A fairly fast made bento, I almost forgot about it. It turned out quite nicely though, even if it wasn't until I uploaded this I realized the tomatoes makes Kitty look like she's got boobz *L*

Oh well...

Kid's bento, Wednesday Fried noodles with curry, coconut milk and wakame. Kiwi in sakura-shapes, two cherry tomatoes and a Hello Kitty-shaped egg.

I'm a 24 year old, single, IT tech from Michigan, USA. I live in an apartment with my friend Leah. I'm going to school for international communications, with a focus on Japanese.

I've recently decided that I would like to take a solid stab at bento making. I think it would be a good way to encourage me to pack a lunch and save some money. My bento isn’t traditional and probably never will be. I use Tupperware, and I can’t adhere to the 4:3:2:1 rule, I have a big western appetite. I do try t include healthy things and have fun with presentation, I’m just not a bento elitist and have a very western way of making mine I guess. I've only made a few so far. My first one was what I would call a success. It was super cute (and I'll post pics when I upload them) but the ones I made for Mel and Leah yesterday sucked. I tried to make them too late at night and was too tired to put a good effort in. My rice wasn't sticky enough and I tried to mold it into teddy bear shapes, but it fell apart :(

I made a Totoro bento for Leah for today and a mouse for myself.

I have the pictures for the last two days, but not of my first one, because I didn't use a digital camera for those >_<

Here are my bento's from yesterday, and the ones for today, I'll upload my first bento when I have my film developed (click images for larger view):

Tuesday's Lunch!

Mine:

Leah & Mels (they both looked the same):

They have curry, rice, and my 'spinach ball' recipe in the shape of hearts and stars. The side containers have Hello Kitty fruit snacks & chocolate covered fruit gummies. I used Lock&Lock boxes for these.

Wednesday's Lunch!

Mine:

Leah's: ( more under the cut )

I made Leah's first and I'm a little sad that I was too tired to do a Totoro for myself as well... but I really didn't have the patience for it because I get easily upset when tired >_<

Contents: The Totoro and Mouse bellies are cheese stuffed portabella mushrooms. Then there is some babybell cheese and bean sprouts. My side dishes contain Salmon w/lemon herb sauce in one, and tomato, pepper, and cucumber shapes in the other. Leah is vegetarian, so she skipped on the fish, and instead has 2 green apple slices (treated with lemon juice to prevent browning, also makes them more sour), strawberries, Lego fruit snacks and some chocolate covered fruit gummies. I used Fit&Fresh boxes for these.

Recipe for spinach balls under the cut!
( Great for bento! Cheap, Easy, FAST and yummy! )

I'm new here. I'm Melissa, 23 year old mama to Freja, Raeden, and Angel Calypso.

We live in Indiana. My husband is Joe. Recently I had to go gluten free and took my youngest Raeden with me because she has so many food allergies. In our quest to eat healthier we found out about bentos!

We finally got a bento box (the other is in the mail with all the fun fixings! Should be here today) Here is yesterday's lunch for my little girls



And here's lunch from the day before


The first one pictures hotdog octopuses on top of onigiris, carrots, heart cheeses, brocoli, and watermelon.

The second one includes, Veggie stir fry, bunny shaped cheese, and in the other half, not pictured is watermelon, cherry tomatoes, and hamburger hunks cut into apples lol.

I hope you all don't mind a newbie posting here. I love seeing everyone's bentos and layouts!!

I am new to this. I don't have the pretty factor down yet. I am going to get cookie cutters and other stuff today to help me with design pretty stuff. I am so getting ice cream molds for my boiled eggs. I forgot to take a picture of daughter's (I think I made her pretty like) but this is mine. Hopefully balanced for my clean eating. I haven't got the make it colorful down but not bad, I think.




I have leftover salmon, peanut butter, string cheese, carrot slices, quinoa, spinach and mixed greens, oranges, and strawberries.

Quick bento for me today - leftover chili with rice added, Italian stale bread salad, strawberries and a snack of cheese and crackers with an herbal jam to put on top of the cheese. I swim tonight so have to make sure I eat enough today to have energy in the pool.

This is one seriously orderly lunch. I don't know how that happens, as I'm a clutter queen. Oh well, I know that after being carried around on my two-hour bus-train-bus commute it'll look like the inside of a three-year-old's toy box.

Anyhow, left-to-right, there's smoked salmon sushi, tamago sushi, baked purple sweet potato, steamed long beans, shelled edamame, longans, and a piece of taro mochi.

(Website post, with links to recipes.)

So... I was in JoAnn fabrics the other day, and as I was passing by the dollar bins, I saw these little plastic containers, two small round, and a larger half-round, with colored lids.  The package says microwavable, without the lids, and they have the little food-safe symbol on them.  :)  And they were a dollar.  They have a bunch of sets with different colored lid combinations, so I thought I'd let you know, so you can check it out! 

Even if my day sucks...doesn't mean my lunch has to!



( Details, Bigger Pictures )

Lunch just for me today, made this morning. Teriyaki beef with green beans, cold soba noodles and spring onions on the top lid to be added to soba dipping sauce.



( Dipping sauce and containers under cut )

Recipe for cold soba and the dipping sauce is posted at Soy and Pepper

My food for uni today: gluten free hungarian salami (i pretend it counts as protein...), tasty cheese and some whole grain gf crackers. I think half are plain and half are flavoured like basil pesto, if you're really interested. Then there's a little girly onigiri, almonds, dried apricots, and a teeny gf blueberry muffin which I made and froze a bunch of a little while ago for just such uses. I have a recipe for the muffins now posted below for any of you who bento gluten free and who would like it :)

The onigiri has tuna in the middle, and is decorated with little candy flower things and food colouring because I'm a cheater. This bento lacks in anything green, and actually in the vegetable department altogether, and also in protein because really a couple of slices of salami and a teaspoon of tuna is unlikely to have the 30g of protein I'm supposed to have in a meal.

This is in my tiniest bento, which holds less than 400mL, so I am also taking a banana and some red grapes. They just didn't look good in the photo so I cut them :3

The 330th Bento! Isn't that something? :) And a fairly good looking one at that, if I may say so. But then again, I had time to do it properly AND an overall idea of what to put in it before I started. That always helps a lot!

So here it is, in all its glory *L*

My bento, Wednesday Sautéed sugar snaps, broccoli and green asparagus. Skewered olives/pickled onions. One crispy chicken bite, a cherry tomato and a hardboiled egg, shaped as a pumpkin. Somen noodles with dipping sauce in the small container.

I actually made a bento with traditional bento ingredients! Crazy! I took the recipes from JustBento.com and made meat soboro and iri tamago (with some minor carb-lowering alterations) and they are SO good.

Top: Blueberries, grape tomatoes, sugar snap peas, Babybel cheese, Russian dressing in the small tin
Bottom: Meat soboro & iri tamago on top of "riceaflower" (finely chopped cauliflower)

 Here's bento for lunch today:

 
Soba noodles with green onions.  Tsuyu sauce and furikake in the containers.  In the bigger box I have tuna salad with LOTS of green onions on top, baby carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, and grape tomatoes.  

This was waaaay too big for me, but I snacked on veggies the whole day instead of going to the vending machine. GO ME!

I was packing my bento today (sorry no pictures, my camera is veryvery dead and I do not know how to get pics from my phone).

I needed a vessel for my pasta I was packing today. Too much for a regular muffin cup, not enough to try to secure off in a corner of the box (have yet to obtain silicone cups). I looked around my kitchen and spotted.... cheap disposable cups! You know, the red kind that appear at so many alcohol parties.

I snipped down the side of the cup to just the size of my box. Cut the cup down to that height .. TADA! A very functional food cup, reusable or disposable. SUPER cheap, and if I can do it, anyone can. There was even a little groove at just the right height that I used as a guide as I cut around the cup.

Anyone else have good household bento items?

Hello!

New here.. my name is Cookie and i live in Belgium..

I have a question.

I see on the "sushi rice vinegar flavor mix" powder that i bought today that you have to add it to the rice AFTER it cooked.

But if i do that, there is always places where the powder mix don't go and it's really unevenly spreaded..
What would happen if i would pour the powder in the water before cooking the rice in the rice cooker?

Anybody tried?

Thanks for your help!

Top Tier: Broccoli, Onigiri Roll, Shrimp Ramen Stir-Fry
Bottom: Celery, Carrots, Grapes and Hello Kitty!
Lid: Pocky

since I have decided to lose a few kilos and it's becoming warmer and warmer, last night I've prepared some k-maki (cucumber rolls) and 3 more tuna mini-onigiri. with a lot of soysauce, obviously ;)

( as usual, click for the general view )
cheers ^_^/

As a treat for my hubbie, who's football team Rangers have successfully got through to the UEFA Cup Final tonight, I made up a Scottish Bento with the leftovers of our evening meal.
In the left tier there is haggis, neeps and tatties.
In the other tier there is stir fried mushrooms with squid, edamae and chilli flakes. To finish, there is a sachet of miso soup.

The score is 0-0, and the second half is about to start, so I'd best be off!

Monday's lunch:



On Monday I found myself working my mall-bound retail job, so I needed something that I could eat without too much fuss while standing, grabbing bites in between helping customers. So I ended up with a quick and rather light lunch. The bottom tier held one cup of fat-free cottage cheese, which is a favorite easy food of mine. In the top tier I put a package of Melba Toast, which holds five pieces per pack. On top of that I piled French cut beans, carrots, and tomatoes. I rounded the meal off with an apple. This bento was successful in terms of low mess factor, but I also felt pretty hungry by mid-afternoon. Next time I will add some nuts or other protein.


Tuesday's lunch:



Leftover pinto bean chili from the previous night's dinner made it into the bottom tier of this bento. I sprinkled on a little shredded cheddar (in the green bunny cute -- can you say cute? -- and a plop of quark (in the pink popsicle container that says "fruit") and scooped away with Guiltless Gourmet blue corn chips. Yum! French cut fresh beans and a pear rounded off the meal nicely.

Blogged here.

So, I got nice again and made my boy a bento all for himself. No rice today, so it was the Mr. Bento.

Cream of chicken soup mixed with leftover cooked Calrose rice.
Cut up white hot with packets of chinese mustard by request.
Sliced strawberries.
Small green lettuce salad.
Not shown: bottle of Italian dressing, bottle of sesame seeds for salad, and chocolate candy.

He said the soup and white hot were still nicely warm when he ate them. Yay for the Mr. Bento being worth it.

 Kidlet helped with this one :) He had his school art show today so this morning I had him draw in a little picture frame in celebration. He is now addicted to my food markers :D



Kidlet has grapes, a checkered apple, carrots, and a cheese masterpiece on top of a sandwich.

This is a picture of the bottom layer of my girls' bento today, they share since neither of them eat a LOT for lunch.



It's 2 onigiris, 1 with a face, one with plain soy sauce, fresh peas, a head of brocoli for my oldest, and 2 orange slices

( Click for the Rest )

I lost interest halfway through, so this one's pretty boring.


Apples, ham sandwich and celery.


Babybel cheese, mini blueberry muffin, ranch dressing in the Gary cup, watermelon jiggler, peanuts and grapes for filler.

Kid's bento for tomorrow. It wasn't until I'd finished it I realised that I should have made one for myself as well, I'd forgotten the stupid working hours I have tomorrow. So I hope I can get up early enough to make me one in the morning. Otherwise I'll have to starve. I guess that'll teach me, then!

Kid's bento, Thursday Crispy Chicken Bites, mixed vegetables sautéed with a little curry, a single japanese hard candy and some sweet chili sauce in the strawberry. Fried noodles and egg, decorated with nori cutouts.

Today I made not only a picnic bento for me and my boyfriend to share, and I also made a bento for my housemate, because I seem to have turned into her mother recently, hehe. I enjoy doing it though :)

Bento for my housemate:



( For another picture and my picnic bento click here! )

I had to skip a day there - my husband packed my lunch yesterday.  I had made some Cioppino for dinner, and instead of braving my bento box, he slapped it into a round rubbermaid container and called it lunch.  Whatever - it was still tasty.

Thursday's lunch is kind of snack-y, since there's a teacher appreciation luncheon at my school.  It's nice to be appreciated ;-)  I'm counting on this bento for my mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks.  Yeah, I snack a lot...



In the very top of my bento box, under the clear lid, are four Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits and a packet of Splenda.  No, they don't go together!  The triscuits go with the turkey pepperoni and mozzarella medallion skewers in the top tier of my bento box.  I've also put a teensy container of hummus in there next to some celery to dip in it.  The Splenda is for the strawberries and greek yogurt in the bottom of my bento box.  The cellophane-wrapped sandwich is a roast beef panini from Trader Joe's.