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You are here: Home / Tutorials / Bento / Bento Lunches Part One: The Accessories

Bento Lunches Part One: The Accessories

| Filed Under: Bento, Tutorials

Since I seem to get many an email asking me about my kids’ bento lunches when I post pictures of them  or the goodies I buy to make them on Instagram or Facebook I thought that today would be the perfect day to share with y’all a little more about how I do a bento meal. Now, this isn’t a post on how I make them necessarily, as really anything goes, but more of a what type of stuff do I use post…the paraphernalia, the cutesy pretty things, the how you say…ACCESSORIES!
Here is a picture of the cutesy heart-themed lunch I made for my older three on Valentine’s Day (shared on IG and Facebook) If you have no clue what a bento meal is or why you’d make one here’s my take: Bento meals are traditionally from Japan.  They are to-go type meals that consist of small groupings of food.  If you want to read more about the history or some type of critical detail that I’m not going to get into you can read the Wikipedia page here.  Otherwise I’ll just tell you that as a momma I love, love, love them…for a variety of reasons 🙂  
#1. I love that they a small groupings of food which equals VARIETY.  As a momma, it is waaaay easier for me to put small portions of many options on a plate, in a box, or a container for little mouths and hands then to make a big meal or sandwich that they may only half eat (and then I end up eating the leftovers) This way they get a variety and even if I put something in it that they don’t love they only have a little bit of it to eat (or try) so it all works out in the end! Which leads me to my #2
#2. It is a GREAT way for kids to try new things.  Thinking about adding something new to their diet? Or maybe something gross like *gasp* a veggie…kale anyone?  Bentos make the portion small and many times it is presented in a cute way be it in a cute cup or with a pick so many kids will be a bit more excited to try it.
#3.  I also love bentos for making sweet portions small. In my house, if I make a treat, a dessert, a sweet my family will D-E-V-O-U-R it in a matter of hours.  Now we are really eating more of a clean food and Paleo diet these days so much of my sweets are actually not that bad for them but regardless I would like them to stick around for at least a day or two.  With a bento, I can put a tiny portion in it and they get that that square of bar or that mini cookie is it…it’s psychological almost…if they only see a little piece they are cool with it cause it’s portioned out that way. Weird but true. 
#4.  Bentos are fun so they make meal time fun!  It’s true. I have to admit that I really love all the accessories and ways to present food to my kids.  And they really like it when I make them…the excitement is palpable and, I kid you not, there hasn’t been a day where I’ve made a bento and they haven’t eaten everything presented to them…win/win!
#5  Bentos are environmentally friendly in the fact that you are reusing so much of your meal components…picks, silicone cups, containers, etc.  What a great way to lesson your carbon footprint!
Shall I go on? 😉 Really, bento meals can be as little are as much as you want them to be, don’t be scared!  What about if I move on to the accessories…that’s the fun part of this post anyways 😉
Okay, so here are some of the fun things I have in my kitchen cabinets to make bentos in our home.  Now, in full disclosure, I do not make bentos everyday.  Yes, you totally can and I’m sure there are many people out there that do. But hey, I have 4 kids, one of which is 9 months old. Plus none of my kids are in full day school yet. So I make them when I can but not every day.  But they are fun to make for park playdates, picnics in the backyard, and to spice up an otherwise boring lunch. Now I will say that my two oldest will be in full day school next year and I am “planning” on making bento lunches for them as they will need to take a lunch…we’ll see how it goes though!
If you are thinking of doing bento lunches, you really can buy as little or as much as you want.  Of course if you are new to this you may want to start your collection small and grow from there depending on how much you enjoy making them.  They do take a bit of work to make sure you have a variety of foods on hand to present as well as just time to “pick” things (I’ll talk more about that later!) etc.
I started a few years ago by just buying cute silicon cupcake cups on clearance after holidays.  I bought cute little pumpkins and hearts for about a dollar a pack.  Then I just rounded out my collections with squares, stars and circles when I found good deals or had coupons.  I bought most of these, above, at Jo-Anns, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels.
I recently added these cute cups to my collection when I was out in Seattle…holy Japanese import awesomeness!!!  It’s fun to have little cups to separate your bento containers so that foods don’t spill, liquids don’t touch, and your bento meal is just prettier in general!  Neatness counts in my opinion!

Next I have a whole plastic jewelry/bead organizer (literally the best way to organize my picks ever…and my washi tape too, see here for more on that!) for all my picks. I found mine at Jo-Anns for like a dollar with a coupon! I bought many of my picks at BentoUSA, my new blog sponsor Modes4U, and there are now many sellers on Etsy too like World of Kawaii,  Japanese 2 Please, etc. I also find many picks at Michaels, Jo-Anns and Walmart if you look in the holiday sections…think cupcake toppers and food picks!!!

You typically use picks to decorate food…pick fruit, hold turkey roll-ups together, and they can even be used as a mini fork to skewer foods that need to be dipped or makes hands messy!   The leaves (above) are some of my all time favorites as they can pick two grapes, strawberries or cherries together…even olives…think outside the box!

Oh, I also have these cute little cups, seriously so small, which are perfect for ranch dressing, hummus, almond butter, etc.  Plus, aren’t they stinkin’ cute!?

If you don’t want to invest in silicon cups you can always use paper cupcake liners…these days they come in all sorts of cute colors and themes and are priced extremely reasonably.  This option is a little less environmentally friendly but if you aren’t sure you want to invest in bento meals yet it’s a great way to go.  I found these super cute ones out in Seattle…umm, can I just live there please!  Japanese imported bento cuteness and fabric shops carrying all that super adorable Japanese fabric…sigh.

Another area of accessories is mini cutters!  Yup, to make bento meals even more fun and cute…and help your kiddos to gobble them up you will want to make cute images out of sliced deli meats, cheese, bread, etc.  My kids eat this stuff up, no lie.  There is just something oh-so-exciting about eating a cheese in the shape of a scottie dog that even adults will get excited over!
I find many of my cutters in the seasonal section of Jo-Anns, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby.  Or you can even head into the baking aisle of these stores and just look at their general cookie cutter section.  There is usually lots to choose from, holla!
Here are a few I bought from Hobby Lobby a la carte for (I think!) $0.25 each…say whaaat!? Yeah, awesomesauce. 

You can even search thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales.  I found these super cute vintage cutters at a garage sale last summer….score!

You can buy Japanese cutters too…I just bought these and love that there was a boy theme and a girl theme available 🙂
These are plastic Japanese sandwich/cookie cutters.  They remind me of an infomercial I saw when I was a kid for an easy appetizer making stacking sandwich cutter…I think you stuck a frilly toothpick in the end to hold the stack together when you were done.  I soooo wanted those but when your 9 years old you really have no reason to need appetizer making kitchen gadgets.  These ones are great in that you cut the sandwich first and then when you are done you can imprint a cute little animal face on the top piece of bread 🙂

And lastly, I’ll share with you the hard-boiled egg bento gadget.  Super cute…if your kids don’t love hard-boiled eggs, this may just get them to!  You hard boil your eggs, peel them, and while they are still warm you place them in the animal shaped cavity.  Lock it and place the whole thing in cold water to set the form.  After a few minutes you pop out your bear or bunny shaped hard-boiled egg…super cute!

Ok, so is that enough for today…does your head want to explode?
Or are you ready for more?

Tomorrow I’ll go over different bento containers you can use for the meals…yay fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

**You can find Part Two here:

XOXO,

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Comments

  1. Christina says

    Oh my gosh, so cute! I see these pictures and I think this such an awesome idea! I would have loved to have these cute little lunches! I may have to make some for myself! Where in Seattle did you get the little boxes? Thanks for sharing!!

  2. Meghan says

    Holy cuteness overload!! I want everything you pictured in this post 🙂 I have been looking for cute ideas for my daughter’s lunch. She is in full day kindergarten this year and I make her lunch four days a week (every Friday is pizza day at school so she just has to buy then!) It can get pretty boring. Such great ideas for making something simple like lunch fun!

    • Maggie says

      I know, I die of the cuteness every time I make a bento meal! It’s my sure fire way to know my kids will eat everything I put in front of them, yay!!

  3. Kp says

    i LOVE all this! I wonder how imasculated the Mister would be if I sent him to work with an egg shaped like a bunny?

  4. Meredith says

    Thank you so much for sharing all of this information! This is something I have wanted to try for a while, but I didn’t know where to start.