Hello! I've been a follower/lurker in this community for quite some time. I would really like to create my own bento but I don't know where to begin really. So I have some questions if anyone could please assist me?

1. Where can I buy bento boxes/supplies?
2. Is there a certain kind of food to use in bentos?
3. How would I keep something hot?
4. Is it expensive to do everyday?
5. Are there any tutorials on-line I can look at?

Thank you for your time. ^_^

Does anyone have any egg shapers? And if so, how do they work? I cannot for the life of me figure out how to properly shape my boiled eggs... they always crumble. I have better luck getting my rice to shape with these little presses. But I really would like to shape eggs for my bentos, too. Any clues?

Snow snow everywhere. We don't usually get all that much snow in winter here, but it's been three weeks straight with the stuff now. And it's still snowing. Quite unusual - but rather pretty. If only it would keep off the roads and railway tracks *L*

Well anyway I decided that the white rice in today's bento could double for snow, so I put mittens and a scarf on Froggie™ and sent him out to play ;)

Bento # 684 stir-fried sweet-and-sour pork and veggies. Rice. Adorned with cucumber, sweet red pepper and carrots. The hiragana reads　ゆき - "snow"

- and below the cut is yesterday's lame excuse for a bento...
( # 683 here )

Tags: trekkiegrrrl
Current Location: Denmark

today's lunch - more cute shapes!


my husband's lunch today.

on the left, more chicken nugget halves, chopped up fresh green beans, and shaped sweet rice w/furikake. on the right, a star-cut-out cheese, dried apricots, peanut butter-filled celery w/carrot stars and 3 raspberries. I don't like having so much of the bottom showing through, but didn't want to just line it w/lettuce for lettuce's sake...


my lunch today.

another "face" on the left, w/the same ingredients as above, and on the right, more carrot stars, cucumber halves, asparagus, a rather large "baby" tomato, 2 laughing cow swiss cheese, and some raspberries.

I feel like lunches end up being roughly the same all week, for the most part, as I use up ingredients... :\ at least they're all cute, right?

I got some bigger veggie cutters that I need to use, too. hm, mebbe tomorrow, if there's anything left to cut!

Tags: sparklypoof
Current Mood: cold

Hello all you cheery bento-ers. I have a question for you.

I'm a college student who lives a 20-30 minute walk from campus. I get up early and am on campus all day without access to a fridge. I don't have the money to eat in the cafeteria every day and I'm really into making bento.

My question is, how can I keep food from going bad if it's with me all day? Also, what are your favorite bento items that don't need refrigeration?

Thank you for your help!

Today's lunch counts as 1 bento.



Neat little pita-esque Sandwich thin, cut in half, silver thing is a wedge of creamy Swiss Laughing Cow cheese, baby carrots, blue berries from the freezer stash, grape tomatoes, turkey and ham slices (rolled up and skewered), and mayo in the penguin container. Tony Chachere's in the bear container to the right.

Counting a bottle of XXX Vitamin Water 10 and a clementine orange, this one comes out to about 350 Calories.

And here's yesterday's .5!
( Read more... )
I'm so happy to be back to Bento-ing! :D

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Dido: Life For Rent

( Bento's #3 & #4! )


Need to work on my color combination's to make it look nicer but eh, whatever works. Sorry for the weird thumbnails, got a bit over excited about having photoshop again lol

This is my turkey helper lunch from yesterday in my new Miffy box.

I launched a new bento site today called Bento Central, which is sort of like an online bento newspaper. I'd love it if you all would give it a try!

Tags: pikkopots
Current Location: Waipahu, HI
Current Mood: excited

happy new year everyone!!

've been making bentos regularly, and have just gotten lazy w/the picture-taking (however, I am continually amazed and impressed by the quality of bentos shared on here!!). lucky-ducky me, I scored some sweet bento-making lootz for xmas this year, and today was my first day trying them out.


my husband's bento today.

he had a nice feta-topped salad w/a dressing pig in one half, and purple potatoes, chicken nugget halves, and suuuuper-cute sweet-rice shapes (with wee carrot hearts thanks to my new micro-mini cutters!). oooh, I totally added furikake to his rice after I took this pic, and didn't take a new one. dang. imagine that his flower had a little center of seeds, too. :P


my lunch today.

looking at it now, the half on the left looks like a weird face. O_O that was not intended, but is neat! I got the other 2 rice shapes from the set of 4, more purple potatoes, and chicken nugget halves in that container. the other half held baby tomatoes, asparagus topped w/more carrot hearts, carrot and cucumber slices, a raspberry, and a lil' swiss cheese cube.

oh ho ho! funny how new tools result in a renewed spirit of creativity! (btw, if you're curious, I have added all the bentos I haven't shared yet over here to this set, just to get 'em up)

Tags: sparklypoof
Current Mood: chipper

One of my New Year's resolutions is to cook more Asian food. I used to be afraid of making rice, believe it or not, and other than stir frying some vegetables and adding soy sauce, I've never really attempted anything outside my comfort zone of Western cuisine. So here is my first bento to contain onigiri!



They turned out yummy, even if my photography wasn't the best. The one on the left is triangular-shaped and filled with a store-bought furikake. The one on the right is plain.

The top tier contains leftover salmon with a honey mustard glaze and baby carrots. It was a good lunch, but I almost wish I had only packed one onigiri and used the rest of the space for another vegetable or protein.

( This was also my first time using a new bento box! )