Bento /non-sandwich packed lunches

[holmessweetholmes]

Does anyone else do 'bento' lunches for their dc? In an effort to make dd's packed lunches healthyish, appealing, tasty and generally more like a 'proper meal', rather than endless sandwiches, I have done bento boxes every day this week but am on the lookout for more ideas.

Anyone up for an entirely non-judgy, non-lunchbox-police 'great things to put in packed lunches' thread?

So far this week I've done mini hamburgers with rice salad, roast chicken thigh with roast new potatoes and crudités, various fruit (mango chunks with pomegranate seeds today).

I really love the way bento lunches are presented (all neatly and tightly fitted in the box with no packaging), but I fear I'll never manage to do the amazingly beautiful Japanese ones you see on Google or Pinterest!

I do bentos but for myself. I love justbento.com if you haven't discovered it yet.

I love that website - I bought her book too!

Thanks for website info TwoLittleTerrors. My children go to Japanese school on Saturdays and we have to make a bento beforehand.

Japan staples are definitely
homemade fried chicken (google karaage)
Egg (for color- yellow)
Bed of lettuce (but my kids rarely eat the lettuce) or tomato or cucumber for colour
Rice
Sausage

I get ingredients from japancentre.com, such as fried chicken flour, rice, rice toppings and other sides for bentou. That website also has bento ideas.
You can get a lot of children's bento books on Amazon too :)

Thanks sakura. I like to include rice because it fits with the whole Japanese theme (although the just bento website and book have lots of non - Japanese bentos), but the dc aren't so keen on rice when it's cold.

Well as a non-sandwich lunch, rather than bento, I often send DS with cold pesto pasta and chicken, cooked the night before. Have to be generous with the pesto to stop it being too dry, but he loves it.

Also do variations with cold sausage, ham, tuna etc. Sometimes chuck in sweetcorn or peas too.

Lunchbox surprise is what we call it.

I use the normal boxes for our "bento" but with silicon cupcake molds to put various things in.

Cold rice is acceptable if it's in sushi shape. I bought some sushi mold from the Japan centre, though to be honest it's just as easy to mould things with your hands.

Our "bento" also include: breadsticks, wraps, pancakes, cold noodles (rice/mung bean/wheat/buckwheat) salads.

Ooh I hadn't thought of pancakes - sweet ones?

Sometimes sweet ones but sometimes with chopped leek/courgettes (they'll eat them in pancakes ) or sweetcorn with ham and/or cheese. Sometimes potato pancakes.

Fantastic thread. Can't believe am only just learning about justbento.com!

Glad you've discovered it, Givenotake!

I'm trying to do this for work to be a bit healthier, not doing much Japanese but doing the carb/protein/fruit and veg.

Just watching

Great ideas.