Kawaii Bento Boxes: Cute and Convenient Japanese Meals on the Go Paperback – September 1, 2009

I first attempted making lunch for my 2 daughters and myself bento style about 3 years ago. I started by following bento blogs like Just Bento and Lunch in a Box. Both are great resources, but when it came to putting together 3 lunches everyday, I ran out of inspiration (and time). My lunches ended up usually just being leftovers from dinner the night before, which is boring even it it's served in a cute lunch box. I stopped making lunch because this school year we moved to a district with better lunch offerings, and the kids wanted to buy lunch instead of taking it. A couple weeks ago my 11 year old mentioned that she usually got pizza and french fries instead of the daily lunch offering, and I decided it was high time to dust off my collection of bento boxes and get cooking.I have several traditional bento cookbooks, and though they're lovely to look at, I very rarely use them for lunch recipes. This book, however, was a game changer. The pictures and menus give me ideas for combinations that are tasty together, easy to make, and pleasingly attractive. One photo showed thinly sliced beef rolled around green beans and carrot sections. Grocery stores don't have steak sliced as thinly as shown in the book, but breakfast steaks pounded to death with a meat tenderizer worked great. Inspired by the photos, I used leftover taco meat and Mexican rice to make a staggeringly inauthentic (but yummy) version of fried rice, served with a hard boiled egg, corn with blanched spinach, cherry tomatoes stuffed with cheese, and fruit.I don't know how good this book will be for a beginning cook, as the recipes can be sparse on specifics like temperature and cooking times, and some require ingredients that may not be stocked at your local grocery store. I'd still recommend it as a good resource. I'm not going to be decorating my onigiri with pretty little seaweed faces any time soon, but the overall quality and variety in my lunches had taken a huge leap forward, thanks to this book. My daughters love their lunches and both have said that their friends are jealous of the food they're getting.

I live in Japan so I can get all the ingredients listed which makes this book extremely convenient for me. My daughter pretty much took onigiri (rice balls) or some form of rice for lunch her entire first year in youchien (preschool). Now she's asking me for stuff she sees her friends bringing to school so I wanted to get a bento cook book in English. I am so happy I got this one! First of all, my two daughters look at this book daily to point out things they want to try or to determine the following day's menu. They've even put tabs of paper in each page that has something they want to eat (which means there is a tab on nearly every page). Granted a lot of this is Japanese style food and may be way to out of the ordinary for the average American. My daughter is an extremely picky eater and has stepped out of her comfort zone and eaten things she wouldn't normally since using this cookbook.A word of caution, each recipe lists how long it will take to make but I find them to be off. It doesn't include time it takes to cook rice and other important steps. Also, if you are a novice like me it takes a lot longer to make some of the details. Second, it uses ingredients that aren't exactly common in America. Quail eggs are at all the stores here, but I can't think of ever seeing them in America.I have included pictures of 5 different bentos I made last week with notes on the pictures. This will give you an idea of some of the recipes in the book. Also, I mix and match recipes based on what I have fresh in the kitchen. If you are thinking about moving away from the standard American lunch then I would definitely look into Kawaii Bento Boxes, everyone in this house loves it!

We're currently living in Tokyo, and I am interested in dabbling with making bento. The stores here sell AMAZING products to aid in the creation of bento, but as my kanji is not the best, buying a Japanese bento cookbook is out of the question. This cookbook, a faithful English translation of a Japanese cookbook, offers authentic recipes, great photographs, and straight-forward instructions for beginning and more experienced bento makers. Some ingredients might not be so easy to find in the US, but I think that is just something an American cook has to accept. The back of the book offers conversion tables for measurements, and the entire book is organized nicely (and easy to read!). I can't wait to begin! Kentaro Kobayashi's Bento Love is also an excellent English language cookbook. His entire "Easy Japanese Cooking" is excellent for people who wish to try making truly authentic Japanese dishes without too much fuss. Kobayashi's bento book is better for people who are interested in satisfying (not cutesy) bento, so I bought both books to have a good balance of practical, "adult" bento and cuter "kid" bento recipes/ideas.

I bought this book for recipes and inspiration; and it is full of them. On the first few pages the book shows you an array of boxes and decorating tools, and how to pack a bento. Some of the ingredients are hard to come by ( such as 'fishcakes'), but with a little common sense, recipes can easily be tweaked.There were a few complaints of the book calling for fried and processed meats (lunch meats and mini hotdogs). In the books defense; the portions are small, and the fried/fatty foods are always paired with fruit and veggies. Also, in terms of the processed meat; there are low fat and vegan options available in most grocery stores! Like I said, recipes can be tweaked with common sense.This is defiantly a good book to add to your bento book collection. I give it 4/5 stars because the book is a little bit cluttered, which can make it confusing at times.