If you’re not familiar with what a bento box is, it’s a staple in Japanese cuisine where you have a box or similar take-out package that’s traditionally filled with rice or noodles, fish or meat, with a variety of pickled or cooked veggies. Bento boxes are actually a balanced meal, and with a few clever tweaks, can be made to fit a wide range of dietary restrictions. This keto lunch bento box is my definition of a tasty but satiating meal that will last me well into the late afternoon.

Keto Bento Box Ingredients

For obvious reasons, you won’t be finding any rice or noodles in this keto style bento box. Instead, what you’ll be getting is a fantastic mix of low carb fruits and veggies: red and yellow peppers, cucumbers, and fresh strawberries (or other berries) to go along with your three slices of deli turkey.

In addition, you’ll also be including two tablespoons of cream cheese (combined with ranch seasoning to make a yummy spread), ¼ cup of cheddar cheese, and ¼ cup of pecans. Not only do these three things add a bit of variety to the bento box, but they also add in an abundance of high quality fats, including both saturated and monounsaturated fats.

Keto Lunch Bento Box Assembly

The first thing that you’ll want to do when making this keto bento box recipe is mix together your cream cheese and ranch seasoning. Spread your new cream cheese mixture evenly over top of your three slices of deli turkey, and then top each piece with the sliced bell peppers and cucumber.

Roll up of the turkey slices tightly before cutting them into bite sized pieces. Pack them in a lunch box with ¼ cup of fresh strawberries (or blueberries, raspberries, blackberries…whatever you prefer!), ¼ cup of cheddar cheese, and ¼ cup of pecans.

That’s seriously how easy it is to put together a perfectly balanced keto friendly meal, all inspired by a bit of lean Japanese cuisine.

Does This Bento Box Recipe Cover All Of My Child’s Nutritional Bases?

It sure does! Not only will your child be getting plenty of protein from the slices of deli turkey (along with moderate amounts from the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and pecans), but they’ll also be getting an abundance of essential fatty acids as well.

Not only that, but this bento box also provides a solid amount of dietary fiber, along with essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants from the fruit and veggie content.

Most impressively, it manages all of that while staying both low carb and keto friendly.

Can I Use Something Besides Deli Turkey?

Is your child not the biggest turkey fan in the world? No worries, you can easily swap out the deli turkey for whatever type of lunch meat that your child likes best when making this recipe.

Deli cuts of chicken or ham are equally as delicious when topped with the DIY ranch and cream cheese spread! In fact, they’re all so good, why not just make a different bento box with different cuts of meat for each school day of the week?

Lunch Bento Box Additions

The sky’s the limit when it comes to customizing bento boxes. So long as you stick to a few basic principles in order to keep the box keto friendly (low carb fruit or veggie options, healthy fats, etc.), then you can easily mix and match ingredients to your heart’s content.

Some easy examples off the top of my head include swapping out the pecans for walnuts or raw almonds, adding in avocado for another delicious source of healthy fats, or even something as simple as including carrots or celery sticks with all natural peanut butter.

Looking for Rice? There’s a Keto-Friendly Substitute

For those of you who think that a bento box should always have rice, you could also add in some cauliflower rice. Cauliflower rice is made from cauliflower, so it contains some net carbs but it’s mostly dietary fiber. It’s still keto-approved in low to moderate serving sizes.

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