I made my first bentos last night! I first heard about American Style Bentos from this awesome mom-run website, Lunch in a Box. It really inspired me to start making my own, and I finally got my first chance. Water Boy has to take a cold lunch to daycare tomorrow, so I decided to try out my (nonexistent) bento skills. I ended up making one for each of us, as one of my Resolutions for the New Year is to start taking a lunch every day. The containers for my and Water Boy’s bentos are from Fit ‘n Fresh, a neat tupperware system for portion control. They were easier to find then actual bento boxes, which I would need to order from online. So much for buying less this year!
On to the Bentos!
Water Boy has faux sushi, with ham and mozzarella cheese, whole grain gold fish, and a ranch cup on the bottom layer. Top layers are halved green grapes, carrot chips, and snap peas. Caprisun not shown.
Water Boy’s Bento
Originally uploaded by firefaery2
I also did a close up of the faux sushi, because I think for a first time it turned out really well.
(Faux Sushi is made by layering your ingredients on a tortilla, rolling it all up, and slicing it. Finger food for kids and adults, and no raw fish necessary. Not that I would mind, I love real sushi too!)
This one is for me. Bottom layer is two ham, cheese, and lettuce sandwiches cut into dinosaur shapes, because we were having fun with the new sandwich shaper we picked up at the same time as the boxes. Top layer is the same as Water Boy’s, but I didn’t halve my grapes. I also am taking a salad, not shown.
Last is Stillmog’s, with ham, turkey, and cheese faux sushi, a ham and turkey dinosaur sandwich, a string cheese stick, and green grapes in his regular old tupperware box. Outside is vanilla yoplait yogurt, grapefruit, and whole grain goldfish. I’m hoping he won’t starve, but it might be a near thing. (sarcasm)
I was really impressed with myself after this, but obviously it’s really not that difficult. This is similar to the sandwich shaper I used, but mine was Chefmate and 2.89 from Target. I’m thinking of making Water Boy at least one home lunch a week, just to get used to it. I hope to someday be making his lunches every day.
