Creative and Healthy Bento Lunch Ideas for Kids and Adults

Have you heard of bento lunches and bento boxes?

It’s a fun, fairly new trend in packed lunches that traces its origins to Japan.

What are Bento Lunches?

Bento is a traditional way for Japanese people to pack single-serve meals they can take with them to work or school. They often consist of rice, fish or meat, and cooked or pickled vegetables.

The container is usual rectangular with compartments for each dish. Bento boxes are traditionally made of stainless steel, but you can also find plastic and even glass versions.

These food containers with an international flair are usually square and have internal compartments that allow you to keep your food separate. This gives you a great canvas to get creative with food.

Yes, with Bento boxes it’s ok to play with the food and come up with some fun and creative lunches for the kids (or yourself).

Cut the sandwiches in cute little shapes, make some fun roll-ups, and get creative with fresh fruit, raw veggies, cheese and the likes as sides. Keeping farm fresh fruit on hand also makes it easy to rotate different colors, textures and flavors through the week without making lunch preparation complicated.

If you are ready to get even more creative, do a quick search online for bento lunch ideas.

Who knew that you could shape rice and make it look like an adorable panda?

You’ll find entire Pinterest boards and Instagram accounts dedicated to creative bento boxes.

Of course there’s no need to go all out. You can make delicious and eye-pleasing bento lunches by taking just a little care with how you place the food in the boxes and taking advantage of simple little tricks like pouring Goldfish crackers or raisins into paper or silicone cupcake liners.

What I like best about bento lunches is that it gives you the opportunity to pack several small, snack-like items into one lunch.

Your child will have fun picking and choosing for lunch and you know he will still get a healthy meal.

Plus, what child doesn’t love a bunch of colorful finger food for lunch. Heck, you may even convince your picky eaters to try new fruits, veggies, cheeses and the like if you cut them into cute little shapes.

Of course, these fun and delicious lunches aren’t just for kids.

Order a couple of bento boxes and start packing your own lunch. You can go as simple or gourmet as you’d like.

Or grab a few of your own favorite healthy snacks and call it lunch. The possibilities are almost endless with bento box lunches.