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!