I love a good Bento box, but had never thought of making them myself. This book not only makes the prospect seem accessible, but offers a variety of delicious ideas to try.

I received an arc of this book from NetGalley for an honest review. There are some very interesting and easy to follow recipes in here. I won't probably buy it for the library because although the recipes are great, bento boxes aren't really a thing around here and people probably won't pick it up based on the title.

I loved this book! Healthy and yummy. Pretty. For the eye and mouth food.make your own lunch using this book and you are not only eating healthy but making people wonder how great cook you have become!

I really enjoyed and used this book quite a bit for lunches! I think it was inventive and helpful, all the things I need in a cookbook.

Great book for those that are new to the idea of Bento. The recipes seemed easy to follow, the ingredients seemed to be easy to obtain, a very usable book. Fantastic pictures!

BENTO FOR BEGINNERS is a great book for making bento boxes the way they were intended to be made. There is a trend these days to see the cutesy, Instagram-ready ones online, but they take a lot of time and are not particularly realistic for daily usage. This book helps with all of the basics.
There are nutritional breakdowns for each recipe/box, which is a huge plus for me. I wish there were more photos of each box. There was some interesting tips to storage of certain pre-prepped foods that I had never heard before, but that we tried and found super helpful overall (freeze steamed rice instead of refrigerate it, for example). Another plus is that each recipe is marked with helpful labels like “gluten free”, “nut free”, “pescatarian”, etc.

If you are interested in creating Bento Box meals then this is a great book to start with the recipes are easy and the explanations and history are easy to read and understand.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyway the recipes alone are easy to make and taste great.

For someone who has never heard of bento boxes, this book sparked interest as needing to get into a healthier meal prep lifestyle. The cover is very aestically pleasing. Would recommend for anyone interested in learning more.

This cookbook was super interesting. I am really excited to try a bunch of the recipes! But mostly I loved how in depth everything was. I liked learning the history of Bento boxes and learning more about the process of putting them together. I loved that each recipe started with an explanation about what was in the recipes and what they were for (protein, grains, etc). I also loved that there were so many substitution options. I really can't wait to try some of these recipes out!

I have been wanting to jump on the Bento bandwagon, but have hesitated due to not knowing what to prepare. This book is filled with so many easy to prepare and yummy ideas that I cannot wait to continue using! I look forward to my lunch break now because I know that I am going to be enjoying something delicious versus a frozen meal or sandwich. I highly recommend this!

This book lives up to the title: the recipes are easy to create, using very ordinary and easily-obtainable ingredients, but also have good flavor and interest. The cover photo gives an accurate image of what you're likely to be making - simple items that add up to a nicely presented lunch with welcome variety. The recipes are varied, with a mix of traditional and non tradition (Western) tastes to suit even the pickiest of eaters. The one downside is that there are no images of the recipes - so it can be hard to imagine the presentation (which is so important and intrinsic to bento lunches). As well, there are no presentation suggestions (such as the cute hot dog weiner octopuses, etc.) that could really have elevated the book.

The book breaks down as follows: Bento basics, Japanese-style bentos, Western-style bentos, Fusion bentos, Staples & sauces, then the usual conversions and resources. There are 60 recipes, including mushroom pasta bento, chicken roll bento, chicken teriyaki bento, cucumber sushi rolls bento, mini meatball bento, rice omelet bento, and steamed rice, herb seasoning, versatile sauce, sesame dressing, pickling liquid and miso sauce.

In the beginning of the book, the author covers tools and pantry items. I really appreciated that the amounts were small - there were only 3 tools (freezer bags, skewers, rice cooker) and there are suggestions for extras such as protein (cheese, eggs), snacks, and fruits/vegetables with low water content. There is a page of items that are a good idea to keep stocked - very simple items and nothing fancy. Many of the meals are cooked the night before, frozen, and then heated up in the morning before leaving. All of the images for the book are in the opening pages - none for the recipes.

Each recipe has serving size and allergy info at the top. A large blue font covers the title. Beneath is a short paragraph of info about the dish. Storage time, prep time and cooking time follow. The ingredients are in red and stand out. The steps are short, numbered, one-sentence steps for the most part. Most recipes are broken down by 'the night before' and 'in the morning.' There are safety tips at the bottom and then nutritional info: calories, fat, sodium, cholesterol, carbs, fiber, sugar, protein.

There is a nice variety and I really like that there are Western and Eastern options. You can have a very Japanese themed bento lunch or you can have one that is much more Western - a nice feature for picky eating kids.

In all, the book lives up to the promise of being VERY easy and perfect for beginners. The one detraction is the lack of images for any of the recipes. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Bento Boxes are all the rage, and Chika Ravitch’s timely cookbook, Bento for Beginners: 60 Recipes for Easy Bento Box Lunches is perfect for teaching us how to prepare these great lunchtime meals. While there are dozens of Japanese recipes (Bentos are Japanese, after all), there are also recipes for American favorites as well as recipes from other parts of the world. The recipes are easy-to-follow, and call for minimal ingredients, which makes for not only quick and easy, but also makes them suitable for beginning cooks as well as those who have some experience.

This excellent cookbook starts with the basics, including containers and storage solutions, ingredients, as well as preparation and organizing meals. The recipes are simple, and also appetizing. Cooks can mix and match their favorite dishes to go into these yummy lunchtime meals. Most of the meals can be made about five days ahead, and many of the dishes can be packed and frozen for several months. The only thing missing from this cookbook is photographs of most of the dishes. While there are a few pictures, they are limited. Most cooks enjoy seeing what the finished dishes look like. The book contains salads, main dishes, vegetables, sauces, marinades, and salad dressings. It showcases the simplicity of many Japanese dishes that are delicious, and popular. Most importantly, the dishes are good; they turn out perfectly every time.

All told, cooks who like to be organized and have the components of good lunches at their fingertips will enjoy and benefit from having this cookbook on their shelf.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

My local Japanese restaurant has bento for a lunch special and I love it. I was hoping this book would help me re-create it at home and it sure does. Provides techniques and recipes, with plenty of helpful tips.

I also liked the way the book was organized. It's a good reference for trying bento at home.

*** I received this Arc in exchange for an honest review ***

I was a bit hesitant to request this cookbook, but seriously happy when I opened it up and started going through the recipes. The author grew up with bento — not like kyara/chars bento but actual bento — and it really shows. The ideas behind bento are clearly explained and make sense.

Onto the actual food: the recipes are made of ingredients that are easy to access, and there’s seriously a wide variety of recipes in here. I love the inclusion of different types of mixed rice, and all the notes about how to safely store the food for longevity. These are big points especially since it’s always hard to know how long these recipes are good for.

My only issue is that the gluten free notes aren’t consistent throughout the book - there are points where soy sauce has notes to switch for GF if needed and other times where it’s not. I’d also like to point out that some of the non gluten free recipes can be made gf with the switching of ingredients, eg wheat bread for gf bread.

I loved reading Bento for Beginners by Chika Ravitch as she has written an approachable cookbook that allows newbies, like me, the ability to try preparing Bento boxes. Her cookbook starts of with discussing Bento basics followed by menu-themed chapters. At the end of her book the author includes a chapter called Staples & Sauces which can be used to prepare Bento recipes.

Here's a sample Bento menu found in the Japanese-style bento portion of her book:

Chicken Teriyaki Bento (Menu heading)
Corn Rice
Chicken Teriyaki
Broccoli with Sesame Dressing

Here's a sample Bento menu found in the Western-style bento portion of her book:

Tuna Salad Sandwich(Bento (Menu heading)
Simple Tuna Sandwich
Buttered Corn
Marinated Radishes and Bell Peppers

Here's a sample found in the Fusion Bentos portion of her book:

Rice Omelet Bento (Menu heading)
Rice Omelet
Stir-Fried Potato and Green Bell Pepper with Miso

Ravitch offers tips on how to prepare the needed Bento ingredients in advanced along with nutritional information with her recipes. Throughout her cookbook you will find numerous color photographs illustrating the recipes.

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a PDF galley from NetGalley.

Thank you, Netgalley and Callisto Media, for a complementary ARC for this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

I got this book at a perfect time! I love Asian food and I just finished 21 Days of Fasting and Praying with my church. I would like to continue eating healthier and more homemade food. I love bento lunches. They are perfect to continue my journey to becoming a healthier mom and wife. Chika Ravitch provides fantastic background info, easy-to-follow instructions, amazing bento combos, and additional tips for substitution, storage, preparation, etc. I would have loved to see more photos of the bentos (I love cookbooks with photos), but that didn't make me like this book any less! I will definitely recommend this one to my family and friends!

I rate cook books based on the following qualities
Photos - 2/5 stars this book contains photos, but not many recipes. They do look delicious! I think bento boxes are visual and it really would have been nice to have a photo of each completed box.
Ease of ingredients - 4/5 stars. Most ingredients could be found at an average store.
Variety - 5/5 I think people often are stuck in a rut about what to bring for lunch. These recipes are adult friendly and many would be great for kid school lunches. They have traditional Japanese Bento as well as Western-style Bentos.

For myself, I think I will try a few of these recipes for my family for lunches.

When my kids were younger, I got a lot of supplies to make the cutesy Bento boxes you see all over Pinterest with the cute character shapes made of food, but I think I only ever got around to doing a Bento like that one time. It is just too much work. My kids are older now, and my oldest who is in 6th grade is completely obsessed with all things Asian. She loves k-pop, and anime and pretty much any variation on Asian food she can try. These Bento ideas are simple and healthy and they all sound incredibly delicious. These are meals my husband would probably eat too at work so I will probably get a few Bento boxes for our three kids and a couple of more for us. I love the ideas in here and I am also happy that nutrition facts are included and ideas for extras to go with the particular main protein are included. The sky is the limit really. There is a focus on Japanese food with Bento boxes, of course, but in this book there are also fusion meals and American comfort food, giving us even more variety in the dishes we can make. I absolutely love it. I recommend this to any parent looking to make their kids healthier lunches for school.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and here is my honest review.

First of all, I'm not a bento beginner. I lived in Japan for many years and I've made many bento, have copies of bento cookbooks in Japanese and English. This book is very simple and appropriate for beginners in that it offers a solid range of recipes and ideas. It is also useful in that it explains what you can do ahead of time, how long you can freeze or refrigerate items, and the ingredients are accessible for those of us in the US. The staples and sauces section at the end is succinct and indeed useful.

This would make a nice present for someone just starting out with bento or who wanted to learn more. It will become a cookbook that you really use rather than one that just sits on the shelf.

*received from netgalley for free for honest review* This book has amazing photos, very vibrant and beautiful, definitely appetizing! There's certainly recipes i'd like to try in this book and then theres others like the "napolitan spaghetti" which I do not think I will ever try.... just cant get over the ketchup lmao, great book though, wouldn't mind owning a print copy!