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

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)

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

Real Bento

After waking up late today I rushed around the kitchen trying to find something to pack for lunch. Cheese cubes, a pita, 2 hard boiled eggs and some cucumber slices went into a box for Mom, Matt and I to share as we headed for the door. We get to work and what does mom say? "I don't think that'll feed all of us. Let's get bento for lunch." Oh bliss!


Our real bento: mixed tempura, gyoza, california rolls, salad and teriyaki chicken on rice. What could be better on a rainy day? :D

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.

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.

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.