#26 Somen noodles X 2

#25 Chicken X 2

Sushi #24 X 2

Noodles #23 x2

Green Curry #22 x2

#20 x2 #21

My husband and I shared this bento of maki sushi. This was my first time making these. The mama-san at school gave something similar to my husband at Christmas. I recreated it base on a photo I had taken. They have egg, a lettuce leaf, tuna with mayo, asparagus, and crab meat.


D Man got a maki roll, strawberries, and a salad. He ate everything but the lettuce.


I was babysitting for a friend today. Her little girl goes to Japanese preschool and Thursday was a national holiday with no school. We went to story time and had these bentos after. L (the girl) saw me making Little Bits sandwich shaped like girls and asked for one too. She was crestfallen when I told her I had already made her sandwich until I showed her the butterfly. The sandwiches are plain ham. Also included are strawberries, star and moon apples colored with food dye, little pick to help eat the apples, small cheeses, and Little Bit has quartered cherry tomatoes. L was very excited about her bento saying her mom never makes her cute bento, because she is to slow an eater.

# 19 Chiken x3

We had chicken for supper last night. I used the leftovers to make three bentos today. I am only counting it as one bento because they all have the same things in them.

Mr. B's lunch in a 850 ml Lunch Amuse box (I found it yesterday for 500 yen on clearance.)
- rice with okaka to add
- a green salad with eggs
- 2 strawberries
- chicken thigh
- off picture dressing and a mikan
This lunch was all packed the night before and refrigerated over night. Mr. B can microwave it before lunch by taking out the bowl of salad and strawberries.

D Man's lunch packed into a 660 ml Linda Linda box (I found it yesterday for 500 yen)
- cut up chicken
- an egg
- strawberries
- green beans
- mikan
- hiding under the bear cap are marshmallows.
- rice with furikake in the lid


Little Bit's lunch is packed into her favorite box. A 300 ml Anpanman box.
- green beans
- heart shaped egg
- rice ball with a nori punched out face
- strawberries
- cut up chicken

She ate everything but the beans. With them she ate 2 and the rest she only ate the inside beans. Normally this is enough for her, but after she finished she was still hungry and ate a couple handfuls of goldfish crackers. I guess gymnastics class made her very hungry today.

# 17 and # 18

I usually make half the bento the night before leaving only the rice for the morning. My husband likes to leave before 6 AM and I don't get up that early. I took this picture the night before and all he had to due was add the rice in the morning. That's why the rice container has it's lid on, it's empty.

Clockwise:
- Rice
- salad (dressing off picture)
- matchstick carrots, sour cream/blue cheese dip in the pink container, pickles onions, and half a mikan
- 2 sausages, a boiled egg, and okaka for his rice
For D Ma:
- 2 salmon onigiri
- matchstick carrots
- dip in the yellow container
- half a mikan
- boiled egg.

#15 and #16

These bentos were for today. I haven't been making them for a while, because my friends and I have started a "preschool" for our 2 year olds and I have been the main one arranging everything.

I tried something new that I saw on lunchinabox.net. Cooking a sausage with a quail egg in the middle to look like a sun. I had trouble figuring out how to get the egg cooked completely and and ended up turning the it over. The yolk was coved in the white so mine don't look like suns. Also included is a salad, half a mikan, takun (pickled white radish), and sesame dressing. For the white rice my son has a package of furikake.


Last week at Homeac this bento set went on sale. It is made by Thermo and was1980 yen instead of regular 3480. I had been eyeing it for a while.
- green salad (dressing not pictured)
- potato and broccoli soup
- white rice
- 2 sausage/egg suns, half a mikan, pickled onions, and a container with ketchup.

Colorful #14

I am so happy at how colorful this one is. I made it for my 2 year old. It has three cheeses, octodogs, yellow peppers, strawberries and edamame.

Happy Valentines Day #13

This was for my husband on Valentines Day. It has taken me so long to post it because of computer problems.

Bento #11 and #12

These bentos have broccoli from the freezer. It is organic and comes in steam packs, making it easy to prepare and add to a bento.

Bento #9 and #10

This is D Man's bento after a long absence from me making them. My sister was visiting from the States so we were busy extra busy playing travel guide and showing her all the local restaurants and lots of skiing. It's very simple: white rice with furikake, sausages cut to look like penguins (I didn't notice it but they had rolled to there sides, OOPS) a boiled egg shaped like a flower, edamame, strawberries, cheese shaped like candy, and a green salad with sesame dressing.

My husband's is exactly the same but with flower shaped sausages, and okaka instead of furikake.

Bento #8

This box is for onigiri. It has a small bottom layer with edamame, mikan, and fruit juice jello. Also a small spoon (the like that comes with ice cream) to eat the jello. On top are two salmon onigiri made with salmon left over from the night before. They are wrapped in plastic that keeps the seaweed away from the rice until it is opened. D Man said that is was great but the fruit juice didn't give the jello much flavor.

Bento #7

This is mostly the same as D Man's bento (they are from the same day). My husband likes plain rice, so he doesn't have any furikake. He does have the fun eggs. OK they look good but were a pain to make. It took a lot longer to boil them then the box said (if I understood the Japaneses right) .The eggs are on a pepper, lettuce, and dikon salad with sesame dressing. Also there is edamame, cherry tomatoes with a kola pick and the Buzz container has M&M's in it.

Bento #6

This is D Man's bento. The top layer has a salad with diakon and bell peppers in it and topped with three egg slices. He also has two small sausages with a koala pick in one, a small cup with edamame and a tree pick. In the Buzz Lightyear container are M&M's and the other one has sesame salad dressing. The bottom layer only has rice and in the lid part is furikake and nori. All of this is in a 100 yen blue bento. Added is a frozen jell cup with milk.
Here is a close up of the tree made with edamame.
I went shopping over the weekend in Hachanohe and at Toys R Us I found this mold to make eggs. I used 5 eggs separated to make 4 shapes. The white goes in first with a mold place inside it to make the shape and that is boiled. Next the yolk is added into the middle and then it is all cooked again. Next time I will fill the white part up more and oil it. I had a hard time getting the eggs out after cooking them.The shape not shone is a diamond.

Bento #5

Today's lunch had a few problems. The container I put D Man's milk into froze some of the milk and he didn't like the onigiri. He likes to add his own furikake instead of me doing it. D Man thought the rice didn't have enough flavor. I did get to try out my new punches and make faces on the onigiri. This lunch is mostly the same as it has been all week, clementine (they are in season and available everywhere in Japan right now), two quail eggs (with faces), green salad with shredded dikon, two picks of edamame, two onigiri flavored with furikake, and two small sausages. Plus in the lid are two packs of nori (seaweed). And in the white container is sesame dressing.

Bento #3 ans #4

This time I tried to be creative and make octopus dogs. Using small cocktail hot dogs I cut them following directions I found on-line. The eyes are made with edamame. The quail eggs has a face on it made from an egg mold, but it is hear to get a picture of it. Little Bit's box also contains two cherry tomatoes quartered, three onigiri cubes, a clementine, and two picks with edamame. All of this is in a 300 ml Anpanman box. Little Bit had her lunch after play group today, where we were told that next week the room will be an office! So no more playgroup.



After seeing little sis with the onigiri cubes D Man wanted some too. I made him both 3 cm and 2.5 cm squares. He has two quail eggs with faces, a salad with peppers and shredded dikon, four small octopus dogs, clementine and two picks with edamame. The blue Buzz Lightyear container has ketchup, and the small white one has dressing.

Both children ate everything.

Bento #1 and #2

This year I want to create bentos for my family. I live in Japan and have seen many beautiful bentos made by caring mothers when my son attended preschool.

This is for my daughter "Little Bit". She is two years old. It has three cherry tomatoes, quartered, three-fourths of a clementine, 4 onigiri cubes of rice mixed with furikake, and edamame on heart picks.These are all her favorite foods and she left nothing in the box.

I made this for my son, "D Man". He is in second grade and loves all Japanese foods. He has a two tier box from the 100 yen store. In the bottom is plain rice with a packet of furikake in the lid to add. The top layer has a clementine with a strawberry in the middle, edamame on the flower picks, a green salad with shredded diakon (white radish) and in the container is sesame dressing. The orange cup has gel to be frozen and holds milk.

Of course being new to taking his own lunch he forgot to bring it home today.