Weekly Bento

Liberty helped me make our own version of swedish/italian meatballs for dinner on Tuesday night. The leftovers were saved to go into lunch boxes especially so we could use our little bone picks from Ichiban Kan. I haven't made meatballs in my lifetime more than a handful of times, but this was a great excuse to try it. And as it turns out, my girls LOVE meatballs!



The soy sauce bottles were a huge hit with my girls and the moms who noticed the bentos. And even Melody was able to open up her own bottle.



And the ketchup containers were a great find! I went to the dollar tree in search of the mythical hello kitty bentos supposedly sold there on occasion, and to look for portable soup containers. Found soup containers which when brought home were found to hold water as well as a sieve. No bentos, and not really any nice snap containers either. But in the Halloween candy section, I found these packs of six eye-ball roll up gum containers. The lids looked like they would stay put, and I wan't concerned about water tightness, just something to keep dressing or syrup or ketchup in one place. These worked great! The girls can open them easily, nothing leaked, and the meatballs fit into the containers as if they were made for that purpose! I just popped a couple of circular stickers over the creepy eyeballs and we were good to go. I figure I am not going to worry too much about the water-fastness (is that a word?) of the stickers themselves as I can change them out easily with any variety of stickers.



Kevin and I had tuna sandwiches with lettuce and dill pickles on Hawaiian Sweet Roll buns. Those buns are divine. I could eat up a package in one sitting, I love Hawaiian bread so so so so much.



We all had rice and peas (which I popped in the bentos frozen and they had thawed nicely from the warm rice by lunchtime. We also had garlic cheese and triscuits. Kevin had wheat thins as he is vehemently opposed to the thought of triscuit. Overall a yummy and filling lunch with very few crumbs left in their boxes!

Because I am lame and slow! But hey, at least I am posting before I make tomorrow's lunch!!



This week I used a recipe from another bento blog for corn dog muffins. They were quite tasty, but I definitely prefer them warm. Super simple to make, and I have another batch made up in the freezer to defrost in a few weeks. Would probably be really tasty alongside chunky chicken noodle soup!



Once again, the girls requested molded eggs. I made them the night before, but I guess I need to leave them in the molds if I am going to do that because they lost a lot of their shape overnight. Still tasted quite yummy though! We also had diced up nectarines, grape tomatoes, cherry jello with fruit in it, carrots, grapes, cut up cheese, and mini-shortbread cookies. Ainsley and Melody ate all of their lunch except the jello because I forgot to pack spoons! They ate the last tidbits at home after school. Liberty didn't eat much because she came down with an ear infection during school and spent lunch time laying down in my lap. Oh, and my lunch had the very last lava cupcake, the girls had eaten theirs at dinner the night before. Yum yum.


We got our shipment from Ichiban Kan which had the egg molds as well as the cute picks. The girls requested their bunny bento boxes this week again, but tomorrow I am going to try out some of the new boxes.


Every mom raves about the cute lunches the girls get to eat, and everyone asks me where we found the boxes, etc. I need to print out cards or something! Maybe we get more attention because it is a co-op. It would be great if we could encourage others to reduce the amount of waste in the packaging of the kids lunches!

I can tell my girls are really latching on the the idea of reducing the waste also. I sent little bottles with spill-proof lids full of apple juice that I had frozen the night before to serve double duty as lunch drinks and cold packs. Melody saved her lid but threw the bottle away (I have extra, but I had planned to reuse them!). Her sisters practically tore her head off for throwing away something from her lunch! I think we need to work on our approach a bit!

Still trying to decide what to pack tomorrow, but it will definitely include meatballs. I posted the recipe on my other blog

Well, we were heading off to a little field trip at the local nature center, so I figured it was a good chance to pack up a second bento this morning! Similar to the first in some ways, but enough different that the girls didn't mind a bit.



This time, the bottom layer was rice, leftover rotisserie chicken reheated with teriyaki sauce, and steamed veggies. The top had feta cheese and animal cookies along with the same fruit as yesterday. Its truly amazing, veggies my kids normally won't touch (squash really was the only one!) were eaten without complaint. Though my middle child still wouldn't eat the minuscule red peppers!

I am learning what fits where, and how to squeeze in a few more bites of food here and there. What fun! I am thoroughly enjoying my new hobby, and can't wait til next Thursday to pack another lunch!

We had our second week of co-op, and I was amazed by the amount of waste created from just a few more than 30 families in one day of lunch. My mind reeled multiplying that amount by all the children in all the schools around the nation. Wow. So I decided that I was going to do my part to minimize the waste our family creates during a school lunch, and have some fun in the process. Our first attempt was a complete success! The girls LOVED their special lunches. Several moms commented about them and asked about where we got our bento boxes (the local asian market!) And everything was gobbled up! And nobody went hungry. In the next few weeks, I am going to have to sort out how to do their snack as well, as we have been taking granola bars until our stash runs out. We will probably make some in our food deydrator, as we've tried that before and the results were quite tasty.



Our bentos were filled with hard-boiled eggs, grapes, oranges, raisins, wheat thins, pita bread, applesauce, cheese, carrots, edamame, and granola. Its amazing how much food can be packed into these tiny seeming containers!

My three girls and I will be creating bento style lunches to take to our weekly co-op meetings. As we create, we will share them with you, and hopefully inspire others to try this fun way of packing lunches. If you have never heard of bento, here are a few links to get you started!

Lunch in a Box

Make Healthy Lunches More Appealing

Lunch Bucket Bento

Laptop Lunches

Bento Box Recipes

Bento Lunch

We will be doing a mix of American style and Asian style lunches. My first experience with bento lunches was when my parents were watching a little Korean boy whose mommy always packed him the sweetest little lunches, and she taught me how to make her special rice balls. Ever since them I have been enchanted by these unique and tasty meals, and want my children to remember their packed lunches as being special and created from the heart just for them!

Another great place to look for inspiration to create your own bento-style lunch is on flickr: