Using Bento Boxes for lunches.

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  • SpecialKitty7
    SpecialKitty7 Posts: 678 Member
    I'm so excited to see so many new posters here! @Dragn77 "ghetto bento" make me snort my tea. I love that, we use ghetto the same way.
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    Yeah, ghetto is certainly not a word used often here. I think the Aussie term would be half-a**sed. I'm guessing it's less derogatory here then it is overseas, then again, we're a country where swearing can be an appropriate greeting amongst certain groups of friends.

    *cue 80's music* The more you know!
  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
    LoL SpecialKitty!! I hope your tea wasnt hot!! lol

    Oh we use half-a*sed here too!! Except for us it means that you just could not be bothered to put in any effort at all and begs the question "did you even try?" Like, a half-a*sed bento would be a slice of cold pizza and a snickers bar wrapped in foil. LoL!

    OH! But Im wondering! For those of you who make onigiri! What sort of fillings do you use? The first one I pan fried tilapia with some soy sauce, it was an amazing filling. Today, I did tuna with some spicy mayo, it was just okay, and I also did a couple with a kalamata olive, that was pretty horrible.

    Some ideas would be great!!
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    edited February 2015
    Maybe not for kiddies because it's sour, but I fill mine with pickled plums. If you have an Asian grocer you can visit, you can get packets of furikake (foo-ree-ka-keh) which is a type of dry rice seasoning, and they come in all sorts of flavours. My favourite is one with plum and shiso; you can easily tell which one it is, because it's a deep purple. The ones I buy look like this:
    c3i7fqit24lu.jpg

    Just a heads up, if you use a filling that is too moist or oily, there's a good chance that the onigiri will fall apart.
  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
    edited February 2015
    Thank you!! Yes, I have seen furikake mentioned a lot in blogs and such.. I found out theres an asian grocery literally two miles from my home that people travel from all over to get to! So I'm going to have to go in there to see what they have.

    Thanks for the pictures! That will help..if I see that I will snag it up like I'm an old pro at this. hehe! What flavour is the one in the red package?

    Oh and thanks for including the pronunciation!!!
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    edited February 2015
    It's shiso and wakame (seaweed). If the stores are anything like the Aussie ones, they'll have a sticker with the ingredients list in English on the back.

    I will say that I only buy the ones in the packets like in the picture. I can't remember the brand, but there's one that packages it in clear plastic cylindrical containers and every flavour I've tried tasted horrible.
  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
    I think that tomorrow I'm going to get off my duff and head to that store to see what they have... I'll report back with my findings!!!! :smiley:
  • Daiako
    Daiako Posts: 12,545 Member
    v11tcrqy99a6.jpg

    Husband's lunch today. I told him he could have anything, since we finally went shopping, and he wanted...tuna. ;_; I feel like he's not taking all my bento books and fledgling skills seriously.

    Anywho. Tuna, boiled egg, salad shrimp, and strawberries. There were red peppers too, but I hadn't cut them up at this point.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
    I was able to find this furikake at my local grocery store:

    4a4a25d4_6c87824d_small_furikake_bottles1.jpg

    It's pretty tasty.

    I also purchased the "kitchen item" vegetable cutters a couple of weeks ago, but they haven't arrived yet. Amazon has a pretty nice selection of bento stuff, and I'm a Prime member, so I mostly buy from there with the free shipping. I'm sure there are links on previous pages, but since we're on page 21, do you guys have other favorite sites for bento boxes and accessories so I don't have to wade back through the whole thread?
  • SpecialKitty7
    SpecialKitty7 Posts: 678 Member
    @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.
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    @SnuggleSmacks‌
    I second the jbox website. They have a sister site called jlist.com which has almost the same range, but you might find some questionable products in other categories on the site.

    The other is Bento@co They have a really nice range of boxes there.

    The furikake you bought is the brand I don't like. For me it's probably because I'm msg sensitive (it makes my lips/mouth/tongue feel greasy, then icky and slightly numb), and you can actually see it floating around in it's whole form in the mix. For people who aren't sensitive to it, I guess it mustn't be an issue. I purchased the Wasabi fumi, katsuo and their Gomashio (sesame salt) flavours, and couldn't eat any of them :(
  • Daiako
    Daiako Posts: 12,545 Member
    edited February 2015
    pq2xxajoo6lm.jpg

    Back in the box today. Bottom is left over pork sausage and udon noodles with red pepper and cabbages tossed on a sesame oil, rice vinegar, and honey dressing (again, just throwing stuff together to see what tastes good.) Top is mixed veg (broc, green beans, carrots, onion, shrooms, baby corn) and hard boiled eggs (a little too hard so I skipped the mold)

    740 calories total, 260 of which is in the sausage. A bit more calorie dense than normal but tomorrow is lift day!
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    To get that much meat-based protein in, I'm not surprised the caloric content is higher. Happy lifting tomorrow!

    Here's my Bento for Friday. Yay Friday!
    3ysmag10uppa.jpg
    This one for the actual bento box is 375 cal. It's lower than normal because there's less rice than what I normally have, but I have two onigiri for later in the day since I have class after work. The square box is my normal yoghurt and berries.

    The rice level has shiso furikake, an umeboshi, pickles and capsicum hearts for the pretty. The left tier has blanched vegetables, and the right one has minute steak marinated in ponzu sauce and quickly fried with a few drops of sesame oil. I did do a marinated egg as well, but it didn't fit. Guess I'll be having it for breakfast!
  • _celesse
    _celesse Posts: 75 Member
    I used to do bento in high school. I was very boring - rice with chicken and broccoli was pretty common, lol. Or PB&J....haha. Part of me would love to go back to it, but I only really need to bring a lunch with me one day out of the week soooo seems kinda pointless. ;( Your bentos are super pretty, though :)
  • Arianera
    Arianera Posts: 128 Member
    i2uwylpypkle.jpg

    My 2nd attempt at a bento lunch. Potato and onion frittata, steamed broccoli, carrot, and half-wheat bread from our bread machine, butter. I will toast the bread and add ketchup from the common supply in the lunchroom (which gives me access to refrigerators, microwaves and toasters).

    As pictured, it's approx 560 calories. I plan to eat one of the pieces of bread as a snack since this is more than I want for lunch, but it would have shifted too much without the 2nd slice.
  • DeathofSuburbia
    DeathofSuburbia Posts: 9 Member
    edited February 2015
    2its9a8.jpg

    Hopefully this works my first post outta lurkdom
  • DeathofSuburbia
    DeathofSuburbia Posts: 9 Member
    DeathofSuburbia wrote: »
    2its9a8.jpg

    Hopefully this works my first post outta lurkdom

    So the bottom tier: turkey burger w spinach and some mozz cheese,salad w Italian dressing.

    Top: broccoli w sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce, raspberries.
  • satansees
    satansees Posts: 42 Member
    I bought my silicone bits from jbox. They sent me free tissues, ewwwwwww

    I've bought before too, they some super cute ones (and exchange rate is great)
  • Dragn77
    Dragn77 Posts: 810 Member
    I love looking at all your bento pictures!!! Very inspirational!! Mine tend to be pretty much the same thing every day. Well, for now..it'll depend on what I buy for groceries and what my leftovers are but for now, same ol thing pretty much. So when I go grocery shopping next week, I'll hopefully have something different :)
  • HanamiDango
    HanamiDango Posts: 456 Member
    @Dragn77, mine are all leftovers so far, so I would not worry. As long as you enjoy your food!
    @satansees Free tissues, oh my, that cracks me up.

    As for onigiri (rice ball), I just use salt and tuna salad inside. I have tried furikake (rice seasoning) and did not like it, but I will eat plain salted onigiri. I have yet to try omeboshi (pickled plum) and have trouble finding good nori (seaweed).
    Sorry putting things in parentheses just in case a someone who has no clue what I am saying doesn't have to look it up! I really need to start practicing Japanese. *sighs*

    I also love looking at everyones photos, even if you guys don't think they are the best, it still gives me ideas!! Thank you everyone for posting!

    And today's "love wife bento". This is left-over crock pot broccoli beef. It ended up more shredded beef, and the sauce was to watery, so looking for a stove top version. Still tasted good, but kids wanted "normal" beef. Now to get my dear hubby to bring home my boxes >.< 23f926cb7025761c59b004e9b07b045a.png
  • minidice
    minidice Posts: 1
    edited February 2015
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    @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
    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
    @hanamidango that looks amazing! I love the cute cut carrots :smile:
  • sarieth05
    sarieth05 Posts: 313 Member
    edited February 2015
    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
    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!

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