Make A Bento Box Lunch!

... a traditional Japanese lunch box container.

... a multi-item mid-day meal, offering a mix of flavors, colors and temperatures.

Bento boxes are fast becoming popular as a lunchtime option. The small meals offer lots of variety and can be created from very healthy ingredients. Tired of sandwiches and brown paper bags? Try a Bento Box!

Onigiri are shaped rice balls that are easy to make and are a standard in Japanese lunches! In their most simple form, they are just cooked and seasoned rice, wrapped with a narrow strip of nori. Most often the rice is stuffed with some other flavor, a bit of cooked meat or vegetable, or an umeboshi plum.

• 1 lb medium grain white rice
• salt
• water
• nori (dried seaweed sheets)
• sesame seeds, toasted (optional)
• fillings - see below for suggestions

1. Cook the rice and let it cool to the point where you can touch it without burning your hands.
2. Wash your hands, leaving them wet, then rub your hands with salt. This keeps the rice from sticking to your hands too much.

3. Take a palmful of rice (anywhere from 1/4 C to 1/2 C) and shape it into a ball, a triangular ball or a cylinder (see instructions below).
4. To fill - press a hole into the ball with your fingers, fill with desired stuffing and press closed again.

5. Finish by wrapping witha narrow strip of nori (trim down full sheets), or sprinkling on toasted seeds.

Flavorings/Stuffings

• Onigiri can be flavored by mixing spices with the rice before it's shaped or by sprinkling it with vinegar. Once shaped, it can be sprinkeld with or rolled in sesame seeds (light or dark) afterwards
• Fill with grilled and flaked fish, cooked beef or pork shreds, umeboshi (pickled plums), bonito flakes, cod roe, chopped vegetables and just about anything you like.

Bento boxes are starting to undergo the exploration and experimentation that sushi did back in the 1980s. As the concept becomes popular, people start to play with the ideas and they make their own bento box variations.

1. Rice - steamed or fried, this is a mainstay of the bento box.
2. Noodles - I like lunchtime noodles to be thinner and lighter than dinner noodles. Soba, rice noodles or even angel hair pasta is a good choice.

3. Meat or fish - small portions of entrees leftover from dinner can be a great addition in your bento box. Foods that can be eaten without reheating are the best.
4. Fruit - the compartments of a bento box let you bring along tasty fruit tidbits that might otherwise get squashed in a paper bag.

5. Crackers - rice crackers can add a more traditional taste to your bento box

6. Sauces - Having sauce in a little container that can be heated in a microwave and then poured over rice or noodles is a good option.

If you have a container that has stacking sections, remember to pack hot items on top and cold on the bottom to help them stay that way!