Actually making a lunch

Welcome, welcome. Hope you are having fun on the bento bandwagon.

So far we have gone over what you need to make a bento and tips on how to make it stress-free. Now, my young grasshoppers, you are ready to make the leap and pack your kids a lunch.

Let's go with a typical American lunch, PB&J. If you can't do PB for allergies, try cream cheese. It's delicious, promise

You need, your box (I will show you how to pack a typical square plastic container if you don't have one) sandwich stuff, fruit, cheese to top the sandwich (if you choose), veggies, and some snacks

I like to make my sandwich before I cut because I find it to be neater (and I can eat the crusts). You will need to wiggle and pound the cutter until you are 105% sure it has gone through the entire sandwich. Then life the cutter up and hopefully your creation will plop right out. If it doesn't, gently work the sandwich out of the cutter using the back of a spoon. If you poke and prod, you will likely ruin it with divots.

 Wiggle

 Pound

Plop

Now we gotta make that cute cheese topping, I used the cat deco cutter, that was about $5 and came with a cool pick to pop the pieces out. Same process as  the bread. Wiggle, pound, remove. 

After you cut you cheese gently peal it from the back of the cutter. If you didn't pound hard enough, or you didn't break all the way through the cheese, you will break it. 

Be gentle! 

Cut around your face to make it beautiful

The hard part is over, really. Making a cute sandwich really is the hardest part of bento making. 

We need to put this masterpiece in the main compartment of our box with some extras around it. Like so. I added a little heart to the cookies, just because I could. 

The muffin bar wasn't working out so I used veggie straws instead

Now we have to do that cucumber. You could just peel and slice it or cut it into shapes, whichever. I made little bears to go with the panda sandwich. When cutting juicy fruits/veggies do not remove the cutter and try to pop the shape out. It will turn into a gooey and sticky mess. Push the cutter all the way through to the bottom and then lift the whole fruit piece up and push completely through. 

 

That first cut turned into a disaster

PUSH!!!

Lastly, we have the peaches, I placed one slice on the bottom of a silicone cup and then made two on top look nice and organized. For some extra fun I like to sprinkle some nonparallels on top. They run like crazy so don't do this the night before or your kids will have some funky coloured fruit.

You did it! You made a bento! Woot. 

This should be more than enough food to fill up your child and an easy lunchbox (they have free shipping on amazon!!) 

Pretty! 

If you have a regular plastic container it should look something like this. But I can not say how well the peach juice will be contained in this one. The seal on the easy lunchbox is pretty rockin', these are kinda "meh" but will work in a non-drippy pinch. 

BAM!

How's it feel to be a pro? Pretty amazing right? With a lunch like this, you are sure to be the coolest mom ever

Tips of the bento trade

Just like all skills and crafts, there are tips that will make your bento life much easier and save you from tearing your hair out.

First - Pack that sucker (box) as high and tight as you can. You don't want teeny items rolling around in your box, you want it jam packed so things don't get all messed up. This is where the right box comes in handy.

Second - Get creative with your decorations. Big A really wanted a firetruck once and I was all "how the heck and I supposed to decorate this?!?". My best lunch at summer camp reputation was on the line and I had to do some fast thinking, it was 10 minutes to out the door time.
Solution? I used a hot sauce cap for the wheels and cut strips of cheese and cucumber peel for the decorations, and a food marker for the ladder.

Don't judge, I can't cut straight for beans

Third- Prep, prep, prep. All those fruit and veggies  you just bought on your shopping trip? Cut, wash, store/freeze. I like to do a combo of straight cubed shapes and balls/start/hearts that way the kids don't get bored. If there is a awesome sale on berries, buy tons and freeze for when the price jumps in the winter. 

By chopping and cutting right when you get home, you save tons of time when actually assembling your lunches. No need to ball a whole melon when you can grab a portion and be done with it. 

** I don't like using plastic baggies, but for the juicy fruits I like them better than plastic containers. Little boys like to open containers in my house. To reduce waste I label and wash then reuse the baggies for the same fruits. 

A weeks worth of cantaloupe all ready prepped 

Fourth - Use as many leftovers as possible, or as much as the same fruit in the same week. Sounds counterproductive to getting your kids to eat new foods, but that cut melon isn't going to last forever to pack it in every other lunch. If you waste it, you might as well throw money directly in the garbage. Have two types, and one is a kind your kid/husband/gerbil doesn't like? Make a fruit salad! Have extra hamburger rolls? Make a fun sandwich with it instead of using bread slices. 

I got lucky, the husband always takes leftover dinner for lunch, so I only have to worry about using fruits and veggies. 

*All those scraps from cheese shapes and cutting cucumbers? Make a salad for your own lunch or dinner. I reuse the cheese in the morning scrambled eggs or grilled cheese. Once it's melted no one will ever know it was a cat that you failed miserably at cutting. 

 Left over bread for eggs in a basket!

Left over rolls from a BBQ for sandwiches 

Fifth - Have fun! Cutting fruit into shapes is not exactly the most awesome thing in the world (totally is to me!), but imagine the look on your kids' faces when they open it up at school. Their little wide bug like eyes. I never let Big A look at his lunch (unless he sneaks in the kitchen) and his teachers always tell me how excited he gets! If you can't think of ideas, GOOGLE some. There are tons of parents who blog  their kids lunches. *See! I'm not weird*

 Try out different things, from pizzas to sandwich sushi and enjoy the bento cult adventure. 

Not my best work

That's better! Using leftovers and being adorable! 

Bento making 101

Making bentos can be as simple or complicated as you want. I like a middle of the road approach. No crazy layouts and a little more than a simple sandwich thrown into a box.
To make simple bentos like I one I showed you in my previous post you need

1. a box - more on those later 
2. some cookie cutters
3. a pairing knife 
4. cupcake liners - I like silicone vs papers
5. cool candy eyes - these are less than $2 at big box stores 

See? No need to spend a ton of money to make cute lunches. I told you, you have all this stuff don't you? Well, minus the candy eyes.

While you gather your stuff and imagine what you can create take a gander at Bento USA and drool over all the amazing things they have for amazing deals and  I will work on showing you some amazing boxes that I am dreaming about.

Deal? K.