(bouncy music)
- Hey munchies, welcome to the channel,
if you're new or if you're not, I'm Alyssia, and either way,
I am stoked you're here.
I get a lot of requests for videos about specific diets,
so keto, vegan, paleo, you know me, I have done them all,
but I actually haven't been following a specific diet now
for almost two years, and I am so much happier.
The truth is, I've found that listening to my body,
to see what it wants and needs day to day works best for me.
Sometimes I do eat a keto meal, or a paleo one,
or even a vegan one, so I do love exploring
and experimenting with recipes and having fun in the kitchen
but without the stress of following a specific diet.
So today I am sharing some bento box lunches
for multiple lifestyles, one for keto, one for vegan,
and one paleo.
I encourage you to use these as inspiration and feel free
to modify them to suit your preferences and needs.
This video was sponsored by Thrive Market,
which is an online market on a mission
to make healthy living easy and affordable,
and they're really perfect for this video
because they have options for literally every lifestyle.
Every health value you can probably think of
is easily searchable on their site,
and not just groceries and wholesome food,
but also home and beauty products, supplements, wine,
and even ethical meat, and sustainable seafood.
I have used them for years and love it,
especially with going out to the store less and less.
They actually have two different membership options now,
it used to be a 12-month membership for $5 a month,
but they now also have a monthly membership available
for just 995 if you wanna try it out first.
I'm excited to share that with my link in the description,
you can get 25% off your first order and a free gift.
So let's get started with the keto box today.
(bouncy music)
First off, these adorable
Everything but the Bagel pinwheels,
which are completely low carb,
thanks to Thrive Market's Coconut Wraps.
The ingredients are amazing, it's just coconut meat,
coconut water, and coconut oil.
These are easy and fun to prepare.
I start by spreading whipped cream cheese on the wraps
and then add some super thinly sliced cucumber,
I used a mandolin along with smoked salmon and of course,
sprinkling with Thrive Market's Everything Bagel Blend.
Those get rolled up nice and tight,
feel free to use a little cream cheese as glue if needed
and then use a really sharp serrated knife
to cut into pinwheels.
Oh my gosh, look at that,
they taste savory and satisfying.
Literally, it's like Everything but the Bagel,
and somehow I'm okay with that, weird.
Those go into my box, offering healthy fat and protein
and even a little veggie goodness.
Actually, I think that cucumber is a fruit, it's fine.
Okay, next, a fun low carb way to get veggies in,
cauliflower rice fritters.
I used Thrive Market's Cauliflower Rice,
which is shelf-stable.
What, I had never even seen
a shelf-stable cauliflower rice before,
so I could not resist.
They actually have broccoli rice too, so cool.
You can make these fritters with any cauliflower rice,
feel free to cook it on your own,
but the cool thing about this cauliflower rice
by Thrive Market is that it cuts down on a huge step,
I don't need to cook, or cool, or anything.
I do recommend squeezing out the water like I've shown
in previous videos where I use cauliflower rice,
just in a towel is fine because the less liquid,
the easier these are gonna be to cook
and the better they're gonna hold together.
That cauliflower rice gets mixed with eggs,
almond flour, which is another Thrive Market steeple
that's really wholesome and affordable,
Parmesan, minced onion, garlic powder, and salt n' pep.
Once that mixture is combined, I use a small scooper
to create these patties, just press them into your hand
and get out as much liquid as possible.
For cooking, I use Thrive Market Avocado Oil
on a hot skillet and then add the pressed fritter
to the pan, cooking for about five minutes on each side
until crispy and golden.
I love these, of course, they're great warm.
Serve them with scallions, sour cream, hot sauce, mayo,
but they're also tasty cold
if you wanna pack them for lunch.
They almost taste like hash browns.
I love eating them with ketchup and chipotle mayo.
Okay, next in this keto box, we do need some veggies.
Does celery count?
I am not a huge celery fan unless it's served
with a bangin' dip, like this buffalo chicken dip perhaps.
Oh yeah, that I can do.
(bouncy music)
First, I take a can of chicken drained and add that
to a saucepan over medium heat with buffalo sauce.
Now, I use Primal Kitchen's Medium Buffalo Sauce,
which I got on Thrive Market.
I love that in addition to their own affordable
and clean personal brand items,
Thrive Market also sells other healthy brands.
And I had to try out this Medium Buffalo Sauce
because often, regular buffalo sauce
is just a little bit hotter than I prefer,
and they also had a mild version.
So once that's slightly thickened
after just a minute or two,
I stir in softened cream cheese and sour cream,
cooking until it's blended and warm,
using a whisk if needed to integrate.
And then I mix in some cheddar cheese before transferring
to an oven safe dish or two
because I love these two little dishes.
The remaining cheese goes on top, and then that gets cooked
in the oven for just 10 minutes or so,
broiling the last minute if needed to brown it on top.
I garnished with blue cheese, but that is optional,
I know it's not everyone's favorite,
but it totally goes with buffalo and celery in my opinion,
and I also added some chives.
Whoa, this is so freaking good.
The Medium Buffalo Sauce was perfect for me.
It still had a kick, but it was manageable,
thanks impart to the cream cheese and sour cream.
It was savory and satisfying and a great for groups
to enjoy, whether they're on a keto diet or not.
Not to mention, it's of course, delicious warm
but also great left over in cool.
As a heads up, all of these recipes are linked
in the description box with the specific ingredient amounts
for easy access and printing and all that.
And that is the keto friendly lunchbox inspiration,
so if you're looking for low carb options, there you go.
But even if you're not, which I'm not these days,
I still like to make these recipes sometimes,
and there's nothing wrong with changing the ratio
of your macronutrients day by day if it suits
your body and lifestyle.
When I'm exercising less, for instance,
I notice my body tends to want more fat for satiety,
and generally I need less carbs
since I'm expending less energy.
So I think it's really valuable to understand this
so that you can make an educated decision
about what you wanna eat
without it having to be about weight loss
or because a diet says so.
You are the best guide of you,
inner wisdom people!
Okay, so let's get to the second box,
which is a vegan taco lunch.
This one is so simple, but I couldn't resist
because I was inspired by some Thrive Market products
that I hadn't seen before.
First, these taco shells, which are gluten-free
and made from super simple ingredients,
but they're not corn-based.
And second, this vegan chili,
they have a few of these plant-based chilies
and they're actually quite tasty.
I am not usually about a pre-made chili,
but I was pleasantly surprised.
It includes Beyond Beef Crumbles for protein,
and this original version that I got also has red beans.
It's already cooked, so you can actually just reheat it
over the stove and eat, but to liven it up
and make it taste more fresh, I added black beans,
fresh tomatoes and some fresh cilantro.
It's easy, I like a new meal.
So that goes into my box along with some toppings.
And here is a quick tip, if you wanna fit multiple items
into a single compartment in your box,
you could use little silicone or cupcake liners,
or I added a division with a little folded piece of foil.
So today, I went with shredded lettuce
and fresh diced tomatoes.
Feel free to also add vegan cheese or salsa on the side,
whatever suits you, but this is one of my favorite ways
to pack lunch, it is DIY.
And I've shown this kind of taco lunch before
but not a vegan,
so feel free to add your favorite toppings or ingredients.
Okay, this last box has a lot to cover, it is all paleo.
(bouncy music)
Starting with some paleo meatballs skewers,
now remember, paleo means no grains, no legumes,
no dairy, and no refined sugar,
but it's really variable, some people say no potatoes,
some people say no salt,
and it sort of depends who you ask and what you read.
So what that means here is our meatballs won't have
any breadcrumbs, but fear not,
breadcrumbs are just a binder,
and so we can easily achieve that with almond flour.
What's also unique about these meatballs
is since they're being served on skewers for lunch,
I thought it would be fun since I'm not gonna douse them
in sauce for packing purposes,
to actually mix the sauce into the meatball,
which adds great moisture and flavor.
So it's just your meat, and I used ground beef
and turkey today along with Thrive Market's Marinara Sauce,
and egg, almond flour, Italian seasoning,
or your favorite herbs, and salt n' pep.
So that gets mixed, I think the hands work best,
and then I just use a cookie scoop
to get smaller lunchbox size meatballs, but you do you.
So you can cook these on the stove,
I find adding them all to a baking dish
and cooking them in the oven is so much easier.
Wow, they are so flavorful and moist,
they're not dry at all.
I get the herbs and the marinara flavor inside the meatball.
I simply skewer and serve, and if you still wanna dip
in marinara on the side, go ahead, you do you.
For some fresh fruit, I added sticks of watermelon.
I love cutting a watermelon into sticks.
So with a small watermelon, I just cut off the top
and bottom and then cut one side so it's flat.
Then I can score the outside to make a grid,
go all the way one way and then turn it in all the way
through the other way.
And there you go, little watermelon sticks,
I cut them to fit the size of my box.
And we've got a few fun snacks, so first,
some turkey meat sticks chopped up with green bell pepper.
These are Thrive Market brand,
and I just do appreciate that they use ingredients
that I'm familiar with.
I know it's going to be high quality
and as sustainable as possible.
And the same goes for their Banana Munchies,
these are the garlic and herb flavor
but they do have a few others.
They are super crunchy and have a savory flavor
that makes it hard to put them down.
And we'll complete this box with a nice sweet treat,
some pancake mini muffins.
These are actually pancake mix mini muffins,
and they are extra easy.
I use Thrive Market's Paleo Pancake & Waffle Mix,
which is an almond flour-based,
but you could use any pancake mix you prefer
if you don't want it or need it to be gluten-free or paleo.
I mix that with almond milk or dairy, if again,
you aren't concerned about paleo, an egg, and maple syrup,
which adds sweetness, but also contributes
to these tasting pancakey.
Then stir in any mix-ins, I used blueberries today,
but you could do chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, go crazy.
And then into the muffin tin, they go with a cookie scoop,
I actually decided to use some little silicone liners
for these, but small or large muffins in a tin
will work fine too.
And look at that, the taste is amazing.
They are so satisfying and truly taste pancakey,
not just like a regular old muffin.
The blueberries, in my opinion, add a nice tartness
to compliment the sweet maple.
(bouncy music)
Oh yeah, so there are your three boxes to inspire
your healthy food ideas.
Remember, take these and make them your own.
I encourage you to get curious about what it means to let go
of food rules because for me at least,
it has been so freeing to not stress so much about health,
and just take it a day at a time without worrying
about all these details that can often keep us so confused.
So that is my approach now,
I hope you found this video helpful.
I invite you to try out Thrive Market
and get 25% off your first order using my link
in the description, you'll also get a free gift.
Shipping is free for orders over $49,
and I always end up getting more than that
because they just have so many exciting offerings
that I don't typically find in a grocery store
and at an affordable price.
And I also do appreciate that when you join,
they have a program called Thrive Gives,
where they match your membership to offer one
to a low income family.
So more details on that are included in the description.
I appreciate you being here and just a little reminder,
you know what's best for you.
I believe that, and I hope that you can come
to believe that too.
Thank you for your kindness and engagement.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode,
and remember, it's all a matter of mind over munch.
(bouncy music)