Make everything you need at one time, store and refrigerate, then fill your box with delicious goodies until exhausted.
Rinse and repeat every week.
Use eggs. Cheap and good protein. Use rice. Also cheap. Daikon also cheap. For fun throw in a single tiny lonely cherry tomato and a squeeze of mayo. I think you just saved yourself 500 yen
Main bento strategy I use is to just make extra of anything I am cooking, and then use leftovers heavily for lunches. If I’m making 2 peoples worth of chicken, I just cook 4 or 5 servings instead. Cut it into bento-friendly sized slices, store in a container, and then use for bento toppings.
Same with rice, always make twice as much as we need.
I always have big containers of stuff that make good bento sides in the fridge. We use them for dinner as well of course, but stuff like kimchi and takuan are flavorful, healthy, easy to add, and store for a long time.
Keep any mayo, sauce, soy sauce, ketchup etc. you get from take out or conbini meals and keep them in the fridge. Use a store bought big bottle while eating at home, then use the take out packets for when you need some extra flavor for a meal.
If you want low-effort, figure out which super market near you has the cheapest frozen foods. You shouldn’t store buy everything, but its good to have a few laying around to use in a pinch or to compliment with some other sides you have. It’s not uncommon that the same thing that is 200y at a normal supermarket will be 170~180 at the cheap place. Not a huge difference but it adds up over time.
I just bring a peanut butter sandwich, a banana, and some kind of vegetable almost every day. Takes like two minutes to prepare and is cheap.
This is what I used to do
* get five microwaveable bento boxes, fill the rice part with rice and keep them in the freezer * put aside some of the dinner for bento, and put them in the bento box along with frozen bento food I got on sale * next morning take the frozen bento to work and microwave it at work
different types of furikake and nori make good additions
Kanesue silken tofu: 37 yen after tax = 185 yen per week.
Take 5 packs to work on a Monday, leave them in the fridge.
No soy sauce. No ginger. Just tofu.
Rice with a sunny side up egg on top with some soy sauce and hot sauce is my go to easy lunch.
Today was chuuka bento – shredded cabbage with coleslaw dressing, pickled veg, hardboiled eggs, suigyoza, chopped celery and random cheese drizzled with ponzu and olive oil, and leftover mabodofu.
Another easy bento – yakiudon with cabbage, carrot, onion, random meat seasoned with oyster sauce.
Get a book on 10 minute bentos from a bookstore or the library. Lots of hacks.
I used to just make a little extra for dinner, and pack it.
Katsuobushi adds flavor and soaks up extra veggie juices. Excellent with spinach, broccoli, cauliflower.
The Japanese egg roll can be stuffed with different things, is delicious, and keeps very well.
10 comments
Batch cooking.
Make everything you need at one time, store and refrigerate, then fill your box with delicious goodies until exhausted.
Rinse and repeat every week.
Use eggs. Cheap and good protein. Use rice. Also cheap. Daikon also cheap. For fun throw in a single tiny lonely cherry tomato and a squeeze of mayo. I think you just saved yourself 500 yen
Main bento strategy I use is to just make extra of anything I am cooking, and then use leftovers heavily for lunches. If I’m making 2 peoples worth of chicken, I just cook 4 or 5 servings instead. Cut it into bento-friendly sized slices, store in a container, and then use for bento toppings.
Same with rice, always make twice as much as we need.
I always have big containers of stuff that make good bento sides in the fridge. We use them for dinner as well of course, but stuff like kimchi and takuan are flavorful, healthy, easy to add, and store for a long time.
Keep any mayo, sauce, soy sauce, ketchup etc. you get from take out or conbini meals and keep them in the fridge. Use a store bought big bottle while eating at home, then use the take out packets for when you need some extra flavor for a meal.
If you want low-effort, figure out which super market near you has the cheapest frozen foods. You shouldn’t store buy everything, but its good to have a few laying around to use in a pinch or to compliment with some other sides you have. It’s not uncommon that the same thing that is 200y at a normal supermarket will be 170~180 at the cheap place. Not a huge difference but it adds up over time.
I just bring a peanut butter sandwich, a banana, and some kind of vegetable almost every day. Takes like two minutes to prepare and is cheap.
This is what I used to do
* get five microwaveable bento boxes, fill the rice part with rice and keep them in the freezer
* put aside some of the dinner for bento, and put them in the bento box along with frozen bento food I got on sale
* next morning take the frozen bento to work and microwave it at work
different types of furikake and nori make good additions
Kanesue silken tofu: 37 yen after tax = 185 yen per week.
Take 5 packs to work on a Monday, leave them in the fridge.
No soy sauce. No ginger. Just tofu.
Rice with a sunny side up egg on top with some soy sauce and hot sauce is my go to easy lunch.
Today was chuuka bento – shredded cabbage with coleslaw dressing, pickled veg, hardboiled eggs, suigyoza, chopped celery and random cheese drizzled with ponzu and olive oil, and leftover mabodofu.
Another easy bento – yakiudon with cabbage, carrot, onion, random meat seasoned with oyster sauce.
Get a book on 10 minute bentos from a bookstore or the library. Lots of hacks.
I used to just make a little extra for dinner, and pack it.
Katsuobushi adds flavor and soaks up extra veggie juices. Excellent with spinach, broccoli, cauliflower.
The Japanese egg roll can be stuffed with different things, is delicious, and keeps very well.