Mr. Bento is Half Greek!

Jan is having (from left): keftedes or Greek meatballs with mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and a green onion 'lily'; tzatziki (yogurt with cucumber and garlic), bread and butter with a root beer candy hiding, and mandarin oranges with blackberries. OPA!

I am having:


Lower: brown rice with keftede meatball, snow peas, soy bunny; upper: vanilla yogurt and rhubarb crisp. I'll bring some baby carrots to round this out in the vegetable department. The rhubarb is the last of the frozen from my garden last summer, a weird season where it kept on sprouting sweet young rhubarb all summer long. Usually it's shot by July but this was picked in September!

Super-Bowl Bento

Jan's Monday Mr. Bento has a little bit of sports-food theme. Salsa with cheese stars and extra jalapenos, tortilla chips, seafood salad, and carrots & sugar snap peas with a mini-Snickers.

Did you watch the big game?! I saw most of it. I always cheer for the losing team so that guarantees all sports events are tragic experiences for me. "Oh no! How awful!! They have come so far!" Yesterday's Super Bowl involved several shocking reversals so my emotional agility was tested to the max as the underdog role shifted in an instant.

And how about that Bruce Springsteen half-time show? I hope I can jump up on a grand piano at his age. Come to think of it, I already can't jump onto pianos. I must need......more bento!!!

Accidental Friday Bento

This pretty little lunch was un-freakin-necessary since Jan was planning to go to lunch with his friend Roley. However he ate it for supper and it got a good grade.

From lower right he had: Spicy Indian lentil balls (yum!) and some baby carrots, pears slices under cheese flowers alongside bitter melon atjar ketimun, a baby greens salad with cherry tomatoes and black olives, key limes for dressing; and Ak-Mak crackers with a mini-Snickers bar.

You will find many different lentil ball recipes on the internet. I based mine on this one
but substituted brown rice for the whole wheat bread crumbles, and I had to add an egg to get binding for ball formation (they were too crumbly otherwise). But they are really good and talk about cheap comfort food!!

We joke about losing all our retirement fund in the current economic meltdown, so we (seriously) collect really cheap recipes. This one is definitely going in the "What to Eat Instead of Catfood?" file.

How do I love thee, Mr. Bento?

Let me count the ways, since Avie owns Mr. Bento too and we will be sharing our Mr. Bento secrets before too long I hope.


There are two styles of Mr. Bento, a thermally insulated lunch 'system' made by Zojirushi (you love their rice cooker, and their seed grinder; now own their lunchbox!).

The photo above shows both; the one on the left is Jan's and has 4 compartments & a 'spork' eating utensil along with a handy carrying case; the one on the right is 3 compartments with a space-age chopstick carrier outside. Very nice chopsticks with hatching on the tips to make it easier to pick up noodles.

Here are the inner containers, the same general type for both:


The bottom two have insulated lids, which when combined with the insulation in the outer canister, will keep foods hot for long hours. They should stack up inside the container from hottest to coolest: soup on the bottom, rice and veggies and/or meat, salad or fruit, and the all-important DESSERT.
I hope I have not indicated my personal priorities for lunch with this cool and objective listing.

Actually that little soup container is the best thing about Mr. Bento. It does not leak, it holds soup hot, and it holds just enough miso soup to be the perfect lunch accompaniment. You need to clean its gaskets now & then. In addition to the pop-out steam relieving gasket in the center of the lid, there's a ring gasket around the edge.


A chopstick is the perfect instrument for removing the gasket, since you can't cut it as you could if using a knife or fork tine. In the photo just above, my chopstick is pointing at the little notch where you place the chopstick and press gently and pry up to pop out friend gasket.


You can also use that chopstick to press the gasket back in:




Everything gets hand-washed by me even though the containers (not the lids) are dishwasher safe. I don't trust my violent and psychotic dishwasher. Once a week I pop gaskets and let all the components air dry. When spring comes I will place them in a sunny window sill once a week to freshen. (They carry a lot of different foods and spices in a given week.)

Mr. Bento packs a decent amount of food, usually well enough for a morning and afternoon snack plus the centerpiece: your lunch. I love this because I loathe and detest the institutional food of my workplace - it is overpriced and of ghastly quality - and there's nothing else nearby so what I eat in the workday is what I bring. I also love the temperature conservation: hot soup and cool yogurt in the same Mr. Bento, it's delightful.

It is not however very cute. Even my husband is getting interested in adding cuteness to his bento, and wondering whether there's a more cheerful carrying bag, some decals, etc.

We will have to work on the aesthetics of Mr. Bento another time. Spray paint? Glitter glue? Green Bay Packers details? Hello Kitty Brett Favre silhouettes? I see some possibilities.

Here's another photo of the canisters, with my cell phone standing up beside to show scale (they aren't as huge as they look in the top photos):

Oh Boy New Bento Box!!

Cherry blossoms, curved shape, little chopstick holder with more cherry blossoms, I am in love. When I first opened the package I was a little scared because it looked so very small. However it provided a very adequate lunch and made up in cute factor what it lacked in volume.

I had rice with lentils on the bottom, and barbecue tofu, roasted beets, and cherry tomatoes on top - decorated with daikon and carrot flowers.

Last night for the first time I made the lunches before going to bed. It was fun to be in the kitchen late, with the dogs already snoring in the background, cutting out shapes and arranging food in containers. I find that the whole bento concept has changed my attitude toward food, even meals at home. I'm more tuned to the visual, colors, patterns and so forth, and more thoughtful about what to eat. It's good!

Here's Jan's Mr. Bento of today:

Daikon butterflies on baby green salad, bitter melon salad with carrot flowers, lentils and rice with ham skewers, and ginger snap cookies (packaged) with chocolate coins.

Monday Monday!

Something old, something new...Jan's Mr. Bento today was this:

Spicy peanut pasta with snow peas and shrimp; salad of shredded carrot, daikon, ginger and lime with pickled garlic eyeballs and a sweet pepper mouth; two sushi rolls and leftover chicken wings from last night's deli visit; Bahlsen cookies and a Jolly jelly.

My lunch today was just a snack as I did not intend to stay at work past around 2 - i was supposed to have a dressage lesson at 4, but it was too cold (-1 F. at noon) so I cancelled. That left me stranded at work without enough food! However, miraculously I survived. Bosc pear, cranberry aspic, babybel cheese, carrots.


These Bosc pears are delightful: creamy and perfectly ripe. I have to eat about six more immediately unless I figure out some way to keep them from going over to the dark side. That should be my worst problem in life!

End of Week Bentos

My little food cutters arrived and I immediately put them to use on yesterday's bento for Jan: heart-shaped salami on the eggs, and carrot stars. He got; yogurt with blackberries and agave nectar, Want-Want cookie with root-beer barrel candies, spicy peanut whole-wheat noodles with carrot stars, and a hard-boiled egg with salami hearts and a babybel cheese.

My bento for today is:

The largest container is a Bosc pear and a Minneola orange. Smaller container is cranberry aspic with cream cheese and jello jigglers (trying to get rid of these!). And an onigiri with soy sauce bunny.

It's Friday!! I rode two horses last night after 8 p.m.; the arena was all mine and the northern lights were exploding on the horizon. Life is good. Here's to hearts and stars in all our lunches!!