Bento Buddy

Nutritious Kid-Approved Lunchbox Ideas from Lisa Drayer

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 […]

1. Last weekend we took the girls to see the movie The Croods. Have you seen it? We loved it. Mr. Fuji and I were laughing right along with the girls the whole time. Afterwards we went outside the theater where there’s a huge fountain, and the girls insisted on stopping so they could sit on its […]

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 […]

Halloween is right around the corner and we’re in full spook mode here at the Fuji house! Our friend Lucy is also enjoying her favorite season, and this month we’re serving up a spooky snack to celebrate: Spider Dogs with Chipotle Ketchup Webs.

Packing a bento day in and day out requires a bit of thought, unless you want to end up in a rut, packing the same thing in your bento box every day. But part of the buddy system is helping each other get out of that rut, right? Here are some ideas to get you […]

So you want to pack a bento, but before you start you need to make sure you have something to pack it in! There are a lot of choices out there, and knowing what to pick can be a bit confusing if you’ve never packed a bento before. But don’t worry, with a few simple […]

180 days—the typical number of days our children attend school each year in the US, and therefore, also the approximate number of lunches they will eat away from home each year. That means that school lunch makes up approximately 16% of our children’s nutritional intake each year. How much of our time spent meal planning […]

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