First day of school and the first day of Fall

Hello! I've been gone for so long! Just haven't had time to post. Now that school has started, I'll be making lunch pretty much everyday again. Yay! I missed my bentos.

Bento #52: (mine) First day of Fall

It's hard to see but we have: Turkey and pepperjack on maple leaf shaped skewers, bird shaped onigiri sprikled with umeboshi furikake, maple leaf/acorn shaped mushroom slices, romaine lettuce, and a small bottle of italian salad dressing. Everything packed in a Hello Kitty lock-and-lock style box.

My phone camera pretty much sucks. Even though I got a new and nicer phone. Anyway, although this may look like it took a while, it actually was a speed bento. 10 minutes total. I cut up the mushrooms and put together the skewers while the rice was reheating. The cheese was pre-cut from dinner prep so less work at the time of packing. Score! I threw in a flag with the encouraging word: FIGHT (がんばりましょう) on it because school has been pretty overwhelming. Even on the second day. Mostly because of Japanese class. Oh, I wish I remembered everything from the Spring. D:

Bento #53 (Mine)

Left: Fried rice with tofu, edemame, corn, narutomaki, and mushrooms

Right: Green and red bell pepper slices, rambutans

Tiger container: Fiesta dip for peppers

Brought out my good ol' lock-and-lock set for this lunch. The bag fits in my backpack so nicely! The rabutans are a new thing. just picked them up yesterday at the Great wall mall. They're really tasty! Kinda like Lychees, but not quite as sweet. The fried rice was made with a bunch of leftover vegetables as well as some tofu and Narutomaki (Steamed fishcake). Narutomaki is great because it can be frozen forever. Plus it makes ramen so much better! :D

I sort of got the recipe for the dip online, but I changed a lot. Mostly because there was hardly anything in the house to make it out of. I actually only put a little bit of mayonnaise in this batch. (I had to scrape it from the container.)So I'm not sure how it would be with more of it.

Kaitie's Fiesta Dip

1/4 cup light sour cream

Less than 1/4 of olive oil Mayonnaise

2 Tbsp cayenne

2Tbsp Chili powder

1Tbsp taco seasoning

Mix together and add more of the cayenne, chili powder and taco seasoning until you like the level of spiciness.

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)

A Much Needed Update

Boy, I haven't been on here in a long time. Life was calling. I have been making bentos however and will try to post more often by putting up some older ones.

Things have been a little hectic lately. My Mom had a stroke this week, but she's doing much better. We also found out this month that she has type 2 diabetes, so expect to see lots of diabetic lunches with tips for carb counting. :)

Bento #37 (Mine)

Chicken salad(canned chicken, mayonaise, almonds, and cucumbers), edemame skewers, rice cakes, wheat thins, and apple rabbits.

Mom and I attended a Diabetes class and had to pack dinners. Her's was very similar to this minus the apple, edemame, and wheat thins. I was very eager to use this new box.(Picked up at the thrift store for $1.99!) I love the shape! I needed a bento belt to keep it together though as it's just a simple lacquered box. I packed this rather badly though since the chicken salad was very wet. It leaked onto everything! The apples didn't suffer much, but the bottom crackers weren't very appetizing. I put the edemame on some rats from a set of chinese zodiac picks. :D

Also, I have quite the supply of bento supplies up for sale or swapping. If you want more information, either post here or email me at bento_mom@hotmail.com

A New Year, A New Bento

This is yesterday's lunch. I made one for my brother too, but didn't get a picture. It was pretty similar though.

Bento#36 (mine)


R-L: Rye cocktail bread, pomegrante arils, colby jack cheese, ham, hard boiled egg, and edemame.

This lunch took about half an hour simply because of the pomegrante. But now I have a whole bunch of arils in the fridge to put in other lunches (and just to snack on. Yummy!). When I cut into the egg it was totally green inside and not very pretty so I mashed the yolk with mayo and mustard and sprinkled the top with paprika. the edemame was frozen and I over cooked it while defrosting. But it was still good. Packed in a ---ml(not sure.) Hello Kitty box wit removable divider from the Dollar Tree.

Real Onigiri

Bento #22(mine):


Onigiri, green pepper, container of sesame ginger dressing, mini hamburgers and eggroll, cheese skewers, hello panda cookies and grape tomatos to fill it in.

I love my onigiri molds! I cooked up the rice last night, molded them and put them in the fridge. Using the molds makes it take about 5 minutes to make 6 or 7. So much easier then doing it by hand.

Mini hamburgers and Nashi

Again I started eating my lunch before taing a picture so half my pear chunks are gone. :P I had to use my cell phone to take the photo because my camera died.

Bento #22 (mine):

Rice with furikake, mini hamburgers with gap filling grapes, half a nashi (Asian pear) and cheese skewers with "hello panda" cookies.

Really quick and simple. Mom made tamale meat loaf on Saturday so I made some of the meat into little hamburgers and froze them. The rice was leftovers from dinner.

Mom's Bento was almost the same. Except instead of the third burger she had an egg roll and she had junior caremels rather then panda cookies.

I love those asian pears. They're simply delicious! :D

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.

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.