Greek Pasta Salad Bento Box
I am kinda obsessed with this meal prep lately. It takes all the tangy, crunchy elements of a well-made Greek salad and turns it into a low fat, protein packed little “bento box”. It’s particularly yummy. Again, vegan/vegetarians can sub tofu for the chicken and skip the feta, although of course the macros will be a tad different. You can also add finely chopped, raw cauliflower for more crunch and volume.-Sheb
Crunchy, flavorful and super filling!!!
This is a wee bit more complicated than some of our other recipes but mainly if you get your prep together you can throw together 4-6 bentos. And then you just simply log and eat. Easy Peasy.
PRE PREP:
Pre-cook some boneless, skinless chicken thighs and boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Do a bunch and you’ll have leftovers for other dishes! Season these with salt, pepper and Mediterranean spices such as rosemary, thyme, sumac and /or garlic powder. Up to you! Chop this all up.Drain and pat dry a can of chick peas. Season with salt, pepper and paprika and roast in the oven with your chicken for about 20 minutes. You can also prepare chick peas from dry in an instant pot if you wish. Your choice.
Low -Fat, At-Home Vinaigrette hack. I like this more than any commercial, prepared dressing I have found.
Take a packet of dry Italian dressing seasoning. Follow directions except instead of using 1/2 cup olive oil use 14ml of olive oil and 1/2 cup water. Shake well and let sit in the fridge over night.Measure out 4-8 ounces of dried protein pasta (My go-to is Banza Pasta which is gluten free but you can use whatever brand you like). Drain when cooked and rinse under cold water. Use wheat pasta if you like, it will just have lower protein.
Slice one large bell pepper (about 150 grams weighed)
Chop up about 400 grams of kale cabbage mix or save some time and buy a pre chopped box or bag.
Procure some good Greek feta cheese and olives. Feta is low in fat and high in protein. One ounce of sheep/goat milk feta has the same macros as an egg. Olives are just salty goodness. They are all fat. Good fat.
Finely chop some raw cauliflower. You will want about 200 grams total. (1/2 small head)
Once you have your bento box ingredients ready, simply “build” your box to suit your unique macro needs. If you need lots of carbs, up the pasta. If you need more fat- more feta, fee free to add walnuts, and use all chicken thighs! My bentos ended up being 26 C | 16 F | 38 P. That’s a nice split for a dinner for me since I eat more carbs during the day. The point is, just build to suit, pre-log and then eat! These last for 4-5 days in the fridge!