Using Bento Boxes for lunches.

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  • minidice
    minidice Posts: 1
    edited February 2015
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    Wow, I LOVE the idea of using bento boxes as portion control. I want to make some too. It's great that people use all kinds of stuff in theirs, I'm going to start looking online for a box. For now I'll just use some old tupperware, lol. And if anyone is looking for a Japanese language study partner let me know. I am not exactly a beginner I can read/write kana and know some basic sentence structure. Japanese culture and weight loss combine! がんばってみんなさん! (Good luck everyone!) (*)
  • liekewheeless
    liekewheeless Posts: 416 Member
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    I wanted to try some Japanese cooking but have hit some snags. I don't know how to find half the ingredients. (very limited grocery options, basically walmart). And a lot of the recipes I find online have sake or other "wine" in them. I have to cook without alcohol. My husband is on meds that won't tolerate any amount of alcohol or vinegar.

    If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them.
    (bento friendly recipes preferred)
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
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    liekewheeless wrote: »
    I wanted to try some Japanese cooking but have hit some snags. I don't know how to find half the ingredients. (very limited grocery options, basically walmart). And a lot of the recipes I find online have sake or other "wine" in them. I have to cook without alcohol. My husband is on meds that won't tolerate any amount of alcohol or vinegar.

    If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them.
    (bento friendly recipes preferred)

    The mirin (Damn it iPhone stop correcting mirin to moron!) and sake can be boiled on a stovetop very lightly for about 5-10 mins get rid of the alcohol content.

    I would try beef gyuudon. For bento, I cook it in advance and freeze this recipe into about 5 servings, without the rice and eggs of course. It has mirin/cooking sake in the recipe, but you can leave it out, and replace it with about a 1/4 of teaspoon of sugar and a small amount of a low sodium stock; I use mushroom stock or mushroom dashi if I can get it. The sake/mirin in most Japanese recipes is to get rid of the 'meaty' flavour of meat (sounds weird I know). A small amount of sugar will usually do the same thing.
  • PixieGoddess
    PixieGoddess Posts: 1,833 Member
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    It's kinda blurry, but today's bento! More leftover fried chicken, rice, and veggies, with half an apple sliced up in the small tier. But I tossed the veggies after only a couple bites - they'd gone gross in my fridge :(
    93bf6kj3qndt.jpg
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
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    SpecialKitty7 wrote: »
    @snugglesmacks here are a few:
    http://www.jbox.com/category/819
    http://www.daisojapan.com/
    http://www.allthingsforsale.com/103-bento-accessory

    Those are the ones i remember. I bought most of my stuff with amazon prime too.

    Thanks! That's super helpful! I've already started filling a basket with everything I like, and then I'll slowly weed stuff out until I have a reasonably priced order. Can't wait!!
  • liekewheeless
    liekewheeless Posts: 416 Member
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    @mangrothian Thanks! I'll try the sugar method. I figured the cooking process would get rid of most of the alcohol but just not willing to risk it.
  • HanamiDango
    HanamiDango Posts: 456 Member
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    Tomorrow "love wife bento" I put a tiny more effort into this. Butter pan francés, carrots, and tonights leftover, jambalaya.
    c3fd91fba3ac226611cfd530341aa832.png
  • SpecialKitty7
    SpecialKitty7 Posts: 678 Member
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    @hanamidango that looks amazing! I love the cute cut carrots :smile:
  • sarieth05
    sarieth05 Posts: 313 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Yum! I love jambalaya. We just had some a few days ago. And it must be the time for leftovers cause I just made up a lunch bento with our leftover dinner from tonight. I also have been craving cereal so I made up a breakfast bento. >.>

    Orange breakfast bento: fruit and yogurt cereal (Special K), half an apple, grapes. Skim milk for the cereal tomorrow. 234 calories.

    Blue lunch bento: Leftover crockpot chili (ground beef, onion, celery, beans, bell pepper are the main components), half an apple, grapes (clearly, I'm using up my supply of this before I go to the store). 464 calories.

    1qd0ou36viwz.jpg

    Edit because I wanted to mention I just preportion my cereal into serving sizes right away when I buy it so that's why it's in the ziplock and not dumped into the box. :p
  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
    edited February 2015
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    sarieth05 wrote: »

    Edit because I wanted to mention I just preportion my cereal into serving sizes right away when I buy it so that's why it's in the ziplock and not dumped into the box. :p

    That is such a good idea!!! Right now I just use a measuring cup to measure out cereal when I have it, but I know..I know..thats not accurate... its on my to-do list to get a scale, but for now its better than eye-balling what a serving is though lol But I really like the idea of pre-portioning into ziplocks!
  • LizN63
    LizN63 Posts: 129 Member
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    8h0b4cgyesg6.jpg here's todays bento, although I suspect the onigiri is absolutely too massive and I will only eat half of it. It has salmon in it.
  • Daiako
    Daiako Posts: 12,545 Member
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    620ps3o3ygxu.jpg

    Chicken dumplings, mixed veg, strawberries, rice, and boiled eggs. 660 calories, 500 for lunch and 160 for snacks.

    I've got tuna om reserve in case the dumplings are...weird in the morning.
  • ElliInJapan
    ElliInJapan Posts: 284 Member
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    On Asahi shinbun today
    http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201502200065

    The bentos are cute but I felt a bit sorry for the mother...
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
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    Cheerios0392 wrote: »
    I haven't tried this, but I love this idea!!! The layout reminds me sooo much of plane food though lol.

    Trust me, they taste much better than plane food. Unless you make it from all prepackaged food, and then, well, it wouldn't be surprising.

    No Saturday Bento's for me (maybe, I have a road trip tomorrow so I might make some onigiri). Because of my run and all the extra steps today (yay 16k steps!), I've treated myself to a spicy kitsune udon bowl. Yes it has my daily sodium count in it, but I just think of it as replacing the sweat from my running in 33C weather today.
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
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    ElliInJapan wrote: »
    On Asahi shinbun today
    http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201502200065

    The bentos are cute but I felt a bit sorry for the mother...

    Now that is an interesting way of communicating with a child. When I first saw the title, I thought it was about the pressure some parents feel with making a cute bento for their child's lunch in case they're picked on, which I've read about before.
  • Malyndiajc
    Malyndiajc Posts: 8 Member
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    This thread is catching some steam... congratulation @mangrothian‌ your world domination is near it's end goal :wink:
  • SpecialKitty7
    SpecialKitty7 Posts: 678 Member
    edited February 2015
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    @sarieth05 that's awesome on the cereal. I always buy things thinking I'm going to do that, but by the time I've put most of the groceries away and chase the dogs around to get the rest of the groceries, and pulled the cat out of the fridge twice, I forget, or get lazy, one of the two :blush:

    no bento today and yesterday's was the same as earlier so no pic. I think i'm going to take the time to put an effort in this Sunday, so I should have something to post soon.
  • PixieGoddess
    PixieGoddess Posts: 1,833 Member
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    I took a picture of today's bento as soon as I'd packed it b/c I'm not sure how well the PB is gonna hold up! I'll let you guys know when I find out at lunch! Today I have leftover fajitas from eating out last night with some rice, half an apple, and some peanut butter (crunchy!)

    coxj6ow9qy83.jpg
  • CupcakeCrusoe
    CupcakeCrusoe Posts: 1,382 Member
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    PixieGoddess wrote: »
    I took a picture of today's bento as soon as I'd packed it b/c I'm not sure how well the PB is gonna hold up! I'll let you guys know when I find out at lunch! Today I have leftover fajitas from eating out last night with some rice, half an apple, and some peanut butter (crunchy!)

    I am drooling over your peanut butter. I hope it works out well in a bento!
  • SpecialKitty7
    SpecialKitty7 Posts: 678 Member
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    PixieGoddess wrote: »
    I took a picture of today's bento as soon as I'd packed it b/c I'm not sure how well the PB is gonna hold up! I'll let you guys know when I find out at lunch! Today I have leftover fajitas from eating out last night with some rice, half an apple, and some peanut butter (crunchy!)

    Hope the PB holds up! And, crunchy is the only way to go IMHO.

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