Orange You Excited for this Bento?

A while back I wrote a post about the fun items you can use to make bento lunches.  Many of you asked me to post some of my bentos, well here we go.....

I pack lunch very fast, I am not one of those bento artists, although I do aspire to be someday!

My bentos usually take a total of 15 minutes and I do have some more detailed ones but the photos were not up to par,  in the future I will have more for to show. The reason I am showing this one is because it is simple and made from ingredients you probably have on hand.

Making bento lunches inspire me to fit in healthier food, because in bento making it is all about making the food fit in the box. I love bentos because I get to use up all those pesky scraps, like one lone strawberry that I just had to save, or some cheese chunks that my frugal side can't part with.  Bentos are great for using up leftovers too like a few beans or half a hot dog.  If you were to put a few beans or half a hot dog in a zip top baggie it would probably not be received well, but in a bento it just looks cute and on purpose.  Maybe I love bentos because my lunches as a kid were so dreadful (sorry mom) I want my daughter to have like lunch-y goodness at school.

I remember the crinkled brown bag with the half stale peanut butter sandwich, I hated jelly so that was my poor luck!  Back then we used wax bags that didn't seal so half the sandwich was always stale. It usually contained an apple, although I loved apples, one a day got a bit boring....plus no one ever wanted to trade for an apple.  The best part were the chocolate chip cookies on occasion they went well with the school milk. My lunches ended up being pretty unhealthy too, if a trade was discussed it was for chocolate milk or a Ho Ho.

I decided that I would not put my kid through the embarrassment of being the kid with the lame and lunch.  So I may have gone overboard but at least the box comes home empty!!

So I bento....

We went to Japan Town and I let her pick her own box out, I would not have chosen that particular one, but then again I am not the one eating out of it every day.

We discussed the size, and how easy it was to open, then we went to get some of the fun stuff like tiny soy sauce containers, bandanna's to tie it up with and those cute little divider papers. You can see some of those things in my previous post.  This bento I am showing is made for eating quickly, the kids lunch is short so I try to make everything easy to eat. Instead of peeling an orange, which takes time I slice them up.  
So there you have it, easy creative and quick and affordable. If you do not have an authentic bento you can use plastic containers or recycled margarine containers. As your child grows the bento will too, this is a good amount of food for a 5 year old but as they grow they need more.
Just try it and see for yourself if bentos are for you.

In the first layer of this bento we have:

blood oranges

one strawberry

chick peas in a silicone cup

In layer two we have:

Sliced turkey rolls with - Sesame Sprinkles (Gomashio) pinned with small character picks

A few leaves of crisp lettuce

Bread cut into shapes (you can add spread or make tiny sandwiches)

A few cubes of jack/cheddar cheese to take up space