Edible Articles

It can be intimidating to start making bento lunches for your child. Don’t you need a lot of special equipment- and how do you think of things to do- and doesn’t it take a ton of time to do all that? But really, making a bento lunch is as simple as making a regular lunchbox. With just a few tweaks to your thought process, you can create a lunchtime treat for your kid that is nutritious and appealing with exactly the same time and effort as your standard brown-bag fare.

Let's Make This Lunch!

1. Plan Your Bento

I like to come up with one ‘cute’ idea to incorporate into a kid bento box. Any more than that, and my bentos just look like a mess; with no cute idea, they look exactly like adult bentos (which is sometimes just the way it is).

For this bento, I decided I wanted to create a little ocean with fish playing in it.

2. Lay Out Your Equipment

The Hardware

Will you use matching containers or muffin cups in alternating colors? Do you plan on using tiny cookie cutters, special scissors, or picks? Now is a good time to get them where you can see them.

For this bento, I set out:

- A blue bento box
- Internal divider
- Silicone cups in shades of blue
- Large circle cookie cutter

3. Lay Out Your Food

The Software

Try to add something white, yellow, red, green, and black to your bento (food ideas by color). I also like to have 1/3 protein and carbs, 1/3 fruit, and 1/3 vegetables in each box. For this bento, I laid out:

- Cream cheese and blue food coloring, for the water
- Goldfish Crackers, for the fish
- Cherry tomatoes
- Baby carrots
- Rye bread, turkey, lettuce, and cheese, for the sandwich
- Black and green grapes
- A clementine orange

4. Prepare Your Food

Making Water from Cream Cheese and Blue Food Coloring

Once you have all of your food and containers out, prepare any foods that require assembly. For this box, that meant making the sandwich, adding the blue food coloring to the cream cheese, and cutting the carrots into flowers (okay, I didn’t do that, but I meant to do that).

Putting together the seafaring sandwich

A little box of eight gel food coloring colors- plus an inexhaustable supply of cream cheese to put it in- is a fantastic decorative tool.

5. Assemble and Decorate

Some assembly required

At this point, you can be as creative as you’d like. Arrange all your ingredients in your smaller containers and within your bento. Cut any last-minute decorations (flowers from cheese? goldfish jumping in a cream cheese lake?) and fill the box until it is packed firmly but nothing is squeezed in.

For the last part of this bento, I cut the sandwich into a circle, layered the ‘water’ on the outside, and added the jumping goldfish before packing all of the items into the bento.

Let your imagination run wild!

Ready for lunchtime!

TIPS

• Using rye bread instead of white or wheat bread gives you a great background for strong colors
• A lettuce leaf under any component of your bento adds green, fills out the box, and looks appetizing
• Fill your bento completely; the idea is that when closed, nothing will move a centimeter. Keep grapes and small tomatoes on hand to shove into the cracks!
• Gel food coloring is ideal for creating more colorful edible artwork

The very best part of making a bento lunch for your own kid is adding your own special touches. Once you have the basics down, you can let your creativity take charge!