| | Welcome to the Bentolunch Livejournal community! If you are new to the group, please take a few moments to look at this group's posting guidelines. Briefly: - All entries must present bento boxes that were prepared by or for the person posting. Occasional questions posts are also permitted, but they must be directly bento-related.
- Please keep one representative photo of your lunch outside the cut and any other pictures behind a cut. If you show multiple lunches in one post, one picture of each lunch can be outside the cut.
- Photos of closed or empty bento boxes, multiple pictures of the same lunch, and recipes must be behind a cut.
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There are also tags for general use, such as vegetarian, gluten-free, recipes, and so on. A complete list is in the posting guidelines.
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| Today's lunch - photographed in the lunchroom at work -  Big tray - right side is tofu noodles with "ants climb a tree" meat sauce. Middle is cottage cheese sprinkled with spices, pesto mustard, carrot shreds. Left is beef sausage and cheese cut into all kinds of fun shapes with little cookie cutters. And cauliflower, pickles and home grown sprouts (yes I got a sprouter kit and tons of seeds!) Little tray is blood orange, pineapple and starfruit. | |
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| Not my most inspired presentation, but I realized I have photographed all of my bento boxes now except the good old Laptop Lunchbox. It's an interesting concept with some serious identity issues. Maybe it was designed by a committee that couldn't decide if it wanted to be a classic American lunchbox or a bento box. The container on the upper left comes with a tight cover, but there are no covers for the rest of them. This works fine if you think of it as bento and keep it carefully horizontal during transportation. However, the signature design element that makes it a "Laptop Lunch" is an attractive case with a double zipper that looks like a small laptop bag - and is meant to be carried sideways. If you carry it that way, the contents of the uncovered containers tumble around and leak. Now that I'm thinking bento, it seems like a big plus that there is even one container with a top (which I used for the soup). But if I'm going to start using it again I need some kind of carrying case that will keep the thing horizontal.  | #16 - Laptop Lunch - Feb 9, 2010
Clockwise from top left: Chicken/bean mole; clementine with raisins, cooked yams with yogurt, slivered almonds and black sesame seeds; lefse rollups filled with tuna, mayonnaise, spinach, roasted red pepper. And good old grape tomatoes to fill |
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| The Pokémania continues, even my oldest kid (age 19) started talking about how she'd buy the new Pokémon game that comes out next month - that I'll buy it is a given, and Little Kid is strongly considering it as well (she's just very ..er.. carefull with her money *L* so.. well let's see...) So there'll be Pokemon in the bentos for a while I guess - and it suits me fine because it means I have a LOT if ideas to choose from. Today it's Jigglypuff, ready to sing us all to sleep ^_^
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Bento # 706
Something left over from dinner (tomato/spam/veggie stew of a sort). Peas. Orange pieces. Tricolored pasta with garlic oil. Salami Jigglypuff and a radish pokeball. |
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| I've been slacking on posting bento, but not on packing them! I make my bento the night before and usually take a picture of it at work (love that fluorescent lighting). By the time I get home, it's time to make dinner and go to bed.  Jan 14th – Rice; Vegetables and Pork stir-fried from New Years; cabbage tsukemono; kohaku namasu ( Jan 20th )  Jan 27th – I had class after work this day, so I packed my food in a cupcake box that had come with a purchase earlier in the week. ham, spinach and cheese sandwich; gingerbread truffle; fruit salad; baked chips. This was too much food since half of the sandwich, the truffle, and the fruit salad went uneaten.  Jan 28th – kohaku namasu; homemade applesauce; milk chocolate truffle; rice with sesame seeds; lop cheung cooked in ginger-chile sauce.  Jan 29th – Rice; spinach; grilled tofu; homemade applesauce; harry and david soft caramel; thai chicken dumpling; lettuce; random “Asian chicken”. A lot of this food was from the Whole Foods prepared food bar, which I have now concluded that I do not like. The caramel was delicious!  Feb 2nd – I had a meeting off-site this day, so I wanted something that was small and I wouldn’t have to carry around all day after lunch. sandwich on challah bread; strawberries and pineapple; homemade applesauce; salt and vinegar chips. This was a lot of food, so the chips were eaten later as a snack. The pink snack box is really an onigiri container!  Feb 3rd – Another challah sandwich; pineapple slices; red velvet cupcake from the bakery in my building.  Feb 4th – Milk tea pocky, coconut cupcake; dark chocolate truffle; tamagoyaki; rice with black sesame seeds; lop cheung; pineapple chunks; homemeade apple sauce. This was so much food! I ate the sausage, two out of three of the tamagoyaki and most of the rice. Nothing else! x-posted from http://discojing.com | |
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| This is a cute recipe booklet that comes with a set of cutters used with quail eggs. These cutters have been becoming more and more popular recently (though I’ve yet to use mine!), so I thought I’d post this book up. The cutters are made by Arnest’s Smile Zakka Group. You may recognize some of the other things they have listed on their site. From cover to cover, this is an eight page book. I think it’s a great way to find ideas not just for quail eggs, but any type of egg. A lot of these decoration ideas could be used for other round foods such as onigiri or desserts. Click on the thumbnails below the cut for full-size images.  ( the remaining 6 pages )x-posted from http://discojing.com | |
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| Here are two from last week that actually managed to get photographed. Ah... the difference between crappy kitchen lighting and lovely natural daylight... A typical stir fry bento: pork stir fry, rice, vegetable and mushroom stir fry  Breaded chicken nuggets, edamame and peppers salad, container of soy sauce, red pepper strips and inarizushi.  | |
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| My boyfriend works in shifts and therefore he has to have his dinner at work sometimes. The average 2 tier bento is just too small to get him through the day then. Which boxes would you suggest I could use for the purpose of a dinner bento? The color doesnt matter much, but he refuses to take a pink box with him. The rest is fine.
Also: Which thermal bento is best to use? I want to be able to put soup in it.
I live in Holland so the place need to ship international for a normal price (not like certain e-bay shops where you pay shipping twice the amount of what you want to buy) Thank you! | |
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|  Grilled sweet potato and chicken on the left, chopped cucumber and tomato salad, pears and dried cranberries on the right. First time I actually bother with dividers. | |
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| - Mood:creative
- Music:Groove Salad
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|  Romaine lettuce with pine nuts, scallions, and a fat chopped sardine that had been packed in olive oil. On the side: a hard boiled egg, a strawberry gummy, citrus-mustard dressing, and kiwi. | |
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| Continuing with the "love" theme, this time with a (rather mangled) tomato rose and some happy quail eggs...
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Bento # 705
Radish, cut to resemble the Danish flag. Smoked mackerel. Broccoli. Orange slices. Quail Eggs. Orzo with garlic dressing and a cucumber/tomato rose. Radish hearts. |
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| January was somewhat of a rough month, and I'm about to go on vacation next week, so I'm in a bit of a bento drought. In truth, I've packed several lunches using my bento boxes since my last post, but I was either too rushed to photograph them or I didn't feel like they looked good enough to photograph. Anyway, here's my lunch from today! Hopefully it will re-ignite my creativity!  On the left is a roast vegetable skewer over cheddar cheese polenta. On the right is more roasted vegetables with a few turkey meatballs. | |
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| Leftover from the big party this weekend:  It's spaetzle (something typically Swabian), piccata milanese and saltimbocca in the top tier. Plum, cucumber, bell pepper and kiwi in the bottom tier. Tasted really good and I'm a bit proud of the radish mushroom (they are really easy to make, didn't expect that) | |
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| Today's bento is the result of having the weekend to clean out my cupboards looking for possible bento gear among the debris of the ages followed by a trip to the food coop. The cup holding the yogurt is a mini-souffle dish that hasn't been used for decades. The turkey-vegie-burger cutouts were made using a weird set of nesting Tupperware cookie cutters that I don't recall EVER using. Before I put the yogurt in it, I used the souffle cup to shape the leftover rice that's under the vegie burgers. One of the silicone cups holding the salad was a gift from my friend ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ssussminh - the triangular one. It works REALLY WELL with the souffle dish. Yay! After various experiments I concluded that the honey bear is exactly the right size for salad dressing, so that's what's in it today. The salad dressing is a little too thick to come out of the little squeeze hole under the bear head flip top, so I just unscrewed the head and poured it out.
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#14 Really good leftovers - Fri, Feb 5, 2010
Entree in lower tier - marinated salmon and sweet/sour red cabbage on the right side of the sushi fence. On the other side, we have piquante peppers stuffed with low-fat ricotta cheese and nestled on a bed of the same, along with a couple of stuffed mushrooms that my husband made. The mushrooms, salmon and cabbage were originally served hot, but I ate it all cold and it was delicious.
Upper tier: Just something I found in the fridge - I think my son made it. It appears to be rice pudding with dried fruit and slivered almonds. I added some fresh fruit and considered it a dessert. |
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#15 - Best Monday bento yet! Monday, Feb 8, 2010
Sometimes I get a little too involved with how my lunch looks at the expense of taste, but this one came out both beautiful and delicious. Scoop of rice in a nest of sweet-sour red cabbage with nori stars sprinkled on top. The hearts and flowers are a 50/50 combo of a vegie-burger mix from the coop and ground turkey (cause nothing improves vegetarian food more than a little meat). The salad contains alfalfa sprouts, spinach, roasted red peppers, cooked yams and ribbons of turkey made by simply slicing a stack of cold cuts with a big knife. I'm particularly proud of that innovation and expect to use it again. The yogurt is not so much a health food as a rich dessert. I accidentally bought full fat honey-sweetened Greek yogurt instead of fat-free and it is so incredibly good that I may just start buying it all the time, calories be damned. It's like the best mascarpone you ever ate. Salad dressing in the honey bear, soy sauce and teriyaki sauce in the little sauceheads. |
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| My first bento picture on here ever! I had sammi-giris (onigiris with salads on the inside, more info under the edit), and stir fried veggies with garlic. Okay here's a picture: 
( More Info and Pic ) | |
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| Bento #151: Year of the Tiger. I was recently chosen to participate in an international article about food, and the theme of the bento I was asked to make is supposed to be about an event talking place sometime this year, such as the Winter Olympics, or a Presidential election. I chose to make a tiger theme, since 2010 is Year of the Tiger, and the Chinese New Year is quickly approaching us. <  Left tier has a Jasmine rice background, with an omelet tiger and a cheese moon, along with leek stalks for grass. Right tier has Garlic Shrimp, Navel Orange wedges and Sweet Spring Strawberries. x-posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) bentochallenge. Don't forget to post your Tiger themed lunches there as well! - Mood:sleepy
 - Music:Real McCoy * Another Night
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|  on the right: cooked salmon and sweet-potato ravioli on the left: cucumbers, tomatoes, cubed apples and sliced almonds. | |
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| I posted this last weekend on my blog. It was a dinner bento for my second daughter who ate it at college. Check out the details on my blog here! 
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| Still trying to learn how to photograph food with the iphone. A little fuzzy, but here was a the bento the husband made me today. I'm also trying to figure out what size photo to load to LJ. Low Carb, except for a little fruit.  greens with asian dressing on the right bottom, pomegranate, cantalope and oranges on the top right. Pickled ginger in the middle. And the left side is all from Kawai Bento book: Hijiki, carrot and tofu puff salad on the bottom left Stuffed mushrooms, on the top, and fried chicken rolls on the top (the stuff wrapped in nori.) | |
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| Valentine's Day is getting closer. And although it's not really celebrated here (yet...) the various shop owners are doing their best to make us believe it's something we should do.. and really.. celebrating love can't be all bad.. so it spilled over into my bento with two happy, love-struck froggies...
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Bento # 704
Smoked Mackerel with radish heart. Kumquats. Heart-shaped egg. Pasta with ketchup. Sweet corn with another radish heart. Cucumber froggies. |
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| My theme in my girls bento (which I made tonight) was: hippy! I'm not content with the result. It;s too much and too many items. I'm over-enthousiastic I guess. What I learned tonight was that also in bento-ing................less is more!  It's apple, bell pepper flowers, edamame, babybell, lettuce and jello.  In the other tier: carrot flower, egg bunny-hippy (which looks kind of ill and beaten up LOL) with a salt-straw, cheese sandwich, lettuce and savory peace cookie. Oh well, despite of the result I did enjoy making it! | |
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| It's been a while, I'm not quite sure when I last posted here, but I'll put up the ones I just added to my blog ^_^ If anyone wants to check out the actual blog it's http://bentoandmore.blogspot.com/ ( Older Bento Under the Cut ) 5 February 2010 (62) I made this one for a friend at school Only Tier: 1/2 Cup Rice Carrot Sticks Leftover Chicken Breasy Edamame Piggy of Creamy Italian  5 February 2010 (63) My Bento Top Tier: Chicken Wing Edamame Carrot Sticks Mashed Potatoes Bottom Tier: Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb Cheese Wedge Apple Bunny Apple Slices  5 February 2010 (64) Chuck's Bento Top Tier: Chicken Leg and Wing Edamame Carrot Sticks Bottom Tier: Checkerboard Apple Apple Slices 3 Japanese Gummies | |
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