I'm Biggie: avid cook, speedy lunch packer, mom in San Francisco, & former expat fluent in Japanese. 
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Speed Bento Tip: Store pre-cut nori in freezer bag
If you pack a lot of onigiri (rice balls) or decorated rice in the morning, speed up your morning prep by pre-cutting nori into shapes and sizes you use often, and store them at room temperature in a sealed freezer bag with a dessicant pack to keep moisture away from the nori. You can often find spare dessicant packs (silica gel) in packages of nori, dry snack food, even clothing. If you have a lot of smaller cut shapes, try putting them into a smaller container inside the freezer bag. I got the disposable Solo plastic cup below from a pizza delivery (had cheese in it), or you could use tiny Tupperware, plastic wrap, etc.
You can also store the pre-cut nori in the freezer, but you’ll want to wrap the little stacks of nori tightly in plastic wrap and then put them into the freezer bag (squeezing out all excess air from the bag before sealing). If it gets moist upon coming back to room temperature, warm it briefly in your oven or toaster oven until crisp. Recommended storage time in the freezer is two weeks max. for best flavor (source: 主婦ã®å‹), but it should keep indefinitely.
Note: Shapes above were cut with a scrapbooking punch (”flowers” in the nori strip) and very sharp craft scissors (faces).
READ MORE:
- Need for speed: A mommy’s lunch manifesto
- Food safety for packed lunches
- How to pack a bento lunch and use “gap fillersâ€
- Choosing the right size bento box
- Biggie’s list of top speed tips, tutorials and equipment reviews
March 15th, 2007 | Categories: freezing, onigiri or sushi, parenthacks, tips | 
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March 16th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
great idea to save those silicone drying pouches…and precutting nori. What you do with the leftover scrap when you make food garnishes or cut things into shapes? I was always curious — because when I make things into fun shapes–I end up with a big pile of good food, like carrots and kamaboko scraps, or sandwhich crusts! Sometimes I eat it, and sometimes I toss it. I look at sites like e-obento.com, and think, they must have a lot of scraps of food. are they making soup? just curious. : ) — julie
March 16th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
A few ideas: 1) put them in a layer under the nicely cut food, 2) put them in a salad (or soup, or inside a sandwich), 3) freeze the vegetable scraps for use in making stock, 4) turn the sandwich crusts into bread crumbs & freeze, 5) we freeze the bread crusts then use them to feed the birds with Bug when we go to the park with a pond, 6) chop up the veggie scraps and throw them into Tupperware in the fridge where they’re waiting to speed up the next morning’s lunch (i.e. saute and add to something), 7) snack on them!
March 16th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Hi! I love your blog, and I just came to say thank you for friending my own personal bento blog. I hope it’s not a problem that I linked to two of your entries; if it is they can always be removed. I’ve also friend you back. Thank you!
March 16th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
My pleasure, and thanks for the links!
I’m looking to find and friend blogs about packed lunches (all kinds: bento, Laptop Lunch, Mr. Bento, Tupperware, kids’ brown bags, etc.) so my Friends Page is 100% packed lunch. If anyone else has one you’d like linked, please let me know!
March 16th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
My mother used to draw a face on my obento with nori, goma (sesami seeds), ham, umeboshi etc etc when I was little. Such a happy memory. Your Bug-kun is so lucky to have a mother like you! I am sure that he will always remember how much fun he had when he opened the bento box : )
March 18th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Yumi, you are seriously too nice!
October 7th, 2007 at 2:07 am
Great ‘punching’… I saw on Newtype USA that a popular item in Japan is called the “Niko Niko Punch” but I can’t find a single store or WebSite that sells them…?? Basically they punch out all types of faces & designs… Do you recall where you purchased yours & link me please?
October 7th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
@7 from TyR: I’d love to get my hands on one of those Niko Niko Punches for cheap — maybe one of these days. I got my punches at Target in the dollar spot (regular scrapbooking punches) and at Ichiban Kan for US$1.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:23 am
jbox / jlist has them now, but they’re kinda expensive… >.< I don’t wanna pay $6 a punch!
Face punches for nori (set #1)
Face punches for nori (set #2)
July 15th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
@9 from Amanda: Thanks for the heads up on the Niko Niko seaweed punches on JList/Jbox, Amanda! Very cute, but I have trouble with the price tag as well…
October 8th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Hi! This is nice! Where in Japan did you used to live? How cool you make kyaraben in San Francisco!
October 12th, 2008 at 9:26 am
@11 from ochikeron: I used to live in Osaka (3.5 years) and Tokyo (5.5 years) in the 1990’s. Result is that I’ve got some pretty strong Osaka-ben, but that’s okay.
People definitely remember me!
February 8th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
What brand of nori do you use? I’m curious because I read that you were allergic to fish/shellfish, and my boyfriend is as well. I’ve been afraid to try things like onigiri in his lunches because I couldn’t really be sure what was totally safe for him to eat. Thanks for all of your wonderful posts!
February 8th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
@13 from Ashie: Oh, we’re not allergic to fish/shellfish; maybe you were thinking of Amorette, a guest poster here?