Kawaii Bento Boxes: Cute and Convenient Japanese Meals on the Go

I first attempted making lunch for my 2 daughters and myself bento style about 3 years ago. I started by following bento blogs like Just Bento and Lunch in a Box. Both are great resources, but when it came to putting together 3 lunches everyday, I ran out of inspiration (and time). My lunches ended up usually just being leftovers from dinner the night before, which is boring even it it's served in a cute lunch box. I stopped making lunch because this school year we moved to a district with better lunch offerings, and the kids wanted to buy lunch instead of taking it. A couple weeks ago my 11 year old mentioned that she usually got pizza and french fries instead of the daily lunch offering, and I decided it was high time to dust off my collection of bento boxes and get cooking.I have several traditional bento cookbooks, and though they're lovely to look at, I very rarely use them for lunch recipes. This book, however, was a game changer. The pictures and menus give me ideas for combinations that are tasty together, easy to make, and pleasingly attractive. One photo showed thinly sliced beef rolled around green beans and carrot sections. Grocery stores don't have steak sliced as thinly as shown in the book, but breakfast steaks pounded to death with a meat tenderizer worked great. Inspired by the photos, I used leftover taco meat and Mexican rice to make a staggeringly inauthentic (but yummy) version of fried rice, served with a hard boiled egg, corn with blanched spinach, cherry tomatoes stuffed with cheese, and fruit.I don't know how good this book will be for a beginning cook, as the recipes can be sparse on specifics like temperature and cooking times, and some require ingredients that may not be stocked at your local grocery store. I'd still recommend it as a good resource. I'm not going to be decorating my onigiri with pretty little seaweed faces any time soon, but the overall quality and variety in my lunches had taken a huge leap forward, thanks to this book. My daughters love their lunches and both have said that their friends are jealous of the food they're getting.

I live in Japan so I can get all the ingredients listed which makes this book extremely convenient for me. My daughter pretty much took onigiri (rice balls) or some form of rice for lunch her entire first year in youchien (preschool). Now she's asking me for stuff she sees her friends bringing to school so I wanted to get a bento cook book in English. I am so happy I got this one! First of all, my two daughters look at this book daily to point out things they want to try or to determine the following day's menu. They've even put tabs of paper in each page that has something they want to eat (which means there is a tab on nearly every page). Granted a lot of this is Japanese style food and may be way to out of the ordinary for the average American. My daughter is an extremely picky eater and has stepped out of her comfort zone and eaten things she wouldn't normally since using this cookbook.A word of caution, each recipe lists how long it will take to make but I find them to be off. It doesn't include time it takes to cook rice and other important steps. Also, if you are a novice like me it takes a lot longer to make some of the details. Second, it uses ingredients that aren't exactly common in America. Quail eggs are at all the stores here, but I can't think of ever seeing them in America.I have included pictures of 5 different bentos I made last week with notes on the pictures. This will give you an idea of some of the recipes in the book. Also, I mix and match recipes based on what I have fresh in the kitchen. If you are thinking about moving away from the standard American lunch then I would definitely look into Kawaii Bento Boxes, everyone in this house loves it!

I received this book a few days ago. I have yet to try any of the recipes. Frankly, they might look good, but they don't sound very tasty to me.I'll start with the bright side, so we can get it over with.**** PRO'S ****- Bento Basics: There is a nice introduction at the beginning if you don't really know what Bento-boxing is, the most important being how to balance a bento's nutritious value. You'll also get a list of basic ingredients and tools and how to use them properly.- Playing with your food: this book delivers what it promises: how to make food look cute. It's just technique, after technique, after technique, with pictures and images to help with the execution.- Bento fillers: At the end of the book, you get a list of bento fillers, arranged by colors and prepared in small portions... Being the only Bento-fan in my family, this is a plus for me. Besides, the recipes don't look that bad... I will definitely try those ^_^... That's pretty much all the good stuff from this book.**** CON'S ****- Fried...Lot's and lots of fried foods: fried chicken, fried pork, fried sausages, fried potatoes, fried seafood.- Processed foods to the rescue!Yup, why prepare food or use quality products when you can buy a pre-made version or a cheap substitute at the supermarket? Processed cheese, processed ham, Spam (canned ham), sweets, potato chips, sausages (too many wieners in this book), chicken nuggets and so on...- Unhealthy recipes...And, I mean it: it's BAD! Trust me: you want to keep your children AWAY from some (many) of the recipes in this book. Better to stay with the ham&cheese sandwiches and carrot sticks. Spam and potato chips should never be in the same container... And, if you ask me, Spam should stay where it belongs: hidden away in your nuclear shelter, to be eaten only when every else has turned into radioactive poison!... Bacon-wrapped asparagus? Couldn't they at least wrap it in ham or turkey or even prosciutto? Why bacon? Why?Overall, I find the recipes to be too high in calories, too sweet, too salty and too fat for me.Some of it (which avoids all the bad stuff I just mentioned) looks relatively okay, I will probably try those, if only thanks to the small portions produced by each recipe.But I became a Bento-fan for its nutritional value, so this book is very disappointing for me (especially since it got so many good reviews).

Just what I was looking for. My child suffers from allergies and I wanted to be able to bring healthy packed lunches when going out, rather than eat the usual chicken nuggets, chips and beans which are on every child's restaurant menu.The bentos are so cute and easy to make. There are hundreds of ideas, from complete boxes to little individual dishes sorted out by colour so you can pick and choose. My 3 year old definitely eats more when food is presented in this way. It does take more time than making a sandwich, but do you do feel proud of your work afterwards! It's nice to be creative once in a while. I even take pictures of my good ones and my friends are always impressed. Each meal probably takes about 20-25 minutes to make. I am a stay-at-home mum so that is not a problem most of the time.I don't follow each idea slavishly, rather, I use the book for inspiration and adapt as necessary. I use the ideas for everyday meals as well, not just packed lunches.Overall an excellent bento book for kids' meals, but only if you have time and like the Japanese way of eating (rice based meals). Not suitable if you have to rush out the door at 7.00am with kids in tow, unless you get up early.

Das Buch hat auf jeder Seite 2 Bento Box Rezepte, Ideen und wie diese umzusetzen sind.Sehr viel Anregung bietet dieses Buch, in Bildern wie in Rezepten zum nach machen. Zudem wird gezeigt wie diese Kinder Dekor entstehen, die auch hier im Bilde gezeigt werden.Einige werden mit Hilfe von Förmchen gemacht andere per Hand. zudem wird erklärt wie man ein Bento richtig aufbaut mit Gemüse, Obst, Eiweis und Fleisch Gerichten.Zudem werden auf einigen Seiten die zutaten aufgelistet und erklärt, die in den Bentos am meisten zu finden sind.Ich Finde:Dieses Buch ist ein muss für alle Bento Liebhaber(rin) die für sich oder Kinder Anregungen suchen.Preis Leistung`s Verhältnis, sehr gut :-)

Da ich mich seit einigen Monaten mit Bentos beschäftige war ich auf der suche nach niedlichen und kreativen Ideen. Und nach einigen Empfehlungen von Bekannten aus aller Welt, habe ich mir schließlich dieses Buch angeschafft und bin restlos begeistert!Es gibt ein Vorwort sowie 4 Seiten auf denen kurz und bündig erklärt wird, wie man sein Bento am besten zusammenstellt, auf was man achten sollte und welche Boxgröße die richtige für Kinder ist. Hinzu kommt eine Übersicht über hilfreiches Bentozubehör.Das Buch ist in verschiedene Kategorien aufgeteilt. So dass man Anregungen sowohl für Nudeln, Reis, aber auch Brot erhält. Die Bilder sind klar und es gibt eine Inhaltsliste bei jedem Bento. Zu jedem Bento gibt es ein bis zwei Rezepte, die einfach umsetzbar sind. Teilweise enthalten sie sogar Schritt für Schritt Anleitungen.Am Ende des Buches gibt es eine farblich sortierte Übersicht von Beilagen und Anleitungen für z.B. Apfelhasen.Die Charaben Sektion ist leider mit 2 Seiten sehr klein ausgefallen und auch nicht wirklich niedlich.Zusammenfassend kann man sagen, dass sich in diesem Buch viele Anregungen zu leicht nachkochbaren Rezepten finden, die bunt sind und hübsch aussehen. Ich kann es jedem ans Herz legen, der sein Essen hübsch zurechtmachen möchte.

Das Buch ist einfach toll. es ist innen genau so bunt wie außen und die Bilder regen die Phantasie an. die Rezepte sind gut erklärt und in einfachem englisch gehalten.Wer im Englischunterricht nicht völlig untergegangen ist wird keine Probleme mit den texten haben und sollte doch mal ein Begriff unklar sein gibt es ja immer noch so tolle Übersetzer wie Leo.org ;)

C'est un livre en Anglais comme en témoigne le titreLes plus (+) :- il y a beaucoup beaucoup d'illustration ce livre nous accompagne pas a pas!- on y apprend les base( comment bien cuire du riz par exemple)- les explication sont clairs et on sait ensuite comment réalisé un bento bien proportionné donc on acquiert la "philosophie" du bento!- j'ai énormément apprécié vers la fin un classement d'accompagnement classé par la couleur des aliment- on a apprend a faire des trucs kawaï avec les aliments!- il y a beaucoup de recetteles moins (-) :- le livre est chers- la qualité du livre n'est pas du tout au rendez vous il est plus rigide qu'un magazine mais s'en rapprocheje ne regrette en aucun cas de l'avoir acheter j'ai appris beaucoup de choses je le recommande