Bento Buddy

Spicy Cucumber Guacamole Sushi Roll—Getting back into a school routine

You’d think that it would be harder for my girls to get back into their school routines, especially considering this is Bug’s first year of formal schooling as a kindergartner.

It’s picnic season! Are you as excited as I am? I love eating outdoors, whether it’s taking a picnic to the park, or sitting out in our backyard while Mr. Fuji grills up something amazing. Plus, we’ve got the Fourth of July coming up soon, which is a prime opportunity to serve a feast outside. […]

As I mentioned yesterday, I filmed a segment for Studio 5 that was all about onigiri. I had an absolute blast. Brooke Walker, the host, is a doll, and was a great sport making onigiri with me. The first time you make an onigiri, it usually falls apart (it takes one or two to learn […]

In her newest book, Weelicious Lunches, Catherine McCord covers just about every possible hurdle you might face in packing a lunch for your kids to take to school. Not only does she go over her “principles of the perfect lunch,” but she addresses how to stock your pantry to be better prepared to pack those […]

Did you know that it’s National Food Safety Month? Well, it is! I figured I’d talk a bit about food safety as it pertains to eggs, since I’m sharing one of my favorite egg snacks today. Actually I’m revisiting one of my favorite eggs snacks—shoyu tamago, or Japanese soy sauce eggs—hard boiled eggs that have […]

Now that we’re several weeks into the school year, all of my “fresh and fun” lunchbox ideas are starting to be not so fresh, meaning it’s time for me to hit the drawing board again and think up some new fun ideas for what to pack into Squirrel’s bento each day. While it would be […]

Here we are again, getting our kiddos ready to go back to school (or in our case, already back in school)! I always loved this time of year growing up. I loved starting the school year with a new outfit, new pencils, a new binder, etc. Now as a parent, I think it’s a great […]

Japanese style fried chicken, tori no karaage, or chicken karaage as I like to call it, is my favorite version of fried chicken, with the exception of Gus’s Fried Chicken in Memphis, Tennessee, which I became hopelessly addicted to while in law school. Chicken karaage has a light crispy outside and a moist, tender inside, rendering […]

Tamagoyaki (卵焼き), which translates literally to mean “grilled egg,” is a Japanese omelette made by rolling up many thin layers of cooked seasoned egg. Tamagoyaki is sweet and savory and is served for breakfast, as nigirizushi, and is very popular in bento lunches—so it is the perfect dish for my Bento Buddy series!

Happy Halloween everyone! I got up a bit earlier today so that I would have more time to pack Squirrel’s bento. I thought that her classmates might have less healthy foods than usual in their lunchboxes, due to the holiday, and so I wanted to make sure that I made Squirrel’s bento extra special, so […]

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