cutie_bento

Behold the Tiki Terror!

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:34:49 GMT

I revamped my journal layout & userpics to try and encourage myself to post more! I'm also thinking of posting normal Blog stuff as well as just bento stuff- I have the bentolunch community where I post my bento pics, and as such I hardly ever post here anymore. Hmm.

Hina Matsuri

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 09:11:46 GMT

The doll's festival was on Saturday. Mothers and daughters set up dolls in dioramas with sweets. You should have seen the amazing cakes on sale! I got this pop-up box of chocolates!

Diet bento

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:59:54 GMT

New year, new resolutions, new diet!
Strawberries with sweet milk powder, homemade wholemeal bread, salad.

I got this box yesterday, it's something like 460ml and should be good for low fat lunches.

I've also started back at swimming, I hadn't realised how much I missed it. I stopped going during late summer, when it was mega busy - so busy you couldn't even swim a length. When it's busy here they make everyone get out of the pool once an hour, for a 15 minute 'rest', mainly to make sure there are no dead bodies floating that they have missed. A situation that could easily be solved by limiting the number of people who can enter the pool, or giving everyone different coloured bands and an allocated slot like they do at home. But that would be far too sensible.

It would also be nice if they could get a flitration system for the pool, instead of closing it one day a week so they can drain and refill it, and having to swim in amongst bits of peoples dead skin!!!!

Anyway, enough ranting.

What is Mei-chan doing?

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:01:45 GMT

She's in an underwater world! Goldfish refuse to pose!

It's difficult to take decent pics of fishtanks! Again, fish not posing.

I had the afternoon off of work today, and after running a few errands I decided to refit the fishtank with the totoro models that the bear bought for me. It looks better in real life than in the pics!

One fish, two fish...

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:10:26 GMT

Red fish, blue fish!

	My new bento!
	Inside! Nashi (Japanese pear) and a hello kitty cheese, mini mango pudding & spoon, nikuman (steamed meat dumpling) and cherry tomato/gouda cocktail skewers.
	Square watermelon! Just for fun :)

Back to bento-ing!

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 09:36:26 GMT

	Simple bento Rice with tamago furikake, a chicken drumstick, chips, parsley, banana chips and dried fruit.
	Cherries are in season! Japanese cherries (paler than American ones), chicken salad tortilla wraps, seafood stick, and tamagoyaki with ham in it. I bought it premade, can't say that I like the ham added to it.
	A mess of seasons! Instant ramen with leftover tempura kabocha. Autumn cake and summer cherries!
	Momiji cake These are a speciality of Hiroshima, but you can buy them everywhere. The cake is filled with sweet red bean paste, they are delish!

New bento book!

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 10:33:09 GMT

I haven't been posting many bentos lately as they have all been a bit dull! Hopefully this new book will give me some inspiration. It's blatantly aimed at mothers of elementary school children, but I never claimed to be a grown up!

New Bento Book! A little car made from a bread roll, too cute!	Instructions This page shows how to construct various packaging (including an onigiri packet) from an old milk carton!

Lots of bento!

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:36:15 GMT


Miffy Monday Left: two steamed gyoza, orange slices, panda filled with gyoza sauce, seafood sticks. Right: pasta with sauce & cheese.	Dinner from the same bento makings! On a Lilo & stitch kids plate (><)^

Last Firday's udon curry bento. Made with vermont curry, mmm. I love curry udon! I love curry anything!	Miffy box lid

The bento of the beast!

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 11:26:20 GMT

Bento made on 666!
The bento of the beast! I wish I had thought of that theme earlier, instead of going with Italian! Left: pasta with 3 bean & mushroom sauce Right: potato salad with mustard & cumin, tomato & vegeta ble bread.

Wed, 31 May 2006 11:47:31 GMT

Rushed Bento
Mini homemade (and a little burnt!) Frankfurt pies, vits & calcium, macaroni, veg. Not pictured: green tea kitkat.

Wed, 31 May 2006 11:43:56 GMT

Ramune This is a Japanese favourite. A fizzy lemon drink (tastes a bit like a cross between Mitsuya Cider and soda water).	Inside the bottle. The glass bottle uses a marble as a stopper, rather than a screwtop lid.

Bento from Friday.

Sat, 27 May 2006 09:10:14 GMT

	Vegetables and sweet potato cakes left: Boiled vegetables with carrot flowers. right: a potato sunfish and parrot, 2 sweet potato cakes and vits & calcium. With a banana.
	The outside. I included a green tea teabag and a melon flavoured panda chocolate lollipop!

I have been lax this week, and only just getting round to uploading my weekday bento pics.

I only went to buy washing powder...

Sat, 27 May 2006 09:02:25 GMT

Cute sauce bottles!
4 little bottles and a pipette for filling them!

....and I ended up buying bento stuff !

Monday May 22nd

Wed, 24 May 2006 11:46:01 GMT

	Ichi-ni-san-shi Sports day begins with rajio taiso.
	Special sports day bento This obento cost 1,050 yen.
	Inside the bento On the right are two sushi rolls and above them are sushi rice with raw fish separated with bamboo leaves, I can't remember the name for this type of sushi though! Next to those are two more sushi wrapped in leaves so you can pick them up and eat them. On the left is shredded daikon, fish, chicken nugget, lemon, shrimp, pumpkin, carrot, konbu, aubergine and a meatball. I couldn't finish all of this bento! Too much food!
	Some of my students eating lunch in the shade.

Pre made for Wednesday.

Wed, 17 May 2006 11:37:37 GMT

Bento for Thurs 18/5/06 Hamutaro: Sliced grapes and tangerine, Blue: Banana chips, octopus cut sausage, cucumber. Seafood sticks & cucumber, macaroni cheese with onion and tomato.
packed to go!

Wed, 17 May 2006 11:29:51 GMT

	Tuesday 16/5 On the left- grapes and sliced orange. On the right- mini pizza made from 1/2 muffin, edamame, octo-sausage. Pork strips and cucumber, pig w/soy sauce.
	boxes

I don't like Mondays...

Mon, 15 May 2006 13:19:58 GMT

	Monday's lunch LEFT: Mini brown roll with half a hotdog, surrounded with cucumber slices. RIGHT: Octo-dog, steamed edamame, cherry tomatoes & seafood sticks.
	All wrapped up!
	banana & avocado smoothie I also made this tasty smoothie with an overripe avocado, 2 bananas and some gum syrup.

The height of laziness...

Sun, 14 May 2006 02:37:52 GMT

tako san

I like how the little legs open out while they cook. They taste much better cold though.

tako san packet
tako san brand of pre-cut processed ham sausages

These sausages are pre cut into octopi. They even have little eye holes already, the ultimate timesaver! I bought them because a) I'm lazy, and b) they were on special offer for only 100 yen.

An expensive habit....

Sat, 13 May 2006 15:30:33 GMT

This bento business is getting out of control!

I went downtown today to see if I could pick up a gloomy bear for my boyfriend, and ended up in one of those teenybopper shops that sells everything kawaii....

I got a gloomybear for him, and er, a few things for myself!

Cute little hamutaro lunchbox

Two separate removable parts inside, for small eating days!

Oh how I love Lilo & Stitch! There were lots of Stitch bento boxes, luckily I didn't have a lot of cash on me or I'd have bought them all! As it was I settled for this one with two separate inner parts. It's larger than the hamutaro one.

And the best (and most expensive!) find of the day- Miffy bowl bento goodness!

There are two tiers, the bottom being the largest, and sealable with the white cover. There is an oval side dish and a sauce bottle too. And it came with recipes!

Side shot to show depth.

I'm really pleased with the Miffy one in particular, really versatile and when the weather gets hot and humid I can bring zaru soba (cold soba noodles with dipping sauce) to work! Mmmm!

Of course, now that I spent all that money on boxes, I can't afford any fancy food to put in them ! (><)

Start of a short week...

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 12:13:13 GMT

This week is Golden Week in Japan, a misleading name, as it is actually only 3 days of public holidays! So I will only be bento-ing on Monday and Tuesday this week.

I didn't want to have to get up early tomorrow, so I prepared Monday's bento today. This meant I had to use food that wouldn't spoil/would keep in the fridge overnight.

Background- lettuce leaf base with boiled asparagus and a pig full of salad dressing. Sliced seafood stick, cherry tomatoes, and a container of raisins.

Foreground, pasta twirls with pesto sauce and chopped mini sausages.

Bento bits & pieces

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 12:03:28 GMT

This is my blue bento set. I have a red one in the same style.

It's a two tier box, with matching band, chopstick case and bag.

All wrapped up!

This device makes a fish sausage into a penguin!

Little pig sauce bottles.

Some forks in the style of playing cards, one of my favourite motifs.

Some plastic separators, the disposable kind.

Star, floral and sakura shaped cutters.

A cutter that turns a fish sausage into a tako (octopus)! Sorry the photo is blurry but it's really cute!

Pink onigiri mould, makes two with a space in the middle for an umeboshi.

Batsu/maru small box.

Sunday Lunch!

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 06:12:52 GMT

Today I made a bento to eat in the park. The weather is at the great 'not too hot' stage, and I am enjoying it before the heat and humidity of the summer wipes me out.
Apologies for the crap ketai shot, my digital cam was out of battery.

On the left- lettuce leaf bedding with mickey mouse shaped fried chicken nugget, and a pig shaped bottle of tomato sauce. Mini sausages cut in half, cherry tomatoes, and sliced crabstick next to the hamster plastic separator.
On the right- two homemade onigiri with umeboshi (pickled plum) and nori.

School Picnic Bento

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 11:54:20 GMT

I didn't make my own bento for today, as all of the staff were ordering lunch for 1,000 yen (£5). There was a lot of eating in this bento, but Kawanishi-sensei told me he could have eaten two!

Foreground- rice with toasted sesame seeds and pickles. Block of konnyaku. Salad and dressing in the foil. Layered sweet omlette, white fish.
Background- potato with yellow food colouring, celery, veg, whole prawn in shell, cod roe. Shellfish salad. Tempura prawn, pumpkin and crabstick. Aubergine and peanutty sauce, parsely garnish.

After eating, I wanted to get some pics of the kids bentos, but they had already scoffed them, and were snacking hard!

Coming soon...

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:18:53 GMT

...homemade bentos galore. Until then, here's an ekiben, a bento for train journeys. I bought this for the shinkansen (bullet train) leg of my journey from Tokyo - Kanazawa during the Spring break.