Fried polenta cakes are surprisingly good cold, so they make a nice change-of-pace carb in a bento, especially if you just happen to have some leftover polenta from dinner.

[While I'm still getting back up to speed, please enjoy this recipe for 'instant' pickled radishes, great in any bento or in a salad. Originally published in May 2009. It's kind of funny to re-read this post and realize we were still waffling about buying a house in France or not. I guess we did, after all!]

While radishes are available year-round, spring seems to be the perfect time to enjoy their crisp, peppery crunchiness. They are also really pretty. I love them just as-is, perhaps with a little salt, or sliced up in salads, but I've also been playing around with various formulas to make instant pickles or ichiyazuke (一夜漬け, or 'overnight pickles') with them. Here's one result that's sweet, salty, sour and peppery - a great bento box side dish.

A really easy and refreshing salad that keeps for a week in the refrigerator. Great for bentos of course.

From the archives. I got an email over the weekend from someone asking for vegetarian recipes. Well, there are a lot of vegetarian and vegan recipes here actually. Here is one I posted last year, a tasty ovo-vegetarian tofu-and-egg dish inspired by healthy Korean cooking, named after a classic italian dish. And of course, great in bentos!

An Indian-influenced complete-meal recipe, great for thermal lunch jars or cold in regular bentos. Vegan, gluten-free, and even diabetic-friendly, but I promise it still tastes terrific!

Healthy and filling, this brown rice kayu or rice porridge is perfect for thermal lunch jars.

Here's a super-easy recipe for a pretty healthy and versatile salad, using one of my favorite should-be-more-popular ingredients, okara.