Using Bento Boxes for lunches.

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  • PrizePopple
    PrizePopple Posts: 3,133 Member
    I'll give that a whirl tomorrow while my kids are at school so the egg has time to cool overnight. :)
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    PrizePopple wrote: »
    mangrothian wrote: »
    PrizePopple wrote: »
    SnuggleSmacks wrote: »
    PrizePopple wrote: »
    Will someone tell me where I'm going wrong with my egg shaping? I've never been able to make them not look derpy. :cry:

    I put the egg in the mold while still kinda hot, close the mold and stick it in the fridge til it's completely cold. Having the right size egg for your mold also helps. That can be difficult since the molds aren't always marked.

    Hmm 2 of my 4 molds have writing on them, but I don't read Japanese... :grumble:


    The egg size is usually on the packaging. On the plastic itself, it's usually telling you if it's dishwasher safer or microwave safe. Don't worry, I can never get my egg shaping right either, so I don't bother anymore. My eggs taste good, and once they've gone in my mouth it doesn't matter what shape they are ;)

    Well I bought this stuff when my kids were toddlers ... so now that they are 10 and almost 8 I'd like to at least once make them an impressive bento lunch. :laugh:

    Heh, understandable. You might need to either get some jumbo eggs or like in my case, find some smaller egg moulds.

    If you're trying to go for the impressive Bento lunch, another option is to do faces on the eggs. You get some nori sheets (which should be very cheap!) and a smiley face cutout stamp. Cut out nori, stick on egg (its such a small amount that they shouldn't taste any difference if they're picky eaters) and oui la! I find anything with a face on it more fun to eat. I've done this for more than one batch of my onigiri; it's another thing that I'm sure makes my husband think I'm cray cray.
  • PixieGoddess
    PixieGoddess Posts: 1,833 Member
    I'm going to reiterate what everybody else says: peel the egg when it's still really hot. I actually take an egg straight from the boiling water, hold it (with tongs) under cold running water for a little bit, then peel it, holding it under the cold water again as needed. Once it's peeled, I rinse it under the water, shove it into the egg mold, and drop it into a bowl of cold water. I generally use large eggs, but I recently had extra large and they worked too, although some of the egg was usually squished out in the mold.

    It's also a matter of luck. Some turn out well, others don't. I've also found that less-cooked (more soft boiled instead of hard boiled) eggs tend to not peel as easy and come out wonky - that's what happened with the 2 eggs that I had this last week.
  • LizN63
    LizN63 Posts: 129 Member
    edited February 2015
    Love the cheese and crackers/Melba toast idea!
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    Here is mine for today - rice, sweet-sour red wine vinegar chicken, chilli prawns, bunny egg (I find this shape the most reliable as its pretty much egg shaped already), garlic greens and cherries/grapes.
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    Tomorrow's lunch:
    o2ehybp2pdao.jpg

    Breakfast/lunch/snack total: 720cal (including a peach not in the picture). The lunch section of the box is 480cal.

    Today I did something I haven't done in a while: mincemeat in rice. I used meat from a hamburger pattie this time (since it's what we were having with dinner), and microwave cooked it mixed through rice with some mirin and furikake. You get a salty sweet rice and meat mix which is quite nice - using straight mince or a firm tofu (whatever you fancy chowing down on) would definitely be lower calorie than the hamburger pattie I used.

    I've also been having a bit of an empty day recently (yay hunger games reference again!), so I overloaded my bigger Bento box with blanched veggies to help out.
  • kramrn77
    kramrn77 Posts: 375 Member
    Today's lunch- bottom tier is 1/2c jasmine rice and cabbage rolls. Top tier is strawberries, cucumber and Asian pear pickles, hummus and carrot chips. All told, about 400 calories.
    - Most of the cabbage rolls fell apart when taking them out of the crockpot. Ugly, but still yummy!
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  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
    edited February 2015
    One egg mold trick I saw on-line involved stirring the eggs gently in a circle while they're boiling so the yolk is centered. Apparently if the yolk is too close to an edge, it can squish.
  • LizN63
    LizN63 Posts: 129 Member
    I just poke them about a bit every now and then - seems to work the same.
  • PixieGoddess
    PixieGoddess Posts: 1,833 Member
    Today's lunch was delicious! Onigiri, shrimp, a boiled egg (as always, the star looks like a flower), and apple slices with nutella! :)
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  • CupcakeCrusoe
    CupcakeCrusoe Posts: 1,385 Member
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    first use for my new bento box! :) puffed rice cereal for breakfast with blackberries and dark chocolate almonds, and rice and krab salad for lunch with a baybel cheese, hard-boiled egg, and an oatmeal square.
  • kristydi
    kristydi Posts: 781 Member
    I just packed my daughter's lunch for tomorrow in her new strawberry bento box. Heart shaped grilled cheese bites, pretzels and red velvet oreos in the top and bunny apple slices and orange slices in the bottom.
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  • SpecialKitty7
    SpecialKitty7 Posts: 678 Member
    @kristydi that strawberry bento is so cute! I thought about picking up something like that for a snack bento box.
  • sarieth05
    sarieth05 Posts: 313 Member
    You guys make some super yummy/cute boxes. I, however, have been mega lazy BUT I think my husband wouldn't mind me making him lunches like these for work, so I get to do some shopping and buy him a more manly bento box. XD

    Contents: grilled chicken over romaine lettuce with strawberries. Grapes, whole wheat ritz crackers (I've been on a cracker fix lately!) with ANOTHER laughing cow cheese wedge. I have a problem.

    Calories: 339.8
    bt0i48k7pxkw.jpg
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    edited February 2015
    sarieth05 wrote: »
    You guys make some super yummy/cute boxes. I, however, have been mega lazy BUT I think my husband wouldn't mind me making him lunches like these for work, so I get to do some shopping and buy him a more manly bento box. XD

    Contents: grilled chicken over romaine lettuce with strawberries. Grapes, whole wheat ritz crackers (I've been on a cracker fix lately!) with ANOTHER laughing cow cheese wedge. I have a problem.

    Calories: 339.8
    bt0i48k7pxkw.jpg

    Lol, your laughing cow 'problem' sounds like my babybel 'problem'. I'm sure there's a support group for us.

    Really the only food I've pretty much cut out of my diet is good cheese. Babybel cheeses are ok, but artisan cheese is definitely the trigger food for me (other than mochi cakes). I could easily devour a whole wheel of triple cream brie and a good stilton in a sitting, especially when paired with a good pinot noir. One day I'll see if I can test temptation, but not yet. If I had my choice, my Bento would be filled with cheese, olives and an array of smoked meats >:)
  • sarieth05
    sarieth05 Posts: 313 Member
    mangrothian wrote: »
    Lol, your laughing cow 'problem' sounds like my babybel 'problem'. I'm sure there's a support group for us.

    I actually picked up some babybel cheese in the store today cause of all the ones I saw on this thread, thought I should branch out, but then I angrily put them back and grabbed more laughing cow cheese. I just couldn't do it!
  • LizN63
    LizN63 Posts: 129 Member
    mangrothian wrote: »
    Really the only food I've pretty much cut out of my diet is good cheese. Babybel cheeses are ok, but artisan cheese is definitely the trigger food for me (other than mochi cakes). I could easily devour a whole wheel of triple cream brie and a good stilton in a sitting, especially when paired with a good pinot noir. One day I'll see if I can test temptation, but not yet. If I had my choice, my Bento would be filled with cheese, olives and an array of smoked meats >:)

    This is me - I have managed to sneak a small wedge of stilton into my fridge at the moment but other than that abberation I've had to go cold turkey. My obsession started when I was pregnant and I realised I could no longer have unpasteurised cheeses, parma ham, and cold white wine (you know, when you get condensation on the outside of the glass) eaten with crusty bread, butter and crackers *sigh*. Since then I can't get enough of the stuff (and my wee one is 3...).
  • kramrn77
    kramrn77 Posts: 375 Member
    I couldn't live without cheese! I do love my Laughing Cow cheese- but nothing beats *good* cheese. I had to learn to weigh it out and save it for lunches. I ha to give up gluten and as far as I am concerned that's enough, thanks. Hell, I am not even very good at giving up gluten lately, come to it.
  • SpecialKitty7
    SpecialKitty7 Posts: 678 Member
    I'm a huge cheese lover too (my proximity to Wisconsin only helps fuel it :smiley: ) and I was actually surprised at how large an ounce of cheese actually is. I try to stick to the ounce, but the really good stuff sometimes is hard to behave around.
  • LizN63
    LizN63 Posts: 129 Member
    Oops I just went and ate most of that Stilton with some crackers :\
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    LizN63 wrote: »
    Oops I just went and ate most of that Stilton with some crackers :\

    Did it taste awesome? Did you enjoy every second? If so, then it's worth it. I just would suggest it doesn't go in your bento daily ;)

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