Everyday Bento + a giveaway!

A few years ago, I found myself trying to feed a picky toddler. Oh, what fun that is! My little girl was super choosy and in an attempt to help her branch out and try new foods, I turned to bento. I did the usual Googling (this was pre-Pinterest) and found lots of complex bento box ideas ... mostly containing foods she would be hesitant to try. Many of them were extremely detailed, with teeny tiny bits of egg yolk cut into intricate flowers and faces made out of single grains of rice. It looked fun, but yikes. And that was when I stumbled upon Wendolonia. Aha! Approachable, doable bento for people like me! Her ideas were adorable and creative. She had compiled lists of foods to try and supplies to buy. Magic. Every bento lunch I've made ever since has been inspired by Wendy. 

Through the magic of blogging and the internet, Wendy and I became long-distance pals and I was thrilled to find out that she was writing a book! It's available right now and it's called: Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go. If you make lunches, you definitely need a copy. If you have picky eaters, you need this book. If you just like to play with food and make cool things for your kids, you should probably check it out as well. I'd love to share a little bit of what's inside, along with a few lunches I made last week that were inspired by this book. (If I can do it, you can too!)

Right off the bat, Wendy has included bento box basics, techniques, supplies and tools you may need. If you're a total bento rookie (or if you've been packing bento boxes for years) you are bound to learn a thing or two. There are lots of fun, tiny things to play with as you start to embark on your bento journey, and Wendy breaks it down for you with thorough descriptions and photos. Next are invaluable bento box idea lists and food ideas, grouped by color. She's really thought of everything. I often find myself getting stuck in a rut when I make school lunches, and this book is going to be such a handy resource when I go grocery shopping.

Wendy provides lots of step-by-step instructions with fantastic photos to help you make ordinary foods into something totally fun. She includes bento ideas for busy mornings, super fun themes for mornings that aren't as busy, seasonal and holiday bentos, and even bentos for adults.

All in all, there are 50 bento box ideas inside ... plus tips and ideas for so many more. You'll be inspired to create. Everyday Bento puts the fun back into packing lunches. I swear. The chore I used to dread has become something I daydream about and look forward to. My daughter loves opening her lunch box at school every day. (And ... she's not quite as picky anymore!)

Anyway, here are a few school lunch bentos I made for Lo last week.

All of these lunches were inspired by Everyday Bento!

Totally fun and totally doable. 

So. Would you like to win your own copy of Everyday Bento? I know you would.

To enter, just leave a comment below telling me how you'd use this book. (U.S./Canada only, please.) Do you have a picky preschooler? Are you stuck in a rut with your school-aged kid's lunches? Do you need some cool new ideas for lunches that you can pack for yourself for your work day? Really, any reason is a good reason to play with your food.

A winner will be chosen at random on Saturday, March 8th at 12:00 a.m. CST.

Thanks for reading and good luck! 



(P.S. If you'd like to see more of my blog posts about bento (and see pics of tiny Lotus) click here.)

egg shapes

School lunch days are coming up, which means back to bento! Over the summer, Lo has taken a liking to hard-boiled eggs. This is after she started begging for me to make eggs 'that are white with the yellow in the middle.' And I was like, 'Yes honey. Eggs are always white with yellow in the middle unless they're scrambled.' And I kept making fried eggs for her until she finally said, 'No, the kind we had at Easter.' Ahh! I was excited because I love having hard-boiled eggs on hand. And hard-boiled eggs give me a super good excuse to put my egg shapers to use.

If you're into the bento thing, you can find inexpensive egg shapers here. And if you've never given these a try or wondered how in the heck they actually work, the whole process is pretty easy. Just boil your eggs as you normally would, and then rinse them in a bit of cold water or put them in a bowl filled with cold water. Don't let them cool off completely, because you'll want to peel them while they're still hot. Peeling the shells off of hot eggs can be a bit painful, but it's not too bad.

So, yes. Peel the hot hard-boiled egg. Try to get the shell off while leaving the surface of the egg white as smooth as possible. And then place the egg (firmly) in the shaper and close it with the tabs.

Put the shaper in the freezer for a couple of minutes or until the plastic mold feels cool, and then pop your egg out. That's it.

Beware that if your egg isn't exactly the right size, you may end up with something like this. A bear with no ears. But no biggie – it's still pretty cute. Also, if your eggs are super big, you'll end up with a ring of smushed egg white around the little face, but you can just trim it off with a knife. I've been boiling six eggs at a time to keep in a covered bowl in the fridge and they're great at lunchtime, on a salad or for a snack. I'll definitely be boiling a few each week during the school year for Lo's lunches. Now that I've finally figured out which kind of eggs she wanted.  :)

** Want to read more bento posts? Click here to see my attempts at Phineas and Ferb/Hello Kitty bentos from last year, or here for all my other bento posts ... including some pics of teeny-tiny preschool Lo eating bentos on a plate. **

my first Kindergarten bentos

This week Lo started Kindergarten, which means that this was my first week packing real, actual school lunches! She went to school four days this week and has been lucky to have a 'transitional' schedule (which means she starts off with shorter school days) so this was a good chance to test out my portions and packing skills. I decided to kind of go big this first week and make a Phineas and Ferb character each day. I definitely don't plan on doing these fancy lunches every single day, but I thought this first week was special so I went with it. However, I am telling Lo not to expect cartoon characters in her lunch every time. Although now I'm sure she does. Anyway! Above, we have Phineas: a sandwich, salami, two kinds of cheese, tiny fruit leather pieces for eyes, with crackers and a strawberry.

And Ferb! Again, a sandwich, two kinds of cheese, raisin eyes, cut-up fruit leather rolls, edamame and baby carrots.

This is supposed to be Isabella. (Whatcha do-in'?) I wasn't as happy with how she turned out, but whatever. Cheese, sandwich, fruit leather and a layer of carrots and Nilla wafers underneath that you can't see here.

And finally, Candace! She's my favorite. Her head is a quesadilla, with cheese for facial features and hair.  And edamame, crackers under her head, more cut-up fruit leather rolls and a strawberry. This was a ton of fun but I'm ready to move on to something different (and more basic) for next week. I also felt like I was repeating a lot of the same foods this week so my goal is to branch out more next time.

**If you want ideas for your own Phineas and Ferb lunches, check here and here.