Bento Boxes

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For tomorrow's Bento lunch, I have Homemade Pork Fried Rice, yogurt with lemon curd, sauteed zucchini, and a chocolate sugar-free pudding. OH...I found mini-apples at the supermarket. It fits in the box too.

I even made a Bento breakfast for tomorrow. Rolled egg with a bit of cheese, two rice balls and a clementine. I love the little yellow box.
 
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For tomorrow's Bento lunch, I have Homemade Pork Fried Rice, yogurt with lemon curd, sauteed zucchini, and a chocolate sugar-free pudding. OH...I found mini-apples at the supermarket. It fits in the box too.

I even made a Bento breakfast for tomorrow. Rolled egg with a bit of cheese, two rice balls and a clementine. I love the little yellow box.

My Bento tomorrow will look alot like this:

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f123/gcc-mushroom-princessfiona60-70509.html

But in my Hello Kitty box!:)
 
I wonder how onigiri with curried chicken salad would taste... I may have to buy more mr bento boxes for lunch and dinner.. Nature of my work keeps me at work for 48 hours and the gf hijacked the first mr bento that arrived...

-Damien
 
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I wonder how onigiri with curried chicken salad would taste... I may have to buy more mr bento boxes for lunch and dinner.. Nature of my work keeps me at work for 48 hours and the gf hijacked the first mr bento that arrived...
-Damien
That sounds excellent, Damien, I don't know why I never thought of it myself. I like curry rice, but the traditional dish of rice with a wet sauce on top doesn't travel very well, so what I've usually done is to make a dry curry, basically fried rice with curry seasoning.

Fresh salads can be a bit touchy though. Fragile greens will wilt. Too much salt in the dressing can draw water out of greens by lunchtime. Some greens/fruits oxidize. No big deal.

yeah, they'll run off with the first better one that comes along. :LOL:
 
It just makes me wonder if the heat of the rice may make the mayo from the chicken salad go bad...

How about curried fried rice onigiri?

-Damien
 
It just makes me wonder if the heat of the rice may make the mayo from the chicken salad go bad...

How about curried fried rice onigiri?

-Damien
Mayo has never separated on me. I don't think the stuff from a jar will go bad in a Mr. Bento by lunchtime. But it's good to be concerned and ask question as you go, even if what you get are opinions instead of answers. Give it a try; it won't be as bad as a mayo dressed sandwich, I can guarantee. You might also try finding QP mayo in an Asian store; it's made with more yolk, less oil, and is much thicker.

Onigiri holds its shape because of the sticky starch on the outside of rice kernels. When you fry rice, some of that starch hardens from the cooking. Which is why fried rice kernels separate a bit and don't stick to each other as much. So, you might have structural issues. Pack them tightly. Great idea!
 
For tomorrow's Bento lunch, I have Homemade Pork Fried Rice, yogurt with lemon curd, sauteed zucchini, and a chocolate sugar-free pudding. OH...I found mini-apples at the supermarket. It fits in the box too.

I even made a Bento breakfast for tomorrow. Rolled egg with a bit of cheese, two rice balls and a clementine. I love the little yellow box.
That sounds really good, Kathleen! The rolled egg is like a log, right? Goes great with bento boxes.
 
That sounds really good, Kathleen! The rolled egg is like a log, right? Goes great with bento boxes.

It was rolled and was terrific!

Tomorrow's lunch is remarkably the same in the pork fried rice and mini-apple. I also have mini egg rolls, yogurt with dried pomegranate seeds, and baby carrots.

What are you making these days?
 
Even more so than sushi, Japanese season and cook rice in a variety of ways, collectively callled takikomi gohan. I've been going basic lately, since I've gotten lazy over the years with a variety of store-bought packs, both wet and dry, that I just dump into the cooker, and turn on. Like the one below, which is very basic (the soy & sake combo) and traditional. Of course, I don't use matsutake, though. Every house has its own recipe and ingredients (some pre-cooked leftovers with complementary taste work well). You can experiment with grains other than white, sticky short-grain.

Matsutake Gohan
1. Marinate/rehydrate thin bite-size mushroom pieces in following, or equivalent: 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp sake rice wine, 1 tsp instant dashi stock powder. 10 minutes might be enough. Discard any marinade which did not soak into the mushrooms.
2. Mix the mushrooms into the rice. The liquid is essentially the same as the marinade. So. for say 3 cups of rice, my liquid will be about: 3-1/3 cup room temp dashi stock, 2 tablespoons sake, 2-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce, and a pinch of salt. Cook.

Some people cook the rice first, and then fold in the marinated mushrooms. Some skip the marinade all together and dump raw shrooms into the mix. Either way, it’s tasty. Don’t overdo the soy sauce; regular dark soy is fine, it will have a pleasing brown color.

It's a good starch base for bento. As you can see, I had been thinking of mushrooms lately. :) Gyoza potstickers. Some pickled veggies. White miso soup.
 
I wonder how onigiri with curried chicken salad would taste... I may have to buy more mr bento boxes for lunch and dinner.. Nature of my work keeps me at work for 48 hours and the gf hijacked the first mr bento that arrived...

-Damien

OMG!!! That sounds good! Mr. Bento is on sale @ ThinkGeek.com for $49.99. Link here: ThinkGeek :: Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar About $5 off the price I paid.

My Mr. Bento is feeling lonely, I need to fix something for it soon! But it really is for larger meals!
 
That sounds excellent, Damien, I don't know why I never thought of it myself. I like curry rice, but the traditional dish of rice with a wet sauce on top doesn't travel very well, so what I've usually done is to make a dry curry, basically fried rice with curry seasoning.

Fresh salads can be a bit touchy though. Fragile greens will wilt. Too much salt in the dressing can draw water out of greens by lunchtime. Some greens/fruits oxidize. No big deal.

yeah, they'll run off with the first better one that comes along. :LOL:

He just needs to get her a classic 2 tier Bento from Japan...:LOL:
 
Even more so than sushi, Japanese season and cook rice in a variety of ways, collectively callled takikomi gohan. I've been going basic lately, since I've gotten lazy over the years with a variety of store-bought packs, both wet and dry, that I just dump into the cooker, and turn on. Like the one below, which is very basic (the soy & sake combo) and traditional. Of course, I don't use matsutake, though. Every house has its own recipe and ingredients (some pre-cooked leftovers with complementary taste work well). You can experiment with grains other than white, sticky short-grain.

Matsutake Gohan
1. Marinate/rehydrate thin bite-size mushroom pieces in following, or equivalent: 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp sake rice wine, 1 tsp instant dashi stock powder. 10 minutes might be enough. Discard any marinade which did not soak into the mushrooms.
2. Mix the mushrooms into the rice. The liquid is essentially the same as the marinade. So. for say 3 cups of rice, my liquid will be about: 3-1/3 cup room temp dashi stock, 2 tablespoons sake, 2-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce, and a pinch of salt. Cook.

Some people cook the rice first, and then fold in the marinated mushrooms. Some skip the marinade all together and dump raw shrooms into the mix. Either way, it’s tasty. Don’t overdo the soy sauce; regular dark soy is fine, it will have a pleasing brown color.

It's a good starch base for bento. As you can see, I had been thinking of mushrooms lately. :) Gyoza potstickers. Some pickled veggies. White miso soup.

Thanks! Copied and Pasted! I wonder why you've been thinking about mushrooms lately???
 
My recent purchase made it:

28716-albums317-picture2598.jpg
 
This has been an interesting thread. I've been making bento school lunches for 4 years now for dd. I love all of the discussion and enthusiasm, as I sometimes get into ruts. We have bento containers, planetbox, and tiffin containers and I like to make lunch interesting. I have a lot of pictures, but I don't know how to post them. Some of the dishes are prettier than others, but especially when the primary teeth are falling out, the small bites are appreciated. We love bento-style lunches here!
 
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This has been an interesting thread. I've been making bento school lunches for 4 years now for dd. I love all of the discussion and enthusiasm, as I sometimes get into ruts. We have bento containers, planetbox, and tiffin containers and I like to make lunch interesting. I have a lot of pictures, but I don't know how to post them. Some of the dishes are prettier than others, but especially when the primary teeth are falling out, the small bites are appreciated. We love bento-style lunches here!

Please post your pictures., I love getting new ideas!

I'll be eating my bento at home today...still not feeling too good!
 
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