Hi everyone, I'm Katie, 17, live in Germany, and I started reading about bento on lunchinabox.net and justbento.com just a week ago, and I'm not embarrassed to admit I spent hours reading every single post and browsing bento stores online. ... okay, maybe a little. So I thought this was a great way of taking food with me when I know I won't get home until late in the afternoon, but unfortunately, I'm never home later than 4:20 pm or so, so that's when I have lunch (you may think that's late, but it's common for seniors in Gernany to just bring their own breakfast to school and eat it there, and not have lunch until they get home in the afternoon). But I just remembered that this semester's schedule will be different - I'll have school until 5:30 pm on mondays, and won't be able to go home in between classes. The good thing about this is that I'll have a 45 minute break at 3:10 pm, so that's perfect for lunch. I don't want to buy fast food every week, though - it's expensive, and not very healthy, either. The solution for this? BENTO. So I decided to start making bento at least once a week from now on. This is my first one, in a 600 ml Tupperware container: [IMG]http://up.picr.de/6059860.jpg[/IMG] I used plain white long grain rice, iceberg lettuce to keep it apart from the other food, cut-up raw carrots and a cut-up apple (it's not an entire apple, though), and six Swedish meatballs ("köttbullar"). The meatballs were already cooked, and we bought them frozen from the store. The label says they're good in the fridge for two days, so food safety wasn't an issue. Aaand I think I even got the correct bento ratio (3:2:1)! That day, I ordered a two-tier box and two egg moulds online. And I made some customized bento gear: [IMG]http://up.picr.de/6059865.jpg[/IMG] The small container on the top is a small salt tub (we had the tub sitting in the kitchen somewhere, I don't know what's it was used for originally) with the lid painted dark red with nail polish. Below is my personal "my hashi" case that I sewed with my mom. It's denim, and the strap used to tie it together is a ribbon with my initials on them that my mom bought for me when I was in kindergarten (to sew on my things so I wouldn't lose them). Below, two chopsticks (plain ones bought from our local Asia store that I customized with the same nail polish I used for the salt tub), a fork (just a regular one that we use for dinner etc. too) and a tissue to wrap the above in. Also, on the top left, two hairbands (I love how they go with the chopsticks). And of course, I couldn't wait until Monday to make another bento, so I made a breakfast bento on Thursday: [IMG]http://up.picr.de/6085491.jpg[/IMG] The box has a capacity of 400 ml, which is perfect for breakfast. Clockwise from the upper left, it contains cherry tomatoes with raw carrots underneath, a scrambled pancake (made with one egg and just milk and flour added), and homemade applesauce. No sugar added at all in this meal :) And on the same day, the stuff I ordered online arrived: [IMG]http://up.picr.de/6085496.jpg[/IMG] And on Friday, I made yet another breakfast bento: [IMG]http://up.picr.de/6106759.jpg[/IMG] Clockwise from the top left: a scrambled egg with about a tablespoon of diced ham, a cut-up apple, a cut-up slice of bread roasted in a frying pan, blueberry yogurt. [IMG]http://up.picr.de/6106760.jpg[/IMG] And underneath the apple: Some raw carrots. I made another one (for lunch) on Saturday, but the photo says it can't be opened... :-/ Anyway - questions, comments, feedback? Katie