People usually tell me it takes too much effort to make bentos. Well, not really. I usually make everything on the weekend and freeze them in little portions so all I'm doing is defrosting and making it look somewhat pretty :P
The tip to making bento is actually mixing up cooked and store-bought food. For my bento, I've added chicken karaage in which I've bought a batch at my local supermarket on sale (oops too muh information!). The sauteed green pepper and rice were defrozen and all I made were the tamagoyaki. All in all, it takes maybe 5-10min to pack everything up. See, not so stressful right?
Making bentos bring back fond memories of my mom standing in the kitchen early in the morning, hurriedly packing lunches for me and my brother. Only, I am too lazy so I make it the day before!
When I was little, my mom would pack me either of two things to school: lunch or bento. Lunch was the usual - PB&J, lunchables, leftover pizza, hotdogs. But bento was special. It was just leftover from dinner the night before with rice and furikake over it to make it colorful, but it always was a treat. I suppose because bento was something close to what I ate every day. People are usual in shock when I say I rarely had American food growing up, thanks to my dad hating Westernized food. And thank goodness we didn't! We are one fit and healthy family.
I know I can buy something much more fancier at the 7-11 around the corner but this is how I like it the best.. in a kiddy plastic bento box :)
