Just Bento

I have noticed a lot of new visitors coming to Just Bento lately, so now is a good a time as ever to explain how the site is organized.

Articles on Just Bento are divided into various areas

• Get Started is an intro into bento making. If this is all new to you, you may want to skim through the articles there.
• Bento basics is a how-to section that explains various aspects of the bento making lifestyle.
• An important tool I use to keep myself organized is the Weekly Bento Planner, a free printable download.
• Complete bentos show you assembled bento boxes, with an explanation of the contents, a calorie count, and often a timeline for how to assemble it. Each complete bento either lists the recipes for the contents, or if the recipes are more involved, link to the recipe pages.
  • Bentos numbered 1 to 30
  • Bentos numberd 31 to present
• Recipes are just that, recipes for individual components that go into a bento box. I’ve broadly divided the recipes into three types: staples, main (protein or carbs), and sides (mainly vegetables), but it is probably easiest to navigate from the Recipe Index page. From there you can go directly to individual articles, or click on various categories, such as Japanese recipes, Not Japanese recipes, vegan recipes, egg recipes, and so on.

Besides all of the above, you’ll find product reviews and various musings on bento!

The core philosophy

The three articles below are at the core of my bento-making thinking, and are the reasons why I make bento for myself and my other half:

• How bento lunches helped me lose 30 lbs
• Why bento if you work at home?
• Bento for your spirit and body

A bit about the recipes on Just Bento

Just Bento is the little sister of Just Hungry, a general food blog/site that is mainly, though not exclusively, focused on Japanese cooking. For this reason, a lot of the recipes and bentos on Just Bento are Japanese too - after all, it is a Japanese tradition, and I (Maki) am Japanese! However you’ll find plenty of non-Japanese recipes, bentos that are not based on rice, and so on here too. Even with the Japanese recipes, I try to stay away from ones that use ingredients that are too exotic or impossible to get a hold of outside of Japan. (I live in the middle of Europe in a country with only a very small expat Japanese community, so I know how difficult it can be to buy some things that are taken for granted in Japan or regions of the world like California or Hawaii where Japanese groceries are plentiful.)

I’m an omnivore, but in recent years I’ve become more interested in vegetarian and vegan eating (see 75% vegetarian), so there are also several vegan/vegetarian recipes and bentos. I like to alternate my bentos between meat-based ones and vegetarian ones.

Finally, since I don’t have kids and only make bentos every day for 2 adults, the site is more focused on bentos for adults, but I have a great advisor in my sister (who has 2 small kids), not to mention my mother, so you should find many healthy, tasty and kid-friendly recipes too.

The Search box searches both Just Bento and Just Hungry

Just Hungry is Just Bento’s big sister; it’s now nearly 5 years old, and has lots of information of interest to bento makers. For this reason, the search box you see on every page on the left sidebar searches both Just Bento and Just Hungry at the same time. Chances are I’ve already written about a subject you’re interested in when it comes to Japanese cooking, so try the search and see if it’s there!

I am always open to suggestions, so don’t hesitate to leave a comment.