Great Bento Idea: A colorful vegetarian bento from the Netherlands

After a few weeks of charaben, we’re back to a sensible everyday bento for this week’s Great Bento Idea. That doesn’t mean it’s not attractive and colorful though!

[1]

This is from Gnoe, a Dutch bentoist who blogs at Graasland [2] in both English and Dutch. She’s a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and keeps detailed records of her weekly menus on her site - a great help for anyone who wants to follow her eating style. The featured bento here - a lacto-ovo-vegetarian one of course - is Middle Eastern inspired, and has plenty of color, to as Gnoe says “keep the dark November days back”. The red beet hummus looks really interesting. There’s even a cute mini-Babybel cheese character in the back! Read more about this bento on Graasland [3].

Look for more Great Bento Ideas next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Idea: Cucumber ribbons by MJ

[6]

This week’s Great Bento Idea comes to us from MJ [7], who posts her bento photos on Flickr [8]. She says that some of her bentos are “….thought out, some thrown together in 5 minutes while half asleep. Some I even get to eat myself.” I can relate to that! She has a quirky sense of humor too - check out this eyeful bento [9] for instance. It just goes to show that there’s no limit to what you can do in a bento box.

I particularly like this salad bento because of the cucumber ribbons. They are simple to make but, arranged the way they are they make make the whole bento look quite elegant, without a whole lot of effort. I think that the ribbons work particularly well in the small confines of a bento box, though they’d work in a salad on a plate too. The rest of the bento looks nice too, with those yummy looking smoked duck breast slices, not to mention the olives and feta cheese. This would be quite low-carb bento; for people who need more energy, I’d add an onigiri or a bread roll or something on the side. (People watching their salt intake may want to omit or reduce the olives and/or feta cheese here.)

Tip: To make cucumber ribbons, just draw a vegetable peeler straight down the length of a cucumber a T-shaped peeler works better than the vertical type for this task. You can make ribbons from any long, straight vegetable this way - try carrots, zucchini, long white radish, and so on. If you want the cucumber ribbons to be less watery and more flexible, sprinkle them with a tiny bit of salt and leave for a few minutes, then pat dry with paper towels.

Look out for another Great Bento Idea next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Idea: Fall Comfort Food Bento

[10]

A day late, but here is this week’s Great Bento Idea! It comes from Cathryn3 [11], and contains a selection of really tasty looking fall comfort foods - chicken tenders, glazed baby carrots, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes and Vidalia (sweet) onions. I bet this is a bento that tastes great heated up, though it should be tasty at room temperature too.

I chose this because it looks like something you could do with the inevitable leftovers from that Great Big American Feast coming up in just a few days. Cut up leftover roast turkey instead of the chicken tenders, and there you are! I’m looking forward to seeing what other people do with their Thanksgiving leftovers bento-wise after the fact too. (See also: Tips for using Thanksgiving leftovers in bentos [12].)

Look for more Great Bento Ideas next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Idea: Flowery muffins by Emily

One thing that has been bugging me for some time is that I really haven’t reached out to the general online bento community as much as I’d like to. I’ve attempted to do interviews of bento bloggers in the past, but they tend to take a very long time to put together ^_^;. So instead I’ve decided to start a little Great Bento Ideas feature, which will periodically highlight a nice bento-related idea I’ve seen elsewhere.

And this is the first Great Bento Idea - simple yet pretty decorated muffins by Emily Ng.

[13]

As Emily explains on her blog [14], she bought a selection of muffins, and decorated the tops. What I like is that she’s used really simple shapes cut from vegetables and cheese to make plain muffins look really pretty. The pink and white petals on the one in the middle of the bottom row are are squished marshmallows. I bet the decorations didn’t take that much time to do, and they’re far less messy, rather healthier, and much easier to transport than iced cupcakes. This is something anyone could do I think to brighten up a bento box, using either homemade [15] or storebought muffins. And it doesn’t have to be just for kids, either!

Look out for another Great Bento Idea next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Idea: Giraffe bentos for two little girls by Karaimame

[16]

This week’s Great Bento Idea comes from a mom of 2 in Finland, Karaimame!

The original idea behind charaben, or cute decorated bentos, is to encourage picky kids to eat a variety of foods. Nowadays of course, charaben have gone off in all kinds of directions and are made by, and for, adults as much as they are for kids. But these two cute bentos bring the concept right back to its original intention.

Karaimame is a mother of two little ones living in Finland (though she’s originally from Brazil and has Japanese parents), who’s just recently started a bento, cooking and crafts blog [17], which you should definitely check out. These 2 bentos were made for her daughters, who love kirahvi (Finnish for giraffe). The giraffes are made out of sliced cheese, carrot and nori seaweed. If you look at the boxes closely, you’ll see that except for the giraffes, the bentos are quite straightforward, with a variety of different foods. As she explains on her blog [18], she uses a bit of deception (including the giraffe) to encourage her kids to eat their vegetables and other foods. You may not be as skilled as Kararimame at doing cute cut-outs, but you can take her ideas for ‘fooling’ picky kids into eating their lunch too.

Look for more Great Bento Ideas next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Idea: Ochazuke bento from Not Another Brown Bag Lunch

This week’s great bento idea from the bento community at large is from Mils of Not Another Brown Bag Lunch [19] - it’s an ochazuke bento! [20]

What is an ochazuke? As I explained some years ago [21], ochazuke is basically rice with various savory bits on it, over which hot green tea is poured. You mix up the rice, tea and bits, and slurp. Ochazuke is often served as the last course in a formal meal, or eaten simply as a quick late-night snack. It’s a great way to use up leftover rice for one thing.

Making part of your bento into an ochazuke is a great idea, especially when the weather turns cooler. All you need is access to some boiling water. You can use an instant ochazuke packet as Mils has done - you can buy them at Japanese grocery stores (general Asian stores may not have them). Or, you can make your own ochazuke. Just pack some rice or other grain (Mils used some pretty cherry colored rice, but plain rice is fine and is what’s usually used), with some homamade furikake [22] (the salmon flakes [23] work especially well), or even just a plain umeboshi pickled plum. Make sure that your rice container has enough space in it to add the hot tea, or use a bento box with a built-in bowl like the one we gave away a couple of weeks ago [24]. Add some shredded nori seaweed, crushed rice crackers for crunch and so on, and pack along a green tea bag. Make some tea at lunchtime and pour it over your rice. It may sound weird to pour tea over rice, but it’s really good, I promise. The best tasting ochazuke is a bit salty or sour, and has a mix of textures - crunchy from the rice crackers (the tiny balls you see in commercial ochazuke packets are called arare, and are little rice crackers), nori, and so on.

Since rice with bits on its own is not very well rounded nutritionally, Mils has packed the rest of her bento with all kinds of tasty things. Read all about it on her blog [20].

Look out for another Great Bento Idea next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Idea: Paul Klee bento by Reiko

[25]

I picked this week’s Great Bento Idea just because it’s beautiful and different. It’s edible bento art!

Normally, you may associate ‘bento art’ with cute charaben with smiley faces and such, appealing to kids and fans of kawaii stuff. But as designer Reiko Reid of Brooklyn Bento [26] demonstrates, a bento box can be an edible canvas. This bento is inspired by Swiss/German artist Paul Klee [27]’s famous painting Senecio. As Reiko explains on her blog: [28]

The process wasn’t difficult. I placed the colored rice and shaped with Saran Wrap, and adjusted the lines with toothpicks. The eyes are sliced almonds and red peppers and additional lines are made from nori. Around the face I used sauteed tofu with curry on top of thin layer of rice.

Besides being beautiful to look at, this bento also looks balanced and delicious - a feature that I consider to be critical for any bento. (You’ll never see a purely decorative but unbalanced or unappetizing bento featured here.) And I love the autumnal colors of the dry curry, which forms a great background to the abstract face.

Finely grained food for making bento art

Finely textured food like colored rice, dry curry, furikake and soboro are great to work with when you want to create a flat bentoscape like this. It will take you some time of course, but once in a while it can be great fun to do. You may not be up to re-creating an abstract masterpiece, but how about trying some simple patterns [29] to start?

See the Related Links below this article for how to make various kinds of soboro, dry curry, naturally colored rice and more. (Email and RSS subscribers, you’ll need click through to the site to see the links.)

Look out for another Great Bento Idea post next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Idea: Udon noodles with meat sauce and a 2-for-1 flower

[30]

After a brief hiatus due to my crazy schedule, the Great Bento Ideas series highlighting bentos from the bento blogging community is back! This week it’s this udon noodle bento [31] by Ceinwyn of Bento Bliss [32]. Ceinwyn (or Ingrid), who hails from Belgium, was having work done in her kitchen last week, but still managed to pull off this delicious looking bento using her electric wok.! Udon noodles are thick wheat noodles that stand up well to rich sauces, and don’t get too soft and soggy over time, so they are very well suited to bento boxes. The teriyaki meat sauce sounds good to me!

Another thing I liked about this bento was the dual-purposing of the flower cutout. Not only is it the highlight on top of the brown noodles, the cut out part itself forms a nice accent on the apple. This way, not a single bit of the fruit goes to waste. That appeals to my cheap-ass, I mean, frugal side. Oops, looks like I was wrong about the flower. The flower on top of the noodles is made of cheese! A nice touch anyway to use the same motif for the apple and the noodles ^_^;

So now that the series is back, look for another Great Bento Idea next week!

(As always, if you want your idea to catch my eye, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Ideas: Christmas bentos!

Can you believe that Christmas is this coming Saturday, and that there’s only 2 weeks left to this year? I can’t believe it myself. The Great Bento Ideas series highlighting bentos from around the online bento community is back this week after a short hiatus, to showcase some Christmas themed bentos. I’ve chosen ones that use simple and easy to emulate techniques to come up with great results.

First up is this snowman onigiri bento by Susan Yuen.

[33]

What’s great about the cute snowmen onigiri in this bento box is that they are really simple yet imaginatively made. The onigiri are round, with little shiny red picks for the noses and hat-shaped picks on the heads. The faces don’t look too hard to cut out of nori seaweed either. Susan describes this snowman on her blog [34], which also includes a great review of the Just Bento Cookbook ^_^. She used a recipe in the book for the chicken karaage! Don’t forget to check out her two books, Hawai’i’s Bento Box Cookbook: Fun Lunches for Kids [35] and Hawai’i’s Bento Box Cookbook: 2nd Course [36] for more great and easy to execute charaben ideas like this one.

Here’s a great, simple Christmas bento by SonomaBento. It has an edamame Christmas tree topped by a cheese star, and two decoratively cut radish stars. Read about it on her blog [37].

[38]

Another simple yet effective Christmas tree, this time made from colorful furikake! This bento is by Karina (Bunches and Bits).

[39]

Putting a bit of decoration on top of rice is all it takes to really brighten up a bento. This time it’s a string of Christmas lights made of simple vegetable cutouts, by Mama Tong. Read about it on her blog [40].

[41]

Santa Claus is, of course, a popular motif for Christmas bentos. Making a face might seem like a duanting task, but the following bentos show that it can be done quite simply too. This Santa is just a bun with a cheese slice beard, a red apple hat, and a piece of wax paper that serves both as a hat trim and a separator between the bun and the apple. It’s by Tiffany of Cute Food For Kids - read about it on her blog [42].

[43]

The Santa in this bento by Natakiya is even simpler, yet still really effective. A square ravioli with wavy edges forms the base and also serves as Santa’s beard. A slice of sauce is the face, a square red pepper (?) is the hat, and more cheese bits form the hat band and whiskers. The bright green broccoli makes a nice contrast and looks quite festive in this context.

[44]

To wrap this up, here is one final festive bento. It’s not Christmas themed, and it’s certainly not easy, but it’s so striking that I had to feature it here. And hey, it covers two other major world religions! This amazing India themed tour de force is by NoveiMC. Wow.

[45]

More Great Bento Ideas next time! Why not get inspired by these and other holiday themed bentos in the Just Bento Flickr pool [4] and make your own? Happy Holidays everyone!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Ideas: Colorful charaben for Hinamatsuri (Girl's Festival)

March the 3rd was Hinamatsuri, or Girl's Day in Japan. (You can read about Hinamatsuri in my Japan Times article [46].) Since this is a day to celebrate girls, there were some very cute and girly themed decorative bentos made. Here are just a few that caught my eye.

Lia of Bentolicious [47] is the queen of cut-out work, and her Hinamatsuri bento is no exception. Look at the neat precision of those cute little decorations, cut out of colored cooked egg sheets or omelettes (usuyakitamago how-to here [48]) The bases are chicken fried rice.

[49]

Read all about it on her blog [50].

This little lady by My Lunch Is Cuter also uses colored egg sheets. I don't think the creator has a bento blog (she didn't link to one) but that is a great name for one (hint hint) She does indeed have a blog, right here! [51] Also check out her creations on her flickr photo stream [52].

[53]

Mihochin-san of the Japanese bento blog Nao-chan no kyaraben to kyara-suweetsu [54] (Nao's charaben and chara-sweets) has been featured on these pages before. (I don't think she has a book out yet, unlike several other Japanese charabentoists. She should have one for sure.) I love her Hinamatsuri idea of using quail's eggs for the heads with decorative picks as hair decorations. Here are her hina doll 'cupcakes' - the cake part is actually mixed sushi (gomoku-zushi). Maybe not the most portable thing, but for a very special lunch at home maybe?

Here are the quail egg hina dolls in a more portable pose, on top of chirashizushi (scattered sushi). She says that this was her husband's bento. What a lucky husband!

Check out her bento blog here [54] - again it is all in Japanese, but she has tons of pictures to inspire and amaze you.

And here's another use of picks as hair accessories, in a sandwich bento by ABQ Bento Mama. The use of simple kamaboko slices for the kimono is inspired!

[55]

Check out her Flickr photo stream [56] for more bentos and other food creations.

Lastly, this is not a Hinamatsuri bento, but very girly nonetheless so I've included it here. I love it when people see shapes in nature that can be used in their edible creations. The little Goldilocks in this bento by funlunchbox has a red bell pepper dress and yellow bell pepper hair. And of course there are the three inarizushi [57] bears in the other part of the box too. Adorable!

[58]

Check out more easy and fun bento ideas on the Fun Lunchbox blog [59].

See more great bento ideas [60] from around the bento blog community!

(As always, if you want your idea to catch my eye, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Ideas: Colorful Vegetarian and Gluten-Free Bentos by Cocyte

This week’s Great Bento Ideas are by Cocyte [61], who makes beautiful bentos in Bordeaux, France - a country that could be considered the mecca of bento-ing in Europe, if not the world. Cocyte’s bentos are a mix of traditional and non-traditional, and always have a gorgeous mix of colorful vegetables.

Take this bento, which features petits farcis - a tomato and a rond de Nice summer squash stuffed with a mix of cheeses (see Cocyte’s recipe here [62]). It’s beautiful, well balanced, and looks delicious!

[63]

Here is a fun bento that has a small muffin decorated to look like a bunny, with sliced avocados for the body and cucumber ears. The sugar carrot decoration is a cute accent. The orange carrot puree looks interesting too.

[64]

And finally here is a simpler bento that uses the colors of radishes really well. The sesame seed decorations on the avocado slices are a really nice touch. A bonus: it’s gluten-free!

[65]

See more beautiful and healthy bentos in Cocyte’s flickr stream [61].

Look out for another Great Bento Idea post next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Ideas: Halloween bentos from Japanese blogs, 2010 edition

Halloween is over, but here’s one more round of spooky charaben, this time from Japan.

I misspoke the last time [66] when I said there seemed to be more Halloween bentos coming from non-Japanese bloggers and bento enthusiasts than Japan. Many Japanese bloggers posted their Halloween bentos over the weekend, or I just missed them previously. I’ve tried to pick the works of charabentoists that aren’t that well known yet - people who haven’t been picked up by the media in Japan or elsewhere, or published a book of their own.

What’s Halloween without ghosts? Here are little ghosties made from quail eggs that have been squeezed a little on the pointy end to make a ‘tail’. This bento comes from ichigomama [67].

ssmama [68] gives complete instructions for making these cute ghosties on Cookpad [69] - in Japanese, but you can follow the step by step instructions. (She uses hanpen fishcakes, but try white sliced cheese instead. The pink cheeks are ham, and the black parts are nori seaweed.)

Next, some real character charaben! The first one is by mihhon [70], an old school Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, done as an onigiri with a cheese and nori seaweed hat, plus a smaller mouse in purple mashed potato.

There has to be at least one Hello Kitty, and this one is very cute indeed, with a purple potato peaked cap. It’s by mihochin [71].

This is a rather obscure character, called Yuppii (it’s the mascot for a regional television station) but who cares - it’s so cute! This tour de force is by ramirami [72].

The Nightmare Before Christmas is, of course, a perfect subject for a Halloween themed bento. This one is one of the best ones I’ve seen, by mahiromama [73]. Look how neat the cut nori work is on Jack Skellington’s face - and how about the neat use of a spider shaped pick as his bowtie?

Speaking of amazing nori cutwork, how about this glowing haunted house (nori on slicd cheese) by mayoko [74]? She says she’s not good at nori cutting, but I beg to differ. Just look at those tiny ghouls and things in the windows!

And last but certainly not least, this charaben artist, hanamama [75], really outdid herself this year it seems. Just look at all the Halloween bentos she managed to create - 10 of them!

So that’s it for Halloween this year. Maybe you can challenge yourself to do a special bento next year. Of course, Christmas and Chanukah are just around the corner too… (Chanukah bento? Haven’t seen one of those yet…. ^_^)

Look for more Great Bento Ideas next week, when we will return to ‘regular’ (not charaben) bentos.

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

(Below is a message in Japanese for the bloggers I featured in this post.)

(ジャスト・ベントーは英語でお弁当を世界中に紹介しているブログサイトです。今回は、日本のキャラ弁ブロガーさんのハロウィーンテーマのお弁当を紹介させて頂きました。勝手に写真を拝借し、皆様のブログへリンクバックさせていただきました。もし、不都合な点等がおありでしたらご連絡下さい。)

Great Bento Ideas: More Halloween bentos!

Here’s a followup to the Halloween themed bentos [76] from the last Great Bento Ideas post. As I mentioned there, Halloween really seems to bring out the creativity in many talented bento artists. (It also seems to inspire bentoists outside of Japan more than inside - probably because Halloween is not that much of a holiday here.) Here are a couple that caught my eye this year.

Sheri of Happy Little Bento [77] is one the most talented bento artists out there, and she has posted several Halloween bentos already. This one features a cute green rice onigiri Frankenstein. Read about it on her blog [78].

[79]

Whoa, these garlic bread ‘fingers’ with sliced almond fingernails are way too scary for me! But kids will probably love them, not to mention the ‘creepy quail eggs’ dyed with blueberry juice. This fun bento is by Sonoma Bento [80] - read more about it here [81].

[82]

This cute bento may look daunting to try to copy, but it uses food cutters in a very clever way to decorate a regular bento, so it should be doable for most people. It’s by Karen - read about it on her blog [83].

[84]

Here’s a clever idea - using string cheese wrapped around a sandwich as the bandages for a “mummy”! The tongue is a piece of ham. This bento is by meltong99 - read about it on her blog [85].

[86]

LianMama [87], who has already been featured here [88], used sliced cheese cut into strips as bandages for her mummies in this awesome bento.

[89]

This one is actually from last year, but it’s one of my favorites - a small salad bento that depicts Audrey, the hungry plant from Little Shop Of Horrors. Who knew that a tomato could look so scary/cute? It’s by Debra of hapa bento [90].

[91]

And finally, a bento that shows off some really high-end food cutting skills - even though the person who created it says it was ‘simple’! MyMealBox [92] is the site of a professional charaben/kyaraben artist in Indonesia (you can special order bentos from them to fit a theme, if you’re lucky enough to be in their area). Read more about it here [93].

[94]

There are many more great Halloween bentos around for you to check out and get inspiration from. Why not make your own?

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Ideas: One box, infinite bentos

Many regular bento makers like to collect different bento boxes. I am no exception myself; I haven’t quite counted up my collection yet, but I know I own way more than I should! I try to justify it by telling myself it’s all for research, for articles and books and such….and to a certain extent it is. If I were not writing about bentos regularly, I may only have a few boxes for everyday use for The Guy and myself. The Guy actually prefers one plain, black box over any others and would be perfectly happy with using that every day.

It’s fun to collect bento boxes, but it isn’t necessary to have more than just one, practical box that you like. So, this week I’d like to put the spotlight on two such minimalist, one-box bento bloggers.

First up is Tegan, who has just started to blog about her bentos at Bento Adobencha [95]. She is using the two-tier, highly compartmentalized Hello Kitty bento I used for Complete Bento no. 80 [96]. Judging from the variety of what’s she’s put in there so far, she’s well on her way to being a top bentoist! Check out her progress on her blog and Flickr stream [95].

[97]

[98]

[99]

Tegan may choose to acquire more bento boxes eventually, or follow the path of another bento blogger. Toyama-san is a salaryman from Aichi prefecture (where the city of Nagoya is). He has been quietly posting the bentos made by “my Kaoru” at Kyou no Obento [100] (Today’s Obento) since July 2004. In the sidebar, he writes that he originally meant to just post the bentos for a year, but he’s managed to continue posting them up to this day. So far there are an astonishing 1,392 bentos posted! All by 15 of those are made by Kaoru-san; the 15 are made by Toyama-san himself. The blog has a beautiful consistency. All the bentos are packed in the same light blue plastic bento box, and photographed from the same angle.

Each post has the photo and a list of the contents, and that’s it. Taken singly they could be considered boring, but I think it’s a remarkable expression of love and appreciation for “my Kaoru”. As a chronicle of one Japanese person’s bento life for the last 7 years, you could argue that the blog even has a social-historical significance. I’ve been following his blog even before JustBento was a glimmer in my eye. You could say that it was one of the many inspirations for my starting a bento blog. Looking over the entries as I write this, it reminds me again of the beauty of everyday bentos, - and that I should just chronicle more of my own bentos to keep a record of them!

See more great bento ideas [60] from around the bento blog community!

(As always, if you want your idea to catch my eye, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Ideas: Pretty and Vegetarian

This week’s Great Bento Ideas are all vegetarian! Bentos are great for anyone who has “special”, or let’s say not-mainstream, food requirements. Here are two vegetarian bentos that caught my eye.

First up is this simple yet colorful and appetizing bento from Farah Abedin [101].

[102]

It has curried garbanzo beans (chickpeas), a tomato and cucumber salad, and mixed grapes and cherry tomatoes, plus a Mini Babybel cheese - the favorite cheese of bento lovers for its size, cute shape and bright red wax coating. It looks like it’s very well balanced in terms of flavors and textures as well as nutrition!

The second bento this week is from Leopard Girl [103].

[104]

This one features tofu and vegetable dumplings, edamame, an apple and almond-flax butter, all arranged in an attractive stripe pattern. While it’s not as obvious as in the first example, this is fairly well balanced nutritionally too I think - though I might add another container of salad or other vegetable to make it truly rounded. In any case, it’s a very pretty bento that looks delicious. (Tip: If you are packing cut up apple, be sure to dunk it in salted or acidulated water (water with acid like lemon) to prevent browning.)

Look out for another Great Bento Idea post next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Ideas: Simple and clever Halloween bentos by a really cool mom

Hallowe’en seems to inspire bento artists around the world like almost no other holiday. If you’re planning on a special spooky bento for someone special, now is the time to start gathering ideas. Here are two great simple, cute and clever sandwich based Hallowe’en bentos by Tiffany, aka Cool Mom From Vancouver [105].

I love the way that Tiffany uses simple cutout shapes to convey a spooky theme. Here is a Tombstone Sandwich, with a nori seaweed and cheese cutout vampire bat, and R.I.P. spelled out in cheese. Simply cutting off the two top corners transforms a simple slice of bread into a tombstone. Using plastic grass baran at the ‘foot’ of the tombstone sandwich is a neat idea. The fuzzy spider completes the theme. What kid wouldn’t love this sandwich/?

[106]

Here’s a slightly more elaborate but no less easy bento, with a bread coffin with bread crust cross, and a cheese coffin with the dearly departed in salami. Who knew that a salami-gingerbread man could become a corpse?

[107]

These are ideas that anyone could emulate, even bento beginners. It’s all in the creative inspiration! Even if you just pack a sandwich for your kids, why not transform their Hallowe’en one into something a bit special? See more bento ideas and spooky fun in Tiffany’s flickr photostream [105].

Note: there will be no Great Bento Idea post next week, because I’m going to be in transit on Monday-Tuesday. It will be back the week after with more Hallowe’en bento ideas.

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)

Great Bento Ideas: Simple and effective bentoscapes from Lian Mama and Bentobird

This week we have two Great Bento Ideas from the bento community. You could spend hours creating a decorative bento, with intricate cutting and molding and coloring and so on. I read recently of a charaben artist who spent more than 8 hours on one creation! But most of us don’t have that kind of time - unless it becomes a profession (as it has for some charaben artists in Japan). But the bento boxes I am featuring this week from the bento community shows that, with just a few tools and accessories and a great imagination, it’s still possible to create beautiful, cute, appetizing bentoscape.

[108]

This school themed snack bento by Lian Mama [109] features pencils made from the bread crusts. I’m guessing that she used the rest of the bread for the spiral sandwiches. There are yellow pear-shaped tomato balloons and cherry tomato ‘cherries’, using decorative picks, to complete the fun picture. No special tools are needed for this bento - just a sharp knife, and a very creative mind! Lian Mama doesn’t mention how long it took her to assemble this, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t hours and hours…and what first grader wouldn’t love to see this in his bento box?

The second bento I’m featuring today is even simpler in concept, though beautiful in execution.

[110]

The centerpiece of this gorgeous bentoscape by Bentobird [111] is a heart-shaped sweet potato pancake sandwich with sausage and tomato. The fruits and greens that surround it reflect the shape of the heart - or is it the other way around? In any case, the whole effect is harmonious and very colorful indeed. Read about this Virginia Country Breakfast bento [112] on Bentobird’s blog.

Look out for another Great Bento Idea next week!

(If you want your idea to catch my eye by the way, the best way is to join the Just Bento [4] or Just Bento Bento Gear [5] groups on Flickr and post them there. Don’t forget to post a link to your blog in the description if you have one.)