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.

Minor Distraction Monday

     A little distracted today by the appearance of a tiny stray cat in my driveway. She is at the vet now and will become a member of the (ever growing) family of cats that live with us.
So on to the bento. Veronica is taking one of the larger Hakoya boxes today. She needs it because she is taking leftover pizza. The bottom tier is large enough to accomadate the bulky pizza (two slices cut in half and arranged to fill the whole tier. She has some fruit and green salad in the top. Also, she has come to love the Light My Fire brand spork that you see here.

For me, I ended up eating lunch at the Indian buffet - a VERY kind PJ took me out to celebrate(?) my craziness in taking in another cat. So I stuck this bento in the fridge at work and will have it tomorrow. In the top tier, I have pasta salad and grapes. In the bottom tier, strawberries and a green salad with blue cheese. Yum, tomorrow will be tasty. Also, I really like this Hakoya box, it is the only bento box I have seen that has a little plate included. How useful is it? Occasionally very, but most importantly, it is really cute.

Give-Aways and Left-overs

One of the bento blogs I like to follow has a give-away going on. Cruise on over to Not Exactly Bento for a chance at chocolate and bentos! This is a nice blog to just look around and get some fun info and tips.

Today, Veronica took a hodge podge of stuff in the jaunty banana bento. She has hummus with garlic pita chips, tiny pbj sandwich stars (thank you Pj for the cutters!), a green salad, and a spot of tuna. In the lid, she has a few candy corns for color. This again points to the thrifty fun of bento. Everything here is just a bit or a dab. In the bento, it is a fun, tiny smorgasbord. You can have a lot of fun and use up all the little things left in the fridge putting together a healthy lunch. I do sometimes make actual food for bentos, but a lot of the time I don't.

Leftovers Again

My bentos feature left-overs quite a lot. This led me to buy a couple of Obento Ms. Bentos. Today Veronica took one of these. It has a small thermal container (with Chicken Lo Mein), and two small non insulated containers (with fruit and salad.) This is a cute presentation and it does a nice job of keeping the Lo Mein warm until she eats it.

Welcome Ruth and the Strawberry Bento

My guest bento blogger today is Ruth. She goes to school with Vanessa, K, and Veronica (they all range in grades from 1st through 8th). This is the first bento box for Ruth. Clockwise from top left it contains: chocolate, tune salad, a sliced peach, crackers. Thank you Miria and Ruth for sharing. I look forward to future bento pictures!

This brings the total of girls at school bringing bento to five. (Out of 190 students, that's not bad. We are slowly taking over one bento at a time.)