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

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.