Bento - Making Lunch Fun

I love Bento style lunches. They are so much fun to prepare and even better...fun to eat. Perfect for kid's lunches, although to be honest I originally bought all my fun little bento lunch accessories and containers for my own lunches to take to work back when I was working since #1 it gave me something to look fwd to during my dreary work day, #2 they are perfect for portion control, and #3 just cause they are just so darn cute and I'm a sucker for all things cute, lol. The girls were never really into packing their lunches last year so I never even gave it a thought to pack a bento lunch for them . Bad mommy, lol.

But this year Gwen has been really into packing, but she takes the same thing every single day... mainly pb and j. So in an attempt to get Miss Super Picky to start eating healthier and try a new variety of foods I've been getting creative in packing her lunches. She loves it. I've actually gotten her to eat some fruits and veggies she wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole before. *grin*

Every so often I hide a little note in her lunch just letting her know I love her or wishing her a nice day. My Dad used to write little notes and stick them into my brown bagged lunch every once in awhile or write I love you on the bag itself. *smile* It always brightened my day when I would find a note from him, especially if I had been having a bad day at school. So I am keeping the tradition going. :)

If you're interested in checking out more about Bento here are some fun websites to check out:

http://lunchinabox.net/ - a great guide to easy bento lunches
http://www.cookingcute.com/aboutbento.htm - all about bento
http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/bento - photos of AMAZING bento
(the lunches I make are no where near that cool)
http://www.ichibankanusa.com/ - a great shopping site to buy inexpensive bento boxes and accessories

Pictured below:
heart shaped carrot slices, mini fruit ka-bobs, and Gwen's lunch from Thursday (p.b. and j. and flax seed flowers and heart sandwiches, red apple slices with peanut butter sprinkled with mini chocolate chips to dip the apples in, and heart shaped carrot slices with hummus and pine nuts for the dip) in her new Clickity Clack bento box from Ichibankanusa.com