Chicken Avocado Sandwich & Caesar Salad Bento

Today's bento is a sandwich and salad, to get away from the rice and noodles we've been having. I love chicken & avocado sandwiches, but they can be a bit more fiddly to put together especially if you don't have much time for preparation. Here is my quick and easy version. It's also another great way to use up leftover chicken...

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Instead of spending time teasing the chicken meat into strips, or slicing up the avocado, I just throw them both into a food processor and blend them together. True, the result is a slightly odd mushy green paste, but if you can eat guacamole (avocado dip), you won't mind this!

Quick Chicken & Avocado Sandwiches
(makes 4 -5 sandwiches)

Cooked chicken (Grill or poach the chicken. I used about 8-10 small chicken fillets, which I grilled for around 3 minutes until cooked. I prepared this the night before so I had even less to do in the morning. You can also use any leftover roasted, grilled, steamed, etc. chicken you have on hand.) 

1 ripened avocado
lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper
8 - 10 slices sandwich bread

1. Put the cooked chicken in a food processor and process a little. Add a little bit of water if the mixture gets too dry. 
   
2. Peel the avocado, remove the seed and add to the chicken (there's no need to slice up the avocado, you can add it in big chunks). 
   
3. Squeeze a little lemon juice into the mixture and process until the chicken and avocado are well blended. You can process it as smoothly as you like, or leave little chunks in the mix. 
   
4. Taste, and add more lemon juice if needed. You can also add some mayonnaise into the mix, but I prefer to leave it out.
5. Remove the crusts from the bread (optional) and scoop the blended chicken avocado mix onto the slices of sandwich bread and spread. You can also butter the bread you like, but again, I prefer not to. I find the avocado is buttery enough on its own, plus it's a little more healthy without the butter. 
6. Cut the sandwich into pieces and pack them into the bento. If you will be leaving your bento out in warm weather for some time, remember to add a few ice packs to keep it cool.

You can also grill the sandwich if eating lunch at home or for a tasty snack.



Simple Caesar Salad

For an easy Caesar salad, I put some ripped up cos lettuce, bacon bits, parmesan cheese and a hard-boiled egg into a container, as well as some Caesar salad dressing in a squeeze container. Go for freshly fried bacon bits and freshly grated parmesan cheese if you like, but bottled bacon bits (made from real bacon, not the fake bacon) and pre-shredded parmesan aren't too bad, either. (I don't mean the parmesan you shake out of a can, though!). To make the hard boiled egg a little more exciting, I used my egg shapers. My egg wasn't large enough, so the bear turned out ear-less. How-to use egg shapers

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