Last week was the Man’s birthday, and what he wanted more than anything else was… lunch. Packed from home. Every day.

Buying lunch every day is hard on our budget, and the stuff on base is crap. You either hit the chow hall along with a zillion other starving Marines, stand in line forever at one of the fast food joints and rack up your heart attack points, or settle for a pitiful pre-frozen some-kind-of-meat sandwich and bag of pretzels from the gas station.

Ever since the Man returned from his deployment to Japan, he’s talked about (and cooked a lot of) Japanese food. I remembered seeing an inspiring blog a few months back that was all about Japanese-style lunch boxes, called “Bento.” Since we have a wonderful Japanese market right down the street, I thought I’d check into it a bit more. I found this great hungry-man-sized bento box at the market for just under $10–I think that’s a great bargain compared to a lot of American-style lunch boxes. Each of the four colored containers is removable, dishwasher, freezer, and microwave safe. The outer yellow tray is rugged enough to be knocked around a bit, and the whole thing has a clear lid so you can see all of the yummies inside.

It’s easy to find leftovers from the fridge to fill each of the containers, and because there are four, it’s a little easier for me to remember to pack a balanced meal. (With a big, non-partitioned container, it’s sometimes easy to forget and go too heavy on the starches.) I also try to make some things ahead of time to keep in the freezer. When I make meatloaf, I always bake a few “mini” meatloafs in my muffin pan. They freeze really well (wrapped in aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn) and when packed frozen, are perfectly thawed by lunch time. I also keep a big bag of Gyoza (Chinese dumplings) in the freezer, along with shelf-stable puddings (they don’t need to be chilled, but make great ice-packs), and small packages of cooked rice (reheated frozen rice is WAY better than reheated refrigerated rice–it stays moist).

Packing a bento is like putting together a puzzle. I like trying to pack as much food as possible in there, but sometimes there is only a little space. Little boxes of raisins, individually wrapped prunes, and small cookies seem to work well, as well as snack-sized cheeses, cherry tomatoes, and shelf-stable condiment containers.

The Man tells me he’s very happy with his ongoing birthday gift, and that there’s the perfect amount of food for him. There’s never any food left when he comes home from work, so I must be doing something right!

What’s in the bentos pictured above?

First bento: meatloaf, hard-boiled eggs, raisins, rice topped with furikake (a flavored Japanese rice seasoning), spinach and cherry tomatoes, dressing, BabyBel cheese, instant miso soup mix (to be reconstituted in a separate container at work), and prunes.

Second bento: Pork gyoza (Chinese dumplings), spinach and carrot sticks, dressing, BabyBel cheese, raisins, prunes, and pineapple upside down birthday cake.

Third bento:  Cubed steak (pre-cut to fit, and so I don’t have to pack a knife), baked beans, grapefruit, wheat bread, butter, raisins, prune, snack-sized cheese, shelf-stable pudding (upside down), granola bar, and fig newtons.