Jenn Cooks » Bento

A Week of Bentos

Jennifer — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:40:20 +0000

I packed a bento full of veggies in my lunch all week last week. I only have one picture though:

I wasn’t feeling so creative, and I packed my bento with seconds to spare most days so I packed it exactly the same every day. So don’t worry, you’re not missing out on pictures of great bentos. It was five identical lunches! Of course, there was a turkey sandwich packed on the side, but I think we all know what turkey sandwiches look like

Will the Real #6 Please Stand Up?

Jennifer — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:16:10 +0000

Well, when I said I thought I’d counted wrong, I was right. The bento I posted as #6, was actually bento #7. The bento below was number six.

Since I’m not doing any cooking to write home about right now, I thought I’d share another one of my old bentos with you.
You can see in this one I had cheese, cucumbers, green peppers, potato salad, carrots and celery. This is my smaller bento, so I had a ham and turkey sandwich on the side that’s not pictured. It’s been awhile now, but if I remember correctly, this was actually a really good lunch!

How Big is a Bento?

Jennifer — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:30:51 +0000

Deb asked me a question the other day that reminded me that I wanted to address the size of Bento boxes. I know when I first started looking into the whole bento thing, I “knew” that the boxes were small, but I had a hard time really scaling them in my head. In fact, when I got my first box, I was rather surprised by just how small it actually WAS! I know Loretta had the same experience there.

So to give you a bit of an idea, I took a picture of one of my larger bento boxes with a ruler, and a deck of cards for scale:

I don’t know if you can tell from the picture or not, but that is a little over 6 inches long. It’s a little over 3 inches wide, and the whole box (both layers together) stands a bit over 3 inches tall. This really is not a very large container. I also took a picture of the deck of cards INSIDE the bento box to help you picture how big it is.

My froggy bento box is even smaller than these. I took pictures of that one as well, but they don’t seem to have made it onto my Flickr account, so I’ll have to share that one later. It’s about the size of an index card though, and a similar 3-inch-ish height.

Bento #6

Jennifer — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:13:38 +0000

I kind of lost count, but I believe this is bento #6. I made this one last night to bring to work with me today.

Does it look yummy? Cause it was! I made this one in my new pink Happy Balloon box.

Top row has celery, carrots, green pepper, grape tomatoes, and cucumber. Bottom row has left over Johnny Marzetti with corn layered on top. A Lindor Dark Chocolate Truffle on the side. Have you had these? They are divine!

Anyways, it was plenty enough food for me at lunch time, and it was pretty good. Healthier than what I would’ve ended up getting in the cafeteria (looking at the options today, probably a fried chicken sandwich and onion rings).

New Bento Box

Jennifer — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:25:51 +0000

While I wait for all of your fabulous recipes to start rolling in, I thought I’d share my newest bento box with you. I got this exact same one in orange for Loretta, and I wanted to keep it so badly that I went looking for one of my own. I chose pink though. Isn’t it cute? Now I need to go do some grocery shopping this weekend so I can make a lunch on Monday!

Bento #2

Jennifer — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:32:24 +0000

I got my bento boxes about a month ago now, and I haven’t used them quite as much as I’d hoped I would. I posted about my first bento when I got it, and made a lunch/snack for work. I took the things about the lunch that didn’t work, and made a second bento with similar ingredients, but better than the first.

Top row is cheesecake filling, grapes, and teddy grahams. Bottom row is tulip shaped PB sandwiches (pickles on the side), cheese and crackers, and carrots, celery, and green pepper. I picked up some ranch dressing for veggie dipping in the cafeteria at work. This bento attempt was much better than the first, but it still needs help. I’ve made several bentos since then (pictures/descriptions to come later), but I’m still trying to strike the balance between not enough food, and too much food.

Bentos

Jennifer — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:04:09 +0000

Along with learning to cook, I’ve also recently begun playing around with bento. I think the first step is to tell you exactly what bento is, but that’s not as easy as it sounds. Personally, I think a bento is different things to different people. You could come tell me that’s not true, but then you’d just be proving my point. (Do you see how nicely I did that? hehe)
Here’s what I understand bento to be: a portion controlled, healthy meal, creatively packed into a small container. Some people think sticking to the original Japanese traditions and foods in the bento is really important. Others think that the creativity part ranks highest on the scale.
For me, bento is about packing a functional lunch to bring from home, and one that is healthier than what I’d purchase from the cafeteria at work.
Currently I have two bento boxes. My first bento box is the Natural Leaf bento set:

It has a matching bag that didn’t make it into the photo. My second bento box is smaller, but very cute:

I packed a few lunches in the Leaf bento, and was still hungry. The last couple of days I packed the frog bento with veggies, and added a sandwich on the side, and felt like it might have been a little too much food. I think I’ll find a balance eventually, something that works for me.
And I may or may not have purchased more bento supplies this week. Don’t tell, but I think I might like purchasing bento supplies more than I like packing my lunch.