polka dot suitcase

Growing up, bag lunch meant that – a lunch in a bag (usually peanut butter and jelly that the apple squashed). But not for today’s kids – oh, no. Today’s kids get all kinds of fancy stuff, packaged in fancy ways. Thermal bags keep food hot and frozen juice boxes keep things cold. They’ve got compartmentalized lunch “boxes” to carry everything in, some with their own regulated thermostats and solar heating.

And you know what? My inner geek thinks that’s pretty cool. So rather than begrudging my guys all the new-fangled gadgets that grace the sticky lunch room tables, I embraced the fancy lunch box concept. My guys get cool bento-inspired lunches. Reasoning: If you have to be stuck in some smelly school cafeteria, you may as well have a good-looking lunch.

Bentos are to the Japanese kids what Lunchables are to American kids. But naturally, since they’re homemade, they’re way cooler. There are all kinds of websites devoted to the art of making bentos.

Some devoted moms lovingly shape their kids’ meals into cartoon characters, beautiful landscapes, or beloved historical figures. I don’t. While I think the bento concept is really cool, and it’s a great alternative to the smashed pb&j sandwiches of yore, I kind of streamline the process with my Americanized version of bento. After all, Sir and Mister wouldn’t know what to do with a piece of sushi if it swam across their plates.

Here’s what Sir got in his lunch today:

And Mister Steel’s:

Now, granted, these examples aren’t my finest work (especially Mister’s Processed Special). But you get the idea. Do a search and you’ll find photos of boxes stuffed by more inspired moms than I. You can stuff those boxes with all kinds of noshes like leftovers, cheese cubes, pretzels and dips, fruits…you get bonus points if you cut things into cool shapes. See those white blobs on the lower left of Sir’s box? They’re our version of onigiri (his are shaped like a gecko and a whale). He mixes together some wasabi (in the little yellow box) with soy sauce (in these adorable little fish bottles that you can’t see well in the picture).

And the white blob on the lower right? It’s a hard-boiled egg shaped like a fish. (The photo at the top of this entry is of three shaped eggs, too.) Fun stuff.

So here’s the gauntlet I’m throwing down today: Think outside the box for lunch. Well, inside the box. Uh…outside the box within the constraints of the box. Um…