My Bento Shopping Loot

So I never shared my bento shopping loot with you guys. I have made changes to the my bento supplies since then but I'd like to share all the things I purchased in San Francisco in February.

The pink and black boxes I've actually given to my nieces since I took this picture. The little green box I liked so well I purchased another green one and two pink and tan boxes as well. I'll share all that with you in another post. I'm discovering what I like in the bento world and shopping at Ichiban Kan (see the side bar for a link to their online store) made it affordable to try different size boxes.

The chop sticks were suppose to fit into the black bento box (under the lid) but for some reason they didn't. I gave them along with the black bento box to my niece Kelsey (who turned 14 yesterday btw.) The another utensil set I liked so well I ordered a tan and pink set. Again, I share all that later on another post.

On the left we have rice shapers which I use to make rice balls with. The items on the right are egg molds which are turn your hard boiled eggs (you have to purchase the small ones) into wonderful little shapes. Even my husband likes these and takes them to work. I've since added to the my egg molds and now I have a bunny, bear, car and fish.

The fish and car egg molds.

Food picks. The animals ones went over so well with my nieces Brittnee and Kelsey that I purchased them their own sets.

Silicon food cups for keeping the food separated in colorful reusable ways.

Sauce and spice containers. The little penguin and the monkey are also favorites of my nieces.

More little sauce containers. I use most of them for soy sauce but I've also used two of the flying pigs and two of the tomato head containers to store salt & pepper.

Seaweed punch to make a smilie face and also two bento bands to hold the boxes together.

Inside one of the malls in Japan Town close to the Ichiban Kan store.

Another shot inside the mall.

Well, I can't believe it has been almost two months since my trip. I really had such a good time. Often think of how much I miss living so close to San Francisco and of course I'm already planning my next trip in July.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

Shopping in San Francisco

A picture of San Francisco Chinatown between the rain drops. The background photo on my desktop is a photo similar to this one.

I'm in California for a little trip and so I went shopping in San Francisco. San Francisco is one of my favorite places. It was a beautiful rainy day on President's Day (Monday, February 16th) in San Francisco. My friend April and I got a little wet. It didn't bother me one bit. April was such a sport. We walked all over Chinatown. I was looking for a clock with the Chinese numbers on the face. I couldn't find one so I will probably make my own.

I was also looking for a movie I haven't been able to get on Netfilx or Blockbuster. The movie is "Unforgettable Regret." It has my favorite Hong Kong actress Sammi Cheng http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammi_Cheng (she is also a big pop star.) My usual DVD/CD store had closed down in Chinatown so I had to find a new one. The girls working in the new shop hadn't heard of the movie. I tried explaining as much as I could about the movie. Times like this I wish I knew how to speak Chinese. Of course they probably speak Cantonese and I'm learning Mandarin. Anyway, after 30 minutes of looking for the movie with some pop music blaring that I wasn't that fond of I told April we should probably go....and then there it was... one little copy of the movie hidden behind some other movies. Of course the girls were "Oh, that movie!" The girls were great though and after I found the movie they were so chatty but of course I could only understand half of what they said. I'll probably watch the movie sometime this week. Sammi is known as the Lucille Ball of Hong Kong cinema. This is not one of her comedies but I'm sure I will love it. There are many actors I really like in the movie.

Poster of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I wish I could get the poster for my friend Kris. She loves Hello Kitty.


One of the biggest highlights of yesterday was bento shopping in Japan town of San Francisco. I went nuts inside of Ichiban Kan store. I found all the information about shopping on the Lunch-in-box website http://lunchinabox.net/. This was posted on the website as the $1.50 type store of Japan town and indeed most everything was around $1.50. I got a shopping bag filled with accessories for bento boxes and a few bento boxes. It was so much fun. I can't wait to go shopping there again. I must have been in the store at least an hour. I'll share my shopping loot with you on another post.




Until Next Time. . . . .



Kathleen

The American Bento Box

Here is a new bento bag that I got for Christmas. Well, really my husband purchased me some perfume for Christmas that I was allergic to and I took it back and got this bag. Technically it is still a Christmas present though.

I had actually noticed these bags when I was purchasing my husbands Christmas present at Paddington Station in Ashland. I wanted one then but you know - I was shopping for him so I put it out of my mind even though I went back 4 or 5 times to look at it. I liked this one out of all of them as it seemed like it would hold everything I wanted. It is a Mario Batali bag and this one cost $20.00. Part of the money from the bags helps fight against world hunger. You can find out more at http://www.thelunchboxauction.org/ They had other great ones. One of them looked like a smart black purse. It was $29.00. Even though that was the exact price of the perfume that I had credit for I wasn't sure it would hold as much so - the green bag it was. Maybe I will purchase the black bag when I get my eating down to bird size - Ha! That will never happen.

The green bag accommodates what I like to call my American Bento box. This is a Fit and Trim lunch box that I purchased at a local grocery store. I've also seen them for sale at Target. I think I paid around $7.98 for it. So here is a lunch from last week with my star molded rice. One of the small containers has a lentil Indian sauce and then I put my hummus and carrots in the other small container.

This little ice block keeps the small container away from the rice and keeps the food chilled.

It fits nicely in the bag and I have room for my silverware and napkin.

Until Next Time. . . .

Kathleen

Bento Supply Shopping At Sunrise Asian Food Market

Just the thought of Sunrise Asian Food Market in Eugene Oregon is enough to make me want to move there. There are many things I like about Eugene and Sunrise is one of the top things on the list. I've been known to take the 2-1/2 hour trip north just for shopping at Sunrise and Trader Joe's.

Being true to their name, Sunrise carries food items from all over Asia. Some of the aisles are dominated by foods from a particular region in Asia. Thailand, India, Japan, China and Korea are the ones which readily come to mind.

They also have lots of bento making accessories from food jars, rice makers, dishes and just about anything you could want. My favorite pair of chop sticks in a case were purchased at Sunrise years ago. On my last trip I purchased various rice molds (remember my heart and star rice molds.) Years ago I purchase a mold to make my own California rolls. Which do on occasion usually in the cooler months of the year.

Here are many varieties of the seasoned soybean pockets I stuff with rice for breakfast. They have an impressive produce area. Their deli area has the largest rice cooker I have ever seen in my life. Next time I will make sure to get a picture of that.

Many soybean cakes and various varieties of moochie (not sure if I spelled that right.) The owners of the store are very friendly and helpful. So if you are in the area stop by and tell them I suggested it.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

Bento Lunch

I'm still trying to work out breakfast but this week I am focusing on lunch. Since I'm trying to save a little money and watch what I eat - I've decided to work on Bento Boxes.



This bento box is going to be for salads. I keep the greens on the bottom under the ice ring and my salad dressing in the little container. I put canned Salmon in the little container to the left. The top of the box is where I put my mid-morning snack.

I used a hair band I got from the dollar store to attach my small container of salmon. Then I have Mandarin orange slices and another small container of almonds.

I put the whole thing in this cute bag. My bentos are not that exciting yet. I do want to get into the fancy ones with Eiffel Tower shapes and all but for a start here we go. So please leave me a comment telling me what is your favorite packed lunch. I'm listening as I need lots of ideas to get up to fifteen lunch ideas.

Thank you sister Suzy (she is my sister and not a nun) for signing up to follow my blog. As I suspected my blog must be very dull as I only have one follower. Not that I don't appreciate you Suzy as I do believe me - I really do. You don't have to be a blogger to follow my blog. My sister Suzy doesn't have a blog - not yet anyway.

Until Next Time . . . . .

Kathleen

I bought a Rice Cooker

I've been doing soup and rice for breakfast so I purchased this rice cooker. I can't believe how much better the rice is - it is so fluffy and the grains are so long. Didn't know what I was missing. I got this rice cooker from Costco for $29.99. You can get smaller ones from Walmart or Target but this one had a delay timer which I like. The rice cookers will keep your rice warm after cooking.

This is a bento of some rice pockets I took one day to lunch but I've since started eating about three pockets with rice with my soup for breakfast. This bento has hummus which I got from costco in these cute little packages. I usually eat the hummus with a small bag of carrots for a snack. There is also a little soy bean filled rice cake -a small sweet. The small bottle on top of the rice pockets is filled with more of the sprinkles which are already on top of the pockets. I'll tell you more about that next week when I do bentos for lunch. I'll also take a picture of how I've been doing the pockets for breakfast sometimes with a little shrimp and a spicy sauce. I use to purchase those type of pockets from a market for breakfast but now I do my own. The little blue ring in the back is an ice ring.

Here is my little bento box all put together. I got this one at the thrift store for .99 - I guess it is missing a few items such as a little container which fits in the middle and the utensil on top. But for 99 cents I can live without that.

The missing container would go in the middle of the ring.

This is what the pockets look like when I purchase them from the Asian market.

These are also some rice presses I got as the Asian market in Eugene (will have a post on that next week.) It is fun to press the rice into shapes to give the food a different look.

I've been eating Progresso Soups for breakfast. I've purchased some miso stock so I will branch out next week to making miso soup.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

Mom said not to play with your food but. . .

A friend of mine at work sent me this link about Bento boxes http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/bento I just think this is the coolest thing. All of the pictures below are from this link. I've been thinking a lot about Bento boxes because....I've got a few pounds to lose (could that be cousin Keith why there are no new pictures of me on this site.) I was thinking how it could help with portion control and make eating fun. Well, now I'm hooked so sorry Mom but I think it is time to play with my food.

I collect Eiffel Towers so this is one of my favorite. This was done by a true artist Sakurako Kitsa check out her site http://sakurakokitsa.blogspot.com/

Green Eggs & Ham - I'm not so sure I would want to eat this but how cute is that!

Snoopy - On our instant message at work I usually have a Snoopy or an Anime Character from Gintama for my picture. I'll tell you a story about meeting Charles Schulz one day. He was my Hero!

This one is for Jeanine - she loves Halloween.

Wouldn't your Star Wars fan love to have this for lunch??

Now this is art people - too beautiful to eat

Look at the bananas - this is actually a container to hold sauces. The little monkey also holds sauces. And look at the tiny Monkey head that is a food pick (in case you were wondering.)

And this one is for my friend Kris - who loves Hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty and a Panda

Now wouldn't that make you smile getting this for your Birthday lunch?

Now the bunny on the left is a boiled egg which has been put into a mold (we will get to that later.)

Breakfast Bento Boxes

Yes you can even take breakfast all packed up - I know I do sometimes.

This looks like one my husband would have made.

This little monkey is a sauce pots - isn't it cute. I bet it holds syrup.

Regular Lunch Bentos for the Regular folks like us

So I know what your thinking that all that stuff is cute but lets get real. Well here are some everyday type bento boxes for us regular folks.

Now this doesn't look that difficult to make but think of how it would bring a smile to the face of who ever opened their lunch box to this.

Little bear is also a sauce pot. I could see giving this one to my husband.

Or even this one.

These little hot dogs are great!

Look at the little bottles these are sauces bottles. Yes, I know that you are thinking that I know way too much about this stuff.

Cheetos - see you can put anything in there.

Websites of Knowledge

The website http://lunchinabox.net/ has lots of great information about Bento building such as shaping rice into shapes.

They also have information about how to freeze the rice shapes for faster Bento building.

Tools of the Trade

Lunch in a box has great links for purchasing your tools for the trade. I really enjoyed J-List which I will be purchasing supplies from soon. http://www.jbox.com/

Now this is one box I would love to own.

Food picks.

Sauce containers.

Plastic food cups - to keep foods separated.

Not very green but disposable food cups.

Egg & Food Molds

More sauce containers.

And look at all these tools for Bento

Now this is my sort of organization. I want a box full of stuff like this!

Until Next Time

Kathleen