Bento (弁当 bentō?)[1] is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops , train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box.
Bento can be very elaborately arranged in a style called kyaraben or "character bento". Kyaraben is typically decorated to look like popular Japanese cartoon (anime) characters, characters from comic books (manga), or video game characters. Another popular bento style is "oekakiben" or "picture bento", which is decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants.
Bento is a way of packing meals in a compact way in a single container. Bentos should be visually appealing and be comprised of assorted foods - smaller portions of each, but providing more variety over all.
Why "bento" and not the traditional lunchbox fare?
I first got a glimpse of bento while living in Japan. But it was only last year that I saw the potential in going bento style. Our son had a packed lunch nearly every day last year. Since I work, my husband made his lunches. And while he put effort into Tristan's lunches, it was typically the same stuff each day. A sandwich, a couple of sides pre-packaged sides (e.g. applesauce, string cheese, chips, etc.), and his water bottle. Tristan was content with his lunches and rarely complained. However, I really wanted to try these bento ideas that I kept cropping up on Pinterest and around the web.
This year, we have three kids in school. Preparing lunches moved from morning to evening due to how many children we had to prep for. And that is when I became involved. I saw all these ideas and finally found two sites that became my inspiration: Another Lunch and Meet the Dubiens. These sites showed newbies like myself what to use, what to pack, how to pack, and so on. They were my start-up guide.
So, why do it? Why put in the effort to make these bento lunches for our children?
Well, for one, it's super cute.
Two, it is healthy - I pack what I want and I typically use fresh ingredients. I don't put too much processed or packaged foods, unless it is their "junk" snack.
Three, it is portion sized. You can't tell by looking online, but the bento containers aren't super huge. So, you are forced to serve smaller, healthier portions and pack healthier options.
Four, it is environment friendly. I reuse most of the containers. Very few non-food items go in the trash.
Five, it is super cute. Okay, so I said that already. But it really is.
Below are my first few attempts at bento-style lunches. I didn't have all the tools containers at first, but I still made the best of it. If you want to see some much better ideas, check out the two sites I linked above. Another Lunch has a great "How to Start" section to get you going. Both sites are great for ideas and inspirations for creating your own bento-style lunches.
Also, not shown below are the smoothies I've made for the children. On "Meet the Dubiens" she explains that you can use freezer jars (in the canning section at your grocery store), to freeze and store smoothies. You don't need a freezer pack, as the smoothie will keep the food in lunch boxes cool. Plus the smoothie thaws out by lunchtime!
I've made a couple varieties using yogurt, milk or chocolate milk, and frozen fruit. The kids rave about their smoothies and making their friends jealous. So far, they seem to be doing a pretty good job at eating their veggies and all the healthy stuff before eating the "junk" food in their lunches (we've had to talk to them once, but since then, they've been good about eating the good stuff first).
All I can say, is that it is an investment - of time and money - but it is absolutely worthwhile. It is fun to do and I love bringing smiles to my kids' faces. :)
Here is one of the early ones. I didn't have any bento containers and used storage containers I already had on hand. I used foil to divide the container. The above container has a Hawaiian roll with hame and cheese, a mayonnaise packet, baby carrots, snap peas, cucumbers cut with mini cookie-cutters, and a container of ranch dressing under the veggies.
Since I didn't have enough of the same size, one of the kids got theirs split into two smaller containers. This container had the baby carrots, cucumbers, snap peas, and ranch dressing.
These were done in the containers that came with the kids' lunch boxes. Unfortunately, it is huge and I can't fit much else beyond this and and their water bottles. Shown above from top to bottom is the following: ham and cheddar cheese on a sword pick, Ritz crackers, pumpkin cake muffin, grapes, sliced strawberries, baby carrots, snap peas, and ranch dressing.
This is one of the bento containers I ordered. It is super small and can only contain small amounts of snack and food items. In the top container, there is a single strawberry (best gauge for size of container), a couple pieces of string cheese, a heart-shaped cut out of chocolate zucchini bread. In the bottom container are sliced baby carrots and flower-shaped cucumbers.
This bento container is a bit larger and where I put the bulk of the kids' food. This one above has sliced cheddar cheese, pepperoni slices, Ritz crackers, sliced green and red bell pepper, and ranch dressing.
This container is dedicated to the coming season, Autumn. There is a turkey and cheese leaf sandwich, sliced string cheese, corn chips, watermelon chunks with sprinkles.
This is the small sized snack container. It has sliced and shaped cucumbers, ranch dressing in the little yellow container, half a cereal bar with a leaf-shaped piece of fruit roll-up, some peanuts, granola bar, and candy corn.
