere is simply no comparison. You proved that! YUM!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, but what you left out, which might have been an eye-opener to some parents, were the scary list of ingredients in the "chicken dunks".
ReplyDeleteyou're right- every food in the Lunchables contained a form of sugar, even the chicken! And the list of preservatives and artificial colors was really astounding!
Deletelooks delicious!!! (your lunches that is.. the lunchables looks disgusting)
ReplyDeletethanks, Kat!
DeleteI have a lot of green long beans from my garden..where could I find your cassolet recipe??
ReplyDeleteactually this recipe calls for other beans - black beans, navy beans, red beans... but here's a green bean recipe I like ( I just don't use onions - I hate onions!)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/green_bean_casserole.html_0
I hope that helps!
Way to go!!! There just is no comparison in quality. Your bento wins hands down for nutrition, appearance, being substantial enough to feed someone, and fun factor! Love it!
ReplyDeleteThe Lunchable is so sad :(
ReplyDeleteBut wow, look at yours! Beautiful!
Where do we find the healthy chicken nugget recipe?
ReplyDeleteI've had a few request for it, so I'll post an actual recipe ( hopefully soon) but I did post some general instructions on how I make gluten free chicken nuggets in this post:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.beneficial-bento.com/2012/04/flock-of-chicken-nuggets.html
thanks for asking!
Just wanted to say that I love your blog! Thanks for posting a picture of a lunchables, I've never purchased one. They truly look as disgusting as they sound! Now I must talk the husband into taking me into town, your post about weekly food prep has inspired me to be more organized!
ReplyDeleteDeborah