I often find that I just can't be bothered to take out a pan to make dashi for a single, small bowl of something that only I'll be eating. So, I've been pondering some alternatives. With a large water dispenser which produces water hot enough to leave quite a painful burning sensation and red mark throughout the day and night and a microwave and rice cooker (with one of those switches without any actual settings) at my disposal, I feel there must be some way to make small portions of dashi without the stove.

My sister is traveling and has no stove or hot plate, so a microwave is her main way of cooking. She bought a microwave rice cooker similar to this one http://www.amazon.com/Maxi-Aids-Microwave-Rice-Cooker/dp/B00011R41Q?tag=dogpile-20 that was also advertised as making pasta, but her husband threw away all the packaging and instructions. I need any instructions for cooking rice and pasta in a microwave rice cooker. Please help. Thank you.

Whenever I see a bento box I like, it recommends that you not use it in the microwave. I have some laptop lunchboxes, which can be microwaved, but was wondering if anyone else had ideas for more traditional boxes that could be microwaved. Thanks. :)

hi everyone, i'm new here and i'm just getting started in making bento boxes for myself. i'm looking for a faster way to make the rice for my lunches so i looked into the microwaveable rice cooker that i found online. does anyone have ones of these? do theses work good? http://www.jbox.com/PRODUCT/NYH180 this is the one i'm interested in (: