It’s back to school time. Discover new bento ideas and inspirations for packing school lunches!
1. Meal Prep Bento Recipe Ideas
These 3 easy and budget-friendly meal prep ideas for bento prove that eating healthy can be delicious and fun! A little prep work on Sunday will set you up to eat healthier, save money, and reduce your stress through the week.
2. Chicken Meatball Bento
Delicious soft and tender chicken meatball packed with ham flower, fruits, crab salad, egg, and broccoli in a stylish bento box.
3. Sanshoku (Tri-color) Bento
Beautiful bento tastes twice as good. Enjoy this colorful Sanshoku Bento with sweet ground chicken, salmon flakes, scrambled egg, and strawberries.
4. Hamburger Steak Bento
Want a meatier option for lunch? Japanese hamburger (hambagu) steak bento with broccoli, tomato, celery, and corn.
5. Asparagus Beef Rolls Bento
Asparagus beef roll bento with edamame, tomatoes, and Onigiri (Japanese rice ball).
6. Tempura Bento
Delicious tempura bento lunch box recipe with shrimp and vegetable tempura packed with rice and fruits.
7. Karaage Bento
In this bento box, you have golden crunchy chicken with tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelette), spinach gomaae, along with fruits and grape tomatoes for a colorful lunch.
8. Honey Soy Sauce Chicken Bento
Sweet and flavorful chicken drummett bento with sauteed cabbage, Tamagoyaki, tomatoes, and fresh fruits. Enjoy with onigiri.
9. Tonkatsu Bento
Bento lunch box with tonkatsu (crispy Japanese pork cutlet), tomato, golden kiwi, and broccoli. Yummy Japanese lunchbox to go! With a scrumptious lunch like this, even the pickiest eaters will finish up every bite in the bento.
10. Ginger Pork Onigirazu Bento
Tender thin pork slices with a hint of ginger wrapped between layers of rice and nori, this Ginger Pork Onigirazu makes a mouthwatering & attractive bento.
11. Shogayaki Ginger Pork Bento
Packed with Japanese rolled omelette and fresh fruits on the side, this Shogayaki Bento takes advantage of dinner leftovers for a quick and convenient lunch the next day. Tender slices of pork cooked in a ginger soy sauce, every bite is flavorful!
12. Sweet & Sour Chicken Bento
Looking for a bento lunch idea that is both kid and adult-friendly? Packed along with steamed rice, ramen egg & Japanese potato salad on the side, this Sweet and Sour Chicken Bento makes the best of dinner leftover and turn lunch into one satisfying meal.
13. Teriyaki Salmon Bento
Teriyaki Salmon on the go – in a bento box! Cook up this easy, sweet & savory teriyaki salmon for dinner the night before, and keep an extra piece to pack in a Japanese-style bento for lunch the next day.
14. Miso Yaki Onigiri
Onigiri is one of my favorite foods to pack into a bento lunch box. This Miso Yaki Onigiri is slathered with sweet, savory miso sauce and grilled to perfection. It’s easy to grill up an extra dozen of the rice balls and save them for lunch. Round up the bento with a colorful salad, edamame, and sliced fruits. If you happened to make Japanese potato salad the same night, it should go really well with the miso yaki onigiri for lunch!
15. Braised Pork Belly Bento
Cook the Pork Belly for dinner and pack it for a comforting work lunch! In the bento box, throw in tomatoes, tamagoyaki, and furikake over rice with the braised pork.
Hi,
I love Japanese food and so bought myself a bento box to bring into school. I’m so excited to try out these recipes as I made the ochazuke for my family and everyone loved it. I also love the masala chai recipe which I’m actually drinking right now! I hope you get around to making some more bento recipes as I’d love to try as many different things as possible.
Thank you so much for your hard work!
Hi Juliette! Thank you for reading Nami’s post!
Nami and JOC team are so happy to hear you enjoy Japanese food and many recipes from our site.
In case you haven’t seen Nami’s other bento recipes, Here is a link: https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/bento/
And, of course, please stay tuned for more recipes! 😊
I really enjoy the easy to pack and prepare bento ideas, since i am not a morning person but i will start working and my son will be starting school this year, i wondered if there are any “bento size” chopsticks for kids? Or a type of travel friendly?
Hi MamaOwl, Thank you very much for reading this post! Yes! They have many different types of travel-friendly to kids-friendly chopsticks for bento! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PG1M8VG?ref=exp_justonecookbook_dp_vv_d You can also search “portable chopsticks for kids” on Amazon shop.
We hope this helps!
Hello! Thanks for this helpful posting. I have questions! You mentioned that you use a thermal lunch container for things like grilled cheese. I’m guessing that you’re using rectangular or square lunch containers then (for sandwich to fit) ? Where and which brands did you buy..? I’ve been trying for a long time to find one, but I never succedeed (tried mostly Amazon). It’s always in a cup/bowl shape from Thermos brand. Rectangular ones that I found were never insulated. Also I see in your photos that a lot of your bento boxes are in plastics. Do your kids eat it in room temperature at school? Or do they ask their teachers to heat it at school? If room temperature, doesn’t rice or meat become hard when it’s cooled down and packed with ice packs? Thanks a lot!!
Hi jh! I used to use the same Thermos brand and cut the grilled cheese cut into small squares to fit in there. Now the kids actually prefer them not warm and I put them in a Lunchbots (see the bento box I use here: https://www.justonecookbook.com/kitchen-tools/ and under Lunch box.). Lunchbots sell thermal jars (a bit pricey) and I bought them a while ago and my kids can finally open the lid with their hands. It’s kinda big jar considering how small their lunch bag is…
About the bento. Japanese eat bento at room temperature. We grow up eating that way for lunch. Train stations and bento shops sell room temperature bentos too. Even though adults go to the office and it may have a microwave, most people still eat room temperature bento.
Japanese rice doesn’t become “hard”, still moist, but just room temperature. Meat etc, we cook in a way that tastes better at room temperature. The seasonings are a bit stronger than when you eat hot because it tastes better. So we add slightly more seasonings for bento. Also not too oily food as oil gets solidified. We still put deep-fried food, but we make sure they are fully cool before being packed in the bento box (condensation will make it soggy). A lot of tricks are used in bento making. 🙂 I’ll be happy to help. Let me know if you have any questions!
Hi, I love watching you videos on FB and I was wondering: when you make Bento, do you get up super early to make it? Do you have any tips for making Bento the night before, especially rice dishes?
Hi Zoe! Thank you for your kind words! Most Japanese moms in Japan do – like waking up before 6 am! I’m too Americanized and I won’t wake up that early to make bento… 😀 I usually start making lunch around 6:30 or 6:45. Rice dish is hard to make ahead because Japanese rice (not sure about other types of rice) gets hard when refrigerated. So I usually reheat in the morning and pack. However, some of the main dishes can be made ahead of time. I usually reheat everything (to make sure no bacteria in the food) and then let cool completely before closing the lunch box.
Hi..do you pack the bento at room temp ? or with ice pack
Hi Christobel! When I was growing up, it was kept at room temperature (I don’t remember there was an ice pack back then) but yes, I do pack ice pack in my kids’ lunch bag for safety just in case. 🙂
I’m very new to making Japanese food and your blog and YouTube channel have been such big bits of help for me. I’m trying to shift most of my diet towards more Japanese styled foods and ways of eating since I find that I enjoy my food more and have more fun making it (and admittedly, the weight loss has been pretty nice). I never thought to make smaller onigiri for my bento, but I’ll certainly try it. It will be a pleasant change from plain rice. I’m still in high school and pack my own lunch, and because of a lot of your recipes, I’ve started looking forward to meals and to preparing them, especially since I cook supper every night for my family. your recipes have saved me from ordering out or making something plain and boring on many occasions. <3
Hi Nikolai! Wow, I’m impressed to hear that you as a high schooler make dinner for your family! My mom made me (I wasn’t always willing) to help her in the kitchen. Later on I appreciate everything I’ve learned without realized that I learned from all these years, but I wished that I didn’t have to be in the kitchen. You’re very responsible and I can already see you’ll be such an amazing home (or even professional) cook one day, starting this young! I’m happy that I could be a part of your cooking journey and thank you for reading my blog and watching my videos!
All of these look so delicious can’t wait to try them
Thank you Noora!
This is really awesome. I want to learn more
Hi Ara! Hope you enjoy cooking! 🙂
I love these recipes they are perfect for me to take to school
Thank you Yukina! 🙂
I tried the honey soy sauce chicken bento it was gorgeous
Hi Sanduni! So happy to hear that! 🙂 Thank you to your feedback!
Hi Nami,
I love all those recipes. My son is going to preschool this year and I am panicking! Do you pack your kids Bento often? What would you usually put in their lunch box? I read Toto Chan’s book when I was younger and dreamed one day I would pack my kids food from the mountain and sea.
Thank you!
Hi Lu! Thank you so much! I do pack kids’ lunch everyday. What I put in the bento varies depends on the day – but usually sandwich, pasta, rice as carb and veggies and meat of some kind. Their lunch time is only 15 minutes, and it’s challenging for me to pack something that can be eaten for 10 minutes (by the time they can sit and actually eat, I assume only 10 mins)….
I really hope to add more bento content, but I’ve been so busy that I haven’t updated much. But I hope to continue somehow… Hope you enjoy making bento and your son will enjoy lunch time at his preschool! 🙂
The hamburger and cute bentos are my favorites. Your styling skills are amazing and thanks for this roundup. I know how much time goes into these.
What an incredible slideshow featuring easy bento lunchies! My mum used to make me ‘egg’ salad sandwiches, but I don’t eat them anymore, but hope to veganise them one day! I need to find some bento boxes and start packing them this way!