Bento Trail

Today was another sick day for me. The kids are much better, though. I could have cried with relief when Scott told me he was staying home from work today to take care of everyone. Here at the darkening end of the day, I think I’m finally seeing a glimmer of wellness in the distance. I still have no voice and a cruel cough, but I’m getting better. Hurrah.

Sick or no, we took a fun little spontaneous stroll through an interesting topic today: bento boxes. In Harvest Moon your character is given a box lunch every day, and Rose was curious about what exactly a box lunch IS, and I told her about bento and starting looking up links, and oh my, the internet is a wondrous thing.

Links we enjoyed:

Anna the Red’s Bento Factory. Amazing site. What an artist she is. My girls are Mario fans and loved her Super Mario Galaxy characters. But my favorite were the totoros and—here’s one for all my kidlitosphere friends—her tribute to Where the Wild Things Are.

This isn’t a bento but it may be the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life, EVER. (Remind me to tell you someday about my family’s deep affection for My Neighbor Totoro, which I think is my favorite animated movie of all time.) (You see how Totoro brings out the extreme declarations from me.)

Bento Box has some good background, especially the page about bento staples.

Loved the FAQ at Lunch in a Box…and every other page we went to!

Cooking Cute is everything its name promises.

You could spend all day oohing over the bento photos on Flickr.

We are almost always home for lunch, but these beautiful pictures give me much food for thought (ba dum bum) about simple ways to bring more beauty to the table and make healthy foods appealing. Not that all of the links above are about simplicity…there’s some pretty elaborate artistry happening there. But the principles are worth pondering.