The New Year Welcomes Mary to Bento

Surprisingly, I gave out a bento box here and there as Christmas gifts. My sister was one recipient. Sadly, her vacation ends tomorrow (happily, at least she had a vacation.) She packed her first bento lunch tonight to bring in tomorrow. So, here is Mary's bento debut:

Inside, she has packed: salad with balsamic vinaigrette (in the little fish) and cranberries/sunflower seeds (in the little container); ham and cheese in spinach wrap with some pics holding the wraps together, miniature Bonbel cheese and baby goldfish; and saltines and a roll of Smarties in the lid.

Now, I am waiting for Tuesday to see if I get a picture of Sydney's bento. She is starting back to school and planning her first bento. She has done a lot of research and is perfecting her technique for making rice balls (onigiri.)

Monday Already?

Well, I was sick on Friday and didn't feel well through much of the weekend. Rallied enough to actually cook dinner on Sunday - after procuring and putting up a Christmas tree! Anyway, I made a skillet lasagna with an eye towards leftovers. Veronica really liked it, so (predictably) it has made an appearance this morning in the bento.She also has a salad, two mini chocolate chip muffins, and some apple slices. She should be pretty happy with this I hope. The skillet lasagna was easy and healthy - Miranda told me it should become a regular in our dinner rotation so I was happy.

A Garden of . . . Ham?

Today Veronica has a ham sandwich. Thanks to my friend PJ, I cut them into little ham sandwich flowers on a bed of salad. In the other tier, she has a pickle, pineapple, two itsy bitty candy bars, and the ubiquitous Hot and Spicy Cheese Its. The rectangular container has her bacon bits and sunflower seeds for the salad; the salad dressing is in the little green bird container. And so it is, lunch.

Bento Moments of Zen

Have been having a craptacular few weeks personally; but, I have noticed that bento preparation is remarkably therapeutic when I actually make the time to do it. Today Veronica took some left-over steak on a bed of fresh rice (love, love, love my rice maker with a timer.) She also took a salad - because she loves her salads), some Hot and Spicy Cheese Its, and a Hello Kitty sidecar with some fresh pineapple.
I think just the fiddling with small things - choosing which box fits a particular meal, which containers, picks, etc complement everything, what balance out the meal with . . . ) all serve as a lovely distraction from other crap in life. That is all I have to say about that. Bento = cheaper than therapy.

Posting Again

Okay, so it has been weeks and I apologize - especially to those who keep mentioning my delinquency. The girls both bought their lunch today, so I was the only bento bringer. I thawed out some frozen peas and made a quick green pea salad, threw in the half of a pork chop from last night, some cauliflower and fruit and voila! Lunch is ready. It isn't thrilling, but it is kind of pretty and healthy.

Just Bento

There is a great post about the philosophy and practice of bento over at Just Bento. Maki discusses what bento is, talks a little about the art of charaben (the very decorative, elaborate bentos) and about making a box lunch. If you are interested in bento at all, I recommend looking this over. This site is a great reference and a fun read.

Bento and Distraction

I have been making bento lunches right along, but having time to take pictures has been problematic. This has been a weird couple of weeks, but I am back now. Here is a picture of just one distraction that occurred - her name is Luna and she joins Chloe, Sandy, Maggie, and Linus at our house.

 I love all the little fun things that set bento apart from a boring lunch. I took a quick photo this morning of some of the fun little touches that can go into a bento to make it a little more decorative with no real effort (Cause little effort is important on a busy morning, and aren't they all busy mornings?)

Here are some picks of various sizes and shapes - including my newest acquisitions the pandas and the mini forks. Also pictured are a few sauce/dip holders. These are lots of fun and perky to put in a bento.

And Veronica's bento for today is a quick one. I put the chicken in the toaster oven just before I hopped in the shower; took it out shortly thereafter so it could cool - critical to put things in a bento after they cool!

So she has chicken nuggets, carrots and ranch, strawberries, ketchup (in the blue), Hot and Spicy Cheese Its, and a few Teddy Grahams. Not a lot of prep time, but she will eat it and I managed to use the little fork picks that I just got.