Soba Bento

Cold soba noodles make for a great bento, especially when they look so pretty nestled in a magic round bento box. This bento features noodles with veggies, topped with basil and toasted peanuts, steamed broccoli, carrots, and a nice big radish.

Soba noodles cook up quickly, so I threw together a quick sauce for the noodles as the water was heating up and the noodles were cooking. Here's a rough recipe.

Soba Noodle Dressing 

1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons creamy peanut butter

pinch of freshly grated ginger root

1/2 teaspoon pressed garlic

grind of black pepper

1/2 teaspoon seasoned rice vinegar

squeeze of lime juice

1 teaspoon honey

1/2 teaspoon sriracha sauce

Add all ingredients in a bowl and whisk. Add about 1 ounce cooked hot soba noodles to sauce and toss to combine. Add veggies to taste and cool in refrigerator. Makes one serving.

Note: my old url was snapped up, so I have changed to www.sonomabento.net. Bookmark it today!

Monochromatic Green Bento

I thought I would try my hand at a few monochromatic bento box lunches. One of the rules of bento is to include 5 different colors. This makes sense, to insure that your lunch has a variety of foods. However, sometimes you gotta break the rules. I present: Green Bento!

In the left container: steamed broccoli, cucumber slices, steamed green beans, fried bamboo rice with edamame, and kiwi slices. In the right container: fried bamboo rice with edamame topped with pan fried turkey cutlet and herbs.

While this bento does not have 5 different colors, I do have protein (the egg whites in the fried rice, as well as the edamame and turkey cutlet), starch (rice), vegetables, and fruit. 

I made a marinade for the turkey cutlet using Italian Parsley and cilantro, and reserved some of the marinade (before I put the turkey in it!) to put on top of the poultry after I pan fried it. The marinade also contains olive oil, salt, pepper, a drop of sesame oil, and Yuzu Ponzu sauce.

Bamboo rice is a light green rice that has been infused with bamboo extract. It does retain a slight green tinge after cooking and it is very pretty. I used Yuzu Ponzu sauce when frying the rice so as not to turn it brown with regular shoyu. I also added fresh parsley to the egg white in the rice, for more green color.

Here is the bento box I used for my green bento. This is a fun two tiered bento box in the shape of a frog. And I would say the best thing to pair with this bento is the Austrian wine, Grüner Veltliner. (Grün is German for Green!)

Happy Bento-ing!

One Fish Two Fish (No Fish)

Is it weird that this One Fish Two Fish bento does not actually contain any FISH? ha ha.

In celebration of the 109th birthday of Dr. Seuss (March 2nd), here is my One Fish Two Fish lunch. The fish are actually made with egg sheet colored with food coloring! I had a heck of a time making egg sheets, I just don't have the skill. So I used a microwave method posted by Biggie, and it worked out okay. I'm still not that good at doing egg sheets.

In this bento: rice, egg sheet fish, steamed broccolini from Triple T Ranch, carrots, and pulled pork topped with picked red onions and sprigs of cilantro. The eyes of the fish are swiss cheese, and the details are cut out from nori.

Of course, I had to pack this in my Dr. Seuss bento box! This is actually just a food container I got in the dollar bins at Target, but it is perfect size for a bento. Yum!

Bento Beet Down

Today's bento features delicious beets from the Redwood Empire Farmers Market. I roasted the beets in the oven, and also used the beet greens in a delicious saute.

In this bento: goat cheese quesadillas made with Tortilla Factory Green Chile hand-made style tortilla, french feta cheese, roasted garlic, and wild arugula from Triple T Ranch, lightly steamed broccoli from Triple T Ranch, a carrot, slices of kiwi and orange, and sauteed beet greens with a slice of roasted beet on top. 

This is the 'bento' box I used, which I actually found at Target in their dollar bins. It was labeled as a snack container, but works very well as a bento box. :)

Another view of my tasty bento.

Measure Your Feet Day Bento

What the...?! Why yes, January 23rd is Measure Your Feet Day! A strange 'holiday' indeed. But a properly measured foot hopefully leads to comfortable footwear, so I guess I can understand why it is important. Did you know that your feet can grow after you turn 40? It's true! A combination of weight, loss of elasticity, and weakening tissues can result in up to a half-size growth every ten years after the age of 40. Bizarre! So go get your feet properly measured with one of those foot measuring contraptions, you know, this thing here.

To celebrate Measure Your Feet Day, and to keep the people at the Brannock Device company in business, I made this footsie bento! It contains a cheddar and German bologna sandwich with a cheese foot (not anatomically correct), a few blackberries, yellow pepper slices, carrots, and broccoli from Triple T Ranch. I finally made it to the farmers market this past weekend, so I will have some local produce in my next bentos, yay!

This is the one time I DO suggest putting your foot in your mouth.

This bento is also the 180th post on Sonoma Bento, which means I am making another donation to Redwood Empire Food Bank. Every 20th post I make a $20 donation to my local food bank. Not everyone has access to healthy food, or to the abundance that many of us enjoy. I encourage you to find a way to help feed your community as well!

National Static Electricity Day Bento

January 9th is National Static Electricity Day, so my lunch is particularly shocking. Ha ha! I used my LunchBots Trio bento box to make today's lunch:

In this bento: leftover mushroom couscous with two bolts of static electricity (provolone cheese), piece of chicken thigh (marinated in soy sauce, honey, pepper, lime, olive oil, and Peruvian Chile Lime Seasoning from Savory Spice Shop) on a bed of arugula with pomegranate arils, a few blackberries, broccoli, carrot, and cucumber. 

Now go run around on the carpet in your socks and shock someone you love. *ZAP*

I have included this lunch in Shannon's What's For Lunch Wednesday group. Check it out for other great bento lunch ideas!

Steak Bento and Ramen Road Trip

One of my resolutions for 2013 is to blog more and keep up with both my bento interests and my nail polish interests. Balance is the key, right? And in that vein, here is a bento post to kick off my resolution. :)

My sweetie and I headed into San Francisco this past Saturday to check out a ramen restaurant that was recommended by my friend Sheri of Happy Little Bento. Normally I head to Japantown in SF, but this was a part of the city new to me. We went to a shop called Saiwaii Ramen on Irving in the Outer Sunset part of the city. Besides having a tough time finding parking, we had a great time! I will detail the ramen in a moment, but first take a look at the bento I made on Sunday with the new bento box I got at the Ichi Ban Kan store on Irving! So cute!

In this bento: marinated flank steak, cheddar cheese cubes, raw cauliflower, broccoli  and a radish, and two Greek olives. Also a satsuma orange, and some blue cheese dressing for dipping the veggies.

The bento box is so cute, with green and pink colors and a lid that snaps in place. I put it in my backpack to take to my art studio yesterday, and everything stayed safely inside. 

Now for RAMEN! I sure do wish we had a good ramen place in Sonoma County. Somebody get on that. Here is my hubby outside of Saiwaii Ramen. It is a pretty small place and we were seated next to another couple sharing the same table as us. My hubby was not too thrilled to be sitting so close to strangers, but that is his odd quirk to deal with. LOL

OMG OMG OMG. I got the Spicy Garlic Tonkatsu Ramen with added egg and Pork Belly cubes. Let me say that last part again: PORK BELLY CUBES. Holy Decadence, Batman! The portion was very generous and I ordered the broth regular spicy. It was tasty and not too spicy, although the spice did build a bit. The big Sapporo beers we got with the ramen helped cool our palates. And I wasn't sure if I would really finish the whole thing, but it was so delicious that I was even poking around for any spare noodles at the end of the meal. Yum. I will definitely go back here. 

Hubby moved all the way to the corner of the table to try to avoid sitting next to our table mates. Silly man. He also got a donburi with unagi, which was a tasty little bite to add to the meal. 

Happy New Year my friends, and I will see more of you in 2013!

In Flight Birthday Bento

Tomorrow is my birthday and I am headed to the Seattle area for a quick trip to see my family. I am really excited to see my little niece, I just love her so! We get to so an Auntie and Me swim class together. She just turned 1 year old, so I think it will be more splashing than swimming. :) And of course, a flight of any kind if a great excuse to make bento! Why pay a ton of money for uninspired airplane food?

In this bento: a hard boiled egg, steamed edamame, slices of aged white cheddar cheese, a few baby carrots, a few radishes, some raw broccoli, and a couple of soppressata salami roll-ups. This and the complimentary adult beverage that I get on my flight to Seattle will do nicely. (I love flying Alaska Airlines! Free beer!)

Blustery Day Bento

Last night we had quite the wind storm, with gusts up to 50 miles per hour. It gave me a headache all day and kept me up at night. Grrr! So I decided if there is chaos out in the air, I would add some chaos to my lunch! The wind blew the cheese leaves from the inside of my sandwich to the top of it! ;-)

In this bento: a tuna fish sandwich topped with Havarti cheese leaves, broccoli spears, a radish, baby carrots, and dried apricots. 

Sorry I have been MIA for a while bento buddies! I have really gotten into my nail art designs and they kind of took over for a bit. I hope to find more balance now between my bento and my nail art. :-) Good news, though: all of this practice I have been doing with my nail art landed me a prize from the Muppets and OPI brand nail polish! See my award winning Fozzie manicure by clicking here. :-) Happy December!!

Recipe Contest Bento

Hi bento pals! Sorry I have not posted in a while. I got sick last week and am still trying to get over the sniffles and cough that are SO annoying. This is my 160th bento post, and that means another donation to Redwood Empire Food Bank! Every 20 posts I make a $20 donation to Redwood Empire Food Bank. They provide meals to literally thousands of hungry people in the North Bay every day. As a food blogger I have the luxury to buy the foods I like and take time to make them look pretty, as well as share my bento lunches with my friends. For some people in my community, lunch may not be an option every day. They might have to pay the rent instead of buy groceries. This is my way of helping my community feed itself. I encourage YOU to make a similar commitment. Find a charity you can get behind and let your blog help those who need help the most!

Ok, now for the fun part. It's GIVEAWAY time!

Here is my bento for today: slices of garlic rubbed steak, a kalamata olive, roasted baby potatoes, broccoli spears, orange cherry tomatoes from The Patch, a small gala apple from Twin Peaks Orchard, and a few baby carrots. I decided that for this bento giveaway, I would encourage you to share a recipe for a simple bento ingredient. Your recipe should have no more than five ingredients, like the roasted potatoes in my bento. I will share my recipe for the potatoes at the end of this post. Here is what you can win:

The bento prize pack has a green two tiered bento box, a handmade bento box strap (the little fishy made by me!), two punches for cute nori designs, a set of vegetable cutters, and a cookbook!

Here is the bento box you will win. It has two tiers and the upper tier has a fitted lid so you can add saucy items and they won't spill on everything else.

There are two fun craft punches: one is a frog shape, and the other is a smiling face shape. These are great for punching little details out of sheets of nori (dried seaweed) and adding interesting details to your bento box lunches.

I love these vegetable cutters for adding quick cuteness to bento box lunches. There are three flower shapes in this set of cutters.

Here is the cookbook you will win. It is filled with great, simple recipes that will work in bento lunches. The recipes focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients. I really like this cookbook and have a copy that I use at home quite often!

Now for the promised roasted potato recipe. I used a spice blend from Savory Spice Shop in Santa Rosa, but feel free to use whatever spice blend you would like to flavor your version.

Roasted Baby New Potatoes

1 to 2 pounds of small new potatoes, washed and scrubbed

olive oil to coat potatoes

1 to 2 teaspoons of Vietnamese Sweet Lemon Curry

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange potatoes in a baking dish in one layer. Drizzle potatoes with olive oil. Sprinkle potatoes with seasonings and then gently mix the potatoes around in the oil and spices to coat all potatoes. Place baking dish in the oven and roast for 40 mintues to 1 hour until potatoes are cooked through and their skins are a bit wrinkled. Cool before adding potatoes to bento. Can store in the refrigerator for 4 days.

NOW it's your turn! :-) I would love to find out your simple recipes for bento ingredients! To enter the contest, simply fill out the form below. Please try to keep your recipes to 5 ingredients or less (salt and pepper do not count as ingredients) so that the recipes will be easy for anyone to try. You can also enter the contest simply by being a follower of this blog. You don't have to send in a recipe, but I would love to see what you like to prepare in your bento lunches. You can get extra entries in the contest by following me on facebook, twitter, and by following my new nail art blog at sonomanailart.blogspot.com. That makes a total of five possible entries per person. And yes, this contest is open INTERNATIONALLY! I will select a random entry from all entries on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 6pm Pacific Time. And I will share all of the recipes sent in on a special page on this blog, so everyone can enjoy your ideas and try them out.

Thanks so much for following my bento adventures and GOOD LUCK!

Eat This Bento, You Will

Yoda in a bento! This Star Wars bento is in honor of the Blu Ray release of the movies today. While I do not have a Blu Ray player, or the cash to shell out for these movies, I do love the original trilogy. And I think it is hilarious how fierce Yoda is in the second trilogy (episodes I, II, and III). He got soft and weird with his old age. Still a kick ass Jedi though.

I made Yoda out of two different colors of fruit roll up. His eyes are provolone cheese. Yoda is resting on a PB&J sandwich made with crunchy peanut butter and Dry Creek Peach Jam. Also in this bento: broccoli spears, baby carrots, a cherry tomato from the Oakmont Farmers Market, and slices of nectarine.

May the Force be with you, young Padawan.

Fake Strawberry Bento

I am playing with your mind in this bento! What looks like a strawberry is actually a slice of watermelon radish! Moohoohahaha! I guess it would have been even more subversive if I had cut it in the shape of a watermelon, huh?

In this bento: corn from the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market, bbq pork from G&G Supermarket in Santa Rosa, slices of armenian cucumber from Redwood Empire Farms, the crazy strawberry shaped watermelon radish slice (from Orchard Farms), tamagoyaki omelette made with an egg from Hector's Honey, a bit of Violet Queen Broccoli (so pretty and tasty) from Orchard Farms, and lightly steamed green beans from The Patch. Super local bento!

And here's a look back at the bento I made a year ago today. Quite fun, it's got an ant made from olives and nori, plus teeny tiny deviled eggs made from hard boiled quail eggs. Tee hee!

Sorry I am not posting so much right now. I am covering the morning show again for coworkers, so my bento making is not happening as often (if I tried to make bento at 4am when I have to get up, they would be very ANGRY bentos), and when I do make them, it's mostly leftovers. Not so inspiring. Only 3 more weeks of covering the morning show! Zzzzzzzz....

Airplane Bentos

I just got back from a nice long visit to see my family in Washington State. This was the longest vacation I have had in over 5 years, so it was really nice to not be rushed and have the time to relax. Of course, it was also a great reason to make airplane bento box lunches!

My first bento for the trip from Santa Rosa to Seattle contained falafel from Trader Joes, a few kalamata olives, cherries from the Neufeld Farms, caprese skewers, and spinich bolani made in the Bay Area.

Of course, while I was in Washington State, I had to go bento shopping. I found some fun bento boxes for my sister in law, my brother, and even baby sized bento boxes for my little niece. My bro decided to make bentos for us for a picnic to a local winery. I have to admit I got a little bossy and assembled my own bento, so he was kind of peeved. But I really do like his bento, it's the larger black one with the sandwich wrapped in wax paper. Our bentos had either eggs or egg salad sandwiches, radishes, cucumber, carrots, apples, bell pepper slices, and broccoli. Very healthy!

And here's the bento I made for my plane trip back from Seattle. My sister and I stopped at a great asian market in Kent, Washington called 99 Ranch Market. We got some delicious roasted duck, which I included in this bento. Also edamame, carrots, rainier cherries, and cucumber slices.

Here's a video of the shenanigans I got up to playing with my little niece. I made shirts for the Aunties to celebrate Auntie Palooza 2011. Hee hee!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Can't wait to get back to bento making now that I am all rested up. Have a great week bento pals!

Thank Goodness This Week Is Nearly Over Bento

Zombie Week is nearly over. I have been covering the morning show for one of my coworkers who is on vacation this week, and today was the last day I had to be up at 4am and in the studio writing news stories at 4:30am. Ouchie, my brain hurts. I am seriously considering a nap on my floor right now, because I still have to stick around for an interview at 11am, then come back to do an event from 3:30pm to 8pm. Then a broadcast tomorrow. I'll be a quivering pool of jelly on Sunday. :)

So I thought I would share two bentos with you today. One I made before our broadcast last weekend at the Sonoma Marin Fair, and the other was a bento I brought to work with me yesterday. See if you can tell the difference...

Yup, this is the one I made before the fair broadcast. There's leftover Aloo Chat from Sizzling Tandoor (aloo chat is a spicy potato salad served cold), carrots, edamame, a radish surrounded by arugula from Ridgeview Farms, steamed broccoli, and tamagoyaki omelettes with more arugula. I picked up the arugula and radishes while on a visit to the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market with Jenn of Bentobird.

And this is the less artistic morning show bento! I took this pic with my cell phone. Apple slices, more radishes from Ridgeview Farms, edamame, and leftover homemade chicken enchiladas. This bento is quite representative of my bentos this week. I made them the night before, often with leftovers, threw the frozen edamame in to fill spaces and up the protein content, and called it good.

Here's the arugula from Reenie at Ridgeview Farms. She had really tasty arugula and wonderful sweet peas.

And this is the bunch of french breakfast radishes I picked up from Reenie during my trip to the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market with Jenn of Bentobird.

See you next week after I get some sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

Crepes and Cherry Plums Bento

As I type this, the smell of bacon is wafting through the office. Our afternoon talk show host just finished talking to Duskie Estes and John Stewart of Zazu and Bovolo Restaurants, and they brought their own Black Pig Meat Co. bacon which they cooked up in the studio. I was able to sneak a taste, otherwise I would be crying as well as hungry right now. Duskie and John won the recent Cochon 555 competition in Aspen, so they are the official Queen and King of Pork! Woohoo!

Sadly, there's no bacon in this bento. But it was still tasty. This bento features items I picked up at the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market yesterday when I went there with fellow bento maker, Bentobird!

In this bento: crepes with turkey, colby jack cheese, and wilted arugula from Ridgeview Farms. Also baby carrots, french breakfast radishes from Ridgeview Farms, a few broccoli spears, and cherry plums from DeSantis Farms. The cherry plums were a bit tart, but so cute and perfect size for a bento. It was really fun to show off my favorite farmers market to a fellow bento buddy.

Here is the video I made of my recent adventures at the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic. Enjoy!

Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic Bento

Whew! I am wiped out, but really happy. This morning I was one of the announcers at the 21st Annual Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic. I love this event so much. It was on hiatus last year because of improvements being made to Keiser Park, but I was thrilled to see it back this year. As one of the perks of being a part of the media, I was able to go up in a balloon on Friday. I will post a video of that soon. Today I met another bento buddy in real life: Bentobird!

Ok, so Jenn is a little camera shy, but I really did get my picture with her! She and her sweetie Jamison are in Northern California for a visit and they showed up at the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic this morning. I am so glad that I made this quick bento (at 4:00am this morning, YIKES) so that I could have a bento when I met another bento pal.

This bento, by necessity, had to be assembled really quickly. I had to be at Keiser Park at 4:30am this morning, yowza! It includes: leftover chow mein from The China Room in Santa Rosa, carrots, broccoli, edamame, and a few grapes. I used cheddar and colby jack cheeses to cut out quick balloon shapes and placed them on the chow mein.

Here is my bento with a giant balloon in the background. I think it would take approximately 1.7 million bento boxes to fill an inflated hot air balloon. That number is not exact. ;-) The balloon in this pic is called Planet Earth and it is based in Albuquerque, NM.

I hope I can see Bentobird again before her visit is over, and if I do, I'll share whatever bento adventures we might have. Sorry if you missed out on the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic this year, but mark your calendar for Father's Day Weekend 2012 because it will definitely be back, and I will most assuredly be there, too! Ok, now it is time for a NAP!

Sonoma Bento One Year Anniversary!

Today marks one year since I started this blog. I am so thankful for all of the support and interest from my bento friends. Some of you make bento, some of you do not, but all of you have been so kind and encouraged me to keep learning and keep improving my bento skills. This has been a great year, and I can't wait to see how my bento lunches will evolve in the next year. So, I thought I would do a before and after kind of a post today. Here is the very first bento I made, back on April 21st, 2010.

The upper tier has a heart shaped onigiri rice ball, steamed broccoli, slices of baked sweet potato, grapes, and a sliced strawberry.

The lower tier is filled with salad greens from Offerings of the Land, carrots, mushrooms, watermelon radish, and half of a hard boiled egg. And now, for my remake of my first ever bento, drumroll please......

The first bento I made was in a GINORMOUS bento box. The only thing you really can fit into that box and not have way too much food, would be a salad. Instead, I used this new black bento box (it's still kind of big at 600ml) and packed everything much tighter. Packing your bento box tightly will not only make sure that things don't roll around and shift, but it will also put enough food into your bento box to fill your tummy at lunch time. In this bento box: I have an onigiri wrapped with a strip of nori that I punched with a flower shaped craft punch. There are a few green grapes, a strawberry from Williamson Farms, a flower shaped slice of purple sweet potato, steamed broccoli rapini from Triple T, a mix of wild arugula from Triple T along with torn romaine lettuce, slices of carrot, a french breakfast radish from Ortiz Farms, a small container of salad dressing, and a tamagoyaki omelette made with slivers of green garlic from Middleton Farms. The only thing I forgot was mushrooms, and I actually did have enoki mushrooms from Bohemian Mushroom Farm, but I spaced and forgot to put them in. You can also see that the lighting is MUCH better in the remake than in the original bento. I take pictures of my bento next to a bright window. I also use scrapbook paper or fabric for a background. The original bento was shot in my office kitchen. Not really conducive to glamorous photo shoots. :)

This is the first bento I posted on Sonoma Bento on April 29th, 2010. As you can see, I was already making some big steps and improvements from my first bento attempt. I actually really like this bento, and I was wondering how I would remake it. In this bento: a pita sandwich with wasabi tunafish salad, baby carrots, radish slices, broccoli, two onigiri with slices of cucumber in them, and half of a boiled egg with black sesame seed details.

In my re-do: a magic round bento to the rescue! I have basically the same wasabi tunafish sandwich in a pita, but I put black sesame seeds on the outsides. Also in this bento: steamed broccoli rapini from Triple T, green grapes, a bear onigiri with nori eyes and a pickled ginger red mouth, radishes from Bernier Farms, cucumber slices, baby carrots, and a little hard boiled quail egg from Triple T with nori eyes and a carrot beak. The original bento was pretty cute as it was, so this is just a different spin on the ingredients in a different shaped bento box. I was a little puzzled about why I put both bread and rice in the same bento, which I don't do now. Ah well, this did come out pretty tasty.

Beverage Pairing Suggestion: J Vineyards & Winery Cuvee 20 Brut. A great and affordable sparkling wine to toast one year as a bento blogger! YAY!

Something you may have noticed in my newer bento photos: a watermark. As my photos have improved, I decided I should brand them so that they are credited to me. I place the words "Sonoma Bento" in my photos, using background or foreground colors and placing them in fun spots. Many bento bloggers do this, and it is probably a good practice to use if you are uploading your own bento photos. Credit should always be given where it is due, and you don't want someone to steal your photos and claim it as his/her own.

A few words about how my style and approach to bento has changed: I used to think that I needed tons of picks and cupcake liners to make my bento kawaii (or cute). I find that I rarely use food picks. A sharp knife is the tool I use the most in making my bento. I do like to use small food cutters for a quick cute element. Tweezers are important for placing details. Probably the most important part of my bento making style, however, is the farmers market! Seasonal, fresh food is what I like to build my bento around. Not everything comes from the farmers market, but I try to feature at least one local item in every lunch.

Now for the celebration! In honor of my one year blogiversary, I am giving away a fun set of bento items. It's a starter kit of sorts! Here's what I am giving away:

A set of colorful chopsticks.

An onigiri mold, so you can make hearts, stars, and bears.

A nori punch shaped like an apple.

A set of 12 food picks.

And finally, this cute three tiered pink bento box, and my handmade onigiri bento box strap. The band is pink felt with an elastic section, and a felt onigiri face on top. The bento box itself is brand new, and has a shallow upper tier to hold chopsticks or utensils (maybe a slim sauce pack), and then two tiers for food.

There are 4 ways you can win this awesome bento prize pack. Please leave each entry as a separate comment:

1. MANDATORY: You must be a follower of this blog, Sonoma Bento.

2. Tweet about the contest. Please let me know if you tweeted about the contest, and if possible include the link to your tweet.

3. Mention this contest on your blog. Please let me know about your blog post and include the link to your blog post.

4. Tell me what your favorite bento tool is and why, or if you don't make bento box lunches yet, which bento tool you would really like to have.

I will randomly select one entry as the winner on lucky Friday the 13th of May. :-)

GOOD LUCK! And thank you, thank you, thank you for being a part of my bento adventures. :)