Double Bento Day

Like I mentioned before, Bean loves crab! I usually let the kids help pick the menu for the week but since Bean's favorite meal is quite pricey he rarely gets it. Last night he did and had to bring the left over crab legs for lunch today. Since I used the new nori punch for LuLu's he had to have a nori face on something...so we put it on the crabmeat. He also has a babybel with a Udi's gluten free cookie underneath, some crackers, cauliflower carrots and some ranch in the mayo cup.  

LuLu has 3 tiny PB&Js cut into a flower, bear, and bunny (I could have decorated them cuter, just running low on time). A babybel made into a ladybug, broccoli and ranch, grapes, and a couple of Hershey's Kisses.

 

 

Crab Stick Bento

Bean's all time favorite food is crab...real or imitation. This lunch is in the Sterilite container and it has slices of crab stick on a sword (I made him promise that he would not play with these swords so we aren't banned from using them...he listened) since I could only get three pieces on a sword I also cut some up into a cupcake liner. He also has chocolate chip bunnies, yogurt covered raisins, grape tomatoes, goldfish crackers, and a Pocky stick.

LuLu's First School Bento Lunch

 

I know what you are thinking. "I just saw Bean's first Bento and it was Angry Birds, what happened with LuLu's? Did you get lazy? What's wrong with you mom?" Yes, yes, I know. I didn't realize until the two pictures were put together. But it just shows that Bento doesn't have to be fancy.

LuLu loves making her own bento lunches. She gathers random things and puts them in silicone cupcake liners on a plate. That's a bento...right?! Well sure it is, at least that's what we call it :)

So here is her very first school Bento...made by Mommy. My kids absolutly adore pepperoni (I buy turkey pepperoni...not that it's much healthier) with cream cheese or in this case Garlic Herb Laughing Cow spread in each one. I don't let them have it too often because it just can't be good for them. Baby grapes that were on sell this week, goldfish crackers, broccoli and carrots, ranch dip, and two Hershey's Kisses. LuLu ate almost all of this...bet you can guess what she left!

Bean's First Bento

So this is my first attempt at Bento...not too shabby, huh?

 

The red bird is a Babybell cheese with a carrot beak and Wilton (the cake decorating company, got them at Walmart in the cake decorating aisle in party supplies) eyes. The black bomb birds are jumbo olives, white bird is a boiled egg, green pig is a peeled kiwi with a green grape slice as a nose and kiwi peel as a mustache, the small pigs are green grapes, and the boards are slices of PB&J sandwich.

 

I got this idea from here...http://www.anotherlunch.com/2011/10/easylunchboxes-angry-birds-bento-lunch.html

Mine is not nearly as cute as the original.
Melissa at Another Lunch is such an inspiration! I follow her on Facebook and look at her blog a lot to get inspired. And really she was the one that got me started because it was this post that made me start.

How to Start

I guess the most important thing is a box. I had a little trouble finding something suitable in my smallish town. I found Lock and Lock online and bought a couple of square boxes with 2 rectangular dividers that each have two dividers...so there are 4 small compartments inside the boxes. I also found at Walmart a Sterilite rectangular box with snap sides that works perfectly for LuLu since she doesn't eat as much. I bought some rubbery cupcake  liners at TJ Maxx and I use those for compartments for LuLu. Another thing is picks. You want your lunches to be cute. All I could find for a year was swords. I finally found Bento USA's website and just got my first order in today...lots of super cute picks. LuLu and Bean are going to flip when they open lunches with these. You can just go crazy with cute things. There are all types of cutters, ones for veggies, ones for sandwiches (got my first ones at Walmart), ones for nori (seaweed sheets and you can punch out facial features for your creations...I couldn't resist, had to get them). You need a lunchbox to pack it all into. I use the Buzz Lightyear one from Target for Bean and LuLu has a Hello Kitty one from there. Her's is a strange shape...more upright. The Lock and Lock won't fit but the Sterilite fits perfectly. And finally ice packs.
So, here is a rundown if you don't want to read my rambling :)

1. Box
2. Rubbery Cupcake Liners (can not think of what these are called)
3. Picks
4. Cutters
5. Lunchbox
6. Ice Pack

These were the first things that I bought. I've bought lots since then but still go back to these basics.

What is Bento?

Bento! What in the world is Bento? Wikipedia says, "Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Bento can be very elaborately arranged in a style called kyaraben or "character bento". Kyaraben is typically decorated to look like popular Japanese cartoon (anime) characters, characters from comic books (manga), or video game characters. Another popular bento style is "oekakiben" or "picture bento", which is decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants."

Well who in the heck has time for that? Seriously around here it's a three ring circus in the mornings and there is no way that my kiddos would eat rice, fish, and pickled vegetables for lunch...seriously?!  But Bento doesn't have to be those things and it doesn't have to be all that time consuming. Really all it is, is small portions of different kinds of food. Whatever they like or will eat neatly packed into a little box.

What got me was a photo that I saw on Pinterest of a Bento lunch that was styled after Angry Birds. Since my son (then in 1st grade) was obsessed with Angry Birds, I just HAD to make him one. And truly it wasn't that hard and he LOVED it!!! Begged for another one each day after. So I've made him bento style lunches since. It is fun, for me and the kiddies!  Plus, they are more apt to eat healthy things in a bento than they would otherwise.

Try it...you just may like it :)