SubscribeThe Bento Box-inspired lunch
If you’re from the south with relatives up north, chances are you remember taking long train rides to visit. And on those occasions, Mom or Grandmom would pack a brown-bagged lunch for your travels. Often, it included dinner from the night before, foods like fried chicken and biscuits or hard-boiled eggs. My grandmother Muddie always packed meals for travel wrapped in wax paper, with rubber bands to hold the packages together.
These days, my 13-year-old daughter hates taking my carefully made lunches with her to school. The bigger problem is that she also hates the school lunches, which are so horrible. I wouldn’t feed them to my dog. Every once in awhile we let her get those prepackaged “pizza lunchables,” but again they are very unhealthy.
It wasn’t always this way, and I finally figured out that she hates our lunches because she’s at the age that she gets embarrassed eating sandwiches in front of boys. (Go figure). She prefers snack-type foods. But there’s just no way that I’m going to pack her a lunch of chips and pretzels, which are rarely found in my house in the first place. And she’s trying her best to rebel against our healthy regime. So now, I’m looking to other cultures for some inspiration.
One of my favorite restaurants is a Japanese one that offers ”Bento Boxes,” a combination of small portions of different foods. They do a $9 special for lunch. It’s a diverse menu that includes sushi, salad, fish, rice and Miso soup, all in individual tiny portions. The meal is perfectly balanced and beautifully presented, and I’m always well satisfied after eating one. This photo of a Bento-Box meal posted by Lorenia looks divine.
You can purchase the boxes themselves from $11-$350 online, and they come in various sizes and shapes. They can be made from lacquer, plastic or metal, or you can make your own using small containers, which is my preference.
Pack them with traditional Japanese food or make up your own combinations with veggie slices, dips and dressings, fruits or cheese, or leftovers from the night before. Your kids can help choose the menu. They can be diverse as you want them to be and most important, the children won’t get bored. They’ll be the envy of all of their friends.
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As the mother of five and a journalist, I've always encouraged people to empower themselves with information on healthy foods and lifestyles. Nurturing our children with healthy food is one of the most important jobs we have, yet as families have become busier or drifted apart, meal times have been sacrificed.
