February 2008

All the content on this site by month.

Make your own instant vegetable soup concentrate

Previously I showed you how to make instant miso soup balls to which you just add boiling water to make a hot cup or bowl of soup. But even I don't want miso soup all the time. Instant soup mixes are an option, but they are usually rather salty, and don't contain a lot in terms of nutrients. So I set about experimenting with making my own instant soup concentrate. After some trial and error, here's a formula for a Mediterranean tasting vegetable soup concentrate that works pretty well. It does take some mostly unattended time to cook down, so it's a good project to do over the weekend to stock up for upcoming bento lunches.

Keep reading Make your own instant vegetable soup concentrate →

A tale of two bentos

Two very different Japanese bentos, both contest winners, both made with love.

Keep reading A tale of two bentos →

Bento no. 24: Rustic bread, vegetables and fruit

Bento contents:

2 slices of whole wheat bread with dried cranberries and walnuts (approx. 240cal)
Brebis cheese, about 60 g / 2 oz (approx. 100cal)
Sweet pepper and onion confit, 3/4 cup (approx. 90 cal)
Cut up mango and orange, 3/4 cup (approx. 50 cal)

Total calories (approx): 470 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 5-10 minutes in the morning

Type: Bread based, vegetarian (uses cheese)

Keep reading Bento no. 24: Rustic bread, vegetables and fruit →

Bento boxes of the week: Lube Sheep and Bay Asuka

If you've ever bought an inexpensive small bento box at a 100 yen shop or via eBay, the chances are pretty high that it was made by one company, Nakano Co.. They are the ones responsible for the bento boxes carrying the mysterious Lube Sheep logo. After visiting their company web site, I still have no idea what it actually means, and it probably doesnt mean anything at all - it's just a cute piece of Japanglish that someone in the company thought sounded good. (Yes, I know it sounds a bit dirty, but let's try not to go there.)

Keep reading Bento boxes of the week: Lube Sheep and Bay Asuka →

Bento no. 23: Parsley lemon sushi with salmon

Bento contents:

Parsley and shiso leaves in lemon-flavored sushi with 1 cup white rice cooked with white zakkoku mix (approx: 200cal)
Lotus root slices (approx. 20 cal)
Salted salmon, about 50 g / 1 3/4 oz (approx. 80 cal)
Usuyaki tamago (thin egg omelette) (approx. 80 cal)

Total calories (approx): 380 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 20 minutes in the morning, 10-15 the night before

__Type: Japanese, sushi, fish based, gluten-free

Keep reading Bento no. 23: Parsley lemon sushi with salmon →

Bento no. 22: Vegan bento with lotus root mini-cakes

Bento contents:

Savory lotus root mini-cakes (approx. 150 cal)
Pan-roasted red pepper and leek with peanut sauce (approx: 200 cal)
Sweet chili jam (30 cal)
Cucumber wedges (5 cal)
Naval orange wedge (30 cal)

Total calories (approx): 415 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 20-30 minutes total

Type: Asian-fusion, vegan, gluten-free

Keep reading Bento no. 22: Vegan bento with lotus root mini-cakes →

Bento boxes of the week: Lacquered with bitter persimmon juice

The last couple of featured bento boxes have been strictly practical. This week I'm returning to the realm of the sublime, with these handcrafted wooden and lacquered bento boxes from Akita prefecture in northern Japan.

Keep reading Bento boxes of the week: Lacquered with bitter persimmon juice →

Improved bento archive list

I've boosted the information on the bento archive list - the completed bento how-tos are the heart of the site after all. Instead of just a simple listing of thumbnails, each bento now has the Time needed, Calories, Type and Protein sources (which indicate whether a bento is vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore) indicated. So, now you can scan the page for the bento that suits your time, calorie, or eating preferences.

Keep reading Improved bento archive list →

Bento no. 21: Chicken teriyaki bento

Bento contents:

Bite size chicken kijiyaki (or teriyaki) made with 90g of thigh meat with the skin (210 cal)
Blanched bean sprouts with umeboshi (5 cal)
Blanched spinach (10 cal)
Haiga-mai, or germ rice 150g or about 1 cup (170 cal)
1/2 of a tamagoyaki made from 1 egg (50 cal)

Total calories (approx): 445 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 15 minutes in the morning, 20 the night before

Type: Japanese

This is the 'skinny bento' featured in Skinny Bento vs. Not So Skinny Bento.

Keep reading Bento no. 21: Chicken teriyaki bento →

Bite-size chicken teriyaki for bento boxes

Usually chicken teriyaki (or chikiteri as it's abbreviated sometimes) is made from whole chicken thigh pieces, but I prefer to cut the meat up in advance for bento use - the smaller pieces cook faster, and I don't have to deal with slicing hot cooked meat early in the morning.

The chicken can be marinated from the night before or just briefly in the morning. You can also make this in some quantity and freeze the cooked pieces - since you are using thigh meat, the pieces won't dry out so easily after defrosting like white meat can.

Keep reading Bite-size chicken teriyaki for bento boxes →

Review and Book Giveway - Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes

As you may know already if you've been following Just Bento for a while, cute, highly decorated bentos known as kyaraben (or charaben, short for character bento), or oekaki bento (picture-drawing bento) are not my style, or what this site is largely about. But I am drawn to the sheer work and creativity that goes into those bentos, most of which are made for little kids, as I've noted before.

Now there is a new book in English about this type of bento. Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes by Christopher D. Salyers is a compact hardcover book with page after page of full color photos of kyaraben, mostly made by Japanese mothers (and one Japanese father) for their little children.

Keep reading Review and Book Giveway - Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes →

Shiso is the best herb to grow for bento making

I don't know where the days are going. It's already February 15th, and time to decide which vegetable and herb seeds to get for spring. (For me, flowers come in a distinct second after edible gardening.) This weekend I'm going to try to be a bit more organized than most years and sort through the seeds I've kept from last year, and figure out what I need to order.

If you are a gardener, even if your garden is limited to some pots on a sunny windowsill, if there's one herb you should try to grow it's shiso. Shiso, or perilla to give its botanical name, is a very refreshing herb that can be used in all manner of ways. For bentos though one interesting aspect of shiso is that it has some antibacterial qualities. That's one reason why you see green shiso leaves being used as a garnish with sashimi. You can use the fully grown leaves as edible dividers, to wrap rice or meat or other things, and a lot more. See this bento from last summer where I used salted shiso leaves as onigiri wrappers. I love shiso-wrapped onigiri, they taste so fresh! I think that shiso is used quite a lot in the winning Hello Kitty bento too (for the head wrapper and the paws).

Keep reading Shiso is the best herb to grow for bento making →

Bento item of the week: Handmade bunny bento bag from Etsy

An adorable handmade bento bag from Etsy.

Keep reading Bento item of the week: Handmade bunny bento bag from Etsy →

Sanrio character bento contest

Oh rats. It seems I've missed the deadline for submissions for the 2nd edition of the Sanrio Kyaraben Contest, which was on the 7th. Well ok, I'm kidding - since cute kyaraben or character bentos are not really my style. I do admire them as a sort of edible art form though - the time and patience required to make something that will, ultimately, be eaten in a few minutes (more often than not by a kid who will stir it around and mess it up first) is mindboggling.

This bento was the grand prize winner of the first edition of the contest, starring of course, Her Royal Kittyness. Wow, just wow.

Check out the other winners on this page.

Keep reading Sanrio character bento contest →

Skinny bento vs. not skinny bento: how to (and how not to) fill a bento box

Even if you have a small bento box, you can still go overboard on the calories. Here's how to, and how not to, fill a bento box if you're using bento lunches to try to lose weight.

Keep reading Skinny bento vs. not skinny bento: how to (and how not to) fill a bento box →

How many bento boxes do you own?

Posted on: 11 February 2008
By: maki

Taxonomy upgrade extras:

other

bento boxes

Homemade furikake no. 8: Hijiki and chirimenjako (tiny tiny fish)

hijki furikake image

I'm cheating a bit here since this recipe has been featured already on Just Hungry. But it did get rather buried in a general article about seaweed, so here it is again in the Homemade Furikake series.

This combines hijiki, which is full of fiber and minerals, with chirimenjako, tiny little whole salted fish. You can find both at Japanese grocery stores, and Chinese grocery stores carry something similar. Since they are whole fish, they are full of calcium, and also pack a lot of umami. Many Japanese people are lactose intolerant, so they get their calcium by eating things like chirimenjako.

Keep reading Homemade furikake no. 8: Hijiki and chirimenjako (tiny tiny fish) →

Bento no. 20: Shrimp chirashizushi, an easy sushi bento

Bento contents:

3/4 cup (about 160ml) white rice with sushi vinegar (180cal)
5 peeled shrimp cooked with sake (90cal)
1/2 chikuwa (80cal)
Cucumber with seasoning (10cal)
1/4 carrot (30cal)
1 T. edamame (20cal)

Total calories (approx): 400 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 15-20 minutes in the morning, 5 the night before

Type: Japanese, sushi

Chirashizushi is just a bed of sushi rice with toppings of your choice. Here I have used peeled frozen shrimp that is steam-cooked with a little salt and sake in a dry pan, half of a chikuwa (a fish paste produce that looks like a bamboo branch), plus cucumber, edamame and carrots. If you cut the carrots in decorative shapes, allow a little more time. It will be pretty anyway with the colorful toppings. Since the protein components of this bento are quite low fat and low calorie, the whole bento is under 400 calories. This bento was inspired by one in Yaseru Obento Recipes.

Keep reading Bento no. 20: Shrimp chirashizushi, an easy sushi bento →

Bento no. 19: Salmon furikake and frozen tofu nuggets

Bento contents:

1 cup (about 220ml) sprouted brown rice (220cal)
2 Tbs. salmon furikake or flakes, 1sp. gomashio (60cal)
Tofu nuggets made from about 2/3rds block (200g) of soft tofu (160cal)
Carrots and celery cooked in bouillon (30cal)
Steamed asparagus spears (20cal)

Total calories (approx): 490 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 5-10 minutes in the morning, 20-30 previously

Keep reading Bento no. 19: Salmon furikake and frozen tofu nuggets →

Homemade furikake no. 7: Salmon furikake (or Sake flakes)

Is this salmon (sake) furikake? Or is it salmon (sake) flakes? Or maybe it's even salmon soboro. Whatever you call it, it's finely flaked salmon that you can sprinkle onto plain rice, use as an onigiri filling, or on ochazuke. You could fold it into egg for a salmon omelette, on boiled vegetables...whatever your imagination can come up with.

Salmon flakes are often sold in jars that cost around $8 for about 150g. You can make it yourself for less than $3, depending on how expensive the salmon is. You can be even more frugal and use the little bits that are stuck on the bones when you filet a whole salmon. This is probably how fish soboro or flakes or furikake was invented in the first place.

Keep reading Homemade furikake no. 7: Salmon furikake (or Sake flakes) →

Poached frozen tofu and fried frozen tofu cutlets

This is a very juicy and tasty way of cooking frozen tofu - and it's not Japanese, for a change. A great vegan protein dish!

Keep reading Poached frozen tofu and fried frozen tofu cutlets →

Bento boxes of the week: Ikea 365+ food savers, a great budget or starter option

The sturdy, microwave-safe Ikea 365+ food savers are great inexpensive bento boxes. They look good too.

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Bento no. 18: 3-color soboro bento

Bento contents:

1 cup (about 220ml) brown rice (220cal)
2 Tbs. beef sorobo (80cal)
2 Tbs. iri tamago (70cal)
Blanced Swiss chard leaves (5cal)
Swiss chard stalks sautéed in butter (30cal)
Hijiki with bean curd (50cal)
3 fresh lichees or litchi (15cal)

Total calories (approx): 475 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 15-20 minutes in the morning, 20-30 previously

Type: Japanese

Keep reading Bento no. 18: 3-color soboro bento →

Iri tamago or tamago soboro, another standard Japanese egg recipe

There are three very commonly used Japanese egg recipes. One is _tamagoyaki_ or atsuyaki tamago_ (and its variant, _dashimaki tamago), a rolled omelette. Another is _usuyaki tamago_, a very thin omelette which is used as a wrapper or shredded and used as a topping. Ther third is iri tamago, finely scrambled eggs that are used quite a lot as a topping. It's here because it's such a handy ingredient for bento. If you think you need a bit of color and protein, there's no faster egg dish you can make.

Keep reading Iri tamago or tamago soboro, another standard Japanese egg recipe →

Review of Yaseru Obento Recipe, a great diet bento book

There are several books dedicated to using bentos for weight loss. I have quite a few of them, and most have a lot of good ideas. I only got Yaseru Obento Recipe recently, but it's already become my favorite bento-for-weight-loss book and one of my favorite bento books of any kind. It is in Japanese only, as are all good bento books unfortunately. But it's so full of great photos and illustrations that I think you could get a lot out of it even if you don't read Japanese.

Yaseru Obento Recipe just means "slimming bento recipes". The subtitle is kirei de oishii baransu bento ga atto iu ma ni dekiagari! dakara nagatsuzuki shite reboundo nashi! That's a bit long, but it means generally "beautiful and delicious balanced bentos that are made in a jiffy! So you can keep (making them) for a long time, and won't have a relapse!" That sounds good to me, and the book does deliver on that promise.

Keep reading Review of Yaseru Obento Recipe, a great diet bento book →