Those who know me well, know that I
have a love/hate relationship with food.
Mostly I find it annoying.
annoying to clean up after,
annoying to have to
stop what your doing to eat (or prepare),
annoying to take the time involved in all aspects.
Now, I readily
admit that it is necessary to sustain life,
it can certainly taste
good (chocolate),
occasionally I really crave it,
and I surely eat
more than my fair share.
That being said, my four young
girls may well become mothers someday.
Mothers,
spend a fair amount of their time tending to the food needs of their
families.
Mothers that might could use a better attitude toward food.
Luckily my girls love to play and cook in the kitchen, so
maybe they haven't been too adversely affected by my lack of
enthusiasm.
To the point. School lunches for the
past 10 years have been thus:
Fresh fruit or veggie. (apple or
carrots)
Granola bar or other pre-packaged
starch.
So, one day on the radio (NPR), I hear
an author talking about her book,
My Japanese Table.
This re-piqued my interest in bento style lunches. They first came
to my notice a couple years ago, and I even blogged
about them. -sort of. (Apr 2010 Question of the Day)
I figured that if they were more fun (creative outlet) to make, maybe they would be more fun (actual nutrition) to eat. I was really frustrated seeing wasted sandwiches and apple slices in the trashbin, but also knowing how mundane and annoying those lunches must be.
It started simple. No new supplies (expense), just use what we have. Cheep plastic containers.
Of course I don't follow all the "rules," of bento.
Preparation + Good Leftovers+ Presentation
Variety +A Touch of Cuteness
Here is the first attempt. Two layers, small but varied portions.
Brownies cut thin and wrapped in cellophane.
A couple bites each of cucumber and yellow pepper.
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| Bottom Layer |
I created two levels in the container by laying a section of cellophane wide across the first layer and folding it over the second layer after I was done building it.
Pretzel crackers, cheese and ham cut cute or in chunks. I think there's some pepperoni in there too.
Not wanting to make them the ridicule of their lunchrooms, I proceded cautiously.
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| Middle Layer |
To prevent culture shock, I added a third layer prepackaged granola bar.
Dear Hubby wrote a note to put inside introducing the bento lunch idea and inviting feedback.
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| Top Layer |
THE MIRACLE:
Feedback 100% positive.
"I don't even like peppers, but I ate them and they weren't really that bad!"
"I ACTUALLY ate ALL my lunch"
"Are you going to do that everyday"
"It was kinda fun"
Here are some others we've made. The girls younger girls used to buy hot lunch once a week or so as a treat. Now, if I don't make a bento for them, they throw one together themselves. It's fun to see them scramble for bits to include. So far I've averaged about four bento lunches for them a week.
This one looks like, brownie, cheese, apple, broccoli, celery
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| Bottom Layer |
Canadian bacon, crackers, pbj rolles, cheese, pretzel chips
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| Top Layer |
Strawberries, lettuce, granola ball cookies, grapes
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| Bottom Layer |
Open sandwiches cut as pumpkins, rice cake chips
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| Top Layer |
Here we have a rainbow of peppers and sugar peas with a little packet of leftover pork bbq.
I used press -n-seal to make the little packets. The girls said they worked just fine, but I did go out and buy little containers after this for dressings and such. -still on the lookout for the perfect little container-
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| Bottom Layer |
Mini bagel with cinnamon almonds inside, oatmeal scotchies cookie, and chocolate covered blueberries. (Thanks GrandMary)
I liked how this was monochromatic until you found the rainbow underneath.
Here are some other pictures and ideas.
Some are cuter than others, but even a lame bento day is better than the decade of lameness that preceded it.
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| strawberries, cucumber, grapes |
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| tangarine, cantalope, carrot w/ leftover pizza |
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| apple, red pepper |
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| veggie chips, sliced baguette |
On youtube you can find tutorials on making bunnies, octopi, squids and other silly bento addditions.
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| This is called a bento bunny. Later I make some with eyes. |
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| celary, marshmallow chex treat, beef jerky |
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| carrots sliced long, apple, ham/cheese roll |
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| veggie chips, chocolate almonds, cookies |
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| ghost pbj, brownie |
The picture of the carrot/cucumber tulip is missing. It is REALLY cute. (Found the idea online)
And I bought taller, sturdier containers to accomodate the mini containers better. -and I found some CUTE little animal foodpicky things at amazon for cheap. Don't have pics of them.
This was a fun one. (If your not bored yet)
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| chef salad in bits, dressing in container, and rice ball with cinammon and sugar |
Here is a bento bunny with eyes. I used a toothpick to make an indentation and pressed in some poppy seeds.
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| bento bunny, chips? |
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| leftover pizza cut to fit |
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| pizza, tortilla chips |
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| little donut and circular sliced apple |
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| carrot disks, mixed berries |
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| sausage disk/red pepper/cellery kabobs, bbq sauce |
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| brownie, buttered bread, cheese |
HALLOWEEN!
(Happy Birthday Grandma!)
Yippy-Skippy helped me with these. She made sure they were fun!
(Sorry this is upside down.)
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| leftover homemade pizza cut into moons and cats |
Did you know you could write notes on bananas?
Also, strawberries with faces, and pumpkin cucumbers
Rice cake chips on top,
Then she got really creative! Ghost juice boxes. Love that kid.
The girls tell me I get them coolness points at school. Who knew a mother could do such things?
Go to Bentolunch.net for more ideas.
I'm having trouble with the links right now.
