Rice Stash

Frozen rice balls on a cookie sheet; plastic measuring cup in the upper left corner.

You can't have too much rice. Rice in the freezer is like money in the bank. Here is an example of stash-building: When you're cooking rice, cook extra rice. Cook a LOT of extra rice. Then freeze it. When it comes to convenience, frozen rice is the gluten-free equivalent to sliced bread.

For these rice balls, I used a half-cup measure; use whatever size is appropriate for your diner. Dip it in water between scoops. Lay the rice balls on a plastic bag on a cookie sheet. Freeze. When they're frozen, pop them into a ziplock bag for future lunches. Knock the loose rice off the plastic bag and use it again.

Most of the bento sites recommend reheating in the microwave; however, I don't own a microwave. To reheat frozen rice without a microwave, just put the balls into a small pan with a little water, set the heat on very low and it will steam while you go about your morning. (If you pull a couple out to thaw before you go to bed, they'll heat even quicker.) Begin heating the rice as soon as you get into the kitchen so it will have time to heat through then cool down again to room temperature. The reason you heat-then-cool the rice is that rice is unpleasantly hard right out of the fridge--warming and cooling softens it up again.

Here are a few easy staples you can prepare ahead and keep on hand: rice, fruit-juice gelatin cups, boiled eggs, homemade cookies, toasted sesame seeds, steamed broccoli. Keep a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer, and buy things like cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, baby carrots, tangerines and apples for the fridge. All these foods keep well and will ensure that you have plenty of food and color for a beautifully packed bento.

Night-Before Middle Eastern Bento

Hummus with olive oil and paprika, deviled eggs with saffron, broccoli, baby carrots, mint tea, tangerine, cookies

Most of the bentos you find online, as well as most of the books, feature Japanese food. And, of course that makes sense, because the bento originated there. But there is no rule that says bento has to be made with Japanese-style food. Sure, the Japanese have elevated lunch to an art and you'll find many great ideas, especially for the gluten-free among us, but if you search a bit, you'll also find bentos with enchiladas, tamales, calzones, blintzes--any food that can be packed neatly and tastes good at room temperature.

This is a nice Middle-Eastern bento, and it's a frequent favorite because the kids like it and I can make the whole thing the night before. Keep the ingredients on hand so that as soon as your daughter tells you, "Oh, yeah, you have to braid my hair in the morning to go with the Artemis costume for my social studies project," you can pack everyone's lunch after dinner.

Hummus is tasty with lots of different vegetables like carrots, turnips, celery, cucumbers, radishes, cherry tomatoes, jicama, or even apple slices. (Apple slices, or anything that might turn brown, are best cut in the morning.) You can also add olives, pickles, crackers, pretzels or any number of shelf-stable foods to round it out.  Make it more on the stiff side so it travels better--runny hummus can be a mess. Another easy addition to this bento would be canned grape leaves--I usually keep some in my stash for emergencies; they're not too expensive and they seem like a special treat. Sub grape leaves for the egg to make a vegan bento.

Hummus Recipe

Before I write the recipe, you must know that what separates good hummus from "just okay" hummus is the ingredients, particularly the freshness of the tahini and the texture of the beans. Sesame paste goes rancid fairly easily--keep it in the fridge, and if there is any bitterness or rancidity, toss it. As for beans, they must blend up creamy, not gritty. Sometimes beans cooked from scratch are fine, and other times they don't have good texture. My favorite canned beans are the Al Wadi brand: One 15-oz can makes enough hummus for 3 or 4 lunches, depending on what you pack.

1-15oz can of chickpeas, drained and brine reserved
~1/2 cup of tahini (two big blobs)
~1/2 clove garlic, or to taste
juice of one lemon
salt to taste
ground cumin to taste

Put the chickpeas, tahini, lemon, and garlic into a food processor and blend well. Add the brine a bit at a time to make it smooth but not runny. Add salt and cumin to taste. Put it into silicone cups or lidded containers; drizzle with olive oil and a shake of paprika. Serve with cut up vegetables and apple slices.

Apple Slices for Bento

Cut the cold apples into quarters or eights, depending on your purpose. Put them into a bowl of cold water for a few minutes. (Some people add salt or vinegar to the water, but I don't.) This keeps them from turning brown for a few hours. Try cutting one red and one green apple, and packing the slices in alternating colors!

Three Out of Four Ain't Bad

Rice noodles with olive oil and seasonings, deviled egg, pickled beets, edamame; tangerines, apples; wheat-free cookies.

Man, this looks good. Well, to me, anyway. I was so happy I thought of putting noodles in the lunchbox, but both girls hated them. They ate everything else, though. Humph! They loved their lunches on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then Thursday was a snow day and they REALLY loved that, so maybe Friday just couldn't compare.

What should I make on Monday?

Lousy Lunchbox Noodles

Cook some rice noodles--my favorite are Tinkyada brand. Dress them with good olive oil, garlic powder and oregano; chopped olives, too, if you have them. It doesn't really matter what you put 'cause the kids won't eat them anyway. That does take the pressure off, though.

Balanced Meals Unbalanced

One of the hallmarks of maturity is the capacity to consider future consequences of present actions. Children, by definition, lack maturity. What does this have to do with bento? We all have days when there is not that much in the fridge to pack for lunch. We want every meal to be balanced, but the average school cafeteria is a minefield of bad food choices. If you send food your child doesn't like, there are lots of sympathetic friends who will offer alternatives. Can they resist? The fact that your child ate a thing for dinner last night and it's the only "balanced" food in the house is irrelevant if it ends up in the trash.

My philosophy about "what to pack when there's nothing to pack" is, stick to nutritious food you know they'll eat, and balance it over the course of the day. It's just one meal. Imagine this scenario: "Gee, my mom thoughtfully packed me a nutritious lunch, but Lilly says it looks like vomit. She keeps making retching noises. Lilly has kindly offered me half her peanut butter sandwich. However, the jelly may be manufactured using corn syrup, which will give me a tantrum later in the day, so I'll just thank her politely and stoically eat this vomit." If your child is like mine, she will take the proffered sandwich and you will be dealing with a miserable kid all afternoon.

It may seem like the only "real" food in the house is the bean soup from last night, but apples and peanut butter do make a wonderful meal. Seriously. Sometimes I have sent lunches made up mostly of fruit, or cut up vegetables with fake ranch dressing (see recipe below). Sure, I'll try to get some kind of protein and fat in there to help them feel full, but it can be nuts, or cheese, or a couple homemade cookies--even potato chips! Remember the secret weapon for balancing everything up: The after-school snack.

Most kids come home from school ravenous; it's a great time to have something ready that makes up for whatever was missing in their lunch (and if you're really lucky, you'll have time to shop before they get home). You can put cut up vegetables on the table. You can now heat up that bean soup from last night. The hummus that looks like vomit in the lunchroom becomes ambrosia after school. By packing food that is fun to eat and not getting too tied to the food pyramid, you help your child resist temptation at school and come home in a good mood for the rest of the day.

Fake Ranch Dressing

One blob of mayo
One blob of plain yogurt or kefir
a shake of garlic powder
a shake of Italian seasoning or poultry seasoning
a drip of light-colored vinegar or a squeeze of lemon
salt and pepper to taste

This is a great "emergency" dip. Be sure to put it in a container with a tight-fitting lid, or put it in a small lidded container inside a larger lidded container that holds the veggies. You can make a passable main course with a carrot and a stalk of celery, or a little broccoli, or a piece of cucumber, and that last pickle from the jar. If you have some potato chips or tortilla chips, those can be fun to dip, too. Tomorrow, go shopping!

Improvising!

Root salad, asparagus, turkey dog, broccoli, tomato; half-sour pickle, apple, mango gelatin

Time to improvise: Tie the opposite corners of the napkin together--the napkin is both the lunch "bag" and the tablecloth! The ties make a convenient handle.

Stack sandwich boxes together and secure with a rubber band. Put a fork or spoon under the rubber band, if you like.

La Primera left her lunch bag at school yesterday. That can be a stinky problem if I pack shrimp! Usually they keep their leftovers to eat in the car on the way home. If we have an event after school, I pack extra lunch just for that reason.

Today they have karate, so I needed to pack lots of food with no lunch bag. Here's how we rolled: Stack two sandwich boxes, secure with a rubber band, and tie it all up in a big napkin. You can get quite a lot of food into two sandwich boxes, even enough for a karate kid. Heck, you could pack three sandwich boxes if you have a teenager on the swim team. Just put a sandwich in the third sandwich box. (I've never tried it, but it might work! Hee hee!)

Gelatin is a great lunchbox staple, for several reasons. You can make a bunch of them in minutes and have them ready all week. Nutritionally, gelatin helps the body absorb protein and minerals, one reason why soup made with bone broth is so sustaining: When food is scanty, gelatin lets you get more from less. Some parents worry that their kids don't eat enough or don't eat enough "protein." Human breast milk contains 5% or less protein--there is at least that much protein in vegetables, in addition to all the vitamins, minerals and fiber. If you're worried, toss in a gelatin to assure yourself that your child is absorbing maximum nutrition from what they do eat. Vegans and dieters can make a nourishing gelatin with agar that is high in fiber and high in minerals, especially calcium and iron.

Make your gelatin firmer so it's more like Jigglers; that's your insurance that it won't get runny at room temperature. In today's lunch-in-a-napkin, I could not pack the gelatin separately, so I popped it out of the container (which was too tall to fit into the sandwich box) and slid it into a silicone muffin cup. The muffin cups are flexible, making it easy to tuck the gelatin into a corner of the sandwich box.

SUB NOTES: Special diet? No problem!

Vegans can omit the turkey dog or sub a tofu pup, and use agar in the gelatin. Yum! Or leave out the gelatin and put a little cup of peanut butter to go with the apples.

Specific Carbohydrate Diet? We followed this for a while: Make the root salad from celeriac, rutabagas, carrots and golden beets, or whatever legal roots you prefer. Dress with homemade mayo. Instead of hot dog, sub a boiled egg, a slice of cheese or a homemade sausage patty.

Hypertension: This lunch is perfect already! The turkey dog is low fat; go easy on the mayo in the salad.

Diabetic: If you are avoiding fruit juice, sub peanut butter to dip your apples in. You might need to sub something for the root salad. Here is an interesting recipe using green bananas to make a mock potato salad:
http://www.diabetesforum.com/diabetes-recipes/4138-faux-potato-salad.html

Last Minute Lunch Box

Bean thread noodle stir fry, black olives, mango, tomatoes, baby bananas, fruit-juice gelatin, and applesauce

These sandwich boxes are so much fun! This lunch demonstrates a few bento concepts. One is that almost any shallow container with a tight lid can be a lunchbox. These are two sandwich boxes I found on sale at Wegman's. The lids have gaskets and snap on, making them pretty leak proof. Once filled, they stack together snugly and, with a wide rubber band securing them together, they make a beautiful lunch box. You could even go Japanese-style and tie them together with a napkin that will become a little tablecloth. How elegant is that!

Another concept is to scout out and hoard small lidded containers. The gelatin is made in a lidded cup that holds only 4oz of liquid; it's the perfect size for making little desserts or holding small treats like chocolate chips. The cup fits into a slightly deeper square container and can be used to hold hummus or ranch dressing surrounded by veggies--the lid keeps the dip from sloshing out when La Segunda flings her backpack, lunch bag and all, at some unsuspecting boy with cooties.

This lunch was made entirely from stash in 10 minutes. La Primera was attending an all-day babysitting class and I realized that very morning that she would need a lunch. Yikes! She is going through a growth spurt and has a massive appetite these days. Luckily we had leftover noodles and enough produce to make a presentable and filling meal. At $1/pound, the baby bananas cost twice as much as the regular ones, but still, for a buck I got about 7 baby bananas--they fit into containers where they don't get squished, and they bumped up the envy-factor of two day's lunches.

One last tip: If you plan to send leftover rice or noodles in a bento that will be eaten directly from the box, always warm them ahead of time and let them cool back down before you pack them. Noodles and rice become unpleasantly stiff when served cold from the fridge. Except for the hottest days of summer, most foods can safely sit at room temperature from morning till afternoon. We use a pan on the stove, but many bento "pros" keep a stash of cooked rice portions in the freezer, then nuke and cool it in the morning. The first bento blog I ever found has great tips for stash-building and food safety. Check out Lunch in a Box. Biggie's lunches are the bomb!

http://lunchinabox.net

Secret Ingredient

What do you remember as your favorite foods of childhood? Was it your grandmother's turkey gravy, or the green beans you picked in your Uncle Paul's garden? Was it the pizza you had every Saturday after you played baseball? One of my favorite meals of childhood (there were many), was the homemade yogurt and Syrian bread I always had at Auntie Jeanne's; as soon as a kid walked in the door, they were proclaimed to be too skinny and told to help themselves.

Last time I wrote about the importance of having a special treat in every lunch, but the real special ingredient, the essential ingredient, is love for the person you cook for and love for the food you prepare. It comes through, and it doesn't have to be fancy, or even healthful. If you're a child and someone who adores you takes you to McDonald's as a special treat, I believe that meal will be more nourishing than a bowl of organic stir fry served by someone who resents having to cook for you.

Our goal with bento is not to kill ourselves making the most fancy lunch. The lunch you pack should make someone, even yourself, feel loved and cared for. Design your lunches around the joy of the cook as well as the joy of the diner. It can be a difficult dance at times finding foods that are packable, keep well, please a variety of diners, and are a pleasure to make. Know your limits. Mine is that I will not make more than one meal--that is to say, everyone gets the same thing! Or at least, variations of the same thing.

The point is, don't make yourself crazy. While you prepare the seared salmon or the peanut butter sandwich, think about how much you care about the person you are cooking for, and how lucky you are to have this moment to cook for them. Then take one extra second to lay the salmon neatly on the bed of noodles, or to cut the sandwich into perfect triangles, and off you go. This is your contribution to world peace.

Special Food for Special People, or, It's Only Good If They Eat It

Rice with sprinkles, teriyaki shrimp, deviled egg, marinated gigandes, cucumber, carrots and apple

Okay my special ones, here is an example of a Lock & Lock container with dividers. It has a leak-proof lid that snaps on. La Segunda can drop kick this thing across the elementary school gym, and as long as it doesn't break, her lunch items will remain separate. Cool, huh? This is one way I appease her--give her a lunch box that is "special."

This lunch is a good example of another strategy for helping a lunch that's different from everyone else's seem different in a good way: Include a small luxury item. Nothing says "don't you wish this was your lunch?" like a few shrimp. Seriously, a bag of frozen shrimp is a good investment when you only serve three at a time, and it's a great stash item. Also note the sprinkles on the rice--the sesame seeds add extra calcium and there are loads of minerals in the nori, but mainly my kids think it tastes good and makes them "cool."

The luxury item should be whatever the recipient of this box of edible love perceives as a treat: strawberries, or snap peas, or a tofu-dog cut to look like an octopus and served with catsup. The main thing to remember is that the people sitting next to your diner often influence their perception of what they are eating. Are their table mates envious, or are they grossed out? The corollary to the luxury item is NEVER pack anything that smells funny or looks like puke. Ever. It is irrelevant whether they loved it for dinner: If someone at their table says, "Eeewww!" that lunch is going in the trash, and your diner will be offered something from one of their friends' lunches. This leads to having a child come home in a funk from eating the wrong thing, or nothing at all. There are many temptations in the lunchroom, and an awesome bento makes that easier to handle.  (Case in point: See the deviled egg in the picture? My kids used to get teased because hard-boiled eggs "stink," so they threw them away. If the eggs are deviled, everyone at the table wants a piece. Go figure. And if they're deviled and shaped like a flower, well, that's a luxury item for sure!)

This lunch took about 10 minutes using stash food: leftover rice, frozen shrimp, pre-made teriyaki sauce, and fruits and veggies from the fridge. The egg was already made the night before as well. Just warm the rice and simmer shrimp in the sauce for about 3 minutes. While the rice and shrimp cool back to room temp, cut up the fruits and veggies, and assemble it all in the bento. Toss a couple cookies and a little container of applesauce into the lunch bag, and you're good to go.

How to Get Started Packing Delicious Lunches for Special People

Potato salad, cucumber, apple, meatballs, catsup (in bear), edamame beans

BENTO really does put the "special" back in "special diet"--in a good way. Instead of feeling like they have second-rate lunches because of their dietary restrictions, my kids are often the envy of the table. That is what we are after!

Some people think you need special tools or containers to make bento-style lunch boxes. In fact, any shallow container with a tight lid can be used. The trick is to pack the food tightly so it doesn't shift around. Keep a "stash" handy to fill spaces--small vegetables, hard fruits, boiled eggs, olives, pickles or wrapped cheeses all make good fillers. These can also make good dividers.

This lunch is in a SnapWare sandwich box. The lid is tight, but does not have a water-tight seal, so I did not pack anything runny or juicy. To keep the edamame contained, I used a silicone baking cup. These come in a variety of colors and sizes, and can be reused a long time. The cup also creates a barrier on one side of the potato salad--on the other side I needed a filler, so I made a wall of cucumber slices. Easy! I have cute little bears to put dressing in, but baby food jars or 1-oz lidded containers also work. Once you begin packing lunches this way, you will start to save take-out containers and buy little containers you see at the store.

Some people are hard on their lunches. Daughter number two, La Segunda, tends to have her lunch pretty well mixed up by the time she is sitting in the elementary cafeteria--of course, she is the one who likes her food separate. For these people, silicone muffin cups are not going to hold anything. Purchase containers that have plastic dividers in them. These do not have as much flexibility when it comes time to pack the lunch. At home, La Segunda's lunch is never as pretty as La Primera's, but by lunchtime it remains pretty enough for her to eat it, and that's what counts.

Simple, Colorful Potato Salad*

Potatoes, plus other colorful roots: Yellow beet, Carrots, Parsnip, Rutabaga
Green vegetables such as celery, peas or parsley
Mayonnaise, salt, pepper, vinegar to taste

Use organic roots if you can; they're usually sweeter and more flavorful. Cut the vegetables into chunks and steam them. Meanwhile, dice up the green vegetables you are using. When the roots are cooked, turn them into a bowl and dress them with mayo, salt, pepper, and a drip of vinegar, if you like. Stir in the greens and portion into containers.

*This keeps well and can be prepared the night before to save time in the morning.

A Blog About Mom-Style Bento

Salad, wings, cucumbers, apples, pasta salad. Little bear holds ranch dressing.

American Mom-style, that is. Since I find myself posting all my lunch creations on Facebook, this seemed like a good move. Hope you like it. This is a blog for people who like to bring delicious meals along with them, for whatever reason.

Bento is a Japanese-style portable meal, usually lunch. I first got interested when my kids had food restrictions, and we had to bring meals everywhere. If you can't eat wheat or corn syrup, then museum visits, car trips, plane rides, and even the daily school routine mean packing food to take with you.

Now, although we like Japanese food, we don't always pack it to take along. Bento, to me, is a mindset. I happen to like fresh food, not industrial food, so premade Gluten-Free breads and such don't appeal to me. We turned to cuisines that have used a minimum of wheat for thousands of years. I advise you to do the same, no  matter what your dietary restrictions are--look for delicious recipes that are not trying to be something else. A sandwich on gluten-free bread will always be lacking, but a well-made tamale will always delight.

There is a style of bento that emphasizes cuteness over nutrition. It includes processed cheese, food coloring, and other such gimmicks to achieve the perfect Hello-Kitty-Gets-Married or Spiderman-At-The-Beach lunchbox theme. If that is your goal, this is not the blog for you. The most important decorative element is also the quickest, cheapest, and most nutritious: an eye for color, texture and placement. I also use colorful picks, silicone muffin cups and egg molds, but these are reusable and they are also not necessary. Bento by Mom is all about walking out your front door with something nutritious and satisfying to eat in a landscape of bad food choices.

Welcome to good eating at home and abroad!