This week's bento box is an example of a type of bento box which is designed to hold onigiri or omusubi (rice balls) securely.

While onigiri are very portable, they can get smashed around if you just carry them loose, and fitting them in a regular flat bento box can be a bit awkward sometimes. This is where the onigiri bento box comes in.

This week's bento, or rather food-on-the-go, box is from the popular Fit & Fresh™ line from Medport. Fit & Fresh™ products are plastic containers with a cooling element included in some way. This makes them interesting for use with food that needs to be kept chilled, especially in the warmer months.

As I posted yesterday, making individual pies in muffin or cupcake liners is a great way to make 'planned leftovers' from dinner look neat enough to put into a bento box. As Sile suggested in the comments, if you don't want to use throwaway paper cups, silicone cups are a reusable alternative. Calphalon makes a nice silicone liner and cupcake pan set which would be perfect for this. The liners are in pretty pastel colors.

You can also use the liners as dividers in your bento, for salads, fruit, and so on. They sell the tin and liners as a set, as shown here, or the liners on their own. Extras might be a good idea to have if you do freeze the food 'cupcakes'.

This week I'm going back to the handcrafted bento boxes that I love. The material in the spotlight is bamboo.

This week's bento item of the week is something that goes into a bento box for a change - microwaveable rice.

After a brief hiatus, Bento Item of the Week is back! This week the spotlight is on bento containers made of stainless steel.