A Bento Post with Pictures!

Angie asked for bento pictures so here they are! We went out off-roading this weekend with the whole bunch of us so I made bentos for me and the girls.

contents:
mine: baked hashbrowns, diced turkey leftovers, boiled egg, broccoli slices, apple slices, boiled egg (from my friend's happy chickens, yum!), blue cheeze (just because) and mango jello with a strawberry in the middle. (there were lids on the blue cheeze and jello, I just took them off for the photos.)
DD1: (bottom): boiled egg, honey orange (these things are teeny tiny), cut up apple, hashbrowns, broccoli slices. We added a strawberry (from frozen, not pictured) after she asked for mango jello with no jello.
DD2: (top) hashbrowns, cubed broccoli, cubed apple, egg yolks. Later we added some cubed turkey because there was some left over after daddy made his sandwich. she is such a big protein eater, I'm not sure this lunch would have quite done it for her.


Cooling hashbrowns. Now I have leftovers for another meal. Cooling before packing is one of the bento rules - if you don't you get condensation all over the inside of your box and everything's soggy. Also, we dipped the apples in emergen-c so they wouldn't brown.

My lunch was packed in a 800ml lock and lock box which is too big for me. I am usually careful to pack less calorie dense things in this box because it's just huge. The kids' lunches were packed in 296ml boxes. They never eat it all, but I can't find smaller boxes (that I like) for them. I use this size box for my breakfasts at work and it is just perfect. (To figure out what size box you should be using go here. I am nursing and find a 700ml box to be just about right most of the time)

verdict: when it's really cold out cold food is cold. this would have been a good lunch in the summer. Auntie A's thermos of soup looked pretty good....

The mango jello was Divine.