A couple of months ago I was just surfing the web and came across an ad/story about Bento Boxes. A cute way to carry your lunch. Or as Wikipedia says “a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine.” I thought those are neat. I didn’t think too much more about it at the time. But then a couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to look a bit closer into it. WOW was I surprised at all world of Bento. There are so many website, blogs and books devoted to this old but growing again trend.
I pack my lunch everyday for work. And I had been growing bored with the same ‘ol thing, either leftovers thrown together, a can of soup or a microwave dinner that is WAY too high in sodium. And with the Bento box it seems easier to control your portions and hopefully waistline. A great website that proves you can do both that I found is
Just Bento. There are some great articles, resources and recipes there. I know I will be referring to it often.
I purchased my first Bento box this week. I do know that it is not necessary to have one but I thought if I am going to do it I might as well do it right. While I am waiting for my international purchase to come to America I started thinking about what I could do with what I had in my refrigerator and pantry. Rice is always a good start so I boiled up all the regular rice I had. And I always have eggs so I boiled some of them too. Now I have always tried to use my cookie cutters on foods or like in the case of Valentine’s Day we had red heart shaped pancakes. So I got those cookie cutters out to help shape my rice. And I happen to have some food markers as well. I had fun with my first Bento attempt. When I got my lunch out yesterday it just made me smile. Who wouldn't like pepperoni spiked hair eggs? LOL
Top Left: lettuce with carrots and tomato
Bottom Left: red kidney beans
Right: boiled eggs with pepperoni hair; white rice
