I've been working on a some recipes which work when I just throw them together, but aren't quite ready for prime time publishing here. So the meantime here are a couple of bentos that are too similar to other bentos already shown here, but may be of interest to look at anyway. Both feature chicken recipes from the recent chicken mini-marathon.

This bento features Miso Chicken. It is packed with some sautéed bean sprouts (simply flavored with salt and pepper), blanched spinach, and plain rice. I also tucked in a couple of slices of takuan (pickled daikon radish).

The key to this bento: because the chicken is quite strongly flavored, I barely seasoned the accompanying vegetables. The 'sauce' of the chicken helps to flavor the veggies tucked under and around it. I added the pickles for extra color and a bit of sourness.

This bento features Balsamic Sesame Chicken. It also has some lotus root with mayonnaise (the recipe on that page minus the cucumber and ham) and Carrot Kinpira.

This bento has a lot of crunch and fiber in it, from the lotus root and the spicy carrot kinpira, not to mention the sesame coating on the chicken. There are also some blanched bok choy tucked under the chicken (you could also use chard, spinach, etc.). Because lotus root is basically a carbohydrate, there's a bit less rice than usual - but for this reason, nothing in this bento box is too salty or highly seasoned, since there's less bland rice to compensate for that.

You'll notice that both bentos have plenty of vegetables in them - bentos are a great way to up your veggie intake!