Getting lots of bento practice with the new schedule.  Hubby is now working 16 hour days and I increased my work hours, so basically a healthful and filling bento is essential to both of us now. 

This salad, while tasty, was not filling.  I brought a hard-boiled egg with me and ended up crumbling it on top to add some protein.

contents: spinach, garlic croutons, grape tomatoes, and a penguin of caesar dressing.

This was hubby’s lunch bento.  Contains glazed salmon with green beans and rice with a package of soy sauce.  Not pictured is a cup of mandarin oranges.

This was dinner for hubby. Jarlsberg-stuffed chicken that was baked and breaded, long-grain rice, grape tomatoes, trail mix, grapes, and a few cookies.  Breakfast was packed as well, but as we’re short on containers at this point I wrapped his english muffin, banana and two hard-boiled eggs in a cloth napkin.

I’m getting better!  This semester has been busy, but I’ve been making bentos in the morning by getting up a little earlier and using quick ingredients.

 This one was super simple, a croquette with tonkatsu sauce, there’s tamago hiding underneath the edamame skewers, baby carrots, and some little bean paste filled cookies.  Still simple, but I think I’m getting better with packing and presentation.

Hello ^_^

Thank you for the nice comments on my first try, it made me get up the courage to try another!

I thought I should try to keep it a bit more simplistic this time, so I just made up some things I would normally put in my lunchbox and tried to arrange them pleasingly on a bed of sticky rice.  From left to right the meal consisted of a hard-boiled egg, edamame, lightly steamed baby carrots, and some karaage, plus a piggy of soy sauce for the rice.  Next time I’ll add a lemon wedge and some tonkatsu sauce for the karaage and try to slice my egg more carefully.

I started making bentos for my family, but I’m not very good at it yet.  Someday I will be great at it like a 日本人のおかあさん, but until then I’ll try my best. 

This was my first try!  It didn’t look as pretty as I wanted it to.  It was supposed to be 4th of July themed with little hotdog fireworks.  I don’t think it was my knife, I think I need to work on my knifeskills.  The top pieces fit on top of the big container like this:

 and they have potato salad and watermelon.  No melon baller, I will get one for next time!

My name is Katie and I live in Columbus, OH.  I am a busy mom and a Physics Student.  I like to cook, walk around barefoot, garden, and play video games.  You will most often find me at home as I’m a homebody, but I do go out for bubble tea or to see my husband play drums in a band.

I am married to Phil.  He enjoys slawdogs, playing drums, sleeping, and playing with Violet.

We have a beatuiful daughter named Violet.  She is 10 months old in this picture, and she loves fishcakes, giggling, pulling the dog’s leg, and her daddy.