How can I find time to make these super-arty lunches

arkonite_babe

Well we had soup success today, hooray!

Dolphin sarnies and a few other bits and pieces for tomorrow

slash69

so annoyed my local mr t, mr s, mr c and mr m DO NOT stock japanese rice and none of them had heard of it and i've got no asian/oriental supermarket.....will have to look online now what a pain in the bum :mad:

arkonite_babe

Mr T online store has it if you can do a grocery shop (don't forget to check for voucher codes )

My local Mr T has it in the speciality food section along with things like nam pla thai fish sauce and oyster sauce.

Another online option to try is Wing Yip

Let me know how you get on

Starla

Mr S also has it online and my local one also has it in the speciality section - hope you manage to track some down.

carolinosourus

Don't know if this has already been mentioned but I was on the Lakeland website and saw that they had dinosaur sandwich cutters!

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/dino-cutter/F/keyword/dinosaur/product/12908

slash69

morning all, weeeeeeeeelllllllllllll it's here :T:T dd's bento box has just been delivered but at the moment she's in shock lol it's really dinky :eek: (ordered the pink 2 tiered one from the japan centre) also 2 egg moulds (eggs are on the boil as i type) and 2 rice moulds.will have to see if the one i ordered from france is a bit bigger for her...(better not be i wnted that one )

on the rice front i rang local sainsbury's to have a winge and spoke to a really helpful girl who has located 2 bags of rice and is holding them for me :j:j so this afternoon we will be having a trial run with her bento.

thanx AB love the web site you put on and starla for your help and carolinosaurus love the dino sandwich cutter but think dd will draw the line at that one lol, maybe if they do other designs i could get away with it.have seen somewhere think it may have beenAB'S blog a combined sandwich cutter and sealer but think it's from the u.s (typical).
oh whilst i think on it AB any idea where i can get the nori face punches from and a bigger bento box lol.

arkonite_babe

If you want to go all out you can buy nori punches from Jbox:
http://www.jbox.com/SEARCH/nori_punch
I found nice ones though in my local Tesco, in the bit where all the stationery and craft bits are. They were mini shape punches, no faces though, 3 in a pack for £1.
To make faces all you need is a regular hole punch to do the round circles and a sharp pair of scissors to cut other shapes.

larger boxes, ummmmm, I did warn you that they were small

Most boxes are around 350 - 500ml capacity.

Some good reading advice.....

Lunch In A Box - Top Tips

Just Bento - Bento Basics

The two sites above are brilliant, they have advice on choosing boxes, packing, speed tips and what to pack ideas.

happy reading!!

baby_fuzz

slash69 wrote: »

so annoyed my local mr t, mr s, mr c and mr m DO NOT stock japanese rice and none of them had heard of it and i've got no asian/oriental supermarket.....will have to look online now what a pain in the bum :mad:

Have you tried asking for sushi rice instead? often it comes from USA (one of the most popular brands, Nishiki).
Here are a few places you can try if you are still having trouble finding it:
http://www.waiyeehong.com/
http://www.japancentre.com/
http://www.japanesekitchen.co.uk/

baby_fuzz

don't know if anyone has posted this one yet, but this blog is also great for ideas of bento for kiddies::D
http://maisieeatsbento.blogspot.com/

Triker

Aha...found you all, I love Bento and [STRIKE]became alarmingly obsessed[/STRIKE] 'discovered' it a while ago.:D

I use the lock and lock 4 compartment boxes which are a great size for us. I got mine for £4.99 from Boyes.

I also have the piggy and bunny egg moulds but sadly DD2 wasn't keen on the eggs being cold, which of course devastated me because they were gorgeous and therefore must be delicious.:rotfl:

I'll see if I can post a pic of one of my efforts.