Building Bento Boxes: Lunches With Character
By Greg Gonzales
Parents invent all kinds of creative ways to connect with their kids, and that includes packing a special lunch. Some have taken packed lunches to an arts and crafts level, sculpting their kids’ favorite characters using the food. Bento boxes, which originated as takeout containers in Japan, are the blank canvas with which they work. Entire blogs and classes are dedicated to packing bento boxes. Tightly packed, colorful and creative, the boxes allow parents to pack a lunch that’s both fun and healthy.
“The thing I like about them is you can really see what you’re packing in your kids’ lunch,” said Beau Coffron, a blogger better known as The Lunchbox Dad. Coffron began making character-themed lunches for his kindergarten-age daughter almost five years ago, and has continued making them for her and his other kids as they’ve grown, adding pictures and tips of his creations to the blog. “Whether it’s a character-themed lunch or just a regular normal lunch, we use them every day in our household,” he said. “You can see how much fruit and vegetables you’re putting in, how much of each food group. It helps you to make a balanced lunch for your kids and yourself.”
Bento boxes can generally be found at every corner store in Japan, but despite their newfound popularity in the West, the boxes are a little harder to find there — but still only a few clicks away. Anyone looking to get started on building their first bento boxes might try PlanetBox, which manufactures its products from stainless steel because it’s non-toxic, doesn’t leach plastics into food and is recyclable if broken. The company also promotes how useful long-lasting bento boxes are to reducing waste, with less paper or plastic bags wasted, but also water, since stainless steel cleans quickly and easily. For a more affordable bento that consumers can buy in bulk, Coffron recommended Easy Lunchboxes. The boxes are made from materials free of BPA, lead, vinyl and PVC, are microwave and dishwasher safe, and come in a variety of shapes to meet a multitude of needs.
However, bento boxes aren’t just a tool for creating compact, healthy lunches; they also help parents introduce kids to new foods by making them more fun. “We use the same boxes throughout the week and a number of times we’ve introduced fruits and vegetables in a fun way, in fun shapes or designs, in their Monday lunch,” said Coffron, “Then they decide they like it, so we put it in their regular lunches from then on out.”
While most bento masters keep the craft simple by utilizing everyday kitchen items, some bento lovers add extra tools to their artistic arsenals. Cookie cutters go a long way in making character shapes, and Coffron says egg shapers, reusable toothpicks in different shapes and sizes, silicone cups and containers — little mini ones that go inside the box that help decorate the lunch — help parents get creative and help hold together the lunch.
Tools aren’t always enough to hold the lunch together, especially in a kid’s lunch that gets carried around for four or five hours, but Coffron said it’s a common problem that’s easily solved. “I try to pack each little compartment pretty tight so food can’t move around a lot, and I’ll use toothpicks to keep food in place,” he said. “I’ll also tell my kids that there are toothpicks in the sandwich, or the piece of apple, so they take those out. Also, sometimes I’ll use cream cheese or honey to paste things down, and that tends to do a good job. Another idea is, I’ll take a napkin or paper towel — you can use a reusable napkin — put it on top to make sure it fits tight when the lid goes on, and it won’t move around a lot like that.” However, jostling around isn’t much of an issue for most kids when it comes to bentos. “Honestly, if I tell my kids they have a special lunch that day, they’re going to make sure that they don’t throw the lunch around and be careful with it to make sure they can enjoy it when they get to school as well.”
Cute as some of the boxes might be, with Hello Kitty or Pokemon characters, creating themed lunches can be time consuming. Coffron says a themed lunch can take him half an hour or longer to make, but added that he doesn’t do it every day for just that reason. He has a full-time job in addition to the blog and his family life. “We have lots of stuff to fill up our time. Some people choose to spend time going to the gym, or watching TV or playing games. All that is great stuff,” he said. “I just choose to use some of my time on Sunday nights, before the kids go to bed, to make these lunches…. If parents aren’t going to have fun with it, they aren’t going to enjoy it, but we tend to have a lot of fun with it. If you think your kids are going to enjoy it, if you think it’ll create memories, conversations between them and their kids, it’s a great thing for parents to at least try out.”
Coffron has taught bento box classes at Whole Foods and other markets. Of course, no one necessarily need to leave the comfort of their homes to learn the craft. Mayuko’s Little Kitchen offers a bento box class online, among the multitude of guides available from blogs and other sites.
For Coffron and other parents, bento boxes aren’t just about health or fun, but also about connecting with kids in a meaningful way, to communicate and grow into a better parent. “It’s given us stuff to think about and talk about,” Coffron said. “When I’m looking for ideas, it helps me pay attention to what they’re putting into their heads. It’s like, ‘Wow, that’s an okay thing to watch,’ or, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t watch that show anymore,’ or ‘Maybe this is a book we need to put on hold for a little bit.’ It helps me get closer to what they’re into, and that helps creates conversations about characters and stories. It’s brought us a lot closer together. Not just them, or me; it’s us together.”
