Just Bento

Hi trek29! Bentos are basically meant to be eaten cold or at room temperature, so just about any bento recipe is going fit that criteria unless it specifically says otherwise, i.e. are meant to be carried in thermal lunch containers. You can start with the recipes index right here, or look at the complete bentos too. (Not all the recipes are Japanese or rice-based either!)

I have no way of heating up my lunches at work/school either. Some things that I think work well for me are:
-Hummus with carrots, crackers, and dolmas (stuffed grape leaves)
-mini somosas,i buy the frozen ones at the indian grocery store and they are good room temp.
-From trader joes freezer section they have mandarian orange chicken and a bbq teriyaki chicken that i frequently make for dinner. the leftovers are yummy with tamaki gold white rice at room temp too.
-Rice salad, im posting the recipe in the bento idea recipe section next.
anything on this site works tooo.

I second Lauri Loves You's recommendation on Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken. I always keep a bag of it in my freezer. When I prepare my bento, I'll heat up 5-6 bite size chicken pieces on a cookie sheet for 18-20 minutes in an oven. I'll then microwave 3-5 tablespoons of the mandarin orange ginger sauce that comes with the chicken. After the chicken is heated, I'll toss it with the mandarin orange ginger sauce to lightly coat it. I'll then put the chicken on top of brown rice in my Thermos Nissan Lunch Tote to eat for lunch. This is delicious, cheap, and easy to make if you know how to use an oven. It also has a long storage life since it's frozen so there's no need to worry about spoilage.

Wow, I'll have to check them out!