Tag Archives: meals

Lessons from the Five Minute Bento

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There’s nothing like explaining something you’ve done almost a hundred times to add a fresh perspective to it. In making my first video, I was reminded of some basics that are worthy of sharing.

Five Minute Bento: "Star" Turkey and cheese sandwich, hummus cup decorated with carrot slices and a star cucumber slice, red and yellow peppers, carrots, cucumber and cherries.

I was pleased with how the video came out, though I know there’s room for improvement. I’m glad the experience gave me an opportunity to reflect.   Better still, it gave me material for a second blog post.

I set out to make The Five Minute Bento with a minimum of gadgets so others could easily replicate. I worked in my mother’s kitchen, with supplies closest to what I hope most others might have on hand. By stripping out the tricks, I left the focus on the food.

Bento Basic: It’s about the food.

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Five Minute Bento

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Check out my first video on how to make a quick and easy bento lunch.

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Bento Basics: Stock your pantry

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The hardest part about packing school lunches is deciding what food to send. You want to send food you are confident they will eat. The challenge is that even non-picky eats can be fickle. One day they are happily eating green vegetables and the next they declare they will only eat things that are red. It’s hard to hit this moving target.

Making a list of your child’s likes can help you see you really do have some options. This was a simple exercise for me since I have photos of lunches from the last year. This is what I came up with:

Grains: sandwich bread, pita, flat bread, bagels, cheerios, pretzels, pancakes, snack mix, muffins

Dairy: yogurt, cottage cheese, babybel, cheddar slices, cream cheese

Protein: lunch meat (turkey and ham), salami, tofu, bacon, hard-boiled egg , hot dog/tofu dog, sausage, sunflower butter/peanut butter, hummus, beans (#2 only), lentils, felafel, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds

Fruit: kiwi (#2 only), grapes, pears, berries, watermelon, plum, oranges, clementines, mango, apple, raisins (#2 only)

Vegetables: celery, carrots, broccoli, cucumber, red and orange pepper, beets (#1 only)

Other: fruit leather, yogurt pretzels, chips and salsa

Don’t forget to add new foods to your list and to revisit it from time-to-time. I had a couple of “oh-yeah” moments making the list, remembering foods I haven’t sent in a while. This list can save you when you feel like you’re in a lunch-making rut. Continue reading →

Circles

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Pancakes, eggs, cheese, and kiwi

We love breakfast!  I find it’s an easy choice for lunch as well.  When I made pancakes Sunday morning I made a few extra to keep for Monday’s lunch.  I let my four-year-old choose the pancake shape and color.  He also used an egg slicer on the egg.

The natural shapes of the pancakes, kiwi, and egg led to the theme.  I did use a cutter on the cheese slice and threw in a round cracker to go with it.

Congratulations, it’s a foodler!

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I’m taking my bento making to the next level. This blog is a personal challenge to recommit to making healthy, beautiful lunches for my children more regularly.  Now that the world (or at least the family members who feel obliged to read this) are watching, I need to make sure I’m posting some pretty lunches pretty regularly.

The name foodler is a bit tongue-in-cheek.  My husband and I joke about being foodies, and hopefully to some extent we are.  We expose our children to the wealth of food diversity that the Bay Area provides.  I have to admit I was quite pleased when my toddler arranged his toy trucks in a circle and proclaimed he was playing with “food trucks.”  However, we eat our share of sugar cereal (it’s kept in the “mommy cabinet”), and our Thanksgiving staples include ambrosia and green bean casserole.  It’s more like I’m a foodie-wannabe.

I make lunch every day for my children, but I will not be posting images every day.  Most of my lunches are healthy, but not much to look at:

Some days, though, I tap into my creativity and make something a bit more inspired:

Foodler is about those days.  My children are young enough they can’t completely appreciate the extra care I take. The bento lunches give me a chance to tap into my creativity and make the mundane task of making lunch a little more special.