Friday, October 3, 2008

Lunch Lunacy

I've officially lost my mind. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a blog about bento lunches (http://www.lunchinabox.net/). It's like food porn - and I'm addicted. I think I've read all her back posts, and envied her lunches, and especially envied the eating habits of her preschooler.

Last week, I finally snapped, and went to the cheapo online Japanese store she linked to. She's in San Fransisco, so there's a location there and it's basically a dollar store. Even the online stuff is CHEAP, and, well, I love cheap. Two kid's Bento boxes, various accessories. They arrived yesterday, and it was like Christmas with all this bright plastic stuff. William was enthralled.

My ulterior motive is to get him to eat better lunches. He's been eating a Quaker Oatmeal-on-the-Go bar for lunch for almost 2 years. And he doesn't usually finish it, because he also has a chocolate milk and it fills him up. So when he was excited about the possibility of rice and hard boiled egg (shaped like a bunny!) and maybe even apples, well, I'm all pushing that!

It was mostly a success - I was rushing the eggs and didn't use my usual procedure (warning, don't try more than one new thing in the morning when you're rushed) so I had to do a 2nd batch since the first wasn't cooked all the way. I almost burned the grilled cheese sandwich (shaped like 2 dinosaurs!). Long-grain brown rice isn't sticky enough to make rice balls (but he did eat some).

He was thrilled, he ate some at school and actually the rest for his snack afterwards. He even forgot to drink his chocolate milk because he was so excited about the rest.
The pictures are actually Rachel's lunch. I didn't have time to take a picture of William's, although it was probably "cuter".
She had a peanut butter sandwich, goldfish in a paper muffin cup, carrots, and apple rabbits. They're soaked in lemon water to keep from browning, and it curls their ears up, too.
William had a grilled cheese sandwich shaped like dinosaurs, a hard boiled egg shaped like a bunny, carrots, apple rabbits, and a rice ball (supposed to be shaped like a bear).
I guess "cute" food tastes better - wonder if the novelty will wear off?

3 comments:

ooolia said...

oh my! I find bento lunch blogs to be completely addicting. I just cannot go look.

when T was in daycare and I had to pack a lunch, I found out the teachers were always dying to see what was in his lunch. they laughed at how much food I would pack him. and to think, he rarely ate much of it. or at least it seemed that way because he was so skinny.

now, I often let him buy lunch because he still prefers bad hot food to good cold food. I'd make the extra effort (like I really have the time) to make a bento, but he so rarely eats his lunch, I can't find the motivation.

Jill in MA said...

I'm not sure I get it. I don't think I should look because I form addictions easily....

Lisa C said...

That is so cute! I love the little rabbits, though if you hadn't told me what it was, I'm not sure I would have guessed it. Subtle but I could tell I should figure it out, grin. Love the bento boxes too.