Using Bento Boxes for lunches.

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  • Narcissora
    Narcissora Posts: 197 Member
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    Still I the process of moving, but we now know exactly where we are moving to. Hooray!

    We hadn't been grocery shopping in two weeks because we thought we were moving, but the date kept getting pushed back. Now that we know, we went shopping over the weekend, and I made a bento for lunch tomorrow!

    1yqlaiwx71ec.jpg

    The large box is sort of a layered burrito bowl: rice on the bottom, cheddar cheese, sautéed peppers and onions, chicken, and salsa verde. The small box has a cut up peach, raspberries, and cheez-its.

    I didn't weigh or measure my food this time >.<
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
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    Narcissora wrote: »
    Still I the process of moving, but we now know exactly where we are moving to. Hooray!

    We hadn't been grocery shopping in two weeks because we thought we were moving, but the date kept getting pushed back. Now that we know, we went shopping over the weekend, and I made a bento for lunch tomorrow!

    1yqlaiwx71ec.jpg

    The large box is sort of a layered burrito bowl: rice on the bottom, cheddar cheese, sautéed peppers and onions, chicken, and salsa verde. The small box has a cut up peach, raspberries, and cheez-its.

    I didn't weigh or measure my food this time >.<

    I find that I don't weigh all my food for my Bento's any more. I use the same food so often that I know the weight of my pre-frozen proteins (for ones that vary more, I write the weight when I initially freeze it on the bag) and rice by heart, and what the maximum level of vegetables is that will fit in the leftover space. Same with my snack boxes; I know the maximum weight of the yoghurt that I use that will fit in each of the 3 different sizes that I use, and the amount of berries/muesli that will fit in the others. If I'm running too short on time to weigh everything (which is often the case at the moment), I can just automatically put in the max weights.
  • irisgal345
    irisgal345 Posts: 96 Member
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    I find that I don't weigh all my food for my Bento's any more. I use the same food so often that I know the weight of my pre-frozen proteins (for ones that vary more, I write the weight when I initially freeze it on the bag) and rice by heart, and what the maximum level of vegetables is that will fit in the leftover space. Same with my snack boxes; I know the maximum weight of the yoghurt that I use that will fit in each of the 3 different sizes that I use, and the amount of berries/muesli that will fit in the others. If I'm running too short on time to weigh everything (which is often the case at the moment), I can just automatically put in the max weights.[/quote]

    This is what I love about using Bento for work. The measuring is alr day set up for me by knowing what goes where and how much space is in the box.
  • TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss
    TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss Posts: 66 Member
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    This thread has me wanting to dig through storage. A LONG time ago, I bought a bento, not knowing it was for onigiri and now I want to dig it out and have a go with it. I tossed it in storage because I didn't know what to do with that awkward top portion (lots of bread? two apples?).
  • irisgal345
    irisgal345 Posts: 96 Member
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    TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss wrote: »
    This thread has me wanting to dig through storage. A LONG time ago, I bought a bento, not knowing it was for onigiri and now I want to dig it out and have a go with it. I tossed it in storage because I didn't know what to do with that awkward top portion (lots of bread? two apples?).

    I fill the bottom of my two tray bento box with rice and protein. Then the top gets all my veges with a fresh fruit on the side.
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
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    TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss wrote: »
    This thread has me wanting to dig through storage. A LONG time ago, I bought a bento, not knowing it was for onigiri and now I want to dig it out and have a go with it. I tossed it in storage because I didn't know what to do with that awkward top portion (lots of bread? two apples?).

    With the way you're talking about the box, I'm guessing you might have something that looks roughly like this:
    dqklu53vmoub.jpg

    Meat, pickles and veg down the bottom and (maybe filled) onigiri plus maybe a small piece of fruit in the top is the standard fill for a box like this. The traditional Japanese bento is half or more rice which is why the onigiri section is so big compared to the meat and veg section.
  • madiao
    madiao Posts: 119 Member
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    Tomorrow's lunch, slow cooked pork, stir fried veggies and noodles with honey soy sauce

    m88k6nbn0vjn.jpg
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
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    I feel like I haven't been posting enough pictures lately. I'm a bad bento poster.

    Tomorrow's bento is Chicken Soboro. I feel like I could get addicted to this particular lunch. It's sooooo delish.
    ly5vq41mjfmg.jpg
  • Narcissora
    Narcissora Posts: 197 Member
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    I hopped on the bus to go to work and just realized that I left my burrito bowl bento in the fridge at home :(

    So so sad
  • Narcissora
    Narcissora Posts: 197 Member
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    Narcissora wrote: »
    I hopped on the bus to go to work and just realized that I left my burrito bowl bento in the fridge at home :(

    So so sad

    And to follow up: I have the best husband ever. He grabbed my lunch and drove to the next bus stop and was standing there waiting to hand my bento to me. <3
  • madiao
    madiao Posts: 119 Member
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    @Narcissora that's so lovely :smiley:
  • irisgal345
    irisgal345 Posts: 96 Member
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    I love soboro! Chicken, lean beef, lean pork, salmon! Best lunches for school for me
  • SpecialKitty7
    SpecialKitty7 Posts: 678 Member
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    Narcissora wrote: »
    Narcissora wrote: »
    I hopped on the bus to go to work and just realized that I left my burrito bowl bento in the fridge at home :(

    So so sad

    And to follow up: I have the best husband ever. He grabbed my lunch and drove to the next bus stop and was standing there waiting to hand my bento to me. <3

    How sweet! I on the other hand, hadn't even gotten that far. I made my bento stash yesterday, cooked rice, boiled eggs, etc. I was going to assemble a bento this morning and when my alarm went off, so did husband's. He's like, oh yeah, forgot to tell you I need to get up early this morning. So, threw my day out of whack, messed up my timing and now I have no bento. :cry
  • PixieGoddess
    PixieGoddess Posts: 1,833 Member
    edited June 2015
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    Brunch bento in my new bento box!! :3
    d66ui7c7bugt.jpg
    Hashbrowns, eggs, and sausage, with nectarine slices and halved strawberries
  • TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss
    TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss Posts: 66 Member
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    mangrothian wrote: »
    With the way you're talking about the box, I'm guessing you might have something that looks roughly like this:
    dqklu53vmoub.jpg

    Meat, pickles and veg down the bottom and (maybe filled) onigiri plus maybe a small piece of fruit in the top is the standard fill for a box like this. The traditional Japanese bento is half or more rice which is why the onigiri section is so big compared to the meat and veg section.

    Yep that's very similar to how it looked, although mine had an adorable print. It's a shame I can't find it.
  • PixelPuff
    PixelPuff Posts: 901 Member
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    This is a pic of when I ate it for dinner, the leftovers were brought to lunch with me. xD But this has a lid, and I just picked up the leftovers in it & taped it shut. /cough

    Oyakodon! With homemade Dashi stock and everything. I followed the instructions from This Cooking with Dog recipe, minus the final egg yolk. Soooo goooood.

    RA59Jdg.jpg
  • Narcissora
    Narcissora Posts: 197 Member
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    PixelPuff wrote: »
    This is a pic of when I ate it for dinner, the leftovers were brought to lunch with me. xD But this has a lid, and I just picked up the leftovers in it & taped it shut. /cough

    Oyakodon! With homemade Dashi stock and everything. I followed the instructions from This Cooking with Dog recipe, minus the final egg yolk. Soooo goooood.

    RA59Jdg.jpg

    Wow... Cooking with dog? That's quite a concept.

    I watched it... Does oyakodon always have runny eggs? Runny egg whites kind of gross me out. I'm assuming you could cook it enough so that the whites don't have a runny snot-like texture? Or would more solid eggs sort of ruin the whole thing?
  • sagj
    sagj Posts: 256 Member
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    Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! I'm on vacation this week so I likely won't have a bento this week but I'm still here in spirit :smiley:
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
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    Narcissora wrote: »
    PixelPuff wrote: »
    This is a pic of when I ate it for dinner, the leftovers were brought to lunch with me. xD But this has a lid, and I just picked up the leftovers in it & taped it shut. /cough

    Oyakodon! With homemade Dashi stock and everything. I followed the instructions from This Cooking with Dog recipe, minus the final egg yolk. Soooo goooood.

    RA59Jdg.jpg

    Wow... Cooking with dog? That's quite a concept.

    I watched it... Does oyakodon always have runny eggs? Runny egg whites kind of gross me out. I'm assuming you could cook it enough so that the whites don't have a runny snot-like texture? Or would more solid eggs sort of ruin the whole thing?

    Maybe I'm weird (oh shut your face, I know what you're going to say =P ), but I really like raw egg yolk. My family grew up with our own hens, so having eggs fresh enough for dishes like that were never an issue.

    In the case of Oyakodon, you can cook the eggs to whatever your preference is. It'd end up more like a fritatta if you cooked the eggs until it was solid though. If you stirred the mix more often then what they do in the video, you'd probably get a slightly more scrambled egg texture, if that's one you don't mind. It's something you'd need to experiment with I guess.
  • viridiian
    viridiian Posts: 9 Member
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    Wow, I'm so happy to see an active bento thread here on MFP since I took a break from this site :D

    A bento I made a few days ago: Chicken w/ zucchini, pepper, tomato & green bean goma-ae, and mushroom & ume rice
    KfPUUvK.png
    Also some older pics here.

    Looking forward to contributing more!

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