Engleberts in Missouri [miz-er-ree]

I made another bento box for Violet this morning. It took me 30+ minutes to create a Strawberry Princess-themed lunch and sadly, it didn’t turn out exactly as I’d planned. Violet seemed happy enough with it although that may have been due entirely to the beef stick princess wand.

It seems as though there has been an exponential increase in the number of school lunches that she would prefer not to eat lately. The school lunch calendar is littered with “Pack Lunch” notes. I’m pretty sure that if I reverted back to a sandwich in a bag the appeal of school lunches would rise once again. April is jumping on the bento bandwagon too. In the last two days, she has asked me approximately 9 million times to make her a birthday bento. Hmmm…. I found this inspiration bento that I might be able to replicate.

On another crafty note, check out this new outfit I made for Violet’s Felicity doll. It turned out really well. I love the apron.

Today I’ll be spending lots of time in the kitchen baking cakes. First, I have to make a birthday cake for April. It will be a pretty simple raspberry layer cake but will have a replica of her 18th Birthday plate for a topper. Then I’ll be making a wedding cake for my friend/neighbor Donna’s reception. She recently married my other neighbor John in the Bahamas so I’m going to try to make a beach-themed cake that will look something like this. I am praying that it turns out well otherwise tomorrow will be spent scouring the bakeries in town for a replacement cake!

I can’t remember my mother packing me lunch for school when I was a kid. Maybe when I was really young. I never wanted to pack my own lunch, that’s for sure. Mostly I just ate in the school cafeteria. Occasionally, when I was teenagish, I would pack my dad’s lunch for work during the summer. Boring. Sandwiches in a brown bag.

My own children have mostly eaten school lunch. There have been times when a packed lunch was required. Field trips. The first and last weeks of school when they all attended St. Philip’s. And when I felt sympathetic to their absolute hatred of what was being served at school on a particular day. I tried to make the lunches a little more exciting. Packing thermoses of soup, or my own homemade luncheables of crackers, cheese and meat. Still pretty boring. More often it was sandwiches, chips and cookies in a bag.

But now I’ve discovered Bento. Do you know about bento lunches? Apparently Japanese moms are expected to prepare appealing boxed lunches and they spend a good part of their mornings preparing bentos for their families. Like most things moms do that are on display for others to see, it turns out there is even a sense of competition among mothers to see who can produce the cutest, most appetizing, and healthy lunches for their children. And boy do they take it to an extreme. Their bento are very elaborate with the food often arranged in such a way as to resemble other objects. They are edible works of art.

Computer:Spray Bottle:

Giraffe: Bird in a Nest:

Of course, not all bento are that elaborate. Mine certainly won’t be. The main thing is to create a visually pleasing lunch and add a little fun to the meal.

As a beginner bento artisan, I am facing a couple of real challenges. The biggest one being that my daughter isn’t really into Japanese style cuisine. So I’m trying to come up with ideas to make her American-style bento cute and healthy.

I took a little more care packing Violet’s lunch yesterday. It wasn’t a bento but it was better than usual. I am ill-prepared to create truly beautiful bento because I don’t have all the cute little containers and what-not. But after a shopping excursion I was able to make a somewhat cute bento this morning.

Violet was thrilled with it. And really that is the most important part of making something like a bento box. It is said that when you eat a bento lunch prepared by a loved one, the preparer’s feelings for you are transmitted through the food. So today Violet’s getting some love with her lunch - and that’s always a good thing.