Using Bento Boxes for lunches.

@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 grapes

@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*

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.

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.

SpecialKitty7 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.

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 about

I didn't post a pic of my lunch yesterday because, well, it just looks the same as most of my others. I've been at the gym more recently, and I've needed to have a few more calories in my lunch to keep me going through the day. Otherwise I figure out I'm 1000 below my limit at dinner and am too full to eat, but am tired instead. At least it means I'm free to indulge in a glass of wine or a baileys coffee

Today the lunch section (the 3 blue boxes) is 481 cal with the total being 826 for the day. The extra snack that I've allowed myself today can probably be ignored. I honestly don't even know if I'll eat it yet.



- Mini babybel light (seems I forgot to put it in the picture)
- Water bottle with a lemonbalm teabage (again not in the picture >.<)
Blue Snack Box 1 120ml
- 20g of Red Rock Deli Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar Chips (the 1st main calorie increase for this Bento. Trying to convince myself to not take the whole bag would be an issue I used to face).
Blue Snack Box 2 120ml
- 140g mango (berries are starting to get expensive now )
Green Snack Box 70ml (which btw, is my breakfast with the babybel when I get to work)
- 30g blueberries
- 100g natural yoghurt
- mixed spice
Blue Lunchboxes
- 140g moroccan quinoa (this is the 2nd calorie increase for this Bento, at about 100 cal more than the rice I usually have)
- 4 meatballs cooked with sesame oil and ponzu sauce
- mixed blanched vegetables