Bento (Links) I Have Loved

So, I have no bento today as I have very fun and exciting lunch plans (that you'll hear about later on The Feisty Foodie, I promise). So instead, I'm going to share with you a few bento-related links that I have seen lately that I adore!

At the risk of sounding like a total fan-girl, there may or may not be multiple links from the same sites. I don't read that many bento sites because I don't know of THAT many (so please, feel free to share if you know of any that I'm missing!), and sometimes, the same person just posts so many good things in a short time span, I just want to share the love.

JustBento is freaking awesome. She's been doing a chicken-for-bento-purposes series lately, and I love it; I like chicken thighs a lot but sometimes you get bored of making it the same way all the time, even if it IS super 'lish. Here's a bunch of her recent recipes:

• Balsamic Sesame Chicken sounds really delicious
• Miso Chicken I'm always looking for new ways to use miso.
• Salted Chicken Thighs - yummy, I wish boneless but skin-on chicken thighs were available here, the skin on those look incredible!
• Tsukune I would definitely take these and switch up the seasonings until I find something I love...
• Poached Chicken I like the idea of making this ahead of time, portioning it out, and then just defrosting quickly in the morning and mixing with whatever for your needs...
• Lemon Chicken "Nuggets" I've already made and enjoyed these, as has NotExactlyBento!

Speaking of NotExactlyBento, another awesome bento site. Her photographs turn me green with envy, and she is super friendly and helpful to a dumbarse like myself who has loads of questions on web-junk. AND SHE DOESN'T SEEM TO MIND! my dumb questions or my long, rambling comments... :)

• Not Exactly Bento Photo Contest That's right, she's holding an awesome contest! Deadline is August 22, so head on over and enter! Wait, don't enter! I want to win one of the sweet bento sets she's giving away! Oops!
• Blog tips Okay, so this isn't strictly bento-related (not exactly bento, right? heh heh... heh?), but it's an awesome page Jenn's just started on that I know I will be coming back to again and again. She's been posting tips and hints on how to get started with your own webpage, and blogging tips in general, just awesome.
• Domain Names and Websites
• Watermarking Your Photos (so nasty people can't steal them, or at least it makes it harder)
• Taking Pictures for Your Bento Blog

Pretty much if you're in the bento blogging world, you've heard of Lunch in a Box. Biggie is like, the Momma of all Bento Bloggers, or I think so anyway. I'm a TOTAL fangirl for her. She's awesome, friendly, nice, and just, well, her blog rocks. I'm sure anyone reading my bento blog (who bento's and isn't just reading because we're friends) has heard of her, so this might be redundant, but here are some recent posts I've especially loved.

• Organization Series I am pretty sure this link will take you to a capture of all of her latest endeavors getting that darned pesky bento overflow problem under control. Nearly everyone I know who bentos tends to um, go a little nuts with the bento purchases initially and Biggie has a good idea of how to tame that wicked stack of boxes you've got.
• Bento FAQ Bento newcomers, never fear, here is a comprehensive list of links to the answers to pretty much all of your questions (What IS bento? I don't want to make cute food, can I still bento? How big a container should I use? and more!). AWESOME.
• Bento Store Locator Self explanatory, and for someone not living in an area highly populated with Japanese people or at least the stores, this is wonderful. I actually have printed out lists before and done "bento scavenger hunts" in NYC. Not as much fun as you'd think, since I usually come up empty-handed from high prices or low stock or both. This helps with that problem.

Ok, I've probably blathered long enough now, you're all bored. This post actually took me longer to whip up than a normal bento post, haha! Tomorrow: back to your regularly scheduled program.

Happy bento!!!