Copley - Everyday bento: 50 cute and yummy lunches to go

Basic Techniques BALANCE An important goal when making a bento is to balance the types of foods in the boxproteins, produce, grainsand also to achieve a variety of flavors and textures.

Shoot for packing at least five different colors into your bentos. This helps to ensure that youre getting lots of healthy fruits and veggies in your bento box. PACK THE BOX TIGHTLY When youre packing a bento it is important to fill the box completely. If the food isnt packed snugly and filled up to the top rim of the box, everything will mix together and the little bit of extra time you spent to make your meal attractive will have been wasted. When you pack a bento tightly, theres no extra space in the box and if there arent any extra spaces, the food will stay in place when the box is tilted because it wont have anywhere to go. After you pack the main components, look for any extra spaces.

If you find some, plug them up with smaller bites. Grapes, cubes of cheese, berries, and cherry tomatoes are wonderful for filling these little gaps. If you are using a box with a lot of dividers, this is less of a concern because the dividers will keep things from moving around. PACK THE BOX NEATLY One of the easiest ways to make a bento look attractive is simply to pack it neatly. Think about where each item will go before you put it in the box. When items are added, take a few seconds to decide on the best way to present them crackers can be stacked, vegetable sticks lined up, and any marred pieces of fruit can be tucked under prettier ones.

ENJOY IT! Most importantly, have fun! Enjoy the beauty of colorful fruit and vegetables and think of creative ways to use your supplies. Add something that will make the person youre packing the lunch for smile, or if youre packing for yourself, put in a favorite treat to make your lunch extra special.

Equipment BOXES The most important item to get when you start packing bento lunches is a box. Bento boxes come in all sorts of shapes, materials, configurations, and prices. They range in size from small snack boxes to large thermal systems and they can be purchased for as little as a few dollars for a small plastic box or as much as $70 for a large stainless steel kit. It can be difficult to decide which kind of box to buy and, unfortunately, theres no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem.

Some of the factors one should consider when choosing a box are how much food the box needs to hold, the material its made from, the cost, and how durable it is. Single-tier Bento Boxes Single-tier boxes are one of the most plentiful types of boxes. They are usually about 1 inches (4 cm) deep, but their other dimensions vary widely. These boxes usually seal with a tight-fitting hinged lid, but self-sealing lids are also common. If you have a hard time finding a bento box you like, or youre not ready to invest in one yet, food storage containers are often well suited for bento packing. Multi-tier Bento Boxes Stacking or multi-tier boxes are also quite common.

Typically they have at least three partsa lid and two tiers that hold food. They may also have a third or fourth tier to hold food, an inner lid for each tier, and a tier designed to hold silverware or chopsticks. These boxes often require an additional elastic band or belt to hold the tiers closed, though some models are sealed with a hinged lid.

BENTOS FOR BUSY MORNINGS Bear Cub Bento A little bear sandwich is nestled in a bear-shaped box along with his favorite food berries, acorns, and fish he just scooped from the river! INGREDIENTS Sliced whole-wheat bread Desired sandwich fillings Blackberries Blueberries Fish-shaped crackers 1 Babybel cheese EQUIPMENT Two-tier bear-shaped bento box Large bear cutter Fine-tipped kitchen scissors Round silicone baking cup (I used a blue cup to represent water) Small acorn cutter Variations Small circles of fruit leather or dabs of jelly could also be used for the bears eyes. Cut bear shapes from the bread. Assemble the sandwich using your desired sandwich fillings.

Place the sandwich in one tier of the box. Use scissors to carefully cut two juice pods from one of the blackberries (the technical name for these is drupelets). Place on the bread to give the bear eyes. Fill the empty space around the bear with the blueberries. Put the fish-shaped crackers in the silicone cup and place in the second tier of the bento box. Place the acorn cheese (see facing page) in the box.

Fill the remaining space with the blackberries. DECORATING A CHEESE WITH A CUTOUT 1. To cut a shape from the wax around a small cheese (Babybel brand, for example), select a cookie cutter that is smaller than the diameter of the cheese (about 1 inches [3.5 cm] or less). 2. Press the cutter far enough into the cheese to cut through the wax. 3. 3.

Remove the cutter from the cheese, and gently pry away the shape youve cut. Often there will be a strip of paper remaining thats used for peeling the wax off the cheese. Using sharp-tipped kitchen scissors, cut through this paper as close to the wax as possible.

Build-It-Yourself Pizza It can be difficult for a lunch packed at home to compete with the packaged lunches that can be purchased at grocery stores especially when theyre filled with kid-friendly fare like chicken nuggets and pizza. Those lunch kits are loaded with unhealthy, processed food and the portions can be quite small for older children, so tempt your child with a hearty, homemade version that allows him or her to build their own pizza. INGREDIENTS Sliced mini pepperoni Shredded mozzarella cheese Orange bell pepper Pizza or pasta sauce Flatbread such as pita bread or Indian naan EQUIPMENT Two-tier bento box 3 round silicone baking cups Small, lidded container that will fit inside the bento box Kitchen shears Small spoon for spreading the sauce when eating the lunch Variations Just about any topping thats good on pizza will work well for this lunch.