Tag Archives: cod

Kindergarten bento – How many ingredients comparison (29/May, 30/May, 31/May, 1/Jun,4/Jun, 5/Jun)

20/06/2018

29/May – 11 ingredients

Simmered cod, rice, edamame, egg with corns, spinach in sesame sauce, cucumber, carrot, apple, banana

30/May – 11 ingredients

Fried chicken (with corn flower), green beans, broccoli, cherry tomato, goma konbu (sesame & kelp), rice, furikake sprinkle (counted as one), apple, strawberry

31/May – 12 ingredients

Bread (count as one), ham, cucumber, scrambled egg, cheese, Dutch appelstroop, peanut butter, blueberry jam, green beans, apple mousse, mashed potato, cinnamon

1/Jun – 10 ingredients

Chicken soboro, chopped komstsuna, rice, sesame, tomato omelet, broccoli, cucumber with bonito flakes, watermelon

4/Jun – 11 ingredients

Nikudon (pork slices, sliced cabbage, rice), broccoli, cherry tomato, tofu omelet (tofu, egg, ao-nori (seaweed) powder), cherry tomato, apple, banana

5/Jun – 11 ingredients

Tortillas (counted as one), ham, cucumber, cheese, Dutch appelstroop, strawberry jam, banana with Nutella (secret, as it’s not allowed at her school), boiled egg, broccoli, watermelon

Wow, I am quite consistent, with mostly 11 ingredients used every day.

Kindergarten bento – Toshi-No-Se (15, 18, 19, 20, 22/Dec/17)

24/12/2017

In Japan, it is said that “toshi-no-se,” the year-end, is bound to be busy, as everyone starts acting somehow anxious to finish off things prior to the fresh start of the new year. As mentioned before, the new year is a big deal in this country, and we do everything to make sure the new year to be quiet and special. 

This year was no exception for me also, and I was running around like a headless chicken without any time to stop and take a big breath… until we left for our Christmas holidays in the Netherlands to visit my husband’s family. Hesitantly we dropped unfinished errands, hurriedly packed our suitcases, left beautiful & sunny Tokyo, and arrived in the equally beautiful, but quite dark Netherlands yesterday. It is Christmas Eve here in the Netherlands, and things already seemed to have slowed down, and people are starting to relax for the festivity to begin. The sense of rush I was feeling in Japan is nowhere to be seen here. It’s an interesting realisation what a huge difference there is depending on which culture you’re in.

Looking back at the bento photos I didn’t have a chance to upload before our departure, I can vaguely remember how I managed all these bento making during my busy schedule. It’ll resume in the new year, but for now I’m relieved that I won’t have to do it for the next two weeks.

Happy Holidays!

15/Dec/17 – Grilled cod in saikyo-miso

18/Dec/17 – Simmered sword fish

19/Dec/17 – Nikudon-don

20/Dec/17 – Macaroni genovese 

22/Dec/17 – Chicken soboro 

Kindergarten bento – Getting cheeky (4/Oct/17)

05/10/2017

Our daughter doesn’t like sausages. As a parent, maybe I should rather be grateful, but sausages are handy for bento, since it’s so easy to prepare (either just boil, lightly fry or microwave it). 

She is turning 5 next month, and is getting cleverer and cleverer each day. Today, she claims she “accidentally” dropped the sausage in her bento, and didn’t have to eat it as a result.

I just can’t wait for her to turn to be a teenager.

Menu: Lightly fried sausage, Nira (garlic chives) omelet, Boiled okra, Grilled cod marinated in saikyo-miso, Steamed carrot slices, Rice
Apple bunnies for dessert

Kindergarten bento – Getting cheeky (4/Oct/17)

05/10/2017

Our daughter doesn’t like sausages. As a parent, maybe I should rather be grateful, but sausages are handy for bento, since it’s so easy to prepare (either just boil, lightly fry or microwave it). 

She is turning 5 next month, and is getting cleverer and cleverer each day. Today, she claims she “accidentally” dropped the sausage in her bento, and didn’t have to eat it as a result.

I just can’t wait for her to turn to be a teenager.

Menu: Lightly fried sausage, Nira (garlic chives) omelet, Boiled okra, Grilled cod marinated in saikyo-miso, Steamed carrot slices, Rice
Apple bunnies for dessert

Kindergarten bento – Chunk of fish (21/Apr/17)

23/04/2017

Menu: Grilled cod in saikyo miso marinade, Boiled egg, Sautéed komatsuna & bacon, Cherry tomato, Rice with black sesame sprinkle

Apple mousse & banana for dessert


Around this time a year ago, my bento making started as my daughter entered her kindergarten, and I remember each time I packed grilled fish I carefully flaked their flesh so that she could easily eat them with her small fork. It may sound like I was spoiling her, but I thought it’d be better to see the bento box empty rather than with the whole chunk of fish left. Now after one year, she clumsily uses her chopsticks and flake them herself. Not so precisely just yet, but I think that’s only a matter of time. It’s a great improvement for me, too – I now just cut a filet into a few pieces and put the chunky bits into the bento box. What a time saver!

Kindergarten bento – Miso soup veggie (13/Sep/16)

13/09/2016

Menu: Grilled cod with saikyo miso marinade, Spinach omelet, Veggies from miso soup, Rice with goma-shio (sesame & salt sprinkle)

Sliced kiwi for dessert


Our daughter loves miso soup, especially with cabbage. She had a cold for a week and at long last is getting better. At the same time her appetite is coming back as well, and I made her favorite miso soup as part of her dinner. She gobbled all the cabbage & carrots in the soup before eating anything else on her dinner plate. She must’ve craved veggies after a week of eating only yogurt, jelly and apple mousse. So this morning I thought why not putting in the leftover miso soup veggies although it is not common at all to reuse them for bento. For Japanese, miso soup is miso soup, it’s not ‘okazu’, the side dish. It never occurred to me until now either, but there should be no problem to pack your soup ingredients in your lunch box. There is no such rule, and no one can blame you for that. Plus my daughter loves them, and they are very tasty.

It may sound funny to hear my excuse for using the miso soup veggies, but sometimes you feel hesitant to break one’s habits repeated for years and years. Well, I also admit that I was being lazy in the morning and wanted to stay in bed for 5 extra minutes rather than getting up to make one extra dish for bento from scratch.

Kindergarten bento – furikake (30/May/16)

31/05/2016

Menu: furikake sprinkle on rice,  grilled cod & salmon, green bean & ham omelet, boiled broccoli and cherry tomato

American cherries & banana for dessert 

Do you know this Japanese magical sprinkle called furikake? It literally means “sprinkle” in Japanese and is made of flavored dried fish flakes, nori seaweed, dried egg flakes, etc. Usually furikake is industrially made and can be purchased at any supermarket here in Japan. We sprinkle it over freshly cooked rice when there is not much other food to eat your rice with. It’s just some fish flakes you may think, but it always works wonders with children. Our girl was no exception, who loved every bit of it with great pleasure.