The Bento Adventure Begins....Um Humbly Lol

First of all let me take a moment to have a heart attack...that I'm....BLOGGING!  Honestly, I've had thoughts of giving up the last few weeks feeling like I'll never have time for it again. I have to make sure not to make such rash decisions though so, I'm here!  Yeah!

Bento!  I was introduced to Bento by our lovely former librarian (who I miss :(:::).  She has a lovely blog here that is all Bento (she has other blogs that are great too!).  So, what is Bento?  Well, come now, don't make me do your homework for you!  Go here to find out (It's okay to educate yourself still, you have a few seconds..come now :)  Or watch this fun You Tube. Unlike my teenager, I'm not into oriental culture at all (though she has me finding it charming now and her enthusiasm is contagious, something I love about her), but hey, I'm into food!!!!  I'm into healthy, and I'm really into presentation of food. I truly believe that presentation of food can increase the fun and appetite to eat it.  When working with getting kids to eat healthy, this can be a great asset.  It also takes my dreaded chore of lunch packing to an artistic, creative and enjoyable level.  I do like to make things pretty.

Unfortunately however, I had a very busy holiday weekend.  I had a full and packed time doing a lot of nothing.  Enjoying time as a family, playing games, taking naps and seeing friends.  It was wonderful!  We needed the break.  School starting for the first two two weeks ago, and for our new High-schooler one week ago turned out some very exhausted people!  Doing nothing though has major drawbacks, and we were NOT ready for the school return this morning.  All three of my kids got hot lunch, no Bento for them yet.  I did manage to pull off one for me though.  It's a very simple, humble, and some may feel interesting beginning to my Bento adventures.

My very first Bento Menu: 

                                                                 Sardines w/ Mustard

Whole Wheat Crackers

Green Salad w/ Feta

I realize I probably ruined the whole energy of my first Bento with the word Sardines.  I however, love Sardines w/ mustard.  Not only does it keep me full all afternoon with it's protein boost, the B Vitamins and Calcium are a huge bonus!  

So, tomorrow I'm hoping to get a little more into it.  I also want to share what I'm using.  I don't have much money for real Bento products, so I did some research to find out what I can start out with.  I purchased three of these divided food containers (in the picture) at the Dollar Tree and I bough large and medium silicone muffin cups at the Kitchen Collection.  These are used to separate food inside the containers.  They can be used in some many cute ways. I'm really looking forward to doing more and I'll keep you posted!  

Oh, and my lunch was yummy!