Far too much food

Bento #55 (Mine) :

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A really full box of stuff. lol. rice ball(Kodoma) with nori faces, 6 gyoza, narutomaki slices, fried teriyaki tofu, mushroom chunks, daikon pickles, and romaine lettuce. Packed in 1 of 3 tiers from my Korean picnic bento set.

Sidecar: Kiwi butterflies and slices, navel orange segments and the last of my rambutans.

This is waaaay to much food for me. I usually only eat(and really only should eat) about 800ml. This lunch is well over 1000. However, at school, a lot of my friends mooch off of my lunch so I decided to pack a little more and it worked out pretty well. Although, I still had enough left over that my bento tomorrow is going to be a not as nice looking repeat of today. :P

And now time for some faces

I just love my onigiri mold! It's basically my most useful and most used tool. *hugs*

Bento #54 (Mine) :

Left: Rabutans, red and green bell peppers

Right: White rice onigiri with nori faces and handles

Tiger: Leftover "Fiesta dip"

Another thing I love is my nori punch. I think lunch is so much better when pieces of it have faces. XD Some of my friends make fun of me, others are in awe of my lunches. They really shouldn't be though. Seriously, this bento was another speed one. Took about 10 minutes. This was a great way to finish off my Friday. First week of school is over and I finished all my homework for the weekend! :D

Packages Galore

I finally decided to order from Ichbankan. Everything is so cheap and the package came very quickly! I got a nori face punch, Mink the monkey bento belt, chopsticks and chopsticks case. The wall hooks were a free gift they threw in.

This week also brought 2 packages from bento swaps This swap was just for the 3 mayo cups and she surprised me with the rest-which includes homemade greeting cards. :D
The bowl I got in this one makes me laugh so much. XD But the real prize in this package was the Totoro chopsticks and case! Totoro = <3

On to the bentos.

Bento #52 (Mine)
top tier: Rice with nori face, zucchini and fried tofu in korean barbecue sauce.
Bottom: Shrimp and krab salad and grapes.
Top of box had pocky and a milk candy. And there was a sidecar of mandarin orange segments.

Bento#53 (mine)Top tier: Zucchini with Korean barbeque sauce, cornbread and mini flan pudding cup.
Bottom: Hamburger, and garlic mashed potatoes.
Sidecar of mandarin orange slices.

Both lunches were made mostly from dinner leftovers. The Zucchini was cooked for 2 minutes in my microwave steamer and then tossed in the sauce. Both were also packed in a two tier Clickety click Mink the monkey box.

It's Friday, Argh!

Yes, Sadly I made a pirate bento last week and today happens to be "Talk like a pirate day". Oh why didn't I realize? :O

Anyway, I didn't get a picture of my nice bento this week because I was running out the door whilst packing. So here are two summer bentos.

Backlogged bento #50: (mine)

I had: Tamagoyaki(Japanese rolled omelet), sushi rolls(Just rice and furikake in seaweed.), Sugar snap peas, edamame, Mr. Tomato stuffed with cream cheese and parsley, gyoza(dumplings) and ginger scallops.

This was a massive feast for a lunch and I didn't quite finish all of it. But it was delicious! I packed it in one of the three tiers of my Jyubaku, purchased at Daiso for $4.

Bento #51:(Mine)

Top tier: gyoza, broccoli beef, chow mein, orange chicken, musroom chicken.
Bottom tier: Fried and steamed rice.
Side dish: Blueberries and musk melon (Cantaloupe)

This was an easy bento. Leftovers from Pandaexpress...or safeway..I can't remember-dinner And just cut up the fruit in the morning. Packed in a two tiered Clickety Click Mink the Monkey box and 260ml Pink "Comment vas-tu?" side dish.

Phew! Glad I got on here. I just made a trip up to Daiso and H Mart and came back with lots of goodies for my Bentoswap partners. I love seeing all the new things at Daiso every time I go there. :D

I'm getting new bento things in the mail from Ichiban kan and swaps so I'll be sure to try them out with new bentoing! Toodles!

~Kaits

Long Delay!

I can't believe how I've been neglecting my poor bento blog. But as I said, I have been making bentos. I think I'm going to just update once a week for now and maybe every now and then put up another too. But for now, let's just expect to see an entry on Friday night with the week's highlight bentos. :)

(I guess I'll still number them even though I've already made well over a hundred.)

Bento #48 (Mine) ARGH!
Here's the breakdown: Hunk of brie, mushrooms, sugar snap peas, quail eggs, and onigiri filled with smoked/peppered salmon with nori faces. There's also some red leaf lettuce around the edges to make it less green. >.>

Backlogged bento #49: (Mine) Chirashi sushi!

(let's see if I remember what's in this. XD) On the left: Blueberries and cheese wheel. Right: Rice with shrimp, avacado, cucumber and hard boiled egg shaped like a car and cut in half.

Sakura Festival Bento

This weekend was the Seattle Cherry blossom festival. My parents took my brothers, my friend and I. It was really fun! I loved talking with so many sweet Japanese women. And all the paintings and kimonos were really lovely. Because it was such a special occasion it called for a special bento in a new Jyubako box.


Top tier: Red leaf lettuce,strawberries, apple rabbits, an orange, and sakura carrot slices.
Middle tier: Sakura sushi, edemame wontons(recipe coming), sakura mochi, and sakura carrot slices.
Bottom tier: Cheddar and pepperjack cheese cubes,red leaf lettuce, hard boiled quail eggs, radishes, naruto maki, pickled ginger, wasabi, and more sakura carrot slices.

This bento was really fun to put together. It probably took me 2 1/2 hours in total. I made the sushi and wontons the night before and the sakura mochi were bought at Uwajimiya in Bellevue.
I am so amazed with how the sakura sushi came out. I have a book about making Hana sushi and this was my first time actually trying it out. When I cut into the roll I let out an "ooh!" as I saw the pretty flowers. They're not incredible, but they look somewhat like flowers so I'm pleased. Sadly, we couldn't find a cherry tree near Seattle center to eat under, (The weather wasn't that great anyway.) so we didn't have a real Hanami picnic, but we did have a nice time. I wish we could've gone to all three days of the festival.

I keep telling myself I need to update here but I don't. As they say quite often in Korean dramas, How frustrating! Especially since I have been making bentos. Oh well, anyway. Biggie, over at Lunchinabox just finished up a bento gear organization contest. Check out the results! Such wonderful ideas! I considered entering, but I have no great ways to organize and I already bought the prize (A copy of the book Face Food.). In fact, it's shipping out in 2 more days! :D

We went to see "The Hundred Dresses" at the Seattle Children's theater last thursday and since we got picked up 10am and the play ran until about 1 we had to pack lunch and eat it on the way. I wish I had gotten a picture of my younger brother's lunch because he made it himself and it looked great! but he ate it before I had the chance. (Boys. :P)
Bento #38 (Mine)

Top tier: steamed broccoli, turkey meatballs, hardboiled quail eggs, apple rabbits, cherry tomatos and a raddish. Bottom tier: White rice and a piece of nori dipped in soy sauce.

This took no longer then 20 minutes (Because I made fresh rice. the other stuff took me 10 minutes.). I already had boiled quail eggs in the fridge, the meatballs were leftover gyoza filling, and I cut up that piece of nori ages ago. (It says Shitai which means "I want to try it" in Japanese.) So in the morning all I had to do was steam the broccoli, peel the eggs, microwave the meatballs, and cook the rice. Both lunches in this post were packed in a 738ml Hello Kitty box that I got for $1 at Dollar Tree.

Bento #39 (Mine)

In the top tier: cucumber, tomato/pepperjack kabobs, edemame, babybel cheese and an apple rabbit. Bottom: Tamagoyaki and kamaboko fried rice.

This lunch took me 10 minutes. (That was all the time I had. Phew!) I made the 2 egg omelet in my handy tamagoyaki pan and while I was waiting for it to cook I peeled and sliced the cucumber, heated up the rice and edemame, and started packing the top tier. The fried rice was leftovers from lunch yesterday when I had it inside a crepe style omelet.(Yum!) Here's the recipe, although I'm sure it will be different next time I make it and I don't have exact measurements because that's not how I cook. :P

Kamaboko fried rice

• 2 half-inch slices of kamaboko - cut into cubes
• 3 mushrooms (I can't recall what kind I used. Something from the asian market.) - cut up
• 1 green onion - sliced
• less then 1/4 corn (I used frozen)
• 1 tsp ketchup
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup of cooked rice (Any kind will do. I used pollished white rice)

Squished Bento

Bento #33 (Mine)

Tuna-filled onigiri, steamed broccoli, cheddar cheese, dried apricots and radishes. Packed in a 738ml Hello Kitty box.

Preparing: I had to rush with this one. Only had 10 minutes to make lunch for myself and Mom. Luckily, the fridge has food in it. Rice leftover from dinner took a quick trip in the microwave and I made the onigiri while the broccoli was reheating. (I steamed a large batch of broccoli that was going bad earlier this week.)

This is what happens when you make onigiri that are too big for your box. Obviously this photo was taken after transportation. :P

I packed my first oshibori today too.

I saw this at Daiso in a pack with another oshibori and it was too cute to pass up. The caption makes me giggle. ^_^

And here it is with it's case. I found this tupperware in the kitchen and it works perfectly. It's 118ml and has a very secure lid. It's great when you can find bento supplies at home. :)

Tuna Fish Onigiri

A friend of mine came over today and we had a Japanese day without even trying. Started off with Onigiri for lunch, watched Grave of the Fireflies and then spent the afternoon happily making origami cranes and shurikens. It was a gooood day. :D

Bento (Ok, so it's not in a box.) #33


I had tuna-stuffed onigiri, enoki mushrooms with water chesnuts and some broccoli.

A very quick lunch for 5. My friend helped make the onigiri while I cooked the enoki and chesnuts in a pan with some butter, salt, sugar, pepper and a little soy sauce. I threw the frozen broccoli in the microwave and we were all set. The onigiri were a huge success with my family. Everyone declares that it's a new favorite for lunch. I will for sure be making these again. Infact, Dad has some in his lunch for tomorrow that I didn't get a picture of.

It's a Pan, Duh.

We went to the Zoo today with my brother and his family so I packed a lunch for Mom, Matt and I. Mason ended up coming too so there almost wasn't enough food.

Bento #32:


We had: Panda onigiri with nori faces , onigiri with umeboshi, cup of pickled ginger and a elephant of soy sauce on a bed of romaine lettuce. And off to the right you can see our side car of a persimmon and an orange.

This bento took more time then I've ever spent on a lunch before. Including cooking the rice it took about an hour. If I was doing the same thing again it would take less time because I would prep more while making rice. But this time I was just adding on as I went.

My 2 year old niece loved the onigiri. She saw them and said, "I want part of the panda!" I was suprised that she liked the seaweed.(Mostly because my sister can't stand it) She even asked for more! Bento presentation is a good thing! I really like persimmons. I need to make another trip to the asian market because the ones I bought got eaten up really fast. They were an instant hit with my family.

The Holiday Approacheth

Since we'll have to cook so much food tomorrow and Thursday I got a head start on my sushi tray tonight. And you know what that means: More pictures! :D

I don't have a musubi press, but I found a really easy way to make spam musubi without one. First I cut the spam block in half and then cut it into strips. I put those in the marinade while I shaped the rice:


After that I took the marinaded spam and fried it on med heat for a few minutes. It doesn't take long:


Then simply assembled them:


And bagged them up with the inarizushi I also made:


All of this probably took me 1 1/2-2 hours.(I ended up with about 40 musubi and 20 inarizushi) And we still have to make Thanksgiving dinner. Blech. I'm sick of cooking. But I still made Josh a lunch because I am a nice sister. :P

Bento #30 (Josh's)


Mixed greens with cranberries and almonds, leftover inarizushi rice, dried apples and apricots with a bottle of salad dressing, carrot sticks, grape tomatos and a baby banana.

I put an antibacterial sheet over the rice because it has a tendincy to "hop" into other parts of the container.

Sushi Bento

Took a trip to Daiso and H mart today with mom and picked up lots of goodies. She's employed me to make a sushi plate for Thanksgiving. She really enjoys Asian stuff now and we're both learing a lot about Japanese culture. I'm reading this book aloud in the car. It's really charming and fasinating. I highly reccomend it for anyone who's interested in Japanese food. speaking of Japanese food...(see what I did there. Oh, so clever. :P)

Bento #28 (Josh)


clockwise from top left: Vegetable maki from H mart, homemade spam musubi, munster cheese, container of ranch dressing, white bread, cutie (clementine) orange, baby banana, walnut pancake, grape tomatos, and celery and carrot sticks. Phew...a lot of ingredients. I made Dad bento too but the only difference was some umeboshi (pickled plums) instead of bread.

Easy, easy lunches. I made a large batch of Spam musubi this week and froze them. Just tossed them in the microwave for a minute and they were perfect. They're so easy to make. I don't have a musubi press yet, so I used my onigiri mold and cut the Spam smaller. I got the recipe from www.cookingcute.com

One more thing. Check out my photos from our trip to the Federal Way bonsai collection today. More photos to come soon. http://www.flickr.com/photos/16063815@N08/sets/72157603241039666/

Golden Curry

Daiso is my new favorite store. They have everything there. and mostly under $2! Just look at these spoils. :D

2 sizes of onigiri molds, assorted sauce bottles, fun food picks and a lunch box. (I also got a thermal lunch bag.)

They didn't have any egg molds and niether did H Mart so I'm going to have to find them online. But I was very happy with what I did find. My lunch box has four compartments and is microwavable and the picks are super cute. I can tell you I'll be going to Daiso a lot now. :)

On to the Bentos!

Bento #20 (Josh)

Rice with furikake, chicken and veggie curry*, granola, dried apple slices, and 2 hello panda cookies.

Josh's bentos usually don't take more then a few minutes to put together. The rice and curry were leftovers from dinner (So yummy!). I threw it in the box while it was still hot since his box is thermal and I didn't have to put as much food away.

Bento #21 (Dad)

Apple chunks sprinkled with lemon juice to reduce browning, cheese kabobs and a hard boiled egg, brown rice and chicken curry.

Another really fast one, except that I had to defrost the rice as I had frozen it about a week ago. I didn't want the cheese or egg to get soggy so I put the apple in a disposable muffin tin(pack of 20 for under $1) and left peeling the egg to him.

*The curry had chicken, green bell pepper, enoki mushrooms, carrots, onions, and golden curry mix.

Skipping some

I haven't had a chance to update in a while and I'm not going to post 2 weeks worth of bentos here tonight so we'll just go with my favorites. (Both of Josh's lunches here are Vegetarian.)

Josh recently bought a thermal lunch box near the hispanic food at Winco that I jokingly call his "Ms. Bento". :D But seriously it has lots of space and mostly keeps the food warm. Not bad for $9.

Bento #12 (Josh)


Left:Homemade california rolls and green tea marshmallow. Middle:Instant udon soup. Right:Napa cabbage, mushrooms and cucumbers for the soup.

Bento #15 (Me and Mom)


This picture is kinda funny because I got really hungry and started eating and then I was like. Oops, forgot to take a photo. It was kind of annoying because it looked really nice when it was full. :(

Roast beef and cheddar on dinner rolls, cucumber wall and homemade california rolls.
Slightly pictured: Wheat thins, cheese cubes and green tea marshmallows.

Bento #16 (Josh)

Left: Avacado and cucumber stuffed onigiri and button mushrooms. Middle: cucumbers, cheese, avacado and hard boiled eggs. Right: Wheat thins and dried apple rings.

Mr. Face was fun to make! ^_^

It's Bento, For Breakfast.

I alwasy get hungry on Sunday mornings (We get to church at 8am to make coffee and don't get home till about noon.) and bento has come to my rescue.


Apple slices, grapes, a container of yogurt, a Lion king kiddy spoon, and a box of Lychee drink. All packed in my new Hello Kitty box that I got for 49 cents at Ross.
It took me about 5 minutes to throw it all together before we left.

Josh's Bento from the other day:


Bottom L-R: Napa cabbage, fried soy sauce onigiri and ketchup/hot sauce onigiri.
Top L-R: Nori seaweed in baggy (To keep it crisp.), green tea marshmallow and carrot slices.

This was really easy to put together. I had made a ton of the hot sauce and soy sauce onigiri and froze them. I put them in the microwave for a minute before packing them up. I adapted the hot sauce onigiri recipe from Lunch in a box.

Mom's and my bento today:

Top: White rice onigiri and meatloaf
Bottom: Trailmix (Raisins, chocolate chips, crispix cereal.), green tea marshmallow and corn.
You can see our salad boxes off to the left there. Mom and I shared the big box and each had salads in new green Hello Kitty boxes from the Dollar tree.

Salad is: Spring mix salad from Sam's club with dried cranberries, almonds, and a container of catalina dressing.

New box

I picked up this little baby at Storables last night. It has three containers that are all freezer, microwave, and dishwasher safe. It also comes with an icepack to keep the food cold. It was a great buy for $8.95.

I packed my bento in it today:

Top: Gyro skewers, white rice onigiri, and soy sauce.
Bottom: Peach yogurt with red and green grapes, olive man with carrot pieces and a hard boiled egg.

Quick tip, Leftovers: I had a gyro last night for dinner and didn't finish it, so I took it home. I realised that the bread would get soggy in my box so I took out the meat and put it on some bamboo skewers I had cut in half.

Dad's bento: More leftovers

Coleslaw, carrots, and barbecue ribs. (Not pictured: Brown rice and nori.)

Matt's bento: Fast and easy

This morning at the last minute I needed to make my little brother something for lunch, but it was no problem. 2 already made onigiri, a frozen burrito and some soy sauce makes for a quick and easy meal. Another tip: When you make something like onigiri, make some extra and put them in the fridge or freezer. It helps if you need to make lunch in a hurry.

Bento for the whole family

Well, not quite the whole family. :)

Josh's Bento: Classic favorite with an asian flair.

Ham and cheese on dinner rolls, pretzels, Lychees and salad(Bok choi, carrots, hard boiled egg and catalina dressing.).


My bento: Lovely Bento

Top: Soy sauce onigiri wrapped in nori, cheese cut outs, carrot slices, hard boiled egg chick(nori and carrot face) and heart and peanut butter and jelly on a dinner roll.
Bottom: Lychees in a heart cupcake paper, red grapes, wheat thins and cheese hearts.

I really like how this one came out. I knew I wouldn't eat very much at lunch, so I packed lots of snacky things that would keep all day in the fridge. And I got to use my cute box! ^_^


Dad's Bento: Planteriffic!

L-R: Red grapes, green olives, lychees, napa cabbage with coleslaw and a hard boiled egg.(carrot for the face.)
Not pictured: Brown rice with nori and two tillapia fillets.

Mom's Bento: Simply american

Double stacked ham and cheese half sandwiches, coleslaw and pretzels.

I'm beat after making all those bentos. I mixed the leftover rice with soy sauce and made onigiri and put them in the fridge.

Barbecue and Mr. Healthy Bento

Josh's Bento consits of leftovers again:

Cheese cut-outs, pork ribs, pickles, pepperoncinis, olives and a pluot.

Dad's lunch was more fun to make:

Top: Flower and triangle brown rice onigiri with nori seaweed, carrot cut-outs and a little container of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
Bottom: Bok choi and carrot sald with a hard boiled egg and a pepperoncini on the side.