Bento Mento

So, as mentioned briefly in my previous post... I have been doing a lot of bento'ing (that's a word, right?). My big girl started preschool this month and in anticipation of her being extremely clingy and not wanting to separate (as I've heard many only children can be when they first go to school), I decided I wanted to do something cute and fun for her to get her hyped up about it. Game plan: bento box lunches. I bought all these cute little accessories (check out amazon, I swear you can buy ANYTHING on that site) and bento boxes to make her food look girly and exciting. I practiced the week before school started and she LOVED them. She usually eats like a bird, but with the bento boxes, she'd actually sit there and eat almost all of her food! Any of you who have toddlers may know what a big deal that is! She said to me, "Cute food tastes better." HA!

Here are the sample bento boxes we made at home in the days before school started.

1. bear&flower-shaped rice balls, chicken nuggets, soybeans, tofu & strawberries

2. heart-shaped spam musubi, deviled egg, baby carrots, pears & blueberries

3. ham&cheese rolls, baby carrots, clementine & flower-shaped cucumbers

4. flower-shaped cheese quesadillas, chicken nuggets, soybeans & ranch dip

5. teriyaki meatballs, string cheese, heart&butterfly-shaped cucumbers & fuji apple

So then school starts. I'm totally geared up for a complete display of devastation. I'm all ready to be emotionally damaged and see my baby girl scream bloody murder because she's just not ready to be away from home. WRONG! Turns out, she LOVES school! She has only cried one time, and that was because she didn't want to LEAVE school. She wakes up ready for her day and so excited to go "see her friends" and "talk to her aunties(teachers)." I think it was seriously harder on me than it was on her! Seeing how independent she is becoming just after two short weeks of school makes me so PROUD (a little bit sad, empty & dead inside, but mostly so PROUD). I do miss her throughout the day, but I always look forward to seeing her light up when she tells me how much fun she's had. 

Anyway, so far, she's had three home-lunches. Next week starts every day home-lunch. Here's what we made so far. I need to start waking up early, because bentos made at 7am in 5 minutes or less just don't look as cute! I'll work on that. :)

August 10th: grapes, clementine, ham&cheese rolls, flower-shaped cucumber, 

string cheese, taro bread &milk

August 14th: rice w/furikake & teriyaki meatballs in her HK thermos, grapes, blueberries 

& edamame in her bento box

August 16th: hear-shaped crab/cream cheese sushi w/extra crab, watermelon jello w/peaches, 

blueberries, baby carrots & flower-shaped cucumbers

If you're thinking about making bentos for your kids, my VIP bento aid would definitely have to be cookie cutters. Oh, and re-useable silicone baking cups. Those two things and some tupperware, you're good to go!

In other non-bento related news: I'm in my 9th month of pregnancy. WHAAAAAAT????