Have you heard of bento lunches and bento boxes? It’s a fun, fairly new trend in packed lunches that traces its origins to Japan. Bento is a traditional way for Japanese to pack single serve meals they can take with them to work or school. In Japan, bento boxes often consist of rice, fish or meat, and cooked or pickled vegetables. The container is usually a rectangular with compartments for each dish.
While bento boxes are traditionally made of stainless steel, Western versions are available in plastic and even glass. Just like their Japanese counterparts, these bento boxes also have internal compartments that allows you to keep your food separate. This gives you a great canvas to get creative with food.
Yes, with Bento boxes it’s ok to play with the food and come up with some fun and creative lunches for the kids (or yourself). Cut the sandwiches in cute little shapes, make some fun roll-ups, and get creative with fresh fruit, raw veggies, cheese and the likes as sides.
If you are ready to get even more creative, do a quick search online for bento lunch ideas. (Who knew that you could shape rice and make it look like an adorable panda?) You’ll find entire Pinterest boards and Instagram accounts dedicated to creative bento boxes.
Of course there’s no need to go all out. You can make delicious and eye-pleasing bento lunches by taking just a little care with how you place the food in the boxes and taking advantage of simple little tricks like pouring raisins into paper or silicon cupcake liners.
What I like best about bento lunches is that it gives you the opportunity to pack several small, snack like items into one lunch. Your child will have fun picking and choosing for lunch and you know he will still get a healthy meal. Plus what child doesn’t love a bunch of colorful finger food for lunch. Heck, you may even convince your picky eaters to try new fruits, veggies, cheeses and the likes if you cut them into cute little shapes.
Of course these fun and delicious lunches aren’t just for kids. Order a couple of bento boxes and start packing your own lunch. You can go as simple or gourmet as you’d like. Or grab a few of your own favorite healthy snacks and call it lunch. The possibilities are almost endless with bento box lunches.
