I’ve been on your bento blog several times checking out what you’ve done, and looking for interesting things. Thanks for the tip on cooking ramen noodles – I love them but always get them too well-done. Have tried your way x 2 and they were perfect. And I liked the tomato-mozzarella caprice on a stick – who would have thought!!.
As for my bento box….I really don’t have one, and really don’t need one. I very seldom need lunch, now that I’m retired – I only take lunch if going to a continuing ed seminar which is only 1-2 times per year, maybe. (The rest I do on line). They used to give you lunch, but now it’s just coffee, hot water, cold water, if you’re lucky, and they sometimes take that away at mid-conference. So I take lunch and your blog inspired me to create a my version of a bento box lunch without the bento box.
So I raided my container closet to see what I had that would fit into my lunch box tote purse without having to be tilted on it’s side. (It’s actually shaped like a purse – you really wouldn’t know it’s insulated). I found 2 rectangular containers that came from the prepared lunch meat section of the supermarket (like Healthy Choice, Hillshire Farms, etc.) Then I found 2 tiny containers with lids that would fit into the other 2 . Even found a very small jar that I could use – it comes with hotel room service breakfast with jam or jelly. And for holding my utensils, I found an old eyeglasses case that I had just left in a drawer – it holds a knife in a protective sleeve made from plastic canvas and wool scraps, fork, spoon. Could even wrap them in the napkins and place in the case.
As for my actual lunch – one container had ramen noodles as a base topped with diced grilled chicken (diced so I needn’t worry about a knife as I eat from my lap probably). Second container had 4 tomato-mozzarella sticks (on those little plastic colored swords) and dressing in a small lidded container that I sat in a colored paper baking cup to help keep it from moving around. Those 2 sat in my tote on top of each other, with room for an uncovered Tupperware rectangular container on top that held a store-bought mini fruit cup for dessert and a paper baking cup with 2 pieces of chocolate for PM snack. And a bottle of water fit nicely in the tote beside the stacked containers.
As for the results – I need to work on adding more flavor/moisture to the noodles; the dressing leaked some in the tomato-mozzarella sticks (lid not tight enough but leakage was confined to the paper baking cup); it was really too much food compared to my normal lunch at home. But I was over-all pleased with the results and now have my version of a bento box that works very well with my favorite lunch tote.
It was an interesting adventure to create the whole thing – I think I did well with what I had.
So that’s my long bento box story – thanks to your inspirations.
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