Cute way to serve lunch to your kids!

We had a fun lunch today--and pretty nutritious! Carrot sticks with Ranch dressing, cheese, beef hotdogs, yogurt, and an orange--all served in a heart-shaped and football-shaped Wilton candy molds.

We actually ate our carrots.

And were happy about it.

I stumbled on a blog a while back about bento lunches. It is a really neat way to serve lunch to your kids (or adults for that matter). There are many different ways to do it. People use themes or cute little containers inside containers.

I found this on the internet:

How To Build A Bento Box:

•Plan your bento like an art activity.

•Choose foods for color.

•Use cookie cutters and other tools to cut foods such as bread, cheese, fruits and vegetables into interesting shapes.

•Use plastic skewers for foods such as fruit or roll-up sandwiches.

•Use cute plastic bottles or small sauce containers for liquids.

•Don't forget muffin cups (large and small), to separate items.

•Egg molds press hard-cooked eggs into whimsical shapes. Go to www.24hourkitchen.word press.com for a look at egg molds and how to use them.

•Rice molds also allow you to shape rice into whimsical shapes. Besides Ekitron, find rice molds, including Hello Kitty, on eBay.

•Here are color ideas for fruits and veggies:
For reds, select from strawberries, red grapes, halved cherry tomatoes or sliced red peppers.
For orange, consider carrots, dried apricots, sweet potato, cantaloupe or mandarin orange segments.
Green is easy: peas, cucumber, green grapes, broccoli, spinach, green peppers and asparagus.
For white, try rice, Asian dumplings, pasta, bread or popcorn.

Bento Box Food Ideas:

Faux sushi: Cut the crust from a piece of bread, spread cream cheese on the bread, top with thinly sliced deli meat and roll tightly. Cut into ½ -inch slices to resemble a sushi roll.

Fruit sushi: Cut the crust from a piece of bread, spread with pineapple cream cheese, add a banana, roll and slice.

Salad roll: Remove the thick rib from a romaine lettuce leaf. Top with favorite salad dressing, a thin slice of Muenster cheese, a thin slice of roast beef. Roll tightly and secure with a pick.

Sandwich on a stick: Alternate chunks of ham and cheese, separated by squares of bread. Finish with a strawberry.

Tortilla roll: Spread a tortilla with refried beans. Top with cooked chicken, shredded lettuce and grated cheese. Roll and slice. Use plastic skewers to secure.

Muffin cup: Layer the cup with shaved turkey, shredded lettuce and carrots.

Polenta pizza: Slice store-bought polenta, brown both sides in a skillet and top with tomato sauce, freshly chopped herbs and cheese; warm until cheese melts.

Alphabet pasta: Cook pasta according to package directions. Toss with freshly chopped vegetables and butter.

Mini stromboli: Slightly flatten canned biscuit dough. Spread with small amount of tomato sauce on half, top with chopped pepperoni, fold over and crimp edges with fork. Bake in a 350 F oven until golden.

Hard-cooked eggs: Cook egg, peel it and then press it into an egg mold. Top with favorite meat shapes.

I'd like to try more of these ideas. I think it could be fun AND might even get them to eat something they wouldn't normally eat. We'll see....