Bento, Anyone?

For the last couple of days, I've been thinking about lunches. School starts again next month, and I am trying to figure out how to make lunches interesting for both my husband and my son. And help keep us within our grocery budget. To that end, I have been researching bento lunches. Last year I was looking at the laptop lunch system for my son, but he just wasn't interested. This year, though, we've been looking at stainless steel bentos (and tiffins) and he is much more interested. Especially since he now realizes that this is what kids his age in other countries do for lunch. He's all for being different!

My husband will take whatever I pack, but it makes more sense to make complementary lunches rather than two different things--which is why I needed my son to decide he was up for trying it. We are spending time this summer testing recipes--Just Bento has a ton of them. We are also trying to narrow down which box we are going to start with, although I am sure we will end up with a couple just because of the different ways you can use them.

Here are some of the options we are looking at:



We are still looking, but my son is leaning towards the tiffin box (2-tier stainless steel). I am excited about not having to pack ziploc bags (NOT an option in our previous lunch incarnations), and also about the variety (this is my own fault--it is just way easy to make a pb&j, stick in some fruit and a drink and be good to go).

Some fun bento sites:
Adventures in Bentomaking
Just Bento
Cooking Cute
JB Bentos
Lunch Bucket Bento
My Bento Diet
Obento Baby
Be My Bento
Bentobabe

I hope I've inspired you to be more creative with your lunches!