Anyone Using Bento Boxes for Lunch?

MysteryLover · Post by **MysteryLover** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 4:08 pm

I've been looking into getting a bento box for carrying my lunch to work. It would help save on waste (less plastic baggies), be less bulky, and it would help me add more variety to my meal. Is anyone else using them? How do you like it?

Also, I found this site for meal ideas:
http://www.laptoplunches.com/bento-menus-season/Fall/

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 5:32 pm

Check this out!

http://everydaysystems.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=7104

MysteryLover · Post by **MysteryLover** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 6:52 pm

Wow - thank so much, Anoulie! I love that you have shown so many pictures of your bento meals & even reviewed what keeps overnight in the fridge. You have really given me some great ideas.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Wed Aug 31, 2011 3:12 am

I've never used a bento box, but I've been using sectioned plastic containers for years. One is rectangular and had three sections: two small ones and a much larger one. I found a round one at Wal-Mart or Target. It's almost perfect because it's about the size of a plate (but it's a bit shallow for the amount of salad I like). I usually put the veggies and fruit in the big compartment and the starch and protein in the smaller ones. I've been taking my lunch to work like this since 1996. I almost never take a sandwich. I also don't put my food in the fridge and I've never gotten sick. Sometimes I'll put in a serving of frozen vegetable. That keeps things cold! I use a hot pot or lately a quesadilla maker to heat things, although I keep a shallow glass soup bowl to use in the microwave if I get desperate.

alicerabbit · Post by **alicerabbit** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:53 am

A bento box sounds like a good idea. Most lunches I usually feel like lots of bits and pieces rather than one dish. I'm looking on eBay, there are some really cute bento boxes:)

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:58 pm

I do bento all the time, though I've moved from using specialty boxes to some 600-650ml boxes I get from the local Wally World. I love bento lunches because they're cute and amazingly No-S friendly.

http://noelfigart.com/blog/category/bento/ Some stuff I've blogged on bento.

Who Me? · Post by **Who Me?** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 8:16 pm

I can't think of the last time I used a plastic lunch bag. I do use wax paper bags, from time to time. I'm way way way too disorganized and lazy to make myself "cute" lunches. Half the time I forget my lunch at home, anyway. Duuuuuh....

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:29 am

When you have a nice container, it can make the lunch look cute even if all you did was put bread, fruit and a leftover in the separate compartments.

Post by **reinhard** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:57 pm

I just move to an office without a kitchen for the first time in my career, so my default oatmeal isn't going to be an option anymore. So far (two days) I've stuck with sandwiches, but Bento does sound intriguing....

Reinhard

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 3:31 pm

I find bento fun, but I don't want to pretend that it doesn't take work and forethought. For me, they're more of a hobby and way to relax (and ensure my teenaged son eats a healthy lunch) than they are genuinely practical. AS far as a dietary default, it is for me, just because when my family is going to be out, I make us bento. But it's really kind of a hobby.

I'd say one of the simplest bento (and one my husband and son really like) is to do pinwheel type wraps. You take a tortilla, lay on a couple of slices of lunchmeat, some lettuce, some cheese or whatever flat fillings you like in sandwiches, put on any condiments you like, then roll them VERY tightly. After that, you slice them in sixths (that tends to make six about an inch high -- perfect for almost any sandwich container or Japanese bento box). Then add in some sliced fruit and veggies. I go for lots of natural food color in mine, which is (in theory) supposed to ensure a decent nutritional balance.

oolala53 · Post by **oolala53** » Tue Oct 18, 2011 10:12 pm

Reinhard, you mgiht have to sneak it in, but I have a little water-heating pot (that I've replaced a few times, getting them for a buck at a thrift store) that would probably work fine for boiling water and soaking your oatmeal. but you'd have to eat it right then before it cooled.

I still use my sectioned plastic containers. As I've said, I've done it for 14 years and never gotten sick though I don't refrigerate my food. I wish i knew how to post pics, as I've been taking pictures of some of my meals. BTW, the little print icons above this box don't work for me, either, so if it's one of those I'm supposed to use to import a pic, so sad for me.[/img]