Welcome to my new series: Bento! Bento (弁当, bentō), or most of us would say Obento (“o” for honorific term), is a single-portion home-packed meal or takeout. I debated the idea whether to start this bento series the whole summer. The reason is that I wouldn’t call myself a “bento expert” and I don’t think I am creative or artistic enough to make character bentos that kids are crazy about. However, I became inspired by many amazing bentos that talented bloggers shared and now that I need to pack my son’s lunch everyday, I decided to share my “normal” bento that he loves on Just One Cookbook.
I hope my SIMPLE bento can inspire some of you to make healthy and delicious lunch for your loved ones and I hope you will enjoy taking this journey with me. You might see a super cute character bento on my blog one day (or maybe not…haha).
I want to briefly mention that I’m making this bento for my 6-year-old son who started 1st grade this year. The goal is to just pack enough food for him to try finishing his lunch during the 30-minute lunch break. He’s a slow eater (did I spoil him at home?), and most days he cannot finish his whole lunch box. So please keep in mind that my bento is made specifically for my son’s need. Now let’s begin!
Previous Dinner was:
Lunch Next Day:
- Tonkatsu Bento
- A medium size box of fruits: chopped up apples, golden kiwis, and oranges.
- Water bottle
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Tonkatsu Bento
Ingredients
- cooked Japanese short-grain rice (enough to fill half of your bento box)
- tonkatsu (pre-made; leftovers work well; see how to make my Tonkatsu or Baked Tonkatsu recipes)
- tonkatsu sauce (you can make my homemade Tonkatsu Sauce recipe)
- cherry tomatoes
- lettuce
- red radish
- broccoli (pre-blanched; see Notes; see how to freeze blanched vegetables for bento ahead of time)
- salad dressing (of your choice; you can make Japanese salad dressing or yuzu dressing at home)
Instructions
- Before You Start: For the steamed rice, please note that ¾ cup (150 g, 1 rice cooker cup) of uncooked Japanese short-grain rice yields 2¼ US cups (330 g) of cooked white rice. See how to cook short-grain rice with a rice cooker, pot over the stove, Instant Pot, or donabe.
- Fill up half of the bento box with cooked Japanese short-grain rice. Let it cool so that the hot/warm rice will not warm up the other cool food.
- Meanwhile, take out your leftover tonkatsu from the refrigerator and bake it for a few minutes in a toaster oven until it‘s warm.
- Place the tonkatsu on top of the cooling rice and drizzle tonkatsu sauce on top (or put it in a separate sauce container).
- Wash the cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and red radish and pat dry. Cut if necessary. Place nicely in the bento box along with some blanched broccoli.
- Pour salad dressing in a sauce container (I bought at a local Daiso, a Japanese dollar shop).
- Let the contents cool down completely before closing the bento box.
Notes
Nutrition
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