BENTO!

my first online shopping experience! Bento things arrived. So exciting!

I've often thought I would be one of those mums that put thought and effort into lunches and snacks.

I mean I cook from scratch almost daily. My kitchen is always getting a workout.

But maybe I realised rustic big meals are more my thing than fiddly little things.

I think my 2 year old is lucky to get a folded in half peanut butter sandwhich tossed at her most days.

What can I say. Can't be perfect at everything hey?



Therefore I am pretty please with my new efforts!

A lovely friend has recently moved to Japan. Now that she is back in the land of all things cute she has opened her own store selling Japanese Bento goodies! 

Check it out over at Little Japan Mama . She has some good sales prices.


I've always admired those cute Bento lunches so I was one of her first customers saying

'SIGN ME UP'! 

(I'm in the middle of organizing my second order now I know the things we like, works best for us)

I  am happy for the most part that it has been easy! and cute! and probably cheaper than the lunches I was making before.

Here are some of the school lunches I've made the past two weeks.

Lunches include :

Rice Shaped by these Heart and cherry blossom onigiri moulds
Carrot, cucumber, cheese, kiwi fruit, Devon cut with these Flower Cutters
Egg shaped by  these egg moulds
 Cute animal picks to make you smile when you open your lunch
Flower Picks to hold fruit, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas etc

 I totally recommend Shinobu's  Hamburg Meatball recipe - these are delish! and the kids loved them
The flower cutters are great because you don't have to peel the carrot etc. Using the cutter discards the edges. The kids love picking out which animal fork they will have for the day.

Only negatives I've found was we've had varying success with the egg moulds depending on the size of the egg. Sometimes they just haven't worked out which = a sad 5 year old. {on the plus side the kids are having egg in their lunch. Something they wouldn't before} and of course as with everything from japan the items were smaller than I thought they would be! So check scale before thinking photo is real size! Also my 9 year old reported that some kids teased her about having 'baby food' for lunch. Anyway she worked through it and is still eating it but no such problems from my 11 year old.

Also these types of food {meat etc} are only something I consider during winter/spring. I think Australian climate is too hot for meat to be sitting in lunch boxes for hours during summer. Unless I get more organised with my ice packs.


Hopefully we won't get Bento Fatigue and we'll keep enjoying.


Do you have any fun lunch box ideas for me?