Advice On Making Bento Boxes For Lunches

by SuzyQ

posted on 10/21/2009

Bento boxes are used in Japan to pack creative and nutritious lunches and the custom is starting to become popular in the United States with American mothers who are making lunches for their children to take to school. A bento box is nothing more than a small container that has several smaller containers or compartments hidden inside. A lunch made for a bento box (according to Japanese tradition) includes the following:

Five colors
Five styles of cooking

It should also have the following nutritional components:

50 percent carbohydrates
25 percent protein
25 percent vegetables

Bento boxes are an artistic outlet that provides a creative way to combine portion and calorie control with adventure and creativity. Using kitchen tools like cookie cutters, scissors and ice cream scoops, the lunch maker will arrange the different food items in the box with unique and appetizing designs. The premise of any bento box presentation is making sure the colors and textures work together.

Although the bento box craze might not have hit your hometown yet, it will most likely be hitting by the end of this year. For those who are heavily involved in making lunches for bento boxes, it is interesting to note that they've taken to this new trend with the same enthusiasm and gusto as they took to scrapbooking several years ago.

Some of the foods that work well for bento box lunches include (but are not limited to):

Rice
Tortillas
Pasta
Carrots
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Apples
Bread
Cheese chunks
Raisins
Grapes
Shredded chicken

You can look online to find ideas about putting together a bento box, from recipes and food suggestions, to where you can find the best containers for your creations.

Bento boxes are a great way to get your kids to eat new and nutritious food, since you are disguising the food by putting it into a new formation. Although it may be time consuming to put together lunch in a bento box, aren't your kids worth it?

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