An experiment reaches fruition...

On the weekend I took my first shot at onigiri - rice shapes, then I sealed them in saran wrap and froze them. My man also made a rather lovely beef stir fry which I froze in my new silicone cups. Add some dry fried mushrooms and zucchini and it turns magically into Thursday's lunch!

Tommorrow's Bento...Today!

Here's Wednesday's lunch - three kinds of crackers (Ritz, Toppables and Grain First), three kinds of cheese (Vache qui rit cubes, Babybel light and Kraft Liveactive) and three kinds of fruit (fuji apples, cherry dried cranberries and a few grapes) and...one kind of chocolate. Hershey's sticks fit so nicely into Bento.

Lots of exciting Bento Action

Its been a busy few days here in Bento town. We went exploring local dollar stores and grocery stores on the weekend and found a few useful tools - mainly silicone muffin cups and the pinch bowl used to contain the red pepper and white bean dip seen here. We also turned up a few more bento appropriate containters. I personally, found this lunch to be quite delicious. The star is made from a sugar snap pea.

I also successfully re-created the scattered sushi bento I made with my friend (this photo is of the original) and made one that was really pretty featuring leftover rice noodle salad, which received some constructive criticism - mainly relating to the fact that it leaked all over someone's lunchbag. Oh well, it all helps my bento skills grow!

My first independent Bento

I made Bento unsupervised today! Well...if you call cheese/chorizo and crackers Bento. The one of the left has no cheese (due to allergy) and a teddy bear full of chipotle sauce. I was pleased with my use of the ovation stick to provide separation - and dessert!

Revelation

I had a revelation about Bento on the bus yesterday.

Bento = Scrapbooking for your lunch.

You get to make pretty designs, punch out fun shapes, add little stickers and toys, arrange everything just so, and appreciate its beauty more. Just like scrapbooking. We can definitely get more people hooked on Bento with this knowledge.

Hoooray for Bento!

After a brief visit with one of my closest friends who has recently moved to Japan, I have become quickly enamoured with the concept of the Bento lunch. I will be posting here (with pictures) of my creations of Canadian Bento.

Today's first experiment was a delicious medley of leftovers from the visit - Rice Noodle salad, Carmel Pork, Eggplant and snowpeas, with a few Cherry tomatoes for colour and support.