Bento Box Snack Prep Ideas (2024)

FAQs

What are 10 foods often found in bento? ›

Some potential proteins you can add to your bento box include chicken, beef, pork, seafood, and eggs. Fruits and Vegetables - Sliced fruits and vegetables are often included in bento boxes as a side to the main course.

The concept is simple: defining a weekly menu or meal plans and preparing all the lunch boxes in advance. Cook two or three types of vegetables, starches and proteins, add some seasonal fruit, a yogurt or a piece of homemade cake for dessert and divide everything into your bento boxes. And, that's it!

Perhaps the most common side dish ingredient used in bento are eggs. Eggs used in bento are cooked in many different ways: tamagoyaki (omelet strips or squares typically cooked with salt and sugar), sunny-side-up eggs, scrambled eggs, omelets with many different kinds of filling, and even boiled eggs.

A traditional bento box is carefully balanced, consisting of rice, fish, or meat, and pickled or cooked vegetables – embodying the principle of "ichi-juu-san-sai" (one soup, three sides).

Always start packing a bento box with the rice.

I've put the rice in the smaller compartment, since I'm watching my calories (normally in Japan the larger compartment is used for rice).

Popular bento ingredients

Popular items inside a Japanese bento box include: Fish or meat (usually in the form of meatballs, karaage, katsu, sausages, etc.) Pickled or precooked vegetables (Salad, broccoli, carrots, bean sprouts, edamame, mini tomatos, etc.)

In part, you can recognize a bento cake by its size: They are typically around 4 inches in diameter, though occasionally they can be as large as 6 or even 8 inches.

The bento box holds about 38 ounces, so there's plenty of space for lunch or dinner, making it a versatile box for kids and adults alike.

You usually will also find a slice of grilled fish (salmon or other kinds), and pickles. Some kind of seaweed is also possible, and sometimes vegetables. A slice of Japanese omelet is also common. Other types of bento can be made with fried chicken (karaage), fried pork cutlet (tonkatsu), and meat.

Can you put pasta in a bento box? ›

Bento Boxes (Lunch Boxes)

I use thermal lunch boxes for warm food like pasta and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Say goodbye to boring school lunches with this DIY Yogurt Parfait Bento Box! Filled with yogurt, berries, walnuts and grains, this deconstructed yogurt parfait is a fun back to school lunch your kids can arrange themselves.

The main dish can be anything from dumplings, to fried chicken, to fish while the side dish can be anything like a simple salad. It is important that the obento not only consist of meat, but also of green and nutritious vegetables.

Bento box; named after the Japanese lunch box that packs meals into neat sections, a bento menu is a menu with gridded items. It provides an overview of multiple items at once.

The bento box emoji, 🍱, represents a traditional Japanese boxed lunch, called a bento box, or a meal at a Japanese restaurant in the same style.