Casabento giveaway

Casabento are having a great giveaway!

Check out their Facebook for more info :)

Rolly Polly Bento

This bento was rushed and not very well thought out so unfortunately I don't like it :(

It tasted great but I just didn't like the way it looked :(

This was my first time making sushi rolls and I don't think I did too bad a job :)

Also included are cheese and meat rolls, tamagoyaki with okra in the middle and mixed oriental vegetables :)

Great For Bento: Collapsible Chopsticks!

Today a parcel I ordered from amazon arrived,
It was two sets of bento cutlery!

Each set is comprised of a tiny, but sufficiently sharp fork, a tiny, probably not sufficient spoon, two collapsible chopsticks and a little case to carry them in.

The case looks like the thin cases you can get for reading glasses and has a clip on so you can carry them on your belt or in a shirt pocket!

The spoon and fork are made of stainless steel but feel a little thin and I'm not sure how well they would hold up against continual use.

The chopsticks, that are made of two pieces that screw into each other, feel like some odd hybrid somewhere between plastic and metal, and they are extremely light which may sound like a bonus but it makes them seem a little fiddly to use.

I will use them for a week and then I will do a review :)

Tamagoyaki Triple Pan Review

This pan cost £25.85 which for a pan of this calibre is pretty reasonable. The pan is split into three sections.

It feels a lot sturdier than most pans in my kitchen and I know a lot of "non-stick pans lose the coating after a while but the non-stick coating on this pan seems like it will be there for a long time!

It is heavy bottomed and I'm not sure sure of the significance but the bottom has ridges, presumably to absorb heat quicker.

I decided to test the pan by making what it is intended for, Tamagoyaki.
Tamagoyaki is a rolled Japanese omelette.

Making the omelette in this pan was a lot easier than in a normal frying pan!
The middle strip is where the tamagoyaki is made. Due to the non-stick, the egg simply slid off of the pan when rolling. I did use a tiny bit of oil but I imagine it would work just as well without!

The pan is also great for fry ups as the egg, sausages and mushrooms etc can all be fried in the one pan all at one time!

The pan cleans like a dream! There was no need for scrubbing as there wasn't any residue left over from any of the food!

I can literally not fault this pan at all!

You can buy this pan here

Half Hello Kitty Kyaraben, Half Traditional Bento

Here is today's bento. It was meant be Hello Kitty but she looks more like a mouse :(

The bottom layer is Miss Kitty with a lovely cloudy blue sky made of rice, egg whites and ham.

The top layer is more traditional and is filled with two-tone tamagoyaki, mixed oriental vegetables and instant cucumber and lettuce pickle :)

Hope you enjoy!

My new tamagoyaki triple pan :)

I made an order on Casabento for a Tamagoyaki Triple Pan.

It came today and it looks soo good! I know it will make making tamagoyaki a lot easier and if I fancy a fry up I can do it all in one pan!!

Expect a lot more tamagoyaki in my bento from today!

I will be posting a review about this piece of kit as soon as I've used it :)

New Black rabbit traditional bento

I ordered this bento off eBay about 8 days ago, although it seemed sooo much longer!

It's such a great little box, it's slightly scratched and buffed in places but I think that adds to the character of the box. Plus it was made in, I think it said, the 70s so I don't expect it to be gleaming. It did say in the description it was scratched so it's not like I wasn't warned :)

It's a two tiered, black box with a traditional usagi (rabbit) and moon motif. In Japan there is a story that on the moon there lives a rabbit making mochi ( sweet rice cake), so rabbits and moons are often featured together in Japanese culture. Just like Sailor Moon, her name in Japanese is usagi tsukino, which translates as Rabbit child of the moon... I think.

The bottom layer is 250 ml and the too layer is 200ml so it's a nice little box :)
And the seal feels pretty water tight!

A Game Of Thrones Bento

So after months of wanting to do A Game Of Thrones bento I finally did it!!!

I love the series soo much and now I have a kindle I'm going to get the books to read! ( I already have the books but I can never get comfy to read them, kindles truly are easier to read!)

So this bento features the Direwolf of the house Stark, the Kraken of the house Greyjoy and a dragon egg.

Hope you like it!

New mini star cutters

Today while in TKMaxx I found these little cutters and I've been wanting a tiny star for a long time!!

This set of three cost £2.49. The smallest star is about 1.5cm!! Cute!

Mint chocolate steamed puddings

As I said I wanted to test all of the features of my new Tefal machine ( check previous post) before doing a review I thought I'd do these gorgeous puddings.

Now in the little cookbook-let you get with it these are made with plain chocolate. I can't stand plain chocolate, it's far too bitter for my taste. So I opted for mint chocolate which is why the pudding are not very dark brown.

I steamed these for half an hour, I think an extra 5/10 mins would have made the sponge a bit firmer, my pudding had only a thin layer of sponge and a lot of molten middle. But overall I was very impressed and they tasted absolutely delicious!!!

So for steaming I would give the Tefal 8-in-1 four stars out of five.

5forfriday bento : 7/9/12

Here is my 5forfriday entry for today,
It contains chip spice sprinkled onigiri, tenmusu ( onigiri with tempura inside ), tamagoyaki and peppers with sweetcorn.

New paperchase bento box

Today while out in Hull city centre I found this great little box in Paperchase which in Hull is inside House of Frasier.

It's 600ml with a moveable and removable divider, it also has a little layer that fits on top which can hold a fork and spoon ( included ) and some chopsticks ( not included ).

The lid snaps shut and as far as I can tell is prett water tight! The box cost £6.75 which when compared to some boxes is pretty good!!!

New bento picks!

So with it being Halloween next month shops have started stocking in the usual Halloween fare, skulls to hang from the sealing etc.

And while browsing in a shop in Hull alled Discout UK, we were originally looking for wallpaper paste and paint brushes, I found these little Halloween "cocktail sticks" but in my mind that read "bento picks".

I haven't been making bento for long so it will be my first Halloween bento this year and I hope you will enjoy it :)

New Tefal 8-in-1 rice cooker!

Since I saw this beast of a machine in Makro I knew I had to have one!

Here is the Tefal 8-in-1 rice cooker on their own site.

In Makro this machine was £39.99 excluding VAT, even so it came to about £47 which is a lot less than the £69.99 / £79.99 I've seen elsewhere.

I will be doing a review on this as soon as I've tested all of its features, which include:

• White rice
• Brown rice
• Quick rice
• Grains
• Slow cooking
• Oatmeal porridge
• Steaming
• Deserts and cakes

That's right, a rice cooker than can also cook a great Victoria sponge!

Another free gift from casabento :)

Today I was greatest by a packet from casabento and inside were these great Hello Kitty bento picks,

And all I did to earn them was post a picture on their Facebook page!!

5forfriday : 31/08/12

It has tempura prawns, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, onigiri and fish shaped egg :)

Enjoy

Hello Kitty egg mould

Today an item arrived in the post I almost forgot I'd ordered!

It's a very cute Hello Kitty egg mould! It cost around £1.80 with free shipping from a seller in Hong Kong on eBay.

It actually arrived 4 days early and I can't wait to try it out!!

Bento tip #1

Ever had a bento and thought " This could do with some thick sauce"?

Not that you would use the word thick in that sentence but I meant it to cover sauces including, but not restricted to,
• tomato ketchup
•BBQ sauce
• brown sauce

That's all well and good but when you have tiny, cute little sauce bottles shaped like bears and pandas it's near impossible to get thick sauces in and out of said cutesy bottles.
Never again!
All you need to do is mix a tiny bit of water with the sauce and et voila you can now use it!!

Prawn tempura and onigiri bento

A week or so ago I decided I really wanted some tempura prawns in a bento, I did cheat by using premade ones but they were delicious all the same.

So in this bento I had three, rather large ( too large to fit the lid on properly), tempura prawns, mixed peppers, sweetcorn, and two tuna mayo onigiri, one coated in chip spice ( which if you can get your hands on I recommend highly!!!!) and a little bottle of BBQ sauce :)

5forfriday : 24/08/12

This Bento has three chicken kievs, white rice with my homemade furikake, sweetcorn and mixed peppers.

It also includes my handmade bento picks :)

Homemade frugal furikake

Here it is!
My homemade, frugal furikake. I checked on eBay and the cheapest pot of furikake was about £5/£6 with delivery, this cost £2.56. I was slightly worried as I'm not a huge fan of salmon and recently I have gone off nori too but I have to admit this tastes pretty good!!

Now for the tutorial!!

What you need:
• salmon ( I used smoked salmon trimmings, 90p from Tesco for 120g)
• sesame seeds ( I used half a cup but I would suggest a slightly smaller amount)
•Nori seaweed ( You only need half a sheet!)

What to do:
• Put the salmon in a nonstick pan and pour in half a cup of water, put on medium heat with the lid on until salmon is cooked and water has evaporated. ( you can use mirin etc for more flavour )
• Once cooked remove salmon from heat and begin flaking with forks/chopsticks/hands. Put the pan back onto the heat and cook until the flakes are as dry as you'd like, being careful not to burn. ( dryer flakes will keep longer ) Put salmon into a bowl or similar container.
• Wipe pan dry and pour in half a cup ( less may be better) of sesame seeds, cook on low heat until fragrant and slightly browned. Pour into container with salmon.
• Take half a sheet of nori and cut into 1 inch strips, lay all strips on top of each other and cut into very think strips, you can give a quick dry fry in the pan with some spices for more flavour.
• Now mix all ingredients in a bowl and store in an airtight container. Should keep for at least a week with dryer flakes keeping for longer sometimes upto two weeks.

I hope you enjoy and please let me know if you make a batch and maybe share a picture too!

Another Aladdin bento box

A few weeks ago I went to a local cash and carry called Makro ( I haven't been for ages but Meeko found his card so we could finally go!), it has changed a lot in the 10 or so years since I last went, but the prices were still amazing! Huge amounts of food for next to nothing, which will be great for if my bento catering business gets started :)

While there I found some Aladdin bento boxes, the pink one I bought was only £7.50 instead of the £20 on Amazon. The green and other colours were £10.50, not sure why the price difference for colour, maybe pink doesn't sell as well.

It is a two tier and equals 0.95l with the bottom tier being 600ml and the top being 350ml.

Casabento free gift

If you read some of my previous posts you'll know that casabento offered me a free gift with my next order.

And here it is!!

Finally I have an urara bento box!
I've wanted one for a while because I love the little rabbit detail. The box itself is a very different shape to how I imagined and it's a lot bigger!

The top part is big enough for two very large onigiri or 4 average and the bottom compartment ( with its own lid ) is 200ml. It didn't come with its own band but now I get to make my own ^.^

More egg mould!

Hello ^.^

After I made this video which shows all the stuff I bought from Casabento they held a great offer that with my next order I would receive a free gift.

I didn't really need anything at the moment so I just bought more egg moulds, mainly because my egg moulds are a little on the feminine side and even though Meeko doesn't mind I thought I'd get some more boyish ones for him :)

Simple flower bento

Here is the first bento in my hello kitty box It was also my first time using my new bamboo steamers and some of my new bento tools :)
It has spicy chicken bites, rice mixed with shredded radish.
Sweetcorn, mixed peppers, spring onion and carrot.
Decorated with a star shaped egg, Sakura and ume flower carrots, mushroom and cucumber. And a little bottle of brown sauce ( which was a hassle to put in the bottle and get out)

Hello kitty bento box

I had seen this Hello Kitty “sandwhich” box in tesco a few times but I didn’t want to pay £4 for a box the same dimensions as one I paid £1 for just because it had kitty’s face on it. But then today it had been reduced to £2.34 and I knew if I didn’t buy it I would moan about it for ages.
It has a 600ml capacity.
And as its marketed as a sandwich box it makes me a little sad that kids are missing out on what could be inside if their parents packed a healthy diverse bento lunch.
( the pen is for size reference )

DIY bento picks / cupcake toppers

Here are some of the bento picks I have made by hand :)


And here is a quick video on how to make them yourself :
how to video

Three Little Pigs Bento

A simple three little pigs bento thrown together with odds and ends. The pigs are pink onigiri with square sausage and nori details. The “grass and road” is made from peas and mince soboro on top of the remaining square sausage and rice ( musubi style ). There are radish Sakura and flowers as well as just slice to fill the gaps :)

Second pikachu kyaraben

Here is my second kyaraben :)
Yep it’s pikachu again, and although he’s not my favourite Pokemon he is pretty easy to make out of food :)
This one is made out of a bed of pea and sweetcorn rice, with a layer of soboro ( ground meat/eggs etc), this soboro is normal beef mince and egg.
There are two radish “pokeballs” and nori as decoration :)

First kyaraben: pikachu!

Here is my first ever kyaraben (character bento). Pikachu!!
It’s not perfect but I think for a first time go without any practice making kyaraben it is pretty good :)
It is omurice, radishes, peas and rice :) with nori, ketchup and salad cream for decoration :)

Marbled egg tutorial

A great way to spice up an Easter bento ( or even just the boiled eggs for breakfast on Easter) are these marbled, brightly coloured eggs! Now I know some people will see these and be horrified at the amount of synthetic dyes used, but unless you want to you don’t need to use food dye. I used water from red cabbage! So here are the steps!
•cook egg to own standards but must be boiled to work!
• crack shell all the way around egg but DO NOT REMOVE :)
• use whatever kind of dye you wish (natural/synthetic), I find the best thing to do is put the egg in a cup and use the dye to cover the egg.
• leave in the fridge for at least an hour, I left mine over night for this bright colour :)
• if putting into a bento you can either leave the egg as is, put in a mold and make a marbled bunny or cut into slices :)

5forfriday : 17/08/12

It seems like noone else from the bento family is doing this anymore :(

But if you'd like to join in feel free!!!

So this bento was inspired by this video, such a genius idea if you cant find a bento box and also saves on space so great for handbags/ manbags.

This bento includes white, salted rice, scrambled egg soboro, mince beef soboro, carrot Sakura, and mixed peppers :)

Hope you enjoy!

Bear shaped pasta!

While shopping in TKMaxx I found some adorable little pasta shapes, there were three different types :

* space themed pasta with little aliens, spaceships and planets.

* animal themed pasta with lions, elephants etc.

* bear shaped pasta which is just bears in different colours.

I bought the bear ones because I want to make a bear themed bento.

The pasta was £1.29 for a 250g bag. I am going to buy the other themed pasta soon :)

Casabento free box!!!

casabento are currently holding an amazing offer!

If you make an order with them and then make a video of what you bought, you can receive a free bento box with your next order!

The box is a red urara onigiri bento box with a small rabbit motif.

For more details check out this page.

Here is my video if you want to check out what you need to do :)

Oh!Bento has Facebook!

I completely forgot this existed but Oh!Bento does in fact have Facebook!!!

Click here
to check it out and don't forget to tell your friends!!

Five for Friday entry : 10/08/12

As part of the #bentofamily on twitter as well as swapping pics of our bento achievements and recipes etc we sometimes like to give each other a challenge, thus #5forfriday was born!

The task: create a delicious and healthy bento with only 5 ingredients!

This may sound easy but it's not, you never realise how many different elements make up a bento!

So mine consists of rice flavoured with chip spice ( we were allowed a spice without counting as an ingredient),
Tamagoyaki, sweetcorn, peppers and carrots cut into Sakura and ume shapes.

I hope you like it :)
.

Pink butterfly bun cases

A few weeks back I took an unexpected trip, with the partner's family, into Matalan in Hull. We went in so his mother could swap something she had purchased, so I decided to have a look at the kitchen and home stuff. There I was found these little pink butterfly bento cups. They were £2 or part of a "2 for £3" deal. So I bought these and a new can opener.

( sorry they're a bit out of shape in the pic)

Super Discount Hello Kitty Bento Box

So while browsing in Matalan I didn't just find some bento cups, I found, what may be one of my favourite finds yet, a hello kitty shaped bento box! While that itself warrants a purchase, the fact this 450ml bento box goes for around £20 online was only £3.50!!!
So if you want a super cute bento box or even if you only make sandwiches for your child, this box is for you!!

Get yourself down to Matalan and grab a huge bargain!!!

Huge bento picnic!!

A few weeks ago me, Meeko, our friend and my younger cousin went for a day out to the park and I thought it would be a good (although very hard!) idea to make a bento lunch for all of us. It took me about 2 hours to make including preparing and putting together,
I kind of cheated by making all the bento with the same ingredients.

We had sweet chilli and mayo chicken with mixed vegetables, hot dog octopi,
Pea rice, hard boiled and shaped eggs.

For desert we had usagi ringo ( apple rabbits).

It was extremely hard but well worth it,
There is nothing more rewarding hearing that people enjoy the lunch you have prepared!

I can finally keep my bento accessories organised!

While out shopping a few weeks back I went into one of my favourite stores for cheap random cooking accessories and cheap food, B'nM. There I found something I've been wanting for a long time, a tool box!
All the ones I've seen, that are the size I want, are close to £20 ( I'd much rather spend that money on more bento stuff) but here I found one the exact size I wanted an for only £7.99, at a price like that I could hardly pass up!

And now all my bento accessories can be kept neatly together and are much less likely to get lost!

Sando Stamp Review

A while back I decided to make mini sandwiches with my sando stamp set from bento&co, I thought that it would take a fair bit of force and half expected the bread and spread to just turn to mush. But surprisingly it was so easy! They cut right through the bread and even though the filling was tuna-mayo (so very moist and not at all solid) it cut through that too without it going horribly wrong! I would definitely recommend these for anyone with picky kids!

They're great for small hands so you can even get your children to help! And once the sandwiches have been cut, each cutter has a stamp to put a rabbit, frog or bear face onto the now adorable sandwiches.

Aladdin bento box review

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COST: *****
I gave the cost 5 stars because I managed to buy the Aladdin bento box while on sale in a shop called Boyes and while this doesn’t reflect Aladdin I though I would include this.
Boyes sold ( and may still sell ) the boxes. The large boxes are £9.99 and the smaller ones are £4.99 instead of the £18-£20 I noticed online.


DESIGN:****
These boxes feature a range of designs, while the box shape ( a circular tube) is consistent among all the boxes, the colours and images does differ. The larger “adult” boxes are a block colour, often muted although I have come across some brightly coloured ones. The adult ones often are split into two tiers.
The smaller “kids” boxes ( the ones I have) have bright designs on such as a pink flowery one for girls, and a blue one with a city scene and little green aliens aimed at boys.
It’s nice to have a range that is aimed at the whole family, so they can all have a box from the same company but retain their own style.

PACKING: ***
I found it difficult to pack, packing food into round containers is never easy. But the Aladdin container seems to make it harder by being very deep. This box is definitely not for people who like to make decoben or very cute bento. I find this box would best be suited to soups and other “wet” food.

SIZE : **
While the smaller box is 600ml ( around the same as most of my other boxes) most of this is made up in depth so the box actually feels very small inside, while being a lot more space consuming on the outside.

KEEPING FOOD WARM/COLD:
****
I packed the food while pipping hot and left it for around 4/5 hours. Upon opening the box I was greeted by food that felt just as hot as when I packed it. The only downside is that the chilli con carne I packed became very watery due to condensation from everything. So while it keeps food hot,if you don’t want soggy food it would be easier to just microwave the food in the box ( but this does take away one of the boxes main selling points)

OVERALL:
***
While I was slightly disappointed with the result in the soggy chilli con carne I prepared, it could have been a lot worse, at least the food kept hot, cold and soggy food would have made me dislike the box. This box, being different from normal bento boxes, has its own set of rules for what works best and it does those well. You have to view this box on its own merits, if you want a cute box to pack hello kitty rice and Sakura-cut carrots, this box isn’t it, but of you want a rugged box to take camping or hiking and to keep your soup extremely hot, this is the box for you. If I had paid the full amount I think I would be a little let down as they do seem relatively expensive for the amount of use I personally would get out of them, but if you find one for cheaper I would recommend buying, that way you can make up your own mind about the items in question.

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I am in no way affiliated with the Aladdin company. This is an independent review and I have had no payment for this review.

Onigiri panda bento

Here is the first bento I made using the great onigiri bento box I received from Bento&co. It is my first bento I have made in a while so its a simple one. It consists of two onigiri ( both with tuna mayo in the middle) and one coated in “chip spice” ( I have only found this spice in Hull, UK). Mixed vegetables and a heart shaped boiled egg.
And a little bottle of BBQ sauce.

Bento&co surprise!!

This happened a while back but I'm moving all my posts over from my old blog to this one and it seemed rude not to include it :)

But a few months ago I received an email from Bento&co. Before opening it I thought it would be just the usual “here’s some new stock” email but I was very impressed by what it actually contained.
It was an email that included a 15% discount and the chance to buy one (super cheap) bento set! There were only 45 of these sets and luckily I managed to get one before they ran out!

And all of this just for entering in the Bento&co onigiri competition :)

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To see everything I received for £1.54 (¥100/$1) click here

Introduction!

Hello everyone,

My name is Keith and this blog will be about my adventure into Bento box lunches (and possibly other cooking achievements.)

So here is a little about me, I'm 21 and was born two days before Christmas at the start of the nineties. I was born, and still remain, in Hull which is a city in Yorkshire, England.

You may ask why a young guy living in the UK would be interested in bento lunches, and I wish I could explain in a short sentence but I can't.

I have always, as far as I can remember, loved Japanese culture.
My love affair with Japanese culture probably started when I first saw Sailor Moon on UK tv. Ever since I have lapped up everything I can about the rich culture but I am not deluded in thinking everything about Japan is perfect. There are just as many things I don't like the sound of as there are things I enjoy.

I only recently remembered bento, which were often featured in Sailor Moon, and I started making them as I've always loved cooking.

I now live in a flat with my partner, who decided he wanted to be known as Meeko when I refer to him in my blog. So yes I am also gay :)