Bento Lunches

So with school starting - I packed all my kids great lunches thinking they would be STARVING by the time lunch rolled around.  Every single one of them came home with stuff they didn't eat.

Now, I'm back to bentos.  What are bentos?  Japanese lunch boxes!  They actually are very special in Japan - if you like someone a great way to show it is to pack him a special bento box :)  Cute huh?

I was asked today for some ideas for lunches and I will keep you posted and maybe post pictures - because most people do seem to want to know this type of thing.  Understand though - you will see store bought food in some of them!  However, what I buy is still usually better than the "chicken nuggets" they serve in schools.

With a bento, the idea is to make it appealing - not only food wise but visually!  For kids to open it and see what fun stuff they get today is a big treat.  Yes, even my tween to teens get a kick out of some of the stuff I have come up with.

I shop for boxes on eBay - but a Ziploc box (or even a left over lunch meat box!) would work just as well.  I also shop for the little accessories on eBay - honestly because they have some cute stuff.  Also though - I have 2 teen boys who still need to be cool.  So I was able to find bento boxes with a skull on them (that's cool right?) which should keep them happy.

Here are some sites though that I look at:

http://lunchinabox.net/
http://justbento.com/ (I have the book coming in and I'll let you know what I think!)
http://bentolunch.livejournal.com/
http://www.laptoplunches.com/bento-menus/

Now a trick I did learn was to not tell them WHAT some of the stuff was!  (The black stuff you see on a lot of the cutesy things - well that's seaweed)

I plan on heading out to the Global Food Market in Ashburn this week to see what goodies I can find to stuff in their boxes :)