Just Bento

In response to the picnic bento I posted yesterday, Zoé asked:

Really cute! Hey, I read on your blog that you aren’t keen in cute cooking…was it a joke ;)

Good question! I thought I’d qualify what I meant when I said that cute kyaraben (charaben) are not really my style. continue reading...

Even if you have a small bento box, you can still go overboard on the calories. Here’s how to, and how not to, fill a bento box if you’re using bento lunches to try to lose weight. continue reading...

I mentioned a few bento-oriented staples to keep around in my previous post about maintaining variety in your bentos. I’ve just done a quick look around my kitchen, and here are the things I have stocked as staples that I bought or made with future bentos in mind, besides the things I’ve mentioned already.

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Bento box lunches are a great tool to use within an overall weight loss program. Just the fact that the box is quite compact makes portion control a lot easier. However, just packing your lunch in a cute box doesn’t automatically make it ‘diet food’ either. Here are some simple rules to follow to maximise the weight-loss benefits of your bento lunches. continue reading...

To ease into the whole concept of bento lunches, try practicing your balancing skills. continue reading...

Happy New Year! If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to incorporate bento lunches into your life, this is the first part of a mini-series on how to get going.

Are bentos right for you?

I know that a lot of people get seduced by the idea of jewel-like little boxes of food greeting them for lunch. But before you embark on the bento route and start collecting bento boxes and cute supplies and so on, ask yourself these questions: continue reading...

A reader left a great comment on the last post. I’m quoting part of it here:

But, honestly, the thing I love about bentos is the zen-factor: it makes me excited about eating and I always spend time in the morning really thinking about what I’m putting into my body. It’s very calming. I feel like I spoil myself everyday.

I couldn’t agree more with that. Planning bento lunches for yourself makes you feel like you are really taking care of yourself - something we are apt to forget when we are running around conducting Life in general. It’s as important, or even more so, than planning and making bentos for your family. It’s a way of pampering yourself during the course of your day spiritually as well as physically. Nothing can beat that! continue reading...

Like a lot of web-monkey types who sit in front of their computers all day, I work from home at least several days a week. But I still make a bento lunch in the morning for myself whenever I can. Why bother? you might ask. There are lots of good reasons for it, but here are my top five. continue reading...

When I got married to a Swiss guy some decade or so ago, one of his far-flung friends in Germany sent him a letter congratulating him for ‘catching a beautiful Asian gazelle’. The Swiss guy told me this while rolling on the floor, where I kicked him hard. Ah, the point is not that I’m a spouse abuser, but that I’m nowhere near being gracefully gazelle-like. Going against the stereotype of the skinny Asian chick, I’ve always been on the round and cute side rather than sylph like.

This has bothered me of course off and on over the years, but I’ve never been good at sticking to any kind of diet. I just love to eat tasty food too much, and I also love to cook. This is where bento lunches come in. continue reading...

For a long time, I've been mulling over the subject of bento. Since Just Hungry is dedicated in large part to Japanese cooking, there are quite a few entries there of interest to bento fans, but I really wanted to make a site that was only about bento making, from my point of view. So, about 2 years after I first registered the domain and long hours of procrastination - I present to you Just Bento.