I used to pack bento boxes quite regularly in college but over the past few years I got out of the habit. Last night while trying to not focus on the fact I had used up all my calories for the day I went all out and packed a really fancy bento lunch: 3 rice balls (one with a face and 2 decorated with carrot rabbit cut outs); curried zuchinni, carrots and onions; green beans in a mustard and pepper glaze; black grapes; lf cheese; 2 mini sausages and a boiled egg. It came out to 750 calories which is more than I would normally eat for lunch (hey I was really hungry last night!) but most of that was the rice and I still have plenty of room left over for dinner in my plan.

I'm just wondering if anybody else uses bento and if they've noticed if it helps or not.

Advantages: Limited room. Makes you feel like you have more food. The decorations make even simple dishes seem special. Smaller areas are easily filled with small fruits or vegetables.

Disadvantages: The temptation to pack extra food in if you have the room. I really should have gone with a smaller box last night but since I used a larger one I ended up adding some grapes and the boiled egg. The temptation to put treat foods in it (my favorite bento addtion is tempura).

I would love to - but I depend on huge portions of low calorie foods to stay satiated. I love this post though - so creative!

http://ideabutter.com/creative-bento-box/

A few years ago I was addicted to looking at pictures of bento boxes online. I've never gotten into it myself, but thought about it many times.

Your post had me looking at pictures for a while again today, and I think I've decided to get one of the Laptop Lunch boxes. They're plastic bento-ish boxes with removable inner containers that are microwavable and dishwasher safe. There's a flickr photo pool for these things that has some awesome pictures.

I don't do it but I would like to. It is soo creative! I love checking out sites about bento.

Yeah I absolutely don't do the fancy ones. I tried to make one once and quite frankly it just didn't taste that good. :P I will cut out vegetable slices with cute little cutters though and use the nori face punch that my friend got me in Japan to make faces to put on rice and it goes in a really cute box. For instance today I had green beans, scrambled egg with soy sauce and carrots on a bed of rice just lying side by side so it was all covered by those 3 colors. It's really tasty and simple. I need to find my chopsticks though because it goes so fast with the fork.

Thanks for this post! Although, I really couldn't care less about decorating my food (although it does look fun), the laptop lunch box is exactly what I have been looking for. I just ordered what they called a laptop lunch system. Kind of expensive, but perfect for portioning. ;-)

I bento, too. My advice for that temptation to pack more with the extra room is to pack veggies in all that space. This way your not really busting your diet, but seeing the box (or even plate for that matter) will make you feel more satisfied.

I always pack my lunch and sometimes I do make it a bento-style lunch. I want to pick up some stainless steel bento boxes. I love brown rice onigiri! Yum.

Have you ever seen this site:

http://www.bentotv.com/

They are really cool!

I do on occasion but 2x per week I pack one for my 2.5 year old! I actually LOVE packing them for him and he has gotten to the point now he will go to the drawer I keep his boxes in and choose the one he wants for the day! I am bidding on a hamburger one on ebay...lol

I pack them for myself when I need one but not as much as for G as I dont work outside the home (yet). I dont think I would go all fancy on mine though.. I have a couple of blogs I love to look at but its kids stuff..

Oh and I pack one for my husband A LOT!

I just take plain old leftovers in my bento box. I love it for portion control! Here's a whole flickr group full of ideas http://www.flickr.com/groups/laptop_lunches/

And this is my other favorite website for ideas http://www.laptoplunches.com/ideas.html

I'm with cassieroll. I bento, but do not have the time to get fancy. thankfully i have a tiny yet cute luch bag (it barely holds a man's bento box). I put veggies in the larger bottom level, grains (rice or quinoa or the like) in the smaller top level and with it i pack a yogurt, and a 8oz container of fruit.

I use to bento every day for me and my BF! we never got fancy but it was still a great way to portion control. Recently my BF just purchased a few bento "Tools" Cutters, shapers, rice ball molds, punches to make faces from kelp and such from a Japanese web site. All this plus a fancy set of metal collapsible chopsticks my friend gave me for x-mas really revved up my urge to bento again, fancy this time. Even if it's only once or twice a week.

I've bookmarked handfuls of bento sites and sites that supplies the "tools" and boxes. if you're looking for supplies, i'll be happy to post the sites here for you.