Using Bento Boxes for lunches.
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Everyone has their own method to marinate eggs, but for mine I hard boil mine, peel them, then store them in a ziploc bag with a black teabag, a couple of tablespoons of soy and some mirin, and marinate in the fridge for any time up to 4 hours. Here's a link if you want a more accurate recipe.
I know that the regular supermarkets here don't stock any of the less common Japanese ingredients, but I'm lucky to have a well stocked local Asian grocery store.0 -
@colejkeene I just remembered in your post that you said your nickname was panda, and the Bento I made today (I actually made two, since my mother in law loves my lunches) is all Panda themed! I included the lids on my boxes this time for giggles. I've also noticed how boring my food photography is
Today's lunch is pretty much my standard as normal. I prepped some veggies for blanching from the ones I was adding into the nights curry, and kept some matcha cooked rice aside for the meals as well. It totals 660 cal, with the main lunchbox compartments totalling 455cal.
- Cold green tea (pink bottle)
- light babybel
Main containers:
- 120g matcha rice
- 2 umeboshi
- furikake
- 1.5 ponzu sauce meatballs
- mixed blanched veggies tossed in garlic, ginger and corriander
- 2 red wine vinegar chicken pieces (recipe here. it's my fav chicken recipe)
Green container:
- 15g fresh blueberries
- 100g natural yoghurt
- mixed spice
Small blue container
- 100g grapes0 -
Thank you so much! I look forward to trying these out.
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And that red wine vinegar chicken recipe sounds divine!0
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I've done some bento meals, though I don't have a bento box. I have those "Lunch Blocks" containers. They're pretty cool.
I like Mason jar salads for lunches, too. All your salad stuff in one place!
Pinterest is awesome for recipes. I get lost there.
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mangrothian wrote: »@colejkeene They're so pretty! I have the same box as your orange one, but in pink. It was my first Bento box, and even if it cracks I don't think I could bring myself to throw it out. You've also made me want to make kinpira again.
@mangrothian, Kinpira is easily one of my favorite bento fillers. I always have a ton of veggies just lying around in my fridge staring at me and this is such an easy, delicious, way to put them to use.mangrothian wrote: »I'm sure your husbands workmates are just jelly if the best thing they can pick on is your husbands lunchbox. My husband likes my Bentos, but he and his co workers actually work from an office in our garage, so I don't make him one.
They are jerks, plan and simple. He knows it, I know how it, they know it. It's just kind of a weird culture (that I don't understand) in their office that he has to pick his battles. Unfortunately awesome lunch boxes is not one of them.
I've thought about getting him something like this from Monbento that's a little bit more masculine but we haven't gotten around to it. So for now, he gets bento-fied Tupperware.mangrothian wrote: »Also, do you you make your own furikake, or do you buy it? There's only a few pre-packaged ones I can eat since I'm msg sensitive (lips swelling up like you've have collagen for a few hours is NOT a look I go for).
I do make my own! I used this recipe as a start, but my husband and I are vegetarian so I don't add the bonito flakes. I do add a little bit of my rehydrated kombu, though, that I blend into smaller pieces. The mirin adds a really nice sweetness without having to add sugar and my hubby and I like our foods with very little salt, so a low sodium soy for this is perfect!mangrothian wrote: »I also had a look through the allthingsforsale site, and I might do some ordering from there, but I'll have to be careful not to get carried away. Quite a few of the things that I've seen there I can get for less in my local Daiso store. Those moustache picks though...
I could spend a fortune on that site. For me, there are no local stores to pick up any bento supplies so I have to stick with my shopping online. It's only about 1-2 times a year that I make a significant purchase, but every time it's like Christmas, haha!0 -
My husband's co-workers often find his bento interesting.
FWIW, while the cute boxes are nice, you really can make pretty decent bento in el-cheapo Gladware:
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@Furioushummingbird Lunchblox aren't available in Australia, although there are a few similar ones. I started out using plain gladware and Sistema containers since they have some great lunchboxes (I find that containers with clip-shut lids are always safer than regular containers when you take lots of trains/trams etc).
I also like the idea of the mason jar salads, but I think I've been over-saladed, which google says isn't even a word. We have a lot of salads with dinner in Spring & Summer, and most of the first half of last year I ate salads every day for lunch. My taste-buds just roll their metaphorical eyes at me now if I try and pack a salad for lunch.colejkeene wrote: »I do make my own! I used this recipe as a start, but my husband and I are vegetarian so I don't add the bonito flakes. I do add a little bit of my rehydrated kombu, though, that I blend into smaller pieces. The mirin adds a really nice sweetness without having to add sugar and my hubby and I like our foods with very little salt, so a low sodium soy for this is perfect!
I've been to that website before, but never noticed the furikake recipe. I'll definitely give it a go.
@NoelFigart1 I started off making all my Bentos with gladware and other regular lunchboxes. The Bento boxes were just an addition to satisfy my girly tendancies, then turned into a slight addiction *twitch*0 -
@Mangrothian I feel for you. I also have a collection of bento boxes far in excess of the needs of my household!0
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I spent a year in Japan during high school and my host mom used to make all sorts of cute things in my obento's like bunnies, pandas, and hello kitty. 0
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okay, first attempt here.
it's Trader Joe's harvest grain blend, 112 grams shrimp, 85 grams broccoli, 74 grams edamame and 150 grams strawberries. used plain old gladware.2 -
Yay! Looks yum to me. I wish we had Trader Joe's here, it seems like so many people get great food from that store.0
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I just recently fell in love with Bento lunchboxes. I didn't know about them because no one sells them in my country but I ordered some cute children's cutlery, some cookie cutters and a bento lunchbox for my nephew from littlebentoworld and I fell in love with the lunchbox that I got. I'll have to order another one for my nephew after all
It takes a bit more effort to prep the food, but my lunch is always brighter now
And with a 400 kcal lunch, the food really needs to put me in a good mood!0 -
I took a trip to my Asian grocer yesterday after work, stocked up on Furikake, Soy sauce, my first packet of Matcha & chocolate Pocky (totally my superhero weakness, and first packet I've bought since November), and made two impulse purchases.
The first was some shabu shabu beef. It's a great lean cut of beef, and it's sliced thinner than I'd ever get it. I like it because it's easy to weight out (each slice is about 20g) and its super quick to cook. I soaked mine in some soy, and just cooked it in the saucepan I blanched my vegetables in to save on washing up. It's done in less than 2 minutes. No oil in the pan required. I think I paid about AU$6 for about 350g of it, but considering the price of a lean beef cut like eye fillet in Australia, it's not too expensive.
The second was slightly more frivolous, and was bought because it was on special; Hello Kitty freeze dried tofu. I can't eat the stock it comes with for soup (it's sweet and has a high amount of msg), but I just soaked it in some lightly salted water to rehydrate.
But in the end, do you want a delicious extremely low calorie lunch? Everything in the picture you see here makes up 610cal, with the lunchbox (the 3 blue boxes) itself being only 340 calories.
- 1 yellow peach
- 1 mini light babybel
- Matcha pocky
- green teabag in water bottle
Small Green container
- 15 g blueberries
- 100g natural yoghurt (Note: It's generally full fat yoghurt with me. Light plain yoghurt tastes horrible!)
- mixed spice (you can't see it, it's with the blueberries underneath the yoghurt)
Lunchboxes:
Box 1:
- 120g rice
- 2 pickled plums (umeboshi)
- 1 tsp shiso leaf furikake (it's slightly sweet and matches the umeboshi plums well)
Box 2 & 3:
- Mixed blanched vegetables with black pepper (carrot, broccoli florets, broccoli stems, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, snow peas)
- 100g of shabu shabu beef marinated in soy sauce and sautéed
- 5g shredded salted kombu (a type of seaweed)
- 3 pieces of hello kitty tofu (was soaked in lightly salted water).
As I'm sitting here eating my lunch, I can say that it filled me up after I went to the gym, I only had 4 of the pocky sticks from the packet (2 went to coworkers), and I've had one piece of some home made bocconcini that I made last night with a cheese making kit I was given for Christmas.
So, a slight change in rice quantities, and the quality of the type of meat you use can make a big difference to the caloric intake of your bento.0 -
@patrinina I looked at the site - I think I'm going to order the ironman bento box. I fell in love with it. I just wish they made a hulk one
Edit: I just found the egg moulds! oh man I'm going to be poor this week.1 -
OK can you come live at my house and pack my lunches please?0
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I have got to hit our local asian market! I was too scared to go in there with my cookbook last time since I had heard the owners don't speak english and felt it would be rude to point to the pictures in my book. Indian markets are much easier, mostly they speak at least some english, still no idea what I walk out with, but much more comfortable for me.0
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I can almost guarantee that even if the store owners English isn't great, they'll know the names of all their products. One place I go to is a straight Japanese specialty store and the owners can barely hold a conversation, but you ask for a product in the Japanese or English name and they know what you're talking aboutSpecialKitty7 wrote: »I have got to hit our local asian market! I was too scared to go in there with my cookbook last time since I had heard the owners don't speak english and felt it would be rude to point to the pictures in my book. Indian markets are much easier, mostly they speak at least some english, still no idea what I walk out with, but much more comfortable for me.
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