Bento Box Bonanza

Bento Tools

2011-04-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

Bento Tools

Here is my small, but still growing, Bento tool kit! Here's what I used to make delicious and creative bento.

1. Bento Box
I received my first bento box as a gift from my best friend. It may look small on the outside but inside it contains 2 layered containers for food and 2 divider for smaller foods. Sometimes I don't need to used the divider so I'll just leave it out. If if I want to divide more foods and make it look super-cute, I'll used mini cupcake cups. The red stripe you see is an elastic band that holds the bento together. You don't want your food spilling out everywhere!

2. Knives
Of course you'll need knives for cutting up pieces of food for your bento. The large knife is a santoku. The santoku is better for making initial cuts of larger foods, slicing, and chopping. The smaller knife is a paring knife used for smaller foods and making details.

3. Molds
These molds are for making shaped boiled eggs, but you can also use them to shape other things. I like to use them for rice balls. You can see an example in my bunny salad bento.

4. Mini Cookie Cutters
These are my favorite, and I want more shapes! These can be used to cut into just about everything. I use them for vegetables, cheeses, lunch meats, and so much more! You can also use them as shape molds.

5. Scissors
Scissors make cutting dried seaweed super easy! Some people will use an exacto knife or something like it to cute very small details, but scissors work just as well, especially for cutting strips for rice balls.

6. Bamboo Sushi Roller
This is for making sushi of course! You can also use it to make pinwheel sandwiches and mini spring rolls (the rice paper kind, not the deep fried kind).

7. Onigiri Mold
I found this at a local shop. Just fill up with rice and fillings, press, and you're done. Instant Onigiri! I like making these as gifts for friends more than for my bento as they take up a lot of space.

8. Cookie Cutter
I have a whole box of large cookie cutters, but I used select shapes for making sandwiches, rice balls, and other fun things.

I hope that showing you my collection of tools may inspire you to make your very own bento. There are many more tools to choose from than what is shown here, so keep your eyes open for anything that sparks creativity. Enjoy your Bento!

Bunny Salad Bento

2011-03-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

Bunny Salad Bento

This is just a simple salad bento. The pink bunny on top is made from egg and the other one is made from rice.

Lunch Bento

2011-03-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

Lunch Bento

This Lunch Bento contains vegetable salad, fruit salad, ham and cheese sandwich, and omelet slices.

Here you can see fruit salad made from kiwis and peaches, omelet slices in between, a sandwich and heart shaped slices of cheese.

Cute cut veggies, egg pieces, and cheese cubes.

This is the one that I made for my friend. This one is not in a bento but a tupperware container. It works just as well. This bento has the same ingredients but I used cupcake cups to separate the fruit and vegetable salads.

Chirashizushi Bento

2011-03-13T23:51:00.000-07:00

Chirashizushi Bento

On the right is chirashizushi with tamago (egg) and green onion over rice. On the left is dessert.

This chirashizushi is one of my favorite things to make. You can add just about sliced anything to make chirashizushi!

The dessert is crust-less wheat toast with nutella, crepes with whipped cream, and fresh blueberries.

Leftovers Bento

2011-03-13T23:37:00.000-07:00

Leftovers Bento

I went to a local Japanese restaurant and had some leftovers so I put them in this bento. On one side there is eel roll sushi, seared salmon nigiri, and pickled ginger. The other side is sliced pork over rice.

Smoked Salmon Nigiri Bento

2011-03-13T23:27:00.000-07:00

Smoked Salmon Nigiri Bento

In this bento there is nigiri made from seasoned rice and smoked salmon. There's also a fried tofu salad on the side.

Stinky Bento

2011-03-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

Stinky Bento

This bento is full of stinky foods. They are delicious though! In the top there is kimchi, pickles, and 2 types of cheeses. In the bottom half is teriyaki salmon and rice.

Dim Sum Bento

2011-03-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

Dim Sum Bento

This has one big pork bun, a few shrimp shumai with sriracha dots on top, and a side of kimchi. Too much sriracha would make the dumplings too hot! On the other side of the bento there is rice with fishcakes on top and a couple of mini cupcakes.

Here is a close up of the bun and shumai. So yummy!

2011-03-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

Inarizushi Bento

This Bento has Inarizushi, dango, and a green tea mochi cake in one side, and a salad made of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and vinaigrette in the other. Inarizushi is aburaage (fried tofu) wrapped around rice. It is both sweet and savory and has a nice texture.

Halloween Bento

2011-03-12T18:06:00.000-08:00

Halloween Bento

This is a Halloween Bento that I made last year. There's a bat shaped piece of chicken, an egg skull, and cabbage bun pumpkin. There's also rice, green onions, and a pickle. That stuff that looks like hay is dried squid jerky.

Here's a close up of the pumpkin. I used some food coloring to color the dumpling/bun and used seaweed for the face.

Here is the skull. I just cut around a hard boiled egg to create the shape and of course the black parts again are seaweed.

This is the bat. I don't think it turned out too well. I'd fried up a thin piece of chicken and then cut it with a bat shaped cookie cutter and then covered it with a piece of seaweed that was cut the same way. I think it may have turned out better if I'd wrapped the entire thing with seaweed and trimmed around it.

Assorted Bento #1

2011-03-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

Assorted Bento #1

This Bento was made for lunch one day. This one includes spicy crab roll sushi, chopped cherries and mango, pork bun, and fried tofu over rice with sauce. Yummy!

I'm not a big fan of deep fried tofu, so I fried it in a pan until it was just seared around the edges. The sauce on top is a salty sweet sesame sauce.

Onigiri Bento #1

2011-03-12T15:16:00.000-08:00

Onigiri Bento #1

This Bento has a nice variety of different foods. From left to right there is a sesame broccoli salad, homemade egg rolls, onigiri (rice balls), and teriyaki chicken over rice.

This is a close up of the sesame broccoli salad and egg rolls. The sauce for the salad is made of fresh roasted sesame seeds, soy sauce, and sugar. The egg rolls have cabbage, egg, carrots, and noodles inside.

Here is the Onigiri and teriyaki chicken. I will eventually get around to making more onigiri as they are super cute and can be made in so many different ways.

Steak and Egg Bento

2011-03-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

Steak and Egg Bento

This is a simple bento that I took to work with me one day for lunch. Here I have thin cut steak over rice, with a hard boiled egg and some sliced pickles. The other portion of the bento (not pictured here) was a sweet rice with cherries and mango slices.

Sea Theme Bento

2011-03-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

Sea Theme Bento

These pics were taken over a year ago but I hadn't really uploaded them anywhere else. I started this Bento Bonanza Blog so I can share the bento, bento ideas and recipes, and bento resources with you and anyone else that's interested in Bento. Bento Boxes are creative, tasty, healthy, and over all fun. Let's make Bento together!

When I first started making bento I had absolutely no idea what to do with them. I've seen lots of really amazing bento around the web, most of them colorful with themes. This bento is no way as awesome as those but I thought I'd share as this was my first bento ever. This is my sea themed bento.

On this side we have a whale that is made from a steam bun, BBQ pork if I remember correctly. The tail is a mushroom and the expression is made from seaweed.

This side is just colored rice and seaweed fish. It is decorated with mushrooms and green onions for seaweed.