Non-Bentos

Really.  I still do the same healthy lunches now that school's out.  Kids need healthy lunches.  Here are two non-bentos I have done since school got out.

Ham & Cheese Pita, pickles, cheese cube, strawberries and carrots with ranch dressing

Make-your-own pizzas (tortilla triangles, pepperonis, pizza sauce and cheese) and carrots with ranch dressing

So keep on bentoing and being creative!  I know I will!

Summer Fever

Summer is so great!  Grilling, swimming, lightening bugs.  Its glorious!  We love summer here.  We play outside until its dark, catch bugs, go on walks (or we should).  So fun!  In honor of the great grilling season, and because the weather is finally nice, I sent the girls to school with Summer Cookout Bentos Monday.

Cookout Bento: Lemon Squares, Baked Beans, Fried Chicken (w/ Chick Fil A dipping sauce), fresh strawberries and blackberries, cole slaw, and potato salad.  And of course a cheese stick, because that's what goes in lunchboxes, I've been told. :)

Rain Rain Go Away!!

We've had storms in Memphis.  Lots of them.  Every Monday for the last 3 weeks.  Thunderstorms.  Tornado warning siren storms.  Oh-holy-moly-the-house-will-blow-over storms.  I'm calling Auntie Em and getting my red sparkly shoes.  And so I made today's lunch in honor of the storms.  I'm quite the cheeky monkey.

Storm Bento -- Cracker "cyclone" with cloud turkey and cheese, Lightening cookies, cheese ball hail, and apricot sun (I'm hopeful)

Happy Easter!

Today's lunch is brought to you by the letter "N" for "Nothing healthy in this lunch at all" :)  But its an Easter Bunny lunch.  Not an "Easter" lunch, as that would involved some great focus on the ressurection of Christ.  But I'm all for the Hallmark-esque lunches than the story of Jesus lunches.  Makes for more colors and less weird looks.  Jesus is important though.  Really.  Don't let Peter Cottontail make you forget that.

Easter Bento: Apricots w/ fun sprinkles, Nutella Bunny Sandwich, Strawberry wafer cookies, Peep chick and jelly beans.

Finding Nemo

Today I was out of ideas.  I couldn't think of anything.  So I decided to make Peanut and Bean a plain ol' sandwich.  They would be disappointed, but sometimes mama ain't got it.  When I went to grab a sandwich cutter, the top one was a fish.  Thus was created the chaos theory of bento lunches.  It isn't randomness.

Aquarium Bento -- Clown fish sandwich, "fish food" cinnamon pita chips, and various aquarium decorations -- sparkle rocks (jello), and pebbles (jelly beans) and fish feeder sticks (string cheese) 

Okay, I admit the string cheese is stretching the imagination, but they wanted cheese sticks.

Part of a balanced breakfast?

What does that even mean?  On the cereal commercials they always show their cereal with toast, fruit, milk and OJ.  "Part of a balanced breakfast" they say.  Does that mean that you have to eat the rest of that to counter the junk in the cereal?  Yeah, probably.  But I digress.  Today the girls have breakfast for lunch.

Breakfast Bento:  Blue & Red pancakes (just divided the batter and added food cololring -- instant fun), dried cereal, bacon and a frozen yogurt.  I also put syrup in a separate container. 

Spring has Sprung

Even though it's Monday.  Despite the cold that is invading every room of my house.  Spring is here, according to some sciencey stuff about planet orbit patterns, the birds, the pollen and the weeds.  It's been here a week.  I believed it for a few days.  I got excited for flip flops.  Then Mother Nature slapped me in the face with this 39 degrees junk.  So today, I'm slapping back -- bento style.  And yeah, I said sciencey.  Its a word.  I said so, and I'm important, remember?

Spring Bento -- Melon Fusion Jello (no idea what that means), Butterfly tortillas, cheese bunny, Tulip eggs, pepperoni "petals", sunflower seeds (for effect ... its Spring) in shredded cheese, and "birds eggs" jelly beans with flower marshmallow.  

They also got some pizza sauce in a separate container.  Butterfly pizzas -- how much more Spring can you get?  And still so trendy.  This is Bean's lunch.  Peanut doesn't "do" hard boiled eggs, so she got oranges.  Not springy enough for a picture.  She was actually bummed about that.

Fish, Dogs and Pigs

I love making lunch for the kids with a theme.  Peanut and Bean love to see themes in their lunches.  They even ask for it.  That's another reason to have bento lunches.  They love the fun aspect.  I try to be super creative and come up with neat themes that are all tied together.  Sometimes it works.  I'll post the ones that work.  The ones that don't will just go to school without any fanfare.

Here are three themes I did for the girls last week.  Save for the blue rice, they loved them.

Ocean Theme -- Fish sticks, rice with cheese dolphin and green bean seaweed, Goldfish crackers, pepperoni "bubbles" and brownie "rocks"

Dog theme -- Dog shaped PB&J with cheese collar, Smores cereal "dog food", dog shaped marshmallows, cheese stick "dog bones" and a frozen yogurt "fetch stick"

Three Little Pigs theme -- Pig sandwich (opened faced Nutella sandwich), "Sticks" Wheat Thin Sticks, "Hay" Lo Mein noodles, "Bricks" cheese sticks, "Pig Trough" celery with peanut butter, and "Mud" brownie squares.

Notice the cute factor.  Cute equals the kids eat it up.  Except blue rice.  Blue rice is too strange to eat, I've been told.

Bentos are Trendy

Bento Boxes are hip and neat and fun.  Trendy.  They are also a great way to feed children.  Why you ask?  They provide small amounts of varied foods presented in fun ways. Kids love them.  They beg for them.  Your kids don't, you say.  Your kids aren't into the latest fads, you say.  Really?  Think Lunchables.  Yup, they're bentos.  Crackers, cheese, processed meat -- all cleverly cut into shapes and served in little divided trays.  Bentos are trendy, and kids love them.  Peanut and Bean love them.  For Christmas, the ever great Nana got them Bento Lunch Boxes in cute bags.  Bento boxes come in all shapes and sizes, but I love the ones my girls have because they are in their own cute bags.  I'm all about cute bags.

What goes into a bento box?  Oh, the possibilities are endless!  I try to do themes.  I'll present them here for others to gawk at and be inspired by.  At the least you can say "OOH" and "AAH" and be amazed that I have too much time in the mornings for my children and obviously should never complain about lack of sleep.  Its cool.

Here's a few lunches I've put together for my girls in the past:

Jello, Wheat Thin crackers, pepperonis, cheese stick, oreos and pickles.  With picks.  Picks are most important in Bento world.  And they must be cute.  Don't use plain toothpicks.  That's not trendy.

Lunchable style -- turkey, cheese and crackers.  But see, I cut the turkey into stars.  So its trendy.  Kids like stars.  Peanut and Bean won't eat turkey sandwiches.  But make it some stars and put it with crackers and BOOYAH!  Instant lovable lunch.

Healthy is fun.  Sliced apples with peanut butter, rice, edamame and soy sauce.  Yum.  And a smiley face.  Cuteness wins.

Valentines bento.  Holidays are important and must be celebrated inside the children's lunch.  Heart sandwich with Nutella, heart marshmallows, strawberries and cute little Teddy crackers.  

These are simple and the kids eat things they wouldn't otherwise eat.  Imagine that.  Those Japanese are so, so clever.  And trendy.  Mustn't forget trendy.