Vacation and ReVamp!

Hello bento lovers! We are on vacation for the next two weeks and also revamping our photo editing software, as we had problems with the old program. Please feel free to browse our posts from the last two months, using the links over on the right. We'll be back mid-May with all new, creative bentos!

Thanks for reading!

Broccoli Biscuit Muffins - Easy Make Ahead Bento Box Lunch

If you have tried bento-ing at all, you know by now that prepping is the key to making things fast and easy. But how can you make the prep part fast and easy, too? One awesome way that I've discovered is the biscuit muffin. Just grab a can of those refrigerated biscuits, prep what you'd like to eat with them (broccoli, ham, cheese, asparagus, cauliflower, whatever), and put it all into a muffin tin. Bake according to the directions on the package, and voila!

The first time I made it, I used the whole biscuit in each muffin tin, and they came out kind of doughy. Not raw dough, but too much dough, not enough filling. This time, I tore each biscuit in half horizontally (along one of the flakes) and used only half the biscuit per muffin tin. They came out much better:

These were broccoli and fresh mozzarella balls (in retrospect, I think I should have used shredded swiss because fresh mozzarella doesn't melt as well as I would have liked). Right out of the oven, they're amazing. Cold, they're decent, but they would be better warmed at least a touch, if you use cheese.

Regardless, they are quick and easy to make, and they work well for bento lunches:

For this lunch, we are broccoli heavy - leftover broccoli and bell peppers, with ranch and hummus (in the chick and piggy), and blackberries. If you want to add more protein, a boiled egg or some nuts would be great, or some peanut butter and celery. Easy, quick and simple bento!

Friday Review and Butterfly Bento Box Lunch

I bought a set of Progressive Cookie Cutters that also include an additional stencil/cut out piece - perfect for bento! Today was my first day trying one out, so I thought I'd combine my initial review of this product with the bento post. 

Below, our bento box lunch: butterfly prosciutto and cheese sandwich, veggies and ranch, and mango flowers. The butterfly wings and body are cut from cheese, using the stencil portion of the cutter (featured later in this post). Except the body...that was hard to cut out so I just did an easy rectangle. The flowers were cut using my favorite flower stainless steel cutter, which I have totally gotten my money's worth from!

The veggies are Persian cucumbers, orange bell pepper, and broccoli. 

To make this bento, I used my new butterfly cookie/sandwich cutter. It is fairly large, about 4 inches across.

It comes apart into two pieces. There are 12 cookie cutters included with the Progressive set and they all have two pieces - the cutter and the stencil. They are relatively sturdy plastic and easily cleaned, although if you use them on cheese, the stencil part has some small sections where things can get stuck. You can usually poke them out with something narrow like a chopstick or skewer.

The stencil does not really work well with the cutter for impressions (like a sandwich press), like I was hoping. The stencil part comes really close to the edge of the cutter, so they're ideal for decorating cookies with sprinkles or frosting, but not not so great for stamping. That's ok. They're good for cutting cheese and using that to decorate. Or, you could simply use a square sandwich (which would waste less bread) and impress the stencil on it. 

The cutter is deep, as displayed here against a normal piece of sliced bread. Sorry about the pic being a little off focus, I took it with my phone:

You could totally make a sandwich and then cut it, but I find it easier to cut the bread and the individual things that go inside, and then stack them. 

The set comes with a bear, bunny, circle, heart, pumpkin, duck, clover, Christmas tree, gingerbread man, star, butterfly and flower. It's most definitely worth the $12.95 Amazon is charging!

Lion on the Savannah Bento Lunch Box

I saw a cute lion on Pinterest the other day. It was made with a flower shaped cutter for the mane and a circle cutter for the face. How easy is that? I love browsing online; it's a constant source of inspiration and also reminds me to think outside the box!

For my lion, I used my tiny flower sandwich cutter for his mane (out of Colby Jack cheese). His face was made with a circle fondant cutter (out of provolone). I also added a body with my oval fondant cutter and then just used a knife to make little legs. I wanted them to be larger on one end than the other, so they'd be more like paws.  

I cut out a tail, and for the little puff on the end of his tail, I ripped the cheese with my fingers. It naturally tore that way, with the perfect little "fur" edging.

His face was made with Chinese oyster sauce (although you could totally use BBQ sauce, teriyaki sauce, or anything dark) and a toothpick.

The sandwich is prosciutto and provolone. Yum!
















On the right, I made a sun out of a mango, using my largest circle cutter and then a knife to cut the triangles around the sun. You could probably just throw in a circle though, and call it a sun. I guess I had extra time this morning to work on details. :) 

Below that we have celery "grass" and a totally-out-of-place panda with peanut butter. Oh well!

Quick as a Bunny! Bento Lunch

Today's bento is full of bunnies and bunny burrows. I had to make something fast, so I just cut half a green apple for a shrub/bush, piled in some Annie's Honey Graham Bunnies, cut out two colby jack cheese bunnies, and made a peanut butter and jelly "rabbit hole" using my circle fondant cutter. I squeezed some orange juice on the cut side of the apple to keep it from getting brown. Add some silicone grass and leaves and we're done!

Caterpillar Bento Box Lunch

I've been thinking about doing a caterpillar for awhile; I love the way cucumbers look when they're cut and layered, and I figured a caterpillar would be perfect and easy! I will say I am desperate for my new kitchen tweezers to arrive; it is so hard to position little nori pieces and to make faces without something small to help you! Today I used cucumber pieces to make the antenna and mouth of the caterpillar, and black sesame seeds for the eyes. I think he came out pretty cute!

Here's our caterpillar with the whole bento box:

In the panda we have ranch dressing for all those crisp, fresh veggies; an orange half from our friend's orange tree, and on the right, Japanese potato salad, and Korean melon with blackberries. Japanese potato salad is traditionally mashed, with mayo and little pieces of carrot and cucumber (I remove all the seeds). Sometimes it has a little bit of sugar or seasoning in it, but I just added a teaspoon of Mirin (Japanese seasoning) instead.  

Close up of the potato salad and blackberries:

The red bell pepper "star flower" was an afterthought; the box just needed a little something extra for color. My triangles aren't all even but it still came out pretty cute!

Late Friday Review: Bento Websites

I use Pinterest to keep track of things I find interesting, but I also browse a few different websites/blogs of bento professionals and experts, who have been doing this much longer than me. Two of these bento blogs offer a lot of information on prepping and how to create variety, and they are Just Bento and Organized Bites. 

The author of Just Bento has a cookbook out! She is Japanese and showcases a lot of Japanese type bentos, which I hope to do more of in the future. She only makes the occasional charaben (cute character lunch), which I am all about, but I use her website mostly for things like linking to good resources, supplies, etc.

This website is a good starting off point to introduce the novice to the world of bento, and how to maintain portion control, use bento to lose weight, and incorporate bento into your daily life. This link goes to her "Bento Basics" page. 

She also has a link called "The Guy Does Bento" in which her significant other makes bentos! Now if I can inspire Mike to follow suit...


Organized Bites is a vegetarian and vegan bento blog. The mom uses a lot of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods products, and her child eats better than most people! I love how beautiful her lunches are. She also is not totally into charaben, and her bentos are super Americanized, but I really appreciate how healthy they are. Plus she is totally into the environment and conserving resources, etc.

I use the Organized Bites website to remind me of things I may have forgotten, like heirloom carrots in the above lunch (see the cute flowers with hot pink/purple edges?). Or using green beans, which would be delicious in salads or to dip into hummus, etc. Her child eats a much better variety of vegetables than my Mike would, but I can always hope.

There is a whole world of bento inspiration out there, so start with these websites and get browsing! :)

Under The Sea Bento Box Lunch with a Crab Sandwich and Seastars/Starfish

Mike and I are vacationing soon and are excited to see all things ocean-y. Following that theme, I decided to make him a crab sandwich today, with sea star accompaniments. Our crab sandwich is on one of Yamasaki's (local Japanese bakery) delicious butter rolls, with ham and cheese (no actual crab). His legs and claws are made of carrot, and his eyes are provolone cheese with carrot centers. 

I have to mention that we've been getting ham from the charcuterie counter at Whole Foods, and they make it in-house. It is absolutely delicious and the pigs are ethically raised on an organic diet, which is important to us. It was only a couple dollars more per pound than the local grocery store deli, and totally worth it!

As an accompaniment to the sandwich, I have Korean melon that I cubed, topped with blackberries and a piece of starfruit. Korean melon has a yellow, striped outside, is about the size of a large coffee mug, and smells delicious. Tastes sort of like a crunchy cantaloupe. I linked a good description and pics above if you'd like more information. Starfruit is something I get to eat all the time when I travel to Hawaii or Hong Kong, but not so much here in the States. I bought some at the local market, but I wasn't impressed with the flavor. Still, it looks beautiful in a bento!

Finally, a bird's eye view of the whole bento put together. The extra treats on the side are "jujubee" star candies from Whole Foods.

Poison Dart Frog Bento Box Lunch

Mike and I love frogs, so I thought I'd try to make a froggie bento today. I was going to try and make one from an apple, but I googled yellow dart frogs, and they were so adorable! I ended up using a yellow bell pepper. Grape fruit roll ups are the patterns on his skin; I cut them with scissors. I smushed some fruit roll up scraps for his eyes. He's sitting on top of some egg salad (hidden) and my ever so useful silicone leaves and grass. On the side, we have broccoli and hummus (in the little pig) and blackberries. 

Here's a pic of a real poison dart frog. What do you think?

Close up of my froggie: 

Field of Flowers Bento Box Salad

Mike didn't need a lunch today, so I made one for myself. Below is an example of a super quick bento, using only one tool and a knife. The salad is romaine lettuce and cilantro, with mozzarella and bell pepper flowers, and a few black olives. Very simple. Dressing is in the bottle to the right. In retrospect I should have added some nuts for additional protein, but I've got pita chips and Greek yogurt at work, so it should be a filling lunch.

Stay tuned for Friday's review and bento, I've got a super cute one planned for tomorrow!

Back to Basics - Simple Egg Salad Bento Box Lunch

After Monday's and Tuesday's crazy bentos, it was time to tone it back down and get back to 10-minute bento making! To be honest, this morning's bento took me more like 20 minutes because I had to make the egg salad, but if I had prepped it the night before, this would have totally been a 10-minute bento.

Although it's super fun to make bentos all creative and cute, the real point is to have a healthy, portion controlled, colorful and visually stimulating meal. I kept that in mind with today's lunch. Although all the components are simple, we have lots of color and a good balance of protein, fiber, and fruits/veggies. 

On the left there's egg salad sandwiches with lettuce. On the right, we have celery sticks with peanut butter in my favorite panda container, blackberries, and sunflower seeds. I added fruit roll up flower garnishes to brighten up the box a bit.

As a side note, I would like to say to whoever invented fruit roll ups - thank you! They are the perfect color splash to bento lunches. Tip: be sure to dry off your veggies or whatever you put fruit roll up flowers/stars/etc on, because if they are wet, they get all goopy. Ick.

And just a final close up pic of the blackberries, which are coming in season here, and look just delicious!

REVIEW: Both Mike and I agreed that the blackberries have been delicious!! Just another reason why it's so important to eat fruit in season and local, if possible. It just plain tastes better. 

Tropic and Arctic (Bipolar) Bento Box Lunch

I had all the supplies to make penguins today, but I also had strawberries that I wanted to turn into alligators, so I just went with it and made them both! Alligators are tropical and penguins are from the frigid climes of Antarctica, but hey, in a bento they can peacefully coexist. 

My alligators are simple - I just cut strawberries on their sides with little teeth, used pieces of chocolate for their eyes, and put them into a "pool" of greek yogurt.

Close up:

My penguins are made from black olives and mini mozzarella balls, with carrot beaks and feet. I used a piece of pasta to spear them together. Very simple, took me only a few minutes! They are chilling next to a peanut butter and apple jam "iceberg." These would be so cute for a party appetizer. I got the idea from our Pinterest page.

Camping Bento Box...Campfires, Tents and Bears, oh my!

One of our favorite activities in camping, and so when I saw a camping bento online (click here to see it our Pinterest page), it totally inspired me to make my own! 

I used red, orange, and yellow bell peppers to make the flames, celery for the logs, and black olives for the fire circle. Carrot shreds are the heat and embers coming off the fire. Sorry about the crappy picture today, it's gloomy and raining in Southern California, so I had no natural light.

On the right we have "Berry Mountain," complete with little bear friend! 

And a peanut butter and apple jam tent. I used fruit roll ups for the tent outline and opening. 

The full camping bento!

Friday Review: Dip, Dressing and Sauce Containers - Panda, Pig and Chick

I just bought these items about 2 weeks ago, but they have fast become my new favorite bento accessory! Next to the silicone ware and animal picks, they are just about the most useful thing for putting together cute, yummy lunches. 

Panda, Pig and Chicken Dip and Sauce Containers - perfect for holding hummus, peanut butter, ranch, etc!

For those of you that have children who may not carry their lunch boxes all carefully into the classroom, these little guys will be invaluable. The lids are easy to put on and take off, and they keep all liquids and runny dressings secure until lunchtime. No more dressing all over the sandwich! They may look tiny, but they hold plenty enough. We've been testing them out for a week and whether it's hummus, ranch, peanut butter or just salt and pepper (for hard boiled eggs or whatever), it's just the right amount.

The containers open like Easter eggs and have enough space in them for condiments.

I bought these at the Tokyo Japanese Outlet here in Los Angeles, and they were about $5.00 for the set of 3. Totally worth it!

Facebook and Pinterest!

In case you have other social media outlets and want to check us out, we just launched our new Facebook page!

You can also follow us on Pinterest, where we also pin other awesome bentos and food art for inspiration. 

Both these sites are easily accessible up top in our tabs.

Thanks for checking us out!

Heart Sandwich Bento Box - Who Doesn't Love BBQ Pulled Pork?

We made BBQ pulled pork in the slow cooker this week, and before any Southerners jump all over me, we know it's not true smoked BBQ, it's just BBQ sauce that's on it. :) But it was delicious and the leftovers make a really good sandwich. Today's bento has those leftovers in between two slices of wheat-oat bread, which does not cut very easily. You'll find that those cute bento sandwich presses and cutters work best with crappy low-fiber, totally processed white bread, unfortunately. While that's ok once in a long while, Mike and I prefer healthier, heartier whole grain breads, and therefore have to settle with slightly-shoddily-cut sandwiches.

Heart Shaped Pulled Pork Sandwich Bento Box with Veggies, Ranch Dip and Fruit Salad

Here's a bird's eye view of the bento and how everything is laid out. 

Around the sandwich I placed a few potato chips for crunch. Below that, we have veggies (red bell peppers, celery and carrots) with ranch dip (hiding in the cute panda), and a mini fruit salad - watermelon stars, kiwis and pineapple, which all go really well with BBQ!

I've been using my silicone grass and leaves a lot lately because they add a nice color aesthetic, and they're reusable. Some bento-ers will tuck lettuce leaves around each section, which is gorgeous, but wasteful for our purposes, since Mike won't eat the garnish. 

In the end, I also decided to just put the potato chips back into the bag and attach it to the bento by squishing it in between the lid and the box. This effectively keeps them from getting stale or spilling out, and now Mike won't forget them!

And a final pic of our super adorable panda container. I just love this bento accessory! This product came with a little piggy and a chick as well. Haven't had a chance to use the chick because it's so small, but the piggy and panda get used very frequently.

Super Cute Panda Bento Accessory!

Garden Party Bento - Butterflies and Flowers!

Mike's a dude, but I can't help making the bentos pretty (and sometimes a little feminine). Who are we kidding? I'm sort of making these for myself. :) Today's bento is no exception. I was cutting up the pineapple and thinking, these look like butterfly wings! So it became a butterfly and the rest of the bento just built itself around that.

On the left, we have a butterfly with pineapple wings and a kiwi body. Below that we have watermelon flowers, accented with my favorite reusable silicone leaves and a little pineapple center (I used my tiniest circle cutter). On the right, we've got a turkey sandwich on wheat-oat bread, decorated with a little fruit roll up flower. There's organic hummus in the little panda and celery and carrots on the side. I just love the panda/pig/chick set I got, it's so useful and they are adorable!

Pineapple Butterfly with Kiwi body, Watermelon Flowers, Turkey Sandwich with Fruit Roll Up Flower

Close up of the watermelon flowers:

Watermelon Flowers made with Bento Flower Sandwich Cutter and Stainless Steel Vegetable Cutters

Super Fast 10-minute Bento (with fruit, nuts, and bunny gummies)

Some days it's just hell to get out of bed, and today was one of those days. So I used the old bento fall back trick - stuff it full of colorful silicone cups and animal picks. And again, I stress it every time...prep, prep, prep! And also store things in your pantry or freezer that you can just toss in, like nuts, snacks, muffins, etc. It will really save your morning. 

Today I had about 10 minutes. I made a quick ham, cheese and mustard roll up on a tortilla (side note: the cheese was used previously for decorations and had lots of holes and punch outs from cutters, but in a roll up or sandwich, no one notices!); I cut two pieces to put all pretty on the side and stuck animal picks in the other two pieces. Dumped in my pre-prepped fruit stars and flowers, some bunny gummies from Whole Foods, sunflower seeds from Trader Joe's, and cut up a kiwi. Presto! 10 minute bento.

Top/bird's eye view:

Ham & Cheese Roll Ups on a Flour Tortilla, Mango & Watermelon Flowers and Whole Foods Bunny Gummy Candies

REVIEW: This was a favorite! Mike ate everything (and I had thought there was too much food). It helps that fruit is in season and delicious right now.

Owl Sandwich Bento Box Snackwith a Stars and Flowers Fruit Salad

Mike only needed a snack today, so I made him a peanut butter and jelly owl friend to take to work. I cut two large eyes out of wheat/oat bread, using a circle cutter, and from the scraps, cut a triangle using a knife. Then I placed them on a piece of bread and used them to determine how to cut the owl face; I just sliced a little off the sides and made little pointy ears. 

Then I slapped on peanut butter, used jelly to affix the eyes and beak, and grabbed two of my fruit roll up circles for his eye balls (I have tons of circles and ovals pre-cut and ready to go). Presto! PB&J owl.

Owl Bento Sandwich made with Peanut Butter and Jelly and Fruit Roll Up Eyes on Wheat Bread

Watermelon Star with Pear and Mango Flower Fruit Salad

I had cut up all the fruit this weekend so it just a matter of arranging it all pretty in the box. A giant watermelon star, with mango and Bartlett pear flowers. Here in Southern California we are on our way into summer already, so there will be lots more fruit available for the bentos! 

Tip: I cut the pears last night and kept them this nice, bright white by tossing them into pineapple juice (pure juice, no added sugar!). I let them soak for a few minutes, then took them out and put them into a glass tupperware. You can use any acidic juice such as lemon or lime, but I like pineapple best. I keep a couple cans of it in the pantry for this purpose. It works great on apples and bananas, too!

REVIEW: Everything got eaten, but the pears were difficult to pick up with animal picks (not pictured). They were a little too ripe. I might try making flowers with apples in the future, since those are much firmer.

Friday Review - Flower Egg or Pancake Shaper!

Mike is sick today, so no bento. Instead, I made a "flower egg" for breakfast and took pictures so you can see how this product works! I'm apologizing in advance if the pictures seem poor; I couldn't really spruce them up since our laptop decided to go to laptop heaven. Hopefully we'll have a new one by the end of this weekend.

Today's review is on these silicone egg or pancake shapers. They come in lots of different shapes but we have a car and a flower. Silicone can handle heat up to 500 degrees and is easily washable, durable, and flexible. So these tend to be a little more forgiving then the metal shapers, especially if your pan isn't perfectly flat or is non-stick and you don't want to accidentally scrape it.

The little straight part coming off the side is the "handle," but luckily silicone doesn't really get too hot, so you can touch it even in the pan. This is another advantage of silicone over metal.

So the first and most important step is to oil your silicone shaper! I forgot to do this. Whoops. You'll see that you can still make a good shaped egg, it's just a little more delicate...anyways, oil your shaper lightly and then heat up your pan a little.

Put your shaper into the pan and crack an egg into it.

The silicone egg shapers are made for medium sized eggs - but most American eggs are large or jumbo! The sides aren't very high and a big egg will spill over. You can crack your eggs into a measuring cup and then just pour what you need into the shaper. I used our backyard chicken eggs, which are small  and very firm, so I actually had to help this guy spread out a bit.

I like to flip my eggs, so I waited a bit and then flipped the whole thing over. After about 30 seconds or so, I turned off the heat and peeled off the silicone shaper, very carefully.

If you oiled yours, this part will be a lot easier and it should just lift off!

And then I peeled off the silicone edge, very carefully. If you oiled yours, this part will be a lot easier and it should just lift off!

This is when I flipped it back again. Then I plated it and ate it. Yum!

I imagine if you want to make pancakes, you can follow the same instructions, but using pancake batter. Don't forget that pancake batter puffs a little, so don't pour too much! 

Elephants Everywhere! Flatbread Elephant Bento Lunch

I used my super handy elephant cutter set to make elephants out of flatbread. You may remember my other handy bunny cutter, which I used to make SJP's salad. I made three elephants in a vegetable enclosure, with hummus on the side for dipping. Kiwis and turkey/swiss roll ups round out this meal.

Three Little Flatbread Elephants with Turkey and Cheese Roll Ups, Hummus, Broccoli, Carrots, Cucumbers and Kiwi.

the elephant is four pieces put together to make a 3D animal

Here's a couple more close-up pics of the elephants. They came out so cute! Mike pointed out that the texture and appearance of the flat bread would be so perfect for a cow. If only they made a cow cutter set!

Close Up of Flatbread Elephant

You could also make these elephants out of vegetables; I had made the bunny out of carrots. But sometimes it's hard to find a veggie that's big enough for the body of the animal. I think I might try watermelon this summer, that would be pretty cute!

REVIEW: Everything got eaten except the cucumbers and the broccoli. Mike hates both so I wasn't surprised, but I am going to find a way to make broccoli so cute, he eats it! I did discover, through this bento, that he will eat cucumbers in sandwich form. So if your kid or favorite someone is a picky eater, keep trying it in different forms - you'll eventually find a way (and if all else fails, bake it into bread)!

Kiwi and Strawberry Peacock Bento

Some people make their bentos around a character or idea that they have, and they build it. I do the opposite. I look at a piece of food and think, "what does this look like?" or, "what can it be?" Today, the kiwis (especially since our "old vine" kiwis grow weird) and strawberries looked like a peacock to me, so that's what we went with. Do you see it? 

On the bottom we have an onion bagel with Cuban style fillings - ham, pickles, mayo, mustard, and lettuce, flanked by potato chips. I cut the middle of the bagel out to lessen the carb load. This way the top and bottom are a little thinner and the whole sandwich fits into the bento box. 

REVIEW: Mike ate the whole sandwich and chips, and the strawberries. He left ALL the kiwi. Partly this was because there was a lot of food, but also because I made the kiwi peacock the night before. If your kiwi is already ripe, prepping it the night before will just make it juicier (not a good thing). It sort of stuck to the bottom of the container. Kiwis are like avocados - there's a very small window where they are still firm, but perfectly ripe, and you've got to eat them right at that moment.