Bento Making Golden Rules

I was looking back at my old bentos over the weekend and felt rather happy seeing my progress. I realised that I have learnt a few lessons over the course of time. Here are some of the "Golden Rules" I have learnt.

Golden Rules of Bento Making (c)iStockphoto/Ayzek

Golden Rule #1
Always stuff your bento lunch box till it's full. 

When I say full, I really mean full, to the top edge of the box. Usually I make sure it's so full that there is no room for the ingredients in the box to move around.

I remembered the time when I thought I had made a decent bento in the morning and when I opened it for lunch, to my horror, it was a terrible mess. Apparently the contents moved everywhere because I had only filled the base of the box with items and they had moved around in that big space above them as I made my way to school.

Golden Rule #2
Make sure that food is sufficiently cooled before you place them in the box.

This is because condensation may occur and it may spoil the items in the box prematurely.


Golden Rule #3
Try to line the bento box with some kind of leafy vegetable makes cleaning up a lot easier.

Of course, this isn't compulsory, but it really does make a difference when it comes to cleaning up. And besides, the lettuce can always be eaten up so there's hardly any wastage.

Golden Rule #4
Keep salad dressings / sauce dips in a separate tiny container.

This prevents the salad turning into a soggy mess by lunchtime. When the weather is warm, I use a small cooler pack on the vegetables as well.

Golden Rule #5
Pack a small cooler pack with the bento if the weather is warm


This keeps the food fresher and prevents sad looking half melted cheese.


So far these are some of the golden rules I always store at the back of my head whenever I make bentos. More "golden rules" (or I would rather say tips and tricks) of bento making coming up soon, so do keep an eye on the site :)

Bento Tricolour Pesto Pasta

Today's bento is a tricolour bento made with bow-tie pasta (also known as Farfalle) laced with pesto sauce. I added red capsicum and golden yellow zucchini for the extra colour and taste.

Tricolour bento with Pesto Farfalle Capsicum and Golden Zuccini

The golden yellow zucchini and the red capsicum were prepared together with the farfalle pasta and pesto sauce as one-dish. When I was packing this tricolour bento, I set aside the red capsicum and yellow zucchini so that it looks bright and colourful. Have a bright and colourful Friday too and I hope you like this tricolour pesto pasta bento!

Bento Leftover Fried Rice Salami Cheese Star

Today's bento post is a quick and easy one. It's largely made of leftover from dinner on the previous day, which happens to be fried rice with corn beef. After filling up the bento box, I placed the big cheese star and the little bits of lettuce. Smaller salami stars follow next and the eyes and mouth come in the last.

Bento Leftover Fried Rice with cheese and salami star

The bento box I used here is called the Ojue Bento Box, while the cheese and salami stars are made from a 6-in-1 plastic cookie cutter from Daiso. Hope you like this fried rice leftover bento with salami and cheese stars :)

Bento Funny Frog Face Fillet o Fish for a Friday

Today I'm in a pretty funny mood when I decided to make this bento. It's fish fillet burger with chopped apples on a bed of lettuce. Maybe I should give this bento a funny sounding name as well. Bento Funny Frog Face Fillet o Fish. hahaha, now I want to hear someone read this title out loud and fast :p

Hope you have a good laugh with this Bento Funny Frog Face Fillet o Fish and have a happy funny Friday! :)

Bento Easy Transportation Vehicles

Today's bento is another quick and easy one. The school term has just started and I'm still trying to manage the new school schedule. For this bento, I used a Daiso sandwich cutter with 4 transportation vehicles joined together. If you are thinking whether you should buy it, here's a review which I had written sometime back in August.

First I placed some lettuce at the base of the box (which also makes cleaning up a whole lot easier). Next I buttered 2 slices of bread and lay a piece of cheese right on top of both slices of bread. I could have also placed the cheese between the bread, but chose not to do so. This is because:
#1 I think it looks brighter with the yellow cheese on top.
#2 the cheese makes it easier to stick the nori pieces on the little vehicles

Finally I threw in some olives and a piece of sundried tomato in the remaining spaces.

Bento Easy Transportation Vehicles

Hope you like this easy transportation vehicles bento! :)

Bento Apple Cucumber Lettuce meat-free

Its Monday again and for many people it's either another back-to-work or back-to-school day. After a weekend of eating a lot (of junk), I thought maybe making a healthy meat-free bento is a good idea, just to kind of detox a bit. This is what I have for lunch today: Bento Apple, Cucumber and Lettuce

Hope you like this Meat Free Monday bento!

Bento Babybel Bird

Yesterday Mr Bear and I had an oven dish. It consisted of potatoes, mushroom, ham and lots of cheese. There was a handful left over and there was also 1 piece of mini babybel sitting in the fridge, so I decided to use them to make this happy Babybel Bird bento.

Bento Babybel Bird in Ojue lunchbox

Close up of Bento Babybel Happy Bird

I used the deepest compartment of the Ojue lunchbox here because I am intending to use this on its own.

First, I lined the lunchbox with a large piece of lettuce. Next I put in the left over potato dish, taking care to push all of them to one side, so that the food surface is almost in line with the top edge of the bento.

Then I stuff julienne strips of lettuce into the rest of the lunchbox and I top it up with the piece of mini babybel cheese.

Sidenote: the beak I used here is from the wax covering the babybel. If the bento is intended for kids, I would replace it with a piece of carrot or surimi, just to be safe.

Bento Healthy Grapefruit Bunnies Salad

After binge-eating with Mr Bear last night, I woke up feeling like I had a food hangover. So I decided to go super healthy with this salad bento : Grapefruit Bunny Bento with lettuce. Detox!

First I put a few layers of lettuce and then the grapefruit. Not only does the lettuce looks pretty with the grapefruit, I've discovered by chance that the lettuce have an extra function. The lettuce layers "lift" the juicy bits of the grapefruit and I got to enjoy the texture of the grapefruit without them swimming in the juice. So I get to eat the grapefruit, then the lettuce and finally slurp up all the remaining juice that had collected at the bottom. What a nice discovery!

Healthy Meat-free bento featuring Grapefruit Bunnies

Close up of bento Grapefruit Bunnies

I used 2 large pieces of lettuce and 1 whole grapefruit. Just like the honeydew bunnies, I used the seed as eyes for the Grapefruit Bunnies. The bento box I used here is a 200ml air tight box I bought from Hema. Hope you like this healthy meat-free bento salad : Bento Grapefruit Bunnies :D