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

Fishy Print Kinkachu Bag

It's Sunday! Which means I didn't make bento, but I made something for it! :D

I bought this fabric over a year ago at a cute little store in downtown Seattle. It was going to be for a purse, but I never got around to it. And then, yesterday I found this tutotial.

Here are the results:

It's hard to see the handles in this one. But they are there.

A view of the inside lining.

This bag is HUGE compared to my other bags. It holds my big ol' purple lidded fit'n'fresh AND sidecars at the same time! I'm so looking forward to using it. ^_^

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

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.

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.

Freezing Cornbread Muffins

I wake up at around 6 and have to get to work at 7 so I try to get my lunch packed up the night before. But sometimes, I forget or I'm very tired so I don't have a lunch. Which is very bad. Because I end up buying something in the break room which means my lunch consists of: a hot pocket/burrito, a granola bar, and some fruit snacks. Not the best. It makes me pretty mad at myself because I have to spend money and I don't feel as good or full for the lack of good food. So (enough with the rambling back story :P) Any way that I can get lunch together faster is great. I get so much inspiration from Biggie at Lunch in a box.

I love cornbread. So I made 3 dozen mini cornbread muffins-from a mix, this week. Then I wrapped them in plastic wrap (To prevent freezer burning) and into a Lock and lock container in the freezer they went. You can't really read it. But I have a piece of tape stating: "Cornbread muffins 9/22/08" This is because things need to be marked in our freezer or people ask you repeatedly what it is. Also, dates are a good idea so it gets eaten up. These should last for a few months though, and I'm sure they'll be eaten by then.

Here's more of the inside. You'll also notice the divider in there. 12 of the muffins have cheese in them so that let's me know which is which.

Freezer foods are a great way to make a fast lunch. I usually have edamame(Soy beans), Gyoza(potstickers), An pan(Red bean paste buns. Yum!), and rice, fried tofu in the freezer. Because I have a microwave steamer-which I picked up at Ross for $3, it's easy to throw a handful of beans or some dumplings in it while I'm getting things together to go. Only takes about a minute to cook. Or I pack the dumplings in the steamer and take it to work to cook it. Then it's nice and hot at lunch time.


Real bento post coming tomorrow!

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.

Working bento

I got a job 2 weeks ago so I've been neglecting updating here. But I have been making bentos. Oh, have I been bentoing! :D Forgive the missing uh...6(?) bentos. I usually pack up lunch the night before and I run off to work at 6:30am. Aaaaand it's a little embarasing taking photos of your lunch at work. >.>

Bento #46 (Mine):

Top Tier: Cherry tomatoes, pepperjack chese, teriyaki flavored nori, a strawberry marshmellow and a brownie.

Bottom: White rice mixed with spinach with chicken and an umeboshi.

Chicken and rice were leftover from dinner, I heated them up at work. Teriyaki nori is one of my favorite snacks.

Bento #47 (Mine):

Top Tier: More cherry tomatoes and nori, sweet and sour eggrolls and a fish shaped boiled egg.

Bottom: Thai curry fried rice with chicken.

Curry rice is leftover from a restaruant. I put the eggrolls frozen and cooked them in the toaster oven at work. I just got transferred to the other warehouse and sadly, they have no toaster oven. I guess I'll have to cook at home. :P

Both lunches are packed in a 738ml Hello Kitty box bought at the Dollar Tree for $1.

Chicken Salad in 2 Ways

Bento #44: (Mom)
Mom has white rolls, cucumber, celery, cottage cheese, a strawberry, and chicken salad with a tomato slice.

Not much to say about this one. Except that I kept the rolls from getting soggy by making a wall of red leaf lettuce between them and the cucumber.

Bento #44 (Mine)
I have cottage cheese, cucumber, kamaboko(steamed fish cake), hard boiled quail eggs, grapes, and chicken salad-filled onigiri on a bed of red leaf lettuce.

These were packed in 2 of 3 tiers of a Jyubako box I bought at Daiso for $5.

Eeep! 50th bento is right around the corner! I think I have an idea of what to do, but people might only get it if they watch Korean movies. :P

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.

Chicken Salad For Two

We went grocery shopping last night. Hurrah! Some fruits and veggies in the house! Fast, simple, plain-looking lunches today. I packed them both the night before to save time in the morning.

Bento #40 (Mom's)

Mom has Chicken salad with celery, cucumbers, and avocado, ritz crackers and walnuts. 2 carb choices (Probably around three with snacks since she ate most of the tangelo.)

Bento #41 (Mine)

I have the same chicken salad but with more of the veggies and some mixed lettuce. For snacks (Which are for Mom and Me to share) I have peanut butter pretzels, dried apricots, babybel cheese and a tangelo. Both lunches are packed in Hello Kitty boxes -that don't have ml information on the bottom, I found at Dollar Tree for (Gasp!) a dollar.

Wow, 41! I'll have to do something special for my 50th. (Well, 50th blogged about. :P)

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

Lynnwood Daiso and Enchanted boxes

We were down at the Alderwood mall yesterday so we stopped at the Daiso there(of course!). It was bigger then the Federal way store and lots of fun to look around. They had a ton of boxes


I grabbed mini chopsticks, some sauce bottles and veggie cutters. But the best thing I got yesterday was at the Disney store.







Duh duh duh duuuuuuuh! I <3 Enchanted! And these boxes were in a pack for $5.50 or three things from the shelf for $12.00. I was tempted to buy the cars boxes too, but decided against it. I'm disappointed that they don't close very well but I can use them for dry sidcars. I'm happy anyway. :P

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.

Happy Boxing Day!

(Written yesterday and forgot to post. Oopsies.)
Today's lunch is in honor of all the people who got gifts they didn't want. :P
Bento #35


An egg, sweet potato, radish, and steak on a bed of rice packed in my pink Hello Kitty box.(Don't know the ml. I should find out.)

I actually didn't spend as much time on this as you might think. It was my way of using up my leftover dinner from last night. The egg was mixed with soy sauce and cooked in my new Tamogoyaki pan.

I had a very Bentotastic Christmas. I got several pairs of chopsticks, a tamogoyaki pan, Bento box in the Heartland, and some other books (from Mom) coming in the mail.

Tamagoyaki For Breakfast

Bento #34 (mine)

Tamgoyaki and baby jazz apple rabbits. Packed in my new Hello Kitty box from my swap with Snappiness on Flickr.

Time: About 15 minutes. I cut up the apple and let it sit in a bath of cold water, sugar, and lemon juice while I made the eggs.

This was my second attmept at Tamagoyaki and it came out so well. (I made a third attempt that night that was even better.) I used Biggie's recipe but cooked it according to Just Hungry's instructions. My mom says it tastes like french toast. I think it tastes like fishy french toast. :P But it's still yummy!

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.