Bento Box Lunches ~

Today I thought I would share a few of my bento box lunches with you.
Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops, train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box. (From Wikipedia)
The fun part about making a bento is that is almost like a craft or can be as elaborate as a piece of art. Many foodies or food bloggers are very crafty for the most part because of what we create when we bake or cook a great meal. We always add our own touch to it. Bento box lunches are fun to look at, fun to eat, and for me they are fun to make too.
The idea is to make it colorful, fresh, well balanced and fun to eat. It can be simple using leftovers from dinner…
Or using egg molds and rice molds to create fun shapes and characters…
Fun and colorful food pick work well to add some color where needed…
Silicone cups can be used to hold many different tidbits of food and works well to keep it separate from other foods.
Sometimes just adding some greens or edible flowers makes the final touch and worth looking at.
Cookie and vegetable cutters can add a lot of fun to any bento…here is your chance to be creative! It is such a nice way to pack a healthy fresh meal for your child, and try different things that they just might eat.
My daughter was a little older by the time I got into bento making, but I can still get away with making one that isn’t too cute.
I made some Chicken Katsu last night for dinner and I had enough left over for Maranda and my lunch today. I packed my new “tropical Bento box” it came with a cute cloth tote too. I love it. It’s glittery too. This one you can even use in the microwave if you need to. Inside the large section I have rice with furikakae, chicken katsu, kumquat and green beans. The fruit side has pineapple, grapes and a strawberry.

I packed Maranda one too. I figured I was safe with it and she wouldn’t mind eating it at school.

This is what came home, but in her defence I did pack her a chicken and cheese half sandwich too.
I made the chicken katsu a little different than usual, because I cut the chicken breasts up before frying them. I thought it would be easier. I don’t know if that was the case though.
Panko bread crumbs with flour and grated parmesan cheese.
After dipping in egg beaten with spicy mustard and garlic ginger paste. Then dredge in the panko mix. I pan fried mine in a little grape seed oil. You can store extras in individual servings in ziplock bags and freeze. Pull them out when you need it for a lunch or snack.
Thank you for joining me again at Our Krazy Kitchen and if you would like to see more bento box lunches you can check out my bento blog The Tiny Bento or my food blog The Tiny Skillet. Make sure that you have a great weekend!