Using Bento Boxes for lunches.

@WindSparrow your reply articulates much of what I believe is true for bento's (and saves me a longer post). Thank you!

@Monisha4005 I'm not sure how much of this thread you've read, or what your idea's of a bento are, so I apologise if this post is a little, gruff, or condesending or something (since I haven't written it yet, I don't know how it'll sound). I seem to post something similar to this every 10 pages or so; I guess it helps if people who've never read the thread only read the more recent posts *shrug*

Most people who hear the word 'bento' generally think of one of two things:
First, charaben/kyaraben:

Or, restaurant style bento:


These are both bento in the traditional sense (since the term bento refers to a meal in a box), but not what this thread is about at all (I'm assuming the charaben thread is closer to what most people think about these days when they hear the word 'bento'). Most charaben take hours to prepare, and aren't actually that healthy. I certainly couldn't make one like the picture above without wasting a lot of food. Most of my lunches take less than 10 minutes actively in the kitchen (I'm not sitting there watching my eggs boil for example), or are made during any downtime I have making dinner each night.

The restaurant style bento is usually pretty high calorie and although it can be transported, it certainly isn't designed to be thrown in a handbag or backpack and taken on a long commute to work or school.

This thread is about packing a lunch that falls into the majority of the below categories, as well as sharing the different ideas that people have:
- is quick to make
- travels well, and in many cases is safe being left at room temperature from morning until lunchtime
- is low in calories (for those eating in a Caloric deficit)
- has a balance of macronutrients
- creating a stash of staples that make the process easy to prepare, repeat and for many of us, log in our mfp diaries.
- is pleasing to the eye (this is to help eat with the eyes, especially for those who may not get to eat a large lunch), and is packed in such a way that it can look much like how it was packed when it's opened back up at lunchtime.

And of course, tastes delicious!!

Nowhere in that list does it say you require a fancy box of some kind. Hell, my first bento was in a re-used takeaway container (which was way too big for what I was trying to do and ended up a mess!). Having a 'bento' container can help with the last point since that's what they're designed for, but for many of us who do use them, they're a privilege, not a necessity.

No one said that bento containers are an expensive item anyway. With the exception of the pink Zojirushi set that I've been using in the last couple of posts (which I purchased well over a year ago), not a single one of my boxes costs more than AU$5. Most of them come from Daiso (a Japanese 'dollar store' chain) and cost $2.80 each. My post below for my Monday lunch has a total of AU$8.40 of products, $11.20 if you include the cooler bag not in the picture (for reference, that's about US$8.50). Unless you microwave them, or stick them in a dishwasher, they last ages. Also, since they're solid colour, they're automatically BPA free for people who worry about that sort of thing.

Tuesday was me having my first attempt at prepping and eating konjac noodles. 20Cals for 250g of noodles made them worth a shot. Totally gross. No amount of low cal bulk to fill me up could justify the disgusting texture that was a konjac noodle (something like a firm flavourless jellyfish ) Needless to say, I went off and bought something for lunch.

Today's is much nicer. I'm reversing my dinner and lunch Calories today since it's a run day for me, and if I don't eat a big meal, I'll want to snack all arvo:

Total Cals: 804
- 210g rice with pickled plum paste, furikake and pickled daikon (it tastes lovely, but the fake yellow colour is always a bit disconcerting), 363Cal
- 6 beef and pork meatballs, 327Cal
- 110g Cabbage & 30g carrot, simmered in dashi stock, sriracha and sesame oil (the water was left to steam down into a dashi sauce, nomnomonom), 62Cal
- Narutomaki (Naruto fish cake, the white slices with the pink swirl through them), 42Cal

SpecialKitty7 wrote: »

mangrothian wrote: »

Tuesday was me having my first attempt at prepping and eating konjac noodles. 20Cals for 250g of noodles made them worth a shot. Totally gross. No amount of low cal bulk to fill me up could justify the disgusting texture that was a konjac noodle (something like a firm flavourless jellyfish ) Needless to say, I went off and bought something for lunch.

Today's is much nicer. I'm reversing my dinner and lunch Calories today since it's a run day for me, and if I don't eat a big meal, I'll want to snack all arvo:

Total Cals: 804
- 210g rice with pickled plum paste, furikake and pickled daikon (it tastes lovely, but the fake yellow colour is always a bit disconcerting), 363Cal
- 6 beef and pork meatballs, 327Cal
- 110g Cabbage & 30g carrot, simmered in dashi stock, sriracha and sesame oil (the water was left to steam down into a dashi sauce, nomnomonom), 62Cal
- Narutomaki (Naruto fish cake, the white slices with the pink swirl through them), 42Cal

I tried konjac noodles. There are no adequate words to explain how nasty those are. My dogs wouldn't even eat them (and that's saying something, the only food they wouldn't eat prior to that was sugar free jello). I got a narutomaki roll from the Japanese market I just found. Wasn't sure what it tasted like or what to do with it besides stick it in ramen, but your lunch looks amazing!

I managed to get the flavour of the konjac sorted; they're meant to be a sort of sponge for flavour, so I used the marinade that I had for the beef with the noodles to give it flavour (chilli, soy sauce and mirin). So they tasted alright. I tried them once and thought 'hmm, nice flavour, but dunno about the texture'. Next bite was 'what the *kitten* is this texture?". Third bite I gagged a little and gave up. My chicken katsu curry-rice was much nicer ;_

The narutomaki soaks up a lot of flavour as well (on its own I think it's a bit meh), so cooking it with the cabbage and dashi stock made it taste super duper awesome.

Monday sort of bento. It's 'sort of' because ots not like my normal ones.

Sandwich: high fibre bread with Swiss cheese, English mustard, lettuce and smoked beef.
Top tier: mixed salad vegetables (carrot, zucchini, radishes, cucumber and lettuce) and a pot of kewpie mayonnaise mixed with sriracha.
Snack: green tea cookies

The other container is my brekkie. Overnight oats (45g oats, sprinkle coconut, 125ml almond milk, drop vanilla essence and ground cinnamon) with stewed rhubarb. My goodness do I love rhubarb *drool*

WindSparrow wrote: »

That salad looks Soooo cute and fresh and perfect!

Summer veggies are coming in, so I'll actually start enjoying salads again. Lunch today was the same sat that one, except the sandwich was turkey breast, lingonberry jam and lettuce.

Aussie-ben!
Kangaroo seasoned with Tasmanian bush pepper salt in a bed of brown and wild rice, steamed greens and macadamia nuts toasted in eucalyptus honey

I did this for an Ilvermorny challenge earlier this week, but forgot to post it here.

43501 wrote: »

This is a great thread. I read the first 5-10 pages and then the most recent ten, it's amazing how much your bento-fu has gone up over time. I use bento boxes for eating out too (a 2 compartment stacking one and another large single compartment, looks like the exact same one you have in your last photo lol) but I fully admit to not being great at the aesthetic/decorative aspect and I just kinda shove food in there.

I feel like I should know what your display pic/photo comes from but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Half the time, I arrange my rice and meat, then just pour in the veg these days, but that's simply because I'm extremely time poor at the moment.

And if you're talking about my current pic, its from the anime series "Kiss him, not me", which started airing this season. The MC's facial expressions when she's shipping or going into otaku mode are damn hilarious.

clh72569 wrote: »

I visited my daughter at her new teaching job. I meal prepped two Bento's for her lunch and gave her the boxes. Should have taken a picture. Hopefully we have a new convert in the San Jose, CA teacher group.

hehe, thou shalt spread the word of Bento?