In an effort to honor two of my new years resolution’s, I’ve been shlepping breakfast and lunch to work since Jan, 1. Rather than throw a lonely food storage container filled with last night’s leftovers and a too ripe banana in the bottom of my bag to marinate, I’ve been putting a little more effort into my meals a la Adventures in Bento Making.
I give you my bento.
Clockwise from the left: Swiss chard, red lentils, and tomato business, hemp seed, cashew and cocoa spread, mini pita bread, grape tomatoes, carrots, and a hemp tabbouleh- recipe up soon. When I manage to keep it flat in my bag, I’m rewarded with a very delightful lunch. Leftovers are so lovely when given the lunchbox version of a blow out.
Bento making is serious business! There are rice molds, mini cookie cutters in animal and geometric shapes, condiment containers, anti-bacterial food dividers (fake grass), and that is just the start. I’ve yet to invest in any fancy bento boxes or accessories except a stack of silicone baking cups to keep items separate and this super cute Martha Stewart Lunch Box deal thing I got at Macy’s for five bones.
There are a zillion, ok only 11,000+, bento blogs on the interwebs mostly devoted to charaben, cute, bento. One day I hope to be making Ella some charaben bento, but I have a feeling the man might die of embarrassment if he were to open his bento to find this.
Ella will love opening her lunch at school, so will all the other children!
My fella (his parents are Japanese) loves the bento. We watched a weird cooking show in Japanese where people had to make the best bento for a $1. It was crazy and they always managed to make little characters like that!
Good luck with your bento adventure!
The Auspicious Life