March 2013

All the content on this site by month.

Cubed Tofu and Broccoli with Miso and Kochujang (gochujang)

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Not the best looking dish, but a very assertively tasty tofu dish that is great for bentos, whether you're a vegan/vegetarian or not.

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Time: 
Time required: 10-20 minutes

Bento staple: All-purpose winter vegetable mix for rice and more

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This is a very versatile vegetable-only or vegetable and chicken mix that can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week, or for a month in the freezer. As long as you use a vegetarian/vegan protein it will be vegan/vegetarian, but if you are an omnivore you can use chicken. Let me give you the recipe first, and then show you a couple of ways to use it.

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Classic cold-weather mixed vegetable rice bento

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A classic Japanese style bento using winter vegetables (since it's still pretty cold here) made by my mom from bento stash ingredients.

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Smoked salmon chirashizushi plus sushi rice how-to on JustHungry

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Learn how to make sushi rice, plus tips for sushi as bento.

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Takara Tomy Arts Smart-Han: The most compact bento box ever...??

A review, of sorts, of a very compact rice carrier called the Smart-Han.

(Warning: Nothing at all here that's not safe for work, but if you are the type of person that's easily offended, please skip this post. Thank you. ^_^)

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Bento 101 (Getting Into the Bento Making Habit) Part 5: Keeping it going

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Welcome to the last lesson of Bento 101: Getting Into The Bento Habit. In this lesson we'll talk about the best reasons to get into the bento making lifestyle, and some tips for keeping it going.

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Bento Lunches for Grownups feature on Redbook

redbookfeature.jpg I'm very happy that JustBento is featured on the website of Redbook Magazine, in a slideshow titled Bento Lunches for Grownups. It has 9 bentos from this site (maybe you'll recognize a couple) that are all very easy to put together. It was a real pleasure to work with Ava on this, and I hope it will introduce even more people to the world of bento. (For those of you not in the U.S., Redbook is a major women's magazine, aimed primarily at American working women with families. Wikipedia on Redbook.) If you found us via Redbook, welcome! You'll find a lot of information here, from the very basics on up. We're just concluding a Bento for Beginners online course called Bento 101: Getting Into The Bento Habit (start here, and follow the links at the bottom) which may be helpful if you're curious about how it all works. I'd also like to belatedly say hi to everyone who came over from LifeHacker. Hi guys! Bento really is a pretty good life hack. ^_^
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Updates: Japanese Cooking 101, and where's your stash?

To those of you who follow JustBento but don't follow JustHungry: the first lesson in the Japanese Cooking 101 course has been posted. If you're interested in cooking traditional Japanese style bentos, you will find the course to be a good foundation to that. Join us!

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Bento 101 (Getting into the Bento Making Habit) Part 4:The Power Of the Bento Stash

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Welcome to Part 4 (which is actually the 5th lesson) of Bento 101! If you have been following along on schedule, by now you should have packed a bento and brought it along to work or school. How was the experience for you? Was it too much work or doable? Did you run into any problems during transit (such as your box leaking) or during lunch (such as your co-workers trying to steal your lunch or making comments)? Above all, is it something you see yourself doing regularly? If the answer to the last question is yes, then you're well on your way to becoming a bento convert.

The theme of this lesson is about something that will enhance your bentos in many ways...

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Flash giveaway! Tell me your favorite recipe(s) from JustBento

Help me know what you like and enter for a drawing to win a copy of The Just Bento Cookbook!

(Comments are now closed. Thank you for all of your terrific responses! The winner of the giveaway will be announced next week. )

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