Bento lunch

I've been trying something new this week. I came across bento on the Internet, and was fascinated by the concept. Bento is the Japanese word for a boxed lunch, but it's not the boxed lunch you are picturing! They have very unique containers for these lunches, and the contents are works of art.

The reason this caught my attention is because there are 'rules' for how these lunches are made, and all of them would improve our eating habits, especially Greg's. First off, it's supposed to be 3 parts carbs, 2 parts veggies and 1 part protein. (Another method says 4carb, 3 veggie, 2protein and 1 sweet treat/fruit.) So I can tell my boys that it has to have veggies in it.

Second, it's supposed to contain at least 5 colors. I think there are 5 specific colors, but I've chosen to go with any 5 colors. So it can't consist of a sandwich with peanut butter and jelly. (Or in Greg's case, often, just the bread)

Third, it's supposed to be 'kawaii' (cute). Now, cute doesn't rank high, necessarily, with my boys. I'm not going to invest much in Hello Kitty stuff, for example. But the little picks used for spearing veggies? Too cute!! The little sauce bottles? Adorable!! Presentation is a big part of bento, and I'm not going to get into the artistic ones, but I can definitely jazz up the ones I make.

We have done bento three days this week. The boys look forward to it each day. But the big deal? Greg has tried:

• cucumber
• sugar snap peas
• bell peppers
• craisins
  
• roma tomato
  
• turkey salad
• starfruit

and he didn't hate any of them. He wasn't willing to eat more than a bite of the sugar snap pea and tomato yesterday, but today he ate an entire sugar snap pea and a slice of tomato. Of course, they were dipped in ranch; baby steps are good.

I'm finding that it's a good thing for me too. I'm getting more variety in my meals, and since everything is supposed to fit in a bento box, I've got instant portion control. It has made lunch fun! It's a bit time consuming--I'm spending about 30 minutes making lunch--but there is definitely a payoff.Greg's Monday's lunch, from left to right (and top to bottom): fruit salad of kiwi, orange and craisins, carrots and ranch dip, 3 pretzels, 2 vanilla wafers, 2/3 of a sandwich made with 3 slices of whole wheat bread, turkey lunchmeat, muenster cheese, mayo, pickle relish, and a slice of romaine (which Greg took off), speared with toothpicks (the two dark blobs are part of cocktail toothpicks)
Today's lunch: leftover lasagna, veggies with ranch dip (cukes, yellow bell pepper, snow peas, and Roma tomatoes), wheat Town House crackers with a cube of cheese, fruits (blueberries, grapes and starfruit). The two smaller ones also have shumai, which are yummy Japanese pork dumplings, and teriyaki sauce for dip. Greg can't have those because he's allergic to soy. Tim and Nate's bentos look better than Greg's, because I couldn't fill Greg's. It's perhaps a bit big for him. But I don't have any smaller ones!

I just picked up the silicon baking cups yesterday. These are so colorful, and they do a great job of keeping different food items separated.