Have A Fun Lunch With Bento Boxes!!

The New York Times had a fun article in their food section yesterday. It was about bento boxes, lunch boxes that are filled with cute animal or artistically floral cut veggies fruits, rice and meats This is a great way of getting picky eaters to eat. It’s also a great way to lose weight.


Bento boxes are Japanese and have had compartments filled with rice pickled vegetables, rice along with meat or fish. Construction is based on the Japanese belief of five colored foods, an idea similar to our food pyramid. There has to be white which is bread and, brown which can be either meat or peanut butter. Green is represented by a green salad, red by tomatoes and yellow by peppers or bananas. Now comes the fun part. Parents and foodies can assemble the pieces of food into appealing shapes. A cut hard boiled egg can be come a chick A rice triangle can become a cat face .or fish. Rice is mixed with Japanese vinegar and then can be cut into animal or floral shapes. Dieters can use th e bento boxes for portion control and having a filling but light lunch or even dinner.

Bento boxes are not found everywhere. Large cities would have stores that sell them. If not you can search on line for bento boxes along with rice cutters and skewers. You can also use ordinary skewers and cookie cutters from places like Target or K-Mart. There are also a few good websites that have a wide range of bento recipes.

Give zip and fun to your lunch by creating a bento box. It’s a neat way of having a nutritious lunch . It’s also fun to get all the important foods in a cheery package