Using Bento Boxes for lunches.
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Breakfast for Dinner bento:
Greek yogurt mini souffle, spicy chicken nuggets and mini waffles, mini turkey sausages with peppers and onions, and potato wedges. Around 600 calories.
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Happy Sunday everyone!
After some grocery shopping and a weekend at home, I can finally get back to my normal Bentos. The OCD part of myself is very happy getting back into this part of my routine.
Everything you see in the pic totals 710 calories, with the actual 'lunch' part of my Bento totalling 360 cal.
Today's Bento has:
- Babybel mini light
- Matcha chocolate pocky (because I have an obsession with matcha flavoured food....)
- water bottle with roasted green tea
Small green tub:
- 30g blueberries
- mixed spice
- 100g full fat greek yoghurt
Blue tub:
- 80g strawberries
- 40g blackberries
Pink tub (left)
- 30g dry weight Matcha soba noodles (again with the green tea...)
- 60g prawns
- sauce for noodles/prawns: mirin, ponzu sauce, ginger, coriander, chili oil
- 20g japanese pickles
Pink tub (right)
- hard boiled egg (i attemped to cut it in half all fancy-like, but failed
)
- mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, capsicum, asparagus, snow peas, daikon)0 -
Ginger beef, sesame soba, butternut squash, sugar snap peas, gingered onions, and a couple of little chicken dumplings. Plus, a hard boiled egg made into a rabbit with my new egg mold!
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@mangrothian mmmm...matcha pocky is my favorite pocky! So good!
@SpecialKitty7 you SHOULD get a commission off of the monbento sale link! I ended up caving when I saw the sale was still going on last night and ordered the red panda box...and the bag...and the utensils
... Lol 0 -
aSearch4Me wrote: »@mangrothian mmmm...matcha pocky is my favorite pocky! So good!
@SpecialKitty7 you SHOULD get a commission off of the monbento sale link! I ended up caving when I saw the sale was still going on last night and ordered the red panda box...and the bag...and the utensils ... Lol
Man I really want to grab something from the monbento sale. But I promised my wrist a Fitbit and since the prices are actually comparable in Aus, it'll have to wait
As a consolation prize I'm going to Daiso after work today. If I can't spend $100, I can spend $2.800 -
I went to the Chinese supermarket/"oriental city" today and bought Thai matcha pocky! It is gooooood. No actual matcha there though. I bought a lot (it's far away), but not much that I can bento, except more sushi supplies and gyoza
I bought dried Beancurd sticks, but they didn't make it home. I swear it's actual meat, I'm so conflicted.
If I had a daiso, I would buy things from there too0 -
mmm matcha pocky...last time i had it, i had to order it from a japanese distributor. But, i also got matcha kit-kats, and dark chocolate matcha meltaways to make the shipping worth it.
Here's tomorrow's bento. Lunch is white rice, sliced mini-peppers, shrimp, edamame & sugar snap pea stirfry.
The bento to the right is my two snacks, vanilla greek yogurt with fruit and a star shaped egg with kiwi.
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@SpecialKitty7 teehee, your snack box is the same as my box for today (which happens to be the first box I ever bought!) ^_^ Looks yum.
My egg moulds must be too big, or my eggs too small, because when I put them in my heart or star shapers, they never take. I think I'll have to get a bunny one instead.0 -
Oddly, I cannot find small or medium eggs in my area. There are only large and jumbo. I'd never noticed until I tried to find medium eggs for my molds, but luckily the large ones worked.0
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I'm using large eggs - I'm guessing that my moulds are just too big 0
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I love bento anything!!! I'm obsessed with making my 2yo son's lunchboxes healthy and attractive to encourage eating. I also take a yumbox panino to work for me and people always say how good it looks (I like the healthy portioning personally).
Thanks for starting this thread. It sounds like there are lots of us around
I bought all of my bento gear from littebentoworld online as she is a local Perth lady and I like to support small businesses.0 -
These are pretty old pictures, but since the thread is here anyway >>...<<...>>...
I have 14-15 bento boxes total, not counting the onigiri cases I have. I also have the piggy, square, and fish-shaped sauce containers ;3.
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ummmm, am I missing something? I mean, I have 4-5 LOCK-LOCK boxes that I use for different things I haul to eat. Sometimes it' also zippies, but isn't BENTO just taking lunch in a box?0
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Lamb Kofta bento with cous cous and salad love bentos but still getting used to doing them! Sometimes I just seem to forget that I need a few little things to make it look pretty then it just goes back to being a normal lunch! I'm getting there though!
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ummmm, am I missing something? I mean, I have 4-5 LOCK-LOCK boxes that I use for different things I haul to eat. Sometimes it' also zippies, but isn't BENTO just taking lunch in a box?
@PhatAv8r lol yes, in the end it is just lunch in a box.
The idea of the "Bento" lunch box is more about the general principles of portion control, packing a box that's tight so that -hopefully- even if a box flips over or moves around in transport it will still all look the same and not be smooshed, and is survivable at room temperature for sometimes 6+hours before being eaten.
The other premise, or at least the one that I preach to people, is that the majority of the food can be pre-prepared and frozen, so that when you make a lunch, you have controlled portions of food right on hand for use. You have no excuse to not pack your lunch if it will take you a couple of minutes to zap some pre-prepped meat and rice(or carb of choice) and 5mins chopping up a cup of veggies and blanching them in boiling water for about 3mins. Since you've pre-weighed a lot of your lunch, it's really easy to log as well.
The boxes are also a lot smaller, in most cases only 500ml or 700ml in volume. The idea of it can help people who have issues with portion control, or have a compulsive 'completion response'. I still have a habit of no matter what the size of my lunchbox, I will always a) fill it up when I'm cooking and b) attempt to eat EVERYTHING in the box. Having a 500ml box in my case satisfies me as much as a 1L, or in the past 2L, box did.
My other premise, is that a Bento lunch should LOOK very appetising as well. People eat with their eyes as much as their stomachs, and having a well presented, colourful lunch is always nicer than something that is not.0 -
New shiny things! New box, new barans (orange froggies pictured), new elastic straps, new tamagoyaki pan!
a 500ml 2 tier box, filled with rice, furikake, umeboshi, prawn dumplings, a 2 egg tamagoyaki, veggies and narazuke (japanese pickle). Comes to just over 450 calories. Total intake of breakfast/lunch/snacks you see here is about 685 calories.
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Some really nice bento in here! Here is mine for today, seemed to work out at about 400cal all in.
Rice with seasoning, sesame balsamic chicken, car-shaped egg, cherry tomatoes and babybel. And a little soy sauce bottle.
Oh the little bag for the boxes made it into this one at the side too!0 -
The pictures are awesome, guys! I may have to order one or two of my own.0
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@mangrothian I normally can't get the heart or star ones to work either. This last batch of large eggs I bought seem overly large, they squished out of my bunny and fish molds. I thought I'd try them in the heart and star since a normal large egg is too small. I was pleased it worked!
Some of these pictures are giving me real inspiration to branch out. Time's tight until April 15th, so most of my bento look the same or have the same stuff.0 -
I've always been a big "brown-bagger" and we consciously plan to have enough for lunches. Y'all inspired me, so rather than bringing separate containers, I tried my first bentoish lunch using an old takeout container. Broiled Salmon, Avocado, Salad and Caesar dressing (about 350 calories). Monday is bagel day at my office, so I plan to add 1/2 toasted bagel with butter to what is pictured here.
Ari
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@LizN63 that sesame balsamic chicken looks tasty! Do you have a recipe you'd be willing to share?0
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@SpecialKitty7 It is a beckoning cat, I bought it from All Things for Sale http://www.allthingsforsale.com/
(be careful on that site, you can spend a lot of money!!!)
I have egg molds, cutters, panda molds for rice, Star Wars stuff, all sorts of things for bento. I also have a geisha bento, she is very small but holds a lot: http://www.amazon.com/Kotobuki-Geisha-Doll-Bento-Set/dp/B004VR6SF4
I don't use that one much because I don't have anything to put in the bowl on top.0 -
SnuggleSmacks wrote: »If you want a large one, this one is on Amazon for $10.59. I found it at Walmart even cheaper (around $8.) It has a freezer gel insert for the middle to keep it cold, and the bottom part is collapsible, so it expands to be fairly deep. You could easily put a salad in the bottom, and a half sandwich plus a couple of sides or snacks in the top. Or I put a smaller salad plus a few lamb meatballs in the bottom when I used mine.
I have this one too for my fiancé. It holds a ton!!! Walmart has these along with smaller ones for salad (still big).
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@snugglesmacks Do you have a recipe for that mini greek yogurt souffle?
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ANewCrystal4Life wrote: »@snugglesmacks Do you have a recipe for that mini greek yogurt souffle?
Yes I got it from here. They were really delicious! And much easier than I expected.0 -
craftylatvian wrote: »@SpecialKitty7 It is a beckoning cat, I bought it from All Things for Sale http://www.allthingsforsale.com/
(be careful on that site, you can spend a lot of money!!!)
I have egg molds, cutters, panda molds for rice, Star Wars stuff, all sorts of things for bento. I also have a geisha bento, she is very small but holds a lot: http://www.amazon.com/Kotobuki-Geisha-Doll-Bento-Set/dp/B004VR6SF4
I don't use that one much because I don't have anything to put in the bowl on top.
If you have access to a kettle/hot water where you work (it'd be kind of sucky if you didn't..), you can make a miso ball for the top part. I love doing that in Winter, so if you want to use the top part of the geisha bento, it might be an option.0 -
Yes of course, I got it from here: http://justbento.com/handbook/recipe-collection-mains/balsamic-sesame-chicken when I was looking at her red wine vinegar chicken recipe. Personally next time I would use chicken breast because I find thighs too fatty... they might be a lot drier though.SpecialKitty7 wrote: »@LizN63 that sesame balsamic chicken looks tasty! Do you have a recipe you'd be willing to share?0 -
Every time I see this thread I get ideas! This week is lentil soup week. Next week might be that balsamic and sesame chicken week, though!0
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@kramrn77 i know! how can you go wrong with balsamic and sesame, right?
@LizN63 thanks for the recipe, I agree, I find thighs a bit greasy tasting, I think i'll try it with breasts and see how that goes.
On a side note, i just got my new Monbento! I didn't realize how much larger they are than what i've been playing with, so I'm going to need a new strategy. On the plus side, they should be more than enough for my husband, so i might actually get him to try one!0 -
Forgot to post the picture earlier, but here's my bento from lunch today:
Bottom tier: rice, half a pork chop, & mixed veggies. Top tier: an egg in the shape of a heart, edamame, & cherry tomatoes.0
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