Back to School Bento Box Basics

bento box

Back to School

Packing lunches for school has changed over the years. No more brown paper bags or the tin lunch boxes filled with plastic baggies. Now, parents are more concerned about making lunches packed in reusable containers, saving the environment from all of those plastic baggies.

Bento boxes are the new way to pack your child’s lunch for school.The term bento box hails from Japan. It is a way of dividing your lunch into small compartments. Perfect for the child who may not want their food touching or would rather not have their food become wet from other foods in their lunch box.

There are plastic divider types of bento boxes as well as stainless steel for the parent trying to avoid any type of plastics.

A quick Pinterest search will also show you some really creative things you can do with your bento boxes, like creating animal shapes with bread or flower designs.

In addition to your bento box, purchase the silicon muffin dividers for fruit or desserts, or dips to keep it separate from the other food.

Here are four quick tips to make your bento box look like a piece of art.

  1. It’s all in the stacking of the food. By placing neat stacks of food, it looks like a piece of art that will hopefully entice your child to eat it.
  2. Use your cookie cutter to make sandwiches into shapes. You can cut fruit leather into shapes and even bell peppers.
  3. Instead of sandwiches-make a roll up. Lay out your meat and cheese and cut into strips. Roll them up together for a sandwich alternative.
  4. Last word of advice is to pack it in tight. If there is too much loose space in the box, the items will shift and may end of mixing. You can even use a granola bar to keep the food divided and to take up the space.

Share with us your bento box ideas. We’d like to hear how your are packing your child’s lunch this school year.