Bento Archives - Page 54 of 54

Archive by category "Bento" (Page 54)

EVENT: Cheese Drawing and Cute Sandwich Tutorial at Kaimuki Public Library

If you live in the Honolulu area, I’ll be doing an event this coming Sunday at the Kaimuki Public Library from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. The demo itself will be pretty quick. I’ll show people the basics on how to cut out and make characters with cheese, then apply nori. After that, it’ll mostly be a hands-on, have-tons-of-fun session where you get to make your own! I believe the event will be in the downstairs meeting room, but I’ve never been down there, so if you’re not sure either, it’s best to head to the front desk first and ask for…

Cheesy Lion Bento

Yesterday I taught two bento classes for a company here in Honolulu, which was fun, since it had been a while since I taught a class. It’s intensely stressful when prepping for things like this because I have to plan, design, shop, cook, wash, cut, and pack every single thing I may need. It’s exhausting, but the class itself is fun, simply because people love seeing how cute bento come together. We made two bento—one for adults and one charaben—and after the last class, while my students were making their charabens, I played around with my cutters and made a lion, then picked …

"Back to School" bento for kids article in the Japan Times

About a bento article in The Japan Times, plus a wave to show I’m still here! read more

Photos from the Kyoto LOFT event

Photos of the Kyoto LOFT event! read more

Just Bento Cookbook event at Kyoto LOFT, April 22 – May 11 (2014)

A Just Bento Cookbook event in Kyoto! read more

Yum-Yum Bento Box Now Available on Kindle

I have an incredibly exciting announcement to make today. The cookbook that Maki Ogawa and I wrote all the way back in 2010 (wow! it’s been almost 3 year!!) is now available on the Kindle! I can’t even explain how exciting this is for me because I’ve always wanted people to be able to read our cookbook on their e-readers. Plus, this is a really great excuse to finally get myself a Kindle Fire! Muahahaha! Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Rice-free Chicken Karaage Bento

As you may or may not know, if you grow up in Hawaii, you end up eating rice with everything. Since I’ve lived in Hawaii for nearly 34 years, it’s tough to break the rice habit. I was able to do that in 2007, but that was like a freakish miracle. I tried to do it with this bento and replaced the rice with veggies. It helped a lot that I just didn’t have cooked rice on hand, hahaha! I cut up a chicken thigh, salted and peppered it, coated it in potato starch, then fried it in olive oil until brown. …

Rakuten Global free shipping offer, and monbento iPad giveaway

Two quick bits of news: monbento is releasing a mobile app soon, and to commemorate they are giving away an iPad and 100 bento boxes.. No purchase necessary to enter. Rakuten Global, the international part of the Japanese online shopping mall giant Rakuten, is holding a free global shipping campaign until May 17th. If you buy at least 10,000 yen worth of products from a participating merchant, up to 5,000 yen of your international shipping cost will be free (you’d pay for any extra shipping). This doesn’t just apply to bento box sellers of course so if you are a figure collector or…

Oyako Donburi Bento and Weight Progress

Last month I made this oyako donburi bento but apparently forgot to do a post about it. I am still hoping that one day my family will get over their Mr. Pikko-instilled fear of green onions and let me cook it into the food. My donburi looks so drab without anything to contrast the yellow and brown. I’ve really been slacking off with the food diary thing. It’s such a pain… but still, I’m still exercising at least 3 times a week and as of today am down 4.1 pounds for the year! Bentos have faded away again, but hopefully I can get myself back into it now that the kids are miraculously getting to school early almost every day on…

Ham & Cauliflower Bento

Last week, I was at a loss for what to pack for lunch, so improvising something Maki made in one of her bentos in Yum-Yum Bento Box, I fried cauliflower and ham and packed it with leftover roasted roots, rice, and a soft boiled egg. It turned out pretty yummy, with the ham providing a nice salty sweet coating for the cauliflower. The roasted veggies are leftovers. I had bought a pre-cut pack of butternut squash and roasted some of it with baby carrot. The baby carrots were disappointingly half cooked, but the squash was yummy. Here’s a closer look. I didn’t really want a soft boiled …

Korean BBQ Chicken Bento

As I mentioned on Saturday, I had my cheat meal last Wednesday when we took the kids out to eat at Kim Chee 2. I left one piece of chicken for my lunch and swooped up all the kim chee and bean sprouts from the table to give myself a nicely rounded out bento with meat, starch, and veggies. I packed this in one of my favorite bento boxes. I think I got this one from J-List, but a quick check shows that it’s not in stock at the moment. I love the odd shape with the cut off circle and the smaller compartment has a half moon section divided into two, which made it perfect for carrying the kim chee. To …

Shiso Onigiri Bento

Ugh, I’m so behind on blogging my bentos already! I made this one for Wednesday, going lighter without meat, but still bringing in calories with three onigiri. Using shiso furikake for onigiri is still my current favorite way to make onigiri because I love the taste of ume and the purple is so pretty. I put little cut flowers of fish sausage on top of each and then added in fresh veggies and a cut up kiwi. To cut the kiwi like that I just cut all the sides off and then quartered it. I thought it looked pretty with all the cut shapes! Here’s a closer look so you can see the onigiri. The flakes moisten up in …

Hearty Valentine’s Day Sandwiches Bento with FunBites

Mr. Pikko gave me a bread machine for Christmas and I’ve been puttering away trying to find my favorite recipes for breads we enjoy. We usually eat Honey Oat bread all the time and so I baked one of those and it turned out yum, but definitely not quite as moist and soft as we’re used to. Plus, we’re still getting used to the fact that home baked bread has to be eaten fast or it becomes really dried out, even with a bread box. Since I got a set of FunBites (available on Amazon) to review for Valentine’s Day, I had to make bread. Last night, I decided to try out a white bread recipe on Rapid…

Easter Bento Demo Tomorrow at Celebrations

Tomorrow I will be at the Celebrations store in Mapunapuna (next to Ben Franklin) to do an Easter bento demonstration. I will be demonstrating 4 bentos and signing copies of Yum-Yum Bento Box afterwards. I will do two sets of demos at 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM. Hope to see you there! Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

A beautiful Mother’s Day bento

My mother sent me photos of a gorgeous Mother’s Day bento my stepfather got for her (and for himself too of course!) yesterday. It’s from Hikagejaya, a restaurant in Hayama, a town near Kamakura in Kanagawa prefecture (where Yokohama, where my mom lives, is too). I’ve written about Hikagejaya previously; it’s one of my favorite restaurants in Japan, and their bentos are just wonderful. read more

Pot Roast Leftovers Bento

Yikes, talk about being behind only in January. This bento is actually from January 11th! Anyway, it’s leftover pot roast. Not your most traditional bento fodder, but still a moneysaver since it uses leftovers. I used my Zojirushi Mini Bento and actually filled it up too high. When I put the cover on it started hissing at me and food started bubbling out. Instead of removing food, I just wrapped it up in furoshiki to keep it on, but it didn’t keep the food warm because of the opening. In the side dish I put raw veggies for me to eat with dressing at work. I’ve posted my weekly record for last week on Pikko’s House and I…

Whole Wheat Spaghetti Bento

Gah, I’m already falling behind on posting! This was my Tuesday bento. We had spaghetti for dinner on Monday night and although my family has eyeball allergies when it comes to whole wheat pasta, there’s nothing stopping me from boiling some up for myself the next day, so that’s what I did. I can’t honestly sit here and type that whole wheat pasta tastes amazing because it’s just… not, really. Hahaha! It seems to take forever to cook and you can of course taste the graininess in the noodle when eating. Even so, it’s not like it’s bad. As far as bentos go, this one is obviously very blah, but it filled me up…

Category: Bento