Lunchbox Ideas: The American Bento- A Review

My daughter often came home with her sandwich still in the original container. It certainly did not look delectable. As it turned out, my little one was not at all interested in her sandwiches, because the bread was mushy by the time her class ate lunch. I started looking into ways to save a sandwich when I accidentally came across the description of a Bento. A Bento is a nicely packed lunch, usually with different compartments, that originated in Japan.

I don't purport to be an expert on Bentos, but what I learned excited me. At some point in history, Bentos became a status symbol. Mothers spent a considerable amount of time ensuring her child's lunch was enticingly presentable. From flower-shaped rice balls, to beans masquerading as polka-dots on tofu characters, these lunches are beautiful.

Most Bentos are served in some type of compartmental case, but I find that regular plastic containers will do just splendidly. Using smaller containers instead of a regular lunch box saves your child back-pack space (and can help to save your child's back).

The trick to creating a unique lunch as inspired by the Bento, is to pack unconventional items such as berries and nuts (provided your child is old enough for such small items), and to pack things tightly in the container. Using cupcake wrappers works really well to create a division of items, as well as to create a nice visual appeal to the lunch.

Some items you may want to have on hand to create a unique lunch are:

Large cookie cutters
Cupcake wrappers
Toothpicks
Vegetable cutters (in different shapes)
Food dye or food dye markers
Cute, compact food containers

You can use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches into neat shapes. Put the sandwich in a large cupcake wrapper, and stack other cool snacks such as nuts, crackers, or grapes around it. You can put a few shaped cookies near it. You can put some carrots or other veggies through a toothpick, and stick the loaded toothpicks on either side of the sandwich or other foods.

Instead of sandwiches, get some whole wheat tortillas and line them with your child's favorite sandwich fillings such as ham and cheese, or peanut butter and jelly. Roll up the tortilla and slice it. You can create a sort of fake sushi platter for your child.

At the end of it, you can fold up a note with cute stickers, letting your child know you are thinking of him or her. You child will look forward to lunches that have a smaller chance of smashing up and spoiling. These lunches afford your child a healthy alternative to boring sacked lunches by offering smaller portions of a wider variety of foods.