Tamagoyaki Sandwich is a popular choice for Japanese Bento lunch. Tamagoyaki, pan-fried egg, is a quick but delicious filling for sandwiches. Just make some eggs into a thick frittata-like shape, which takes no time, sandwich the eggs with bread slices, and that’s it. Oh – don’t forget to spread some Japanese mayo and Karashi hot mustard. That’s the key taste of this dish. Tangy Japanese mayonnaise and spicy mustard go very well with mild flavored cooked eggs. To build your Bento, pack your favorite vegetables and fruits to add more nutrition along with the sandwich. Choose colorful ones to please the eyes of your family. There are other easy and tasty sandwich recipes in our cook book Simply Bento: Delicious Box Lunch Ideas for Healthy Portions to Go. We have over 140 Bento recipes for both main and side dishes. SimplyBento is available online and at book stores.
Teriyaki Chicken Bento is a simple and easy Bento you can make for you and your family. Pan-fried chicken coated with a sweet and salty sauce is good hot and also at room temperature. It is a great dish for a Bento lunch. Chicken can be made the night ahead so that you can eat some for dinner and leave some for next day’s Bento. Just heat chicken up in the morning, and add lettuce and cherry tomatoes along with Steamed Rice in the Bento box. If you are an early bird, you can of course make the whole thing in the morning. This recipe is from our cook book Simply Bento: Delicious Box Lunch Ideas for Healthy Portions to Go. There are over 140 Bento recipes for both main and side dishes. SimplyBento is available online and at book stores.
Tako (octopus) Sausage is a sausage cut to look like an octopus and is often seen in children’s Bento lunches. This fun and cute dish is a favorite for kids, but tastes good enough for adults too.
Miso Eggplant and Shishito Peppers is a small side dish and goes very well with your steamed rice. It is very quick and easy to make in the last minutes, when you want to add one more vegetable dish to your meal.
Tamagoyaki is thin layers of eggs cooked and rolled into a log using a special rectangular Tamagoyaki pan. This neatly shaped Japanese omelette is a great side dish for any meal, but it is an especially wonderful addition to a Bento lunch since it’s good cold. You can mix in different flavors and ingredients to regular Tamagoyaki so that you don’t get tired of the same old taste (well, is that possible?). Here we added Benishoga, pickled red ginger, to one version to give a little spiciness and sourness. In another one, cooked spinach, was added to give a nice green color and extra nutritions. You can also try chopped ham, Aonori (dried green seaweed), or any meats and vegetables you like for variations. Play with it, and create your own original Tamagoyaki!
Soboro is ground meat cooked with seasonings such as Soy Sauce and sugar. You stir the meat as you cook it, breaking it up to form small pieces or pebbles, giving Soboro its typical appearance and texture. Soboro made from chicken is the most typical dish, but you can also use pork or some kinds of fish to make it.
As you can see from previous entries in our Bento Lunch series, Bento is a portable packed meal, usually eaten for lunch in Japan. You can buy bento at bento shops, convenience stores, grocery stores, train station shops – pretty much anywhere there. However, as we always say, the home-made kind is the best! And it’s not hard to make at all.
If you know you need to bring lunch the next day, just think ahead. Leave some food from dinner aside, and even prepare vegetables before you go to bed. It is busy in the morning for everyone, so keep the Bento making to a minimum in the morning.
We have Steamed Rice, Beef Roll Up with Vegetables, Tamagoyaki and Kabocha Salad in our Bento box this time. You could get Beef Roll Up prepared the night before, and it’s best to pan-fry the meat in the morning. Tamagoyaki doesn’t take long to make in the morning. Kabocha Salad should be made in advance. Add some lettuce for splash of color, and it also works as a divider between dishes. If you like, you can sprinkle black sesame seeds and salt on your Steamed Rice.
One thing you have to be careful about is the temperature: the wrong temperature may induce bacteria growth – yuck! You need to cool the Bento completely before you wrap it up. Also, raw fish or undercooked meat are not suitable for Bento. Try not to let it get too warm. You might want to use an ice pack during the summer. Treat your Bento like your ham sandwich.
For a container, you can use your old tupperware, of course, but there are tons of cute and cool Bento boxes you can get to show off your style out there. Some people also get really artistic and creative with how they cut and arrange food in the box. Faces, animals, nature scenes. Whatever makes you smile and hungry, pack it up – and don’t forget your chopsticks!
Beef Roll Up with Vegetables is pan-fried beef that is rolled up with vegetables inside. It is a great beef dish for dinner and also stays tasty cold in the lunch box.
When we cook beef in Japan, even though many of us like steaks and hamburgers just like in other countries, we most often use very thinly sliced meat. Thinly sliced beef is not only for Sukiyaki and Shabu Shabu either, but we use it for more casual everyday dishes such as Nikujaga. Paper thin beef is easy to use because it can be cooked through quickly and it’s softer and easier to chew.
Beef Roll Up seems to be hearty and beefy from outside, but actually not that much beef is used. Inside are a lot of vegetables, so it is quite healty. We used a carrot and green beans here, but you can choose other vegetables you like. Just cook them before rolling up. Seasoning in this recipe is a sweet and salty Teriyaki-like sauce, but you can simply use salt and pepper if you prefer.
Beef Roll Up is quick and easy to make, and strongly flavored beef is perfect with Steamed Rice. Try this for tonight’s dinner!
This is the second of our Bento menu series. Bento is a portable packed meal, usually eaten for lunch in Japan. You can buy bento at bento shops, convenience stores, grocery stores, train station shops – pretty much anywhere there. However, as we always say, the home-made kind is the best! And it’s not hard to make at all.
Bento is a portable packed meal, usually eaten for lunch in Japan. You can buy bento at bento shops, convenience stores, grocery stores, train station shops – pretty much anywhere there. However, as we always say, the home-made kind is the best! And it’s not hard to make at all.
If you know you need to bring lunch the next day, just think ahead. Leave some food from dinner aside, and even prepare vegetables before you go to bed. It is busy in the morning for everyone, so keep the Bento making to a minimum in the morning.
