About Me

Texas, United States
I am a stay at home Mom from Oregon who has landed in Texas.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Imitation Bento

Due to the fact that Natalie gets out of school at 1 2 days a week, it really pushes lunch to an awkward time,and throwing off the other days of the week. It was causing me to get fast food way too often and we wouldn't get down for naps until 2:30 or sometimes later. I finally had a light bulb moment and began packing Natalie a little lunch that she can eat in the car, without making a mess in my car, which is very important to me, I am just a freak that way!

I fell in love with bento lunches sometime when I was really involved with swaps. I love how neat they are, and I also love how creative you can get with them! My favorite site is here. This woman makes some amazing bento! Now, I am just not in a place where I can take the time to make little works of art for Natalie, and seeing as how she is still good with a pb&j minus the j for lunch I am off the hook. But I have started making her a somewhat bento lunch, though not nearly as beautiful or creative as these, mine still count as an Americanized bento. Anywho, it's fun! And Natalie loves opening up her lunch after school to see what treats I have packed. Plus it has saved me so much money, and you gotta love that!

Anywho here is a picture of one of Natalie's lunches. Since I have no real bento boxes, and no good stores around here that I have found that carry them I use these divided rubbermaid containers that work really great. I also use cupcake liners to help keep the foods separate. I want to get some silicone ones, so that I can wash and reuse them, plus they won't get soggy from wet foods, so the amount of things I can pack in her lunches grows.
So, I am not sure what the point of this post is other than to record something I am having fun doing, and maybe give some of you ideas for making lunches more fun!

10 comments:

Keithaniel said...

Where's my bento?

Ashley said...

Cute idea! I have heard of bento boxes. I also saw silicone cupcake liners at the Dollar General.

Mindi said...

I've heard of Bento's but i dont really understand, is it just the actual lunch boxes that you put the lunch into? i'm kinda confused.

cassandra said...

oh my gosh. i'm so excited about bento boxes.

i have one website for you.
laptoplunches.com/products.html

http://www.laptoplunches.com/images/products/SystemColorOptions.html

yeah, they're $40 but you get a ton of stuff and it's all lead/pthalate/pba free. and the color schemes are totally cute. i have the black and red (go eags) on my xmas wishlist. if you wanted to cheapen the package, you can go $22 for just the box and the idea booklet. anyway, just thought i'd share.

Shannon said...

Those are really cool Cassie! Thanks for the link! And Min, bento is basically a name for a small packed lunch, and the "bento box" is what you pack it in. There are all sorts of shapes and sizes for the boxes, so really it is the concept of a tightly packed compartmentalized lunch. Very Asian, and I think very cool! Check out some of those links to see the "original" concept, but you can take the concept and make it your own like I did. It is just a fancy way to make a packed lunch, and in theory you can pack better food!

Liz Harrell said...

Wow. I eat a Lean Quisine every day at work. This recall nearly gave me a heart attack. I think I like this idea way better. :)

elisa said...

good idea, thanks!

Anonymous said...

Here is another link for bento boxes that I peruse regularly. I love these bento boxes, I need someone to make them for me to take to work for lunch.

http://lunchbucketbento.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I think I know what you are talking about. I'll have to check out your links. but great Idea... seriously its great to pack kids lunches... I ate at school with my son a while back and the food they serve is so gross.

haleyhorrocks said...

I have never heard of bento, but I read up on it (thanks for the wikipedia link). Great idea, especially for helping kids eat foods they're less excited about. When Ian gets a little older, I'll have to try it out. Pretty sure I'm never going to get intense enough to qualify as "kyaraben", though.