Oh!Bento’s favourite posts of 2012!

As it’s the end of the year I thought I’d make a small list of my 5 favourite posts of 2012!!

This list is made up of some of my personal favourite bento’s and also my favourite “helpful” post.

I hope you enjoy and a very happy New Year everyone!

No.1:

My kimono bento

No.2:

How to make Pokéballs

No.3:

My Halloween “Scream” bento

No.4:

How to make a very cheap, extremely tasty bento!

And my ultimate favourite. No.5:

Game Of Thrones Bento

So there you have it!

Hopefully next year I will get some sparkly new equipment to be able to make my blog look better than ever 🙂

And again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

💥🎇🎉

Black+Blum Lunchpot meal

I received a Tefal Fresh Express for Christmas and tonight I wanted to test what it can do. I already tried its slicing accessory and it will make the process of making my instant pickles a lot easier. It also has another accessory that I wasn’t sure what it was for but it looked like it could mince. That would help me eat soboro as ground chicken is something I’ve never seen in the UK.
I love soboro so I decided on a soboro bento.

I minced some quorn “chicken” bites in about 1-3 seconds. A lot quicker than I imagined!
I also cooked some rice in my tefal rice cooker, another trusty gadget! I mixed in some vegetables so cook with the rice and using the included steaming basket I steamed an egg, which is exactly like a boiled egg but easier 🙂

As I was cooking… Or rather waiting for my gadgets to cook for me I picked out my Black+Blum Lunch Pot bought for me as a birthday gift by a close friend.

Here is the lunch :

I only needed the top section of the pot and I was extremely full so the full set would be great for a full days food!

Monbento review and Bento lunch

I was graciously sent a Monbento to review, here is the closed box:

And here is a meal I prepared in the box:

It contains: Spicy breaded chicken pieces, tamagoyaki, mixed vegetables, instant cucumber pickles and rice with different flavours inside. Also includes a small dipping pot of mayonnaise.

Now for the review!

Cost: 2.5/5

The Monbento costs €28 (£22.87) each. I have given it a score of 2.5 out of 5 as I feel this price will be too much for some people but acceptable for others. I personally think the box is worth it if bought for an adult with a large appetite that will use the box frequently.

Size: 5/5

The Monbento have a larger capacity than most other bento boxes and are designed with adults in mind. They would generally be too large for children as they are 1 litre, but could be used to pack two child sized meals.

Ease of use 5/5

With a clean and simple design packing the Monbento is extremely easy. They include a divider allowing you to easily separate different side dishes. And being a rectangle there is no need to try and squeeze food into oddly shaped “corners”.

Style 5/5

One of the best things about Monbento is the amount of customisation available. There are many colours available and many ways to mix and match, meaning everyone can have a different look to their lunch box.

Pros:
• Sturdy and well made.
• Great size for adults.
• Choice of colours and designs.
• Good range of accessories.
• water and air tight.

Cons:
• High cost.
• Large size not recommended for young children.

Overall a great box and if you’re an adult wanting a new lunch box I would recommend this highly!

Disclaimer
I received the product to review but no cash was exchanged, my review is my honest opinion and has not been swayed by the company or anyone else.

Merry Bento Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I received so many bento gifts this year! 🙂

Here are all the bento/ foody items I received :

My friends and partner are so thoughtful!

I also received 4 kokeshi dolls, some tabi socks and a kimono so it was a very japanese inspired Christmas, just how I like it!

Did you get any bento items for Christmas?

Birthday Black+Blum Bento!

So today is my birthday, YAY!!!!

My good friend, Kayleigh, got me an awesome lunch pot from Black+Blum, now if you’ve read some of my previous posts you’ll know I love Black+Blum

Here is the lunch pot:

It’s made of the same plastic as the other lunch boxes in the Black+Blum lunch range which gives it a strong and modern look.

Both jars are watertight ( I tested this by filling with water and holding upside down while shaking. Not a drop was spilt!! ) and they fit together in a cool strap/ holder with a handle and a pocket for the included spork.

You’ve got to love the designs Black+Blum think up!

Christmas Daruma Bento

Today I realised how long it’s been since I made a bento so I thought I’d better set to and make one.

I have been watching a channel called NHK world a lot recently and I remember watching one about daruma which are little japanese dolls.

I really wanted to make a bento with a daruma in it and so I merged a daruma with Santa, this is the result:

A Santa daruma with mixed vegetables and tamagoyaki “presents”.

Yay for Xmas!!!

Giveaway winner reveal and new Monbento

As many of you know I held a giveaway which was to end on the 15th of December, unfortunately my phone broke and I was reverted to living like a cave man for nearly a week!

I can finally reveal the winner!!

So the winner is Karen from What’s In Our Lunch Bags!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

The Hello Kitty kit will be sent out asap!!

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On another note, I was graciously sent a bento box to review by Monbento

Isn’t it cool!! I can’t wait to review it!

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The winner of the giveaway was generated by random.org and comments that I felt did not abide by the rules were not counted.)

Hello Kitty Bento Giveaway

A few of you may remember a promise I made a while back and for those who don’t here is what I promised,

“If I reach 5000 views before December I will do a giveaway”

Now I can thankfully say that with the help of yourselves and my bento friends we took that challenge and smashed it!

So here is what I’m giving away:

• A Hello Kitty bento box
• A set of Hello Kitty cutlery ( fork and spoon)
• A pink heart shaped bento divider
• Two Hello Kitty bento picks
• A hand sewn bento belt made my me

With this set you will be able to pack a great little bento 🙂

How to enter:

(Leave a comment for each of these that you do and include an email so I can contact you if you win)

• Leave a comment below with how you first discovered bento making.

• Like Oh!Bento UK on Facebook.

• Follow Oh!Bento UK on Twitter.

• Share about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL. ( you can do this once a day, if you share on multiple platforms leave a comment for each)

Conditions and Rules
•This giveaway will continue until the 15th of December. I will email the winner who will then have 2 days to reply and claim the prize.

• The winner will be chosen at random by use of Random.org, the more comments you leave the better the chance of winning.

• This giveaway is only open to the UK, USA and Europe.

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I’m hoping to publish an English bento tutorial magazine, to achieve this I have set up a kickstarter page. If you’d like to see a quarterly magazine filled with tutorials, product reviews and other foody tid-bits then please check it out and let your friends know 🙂

Black+Blum Review and First Christmas Bento

So today I finally got round to making a bento in my Black+Blum Bento Box and here it is:

It is my first Christmas bento and it is made up of rice with a cheese and ham shooting star, mixed vegetables and minced beef with onions in a Christmas tree divider.

NOW FOR THE REVIEW

Having used both the Bento Box and the Box Appetit I will be using this review to highlight both items.

Cost

The Bento Box is £13.95 and the Box Appetit is £15.95, I think for how well these are made along with all the unique features that is a small price to pay! Especially when compared with other boxes that can cost more for less.

Size

The Bento Box is 500 ml making it a great size for both children and adults. The Box Appetit is 880ml making it a great size for adults with larger appetites as well as being great for picnics by filling with multiple small dishes.

Style

Both boxes are extremely stylised and it really makes them stand out from the crowd. With their smooth curves giving the box a futuristic look and the specially made plastic a dream to touch these boxes are more gadget than just a lunch box.

Both boxes are available in black or white with a different, subtle coloured seal on the beautiful see-through lid available.

Each comes with its own fork / knife that attaches to the lid through a loop keeping everything neat and together and their own stylised sauce pots with a hinged lid meaning you won’t lose the lid. The Bento Box comes with a divider and the Box Appetit has a large lidded, removable compartment.

The lids on both items have a little recess that when laid on a table becomes a small sauce well for all your dipping needs.

Ease of Packing

Due to the shape of these boxes and the sauce pots / compartments make these lunch boxes extremely easy to pack. The Bento Box is great for a tightly packed, varied lunch and the Box Appetit is great for large helpings of pasta and other “chunky” dishes.

Pros

• Great value for money.
• Stand out from the crowd.
• Great sizes.
• Easy to wash and maintain.
• Spill-proof and watertight.
• Unique selling points : fork holder, lidded sauce containers, recess in lid.
• Easy to pack.

Cons
• While being sleek, a few more colour choices couldn’t hurt. ( I personally love the colours but I know some people want cuter boxes.

Don’t forget about the bento magazine!

Disclaimer
I received the product to review but no cash was exchanged, my review is my honest opinion and has not been swayed by the company or anyone else.

Kimono bento

My partner has bought me two kimono for Christmas and I’m super excited! I’m also getting more bento goodies which is also exciting!

I thought I’d combine the two and create a kimono bento, I love kimono because of the vast array of patterns that can be included on one kimono so I wanted to show this in a bento.

This is what I came up with 🙂

This bento has a layer of minced beef soboro with three different colours of rice layered on top. The circle pattern is just black food dye, the fans are made from cheese and nori. The Sakura and butterfly are made from sliced ham.

Bloomin’ ‘eck it’s Black+Blum

Yesterday I received some amazing boxes! They were graciously sent from Black+Blum so that I may do a review.

From the few exchanges I can tell these are a great company, a company that truly care about their customers and their products.

So here are the boxes:

First is the Black+Blum bento

And now the Black+Blum box appetit

I know what you’re thinking, “No details?!”

Nope I’m leaving them for the review,
which will also be featured in my Oh!Bento Tutorial Magazine