April 2008

All the content on this site by month.

Roasted carrot spread

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I do love carrots. They are full of nutrients and fiber, inexpensive, available year around, and durable. And their bright orange color (or other colors, if you delve into the exotic varieties) add instant cheer to any dish or bento box. So when I saw that my favorite vegan author Yumiko Kano was coming out with a new book of just carrot recipes, I reserved it in advance without a second thought.

This is a recipe adapted from that book. It's a soft, light carrot spread or paste that is sweet, salty and a bit spicy. It has tahini (sesame seed paste) in it, which adds richness as well as protein. The spiciness comes from cumin and red chili pepper powder, and the sweetness comes from the carrot itself, which is roasted to intensify the flavor, and a tad of raw cane sugar. It is great as a spread on crackers or rice cakes or toast, or as a dip. The soft texture means it can't quite substitute for peanut butter in a pb and j sandwich, but it's fantastic in a wrap sandwich. It is of course totally gluten-free and nut-free too, so if your child's school has a "no-nut" policy, which seems to be increasingly common these days, this is great.

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Bento contents:

  • 3 individual portion shepherd's pies, 360 cal
  • 10 frozen edamame, 50 cal
  • 1 Tbs. mayonnaise, 100 cal
  • Broccoli florets, 10 cal
  • Cornichons (pickles), 10 cal
  • Cherry tomatoes, 40 cal

Total calories (approx): 570 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 5 minutes in the morning

Type: Not Japanese, omnivore (beef), frozen

Individual portion frozen shepherd's pies (or any kind of casserole dish)

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This is more of a tip than a recipe, but I've put it here because it's a handy way of building up your bento freezer stash. When I make something that is baked in a casserole for dinner such as shepherd's pie, I try to make a few individual portions in cupcake liners.

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Before we start the weekend - car themed kyaraben eye candy.

Good news for bento fans in Europe and the UK in particular: as reported previously, Japan Centre's online store has expanded their bento box and accessory lineup from Daiso. Accessories are priced at £1.45 to &1.49, and bento boxes like the popular Lube Sheep Dragonfly model are £2.50 - pretty reasonable I think. While Japan Centre, who are based in London, only ship food items within Europe, they do ship non-food items worldwide, Always figure in the shipping costs and shop around for the best deals! See Where to buy bento items. (*Disclaimer: Japan Centre is an advertiser on Just Bento, but I'm also a very happy repeat customer.)

Losing more than 50 lbs as a couple with bento, and dealing with an omnivore's needs

Reader Suzi no miko left this great comment:

I am a vegetarian and my husband is not (slight issue…). When I make Bento for the two of us I end up making a bunch of different things because he wants meat in his Bento almost every day. He’s also on the South Beach Diet thing and won’t eat rice, carrots, corn, potatoes, soba, fruit, etc… This page had been very helpful to us (more specifically me) and thanks to our bento boxes making portion control easy and the tips on packing from you we have collectively lost about 50 pounds.

That is really great - congratulations to Suzu no miko and her husband! Bentos are a great weight loss aid, as I've written before, because portion control is much easier than with large or more open containers.

One point that Suzu no miko brought up is something I have to deal with too: how to make a vegetarian-based bento that an omnivore, or a bigger eater, would feel satisfied with. I often show the bigger-portion version of each complete bento, but here are some general tips.

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Bento contents:

Total calories (approx): 485 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 10 minutes in the morning

Type: Japanese, vegan (tofu)

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This week I'm going back to the handcrafted bento boxes that I love. The material in the spotlight is bamboo.

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Whenever I post a complete bento how-to I try to pick ones that have something unique or noteworthy about them. Of course I actually make a lot more bentos than I post about. Here are few that didn't make the cut - the 'also-ran' bentos, with an explanation of why they didn't make it to star status.

Kyaraben (charaben) how-to links for all skill levels

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Whenever I post about kyaraban/charaben (cute bentos) from Japan, there are often comments bemoaning the lack of how-tos on those kyaraben sites. There are how tos out there, but in many cases you need to read Japanese to follow them. But here are some links to how-tos with a lot of photos that you could follow along even without understanding the accompanying Japanese text.

Bento archive list (2)

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p>A list of bentos from no. 31 to 60 featured on Just Bento.

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Bento contents:

Total calories (approx): 480 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 10-15 minutes

Type: Japanese, meatless (tuna)

Tuna tofu miso mini burgers

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I do like mini-burgers for bentos - they're easy to make, easy to eat, and cute. This time it's a tuna and tofu burger flavored with miso. Canned tuna is a versatile and handy staple to have around. I always seem to have at least a couple around - you may too. And it's cheap, so if you live in the U.S. and are feeling a bit poor today after filing your taxes, these will help a bit in stretching your food budget. It's better if you make the burgers with oil canned tuna, but water canned will do. They're quick to mix up in a plastic bag, and cook up in a few minutes.

sad_onigiri.pngYou've assembled a colorful, nutritious and cute bento box. You can't wait for lunch time. You open it up and... you attract a crowd of classmates or coworkers, curious about your lunch.

Has this happened to you? It certainly has to me. At first it did bother me, especially if I packed a bentos or an onigiri picnic basket for a train trip. It's amazing how strong soy sauce and nori seem to smell in an enclosed train compartment! Swiss people are generally polite and reserved, so rarely do they out and out stare - though on a couple of occasions I've had an old lady enthusiastically point at my bento, asking this or that. But, these days I don't mind it at all. Well maybe a little bit, but not much. And people who know me, or The Guy when he takes bentos on the road, are used to our unique lunch boxes, and perhaps even a bit envious! (The sandwiches sold in the train are expensive and pretty sad...)

But what if it's your kid's bento lunch getting all that attention?

Keep reading Bento teasing? →

Just in case you follow Just Bento but not Just Hungry, I've put up How to cook lotus root over there. Lotus root is a nice alternative starchy vegetable, with lots of fiber. Plus it looks pretty without the need to fuss with it - perfect for bentos. (This is for you fossettes :))

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Bento contents:

Total calories (approx): 515 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 15-20 minutes in the morning if you make everything in the morning

Type: Not Japanese, vegetarian (lacto-ovo)

Stovetop leftover vegetable frittata

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Frittata, a thick Italian omelette, is an egg dish that's great hot or cold. It's perfect picnic fare, which means it's also great for bento. The usual frittata recipe calls for baking it in the oven, but it's hard to find the time to heat up the oven and then bake something on a weekday morning. This method of cooking it on the stovetop appeared in the April issue of kyou no ryouri (Today's Cooking) magazine. The total cooking time is only about 10-15 minutes.

The original recipe just used broccoli, but I used a mix of steamed broccoli and the ever-useful red pepper and onion confit . You could make it with any cooked vegetable mix, so it's a great way of using up leftovers. You could add chopped up leftover meat to this too if you like. Cheap, frugal and tasty!

Carrot rice two ways

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Carrot rice is basically just rice cooked with carrots and some flavorings. It makes the rice colorful, as well as sneaking in some more vegetable content into your meal, bento or not. (It should work on kids too.) It does not taste 'carrot-y' at all, just slightly sweet.

I've been experimenting with different ways of making carrot rice, and these are the two methods that produce the best flavored rice so far with the least effort. One or the other may fit your routine better, so they are both here.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the first Sanrio Character Bento Contest. The results of the second round of the contest, which will hopefully become an annual event, have just been announced. The winner of the Gold prize (called the Golden Kyarabenist award) is this tour de force picnic lunch!

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The winner has a kyaraben blog (in Japanese of course), and she talks about her winning entry. She says she got her inspiration for this bento from the cute egg carton. (I like using egg cartons as disposable bento containers too, though mine are not even close to this level of cute). [Update:] Digging deeper into her blog, it turns out she was also the winner of the Yokohama bento contest too. She is one talented bento artist.

More after the jump...

Here is another kyaraben or character bento contest to enjoy. This one is a little different - it was sponsored by the Sotetsu Group 150 Project, an ongoing event by a railway and transportation company in Yokohama commemorating the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Yokohama. The winners of the contest were announced on April 1st.

This is the top winning entry, a truly impressive tour-de-force that depicts the landscape of the Yokohama area. I especially love the blue jelly or kanten (agar-agar) cups that represent the ocean.

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Bento filler: Green asparagus and scrambled tofu

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When I woke up this morning, it was snowing heavily! By mid-afternoon the sun was shining brightly and the snow had completely melted. Such is early spring. And speaking of early spring, it's asparagus time! The ones we are getting in the markets here now are from Spain, which is not totally local, but at least they're coming to us from on same continent.

Asparagus goes very well with eggs and egg-based sauces like hollandaise and mayonnaise, and scrambled eggs and asparagus is a classic dish. This is a vegan version, using scrambled tofu. Don't scoff at it until you've tried it - there are some ingredients in there that make it taste creamy and just slightly tangy, a perfect foil to the asparagus.

For speed purposes, use just the tips and tender stalk parts of fairly skinny spears for this.

This is also great for breakfast, piping hot with toast.

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Bento contents:

Total calories (approx): 525 (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 5 minutes in the morning for assembly

Type: Japanese, meat-free, gluten-free (see notes

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After a brief hiatus, Bento Item of the Week is back! This week the spotlight is on bento containers made of stainless steel.

Bento filler: Spring greens namul (namuru)

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Namul (or namuru as it's called in Japan) is a very versatile vegetable side dish from Korea. It's one of the key ingredients of a bibinbap but I make namul much more frequently than I make bibinbap. Various vegetables are quickly boiled or blanched, and then dressed with a simple dressing of sesame oil and salt. It's a great way to eat a lot of vegetables, since the boiling or blanching shrinks down the mass quite a lot. The compactness makes it a perfect bento side dish. It's so good for you, but tastes great!

I make namul with all kinds of vegetables, including the most commonly used one, bean sprouts. But at this time of year I like to make it with brightly colored spring greens. The toasty sesame oil dressing is a perfect foil to the bitterness of many of these greens. Here I've used three kinds of greens that are easily available to me, but do use whatever you have around where you live. I've used the dark green, mildly bitter leaves of a puntarelle or catalogna (which I used to think was cima de rapa), spinach leaves, and lamb's lettuce (also known as mâche - see more about ithere). If I were in Japan at this time of year I'd use spinach, nanohana, and maybe some komatsuna. I've listed some green vegetables that would work below.