Shopping list
vegetables of your choice
fruits of your choice
cheese of your choice
free range (quails) eggs
whole wheat breads
half wheat (minions) pasta, rice or noodles
bread sticks
corn crackers
peanutbutter, apple / pear syrup, honey
butter or olive oil
Now that school is (almost) starting again, our normal eating pattern will also be resumed. It is done with pizza deliveries and holiday fast-food, it's often not very good anyway. We are certainly not fanatical as far as healthy food is concerned but fresh and variety is important to us. Hip totally not, we like for the mini-monsters to enjoy their food. So we are cheerfully going to take up the menu ourselves :)
Starting with the school lunch box! The Japanese Bento Box is our shining example, it contains healthy, homemade food for your hardworking kids. But for Dutchies it needs some little ajustments because we choose whole wheat bread and pasta sooner than rice or noodles and because we like to keep it simple, after all it's food.
So here is our take on the Japanese lunch box, the Dutch Bento (with a look back to 2014)
The Farm Bento: Wholemeal peanutbutter /banana / honey (or with apple stroop / pear / honey) sandwich(es), cheese, eggs, fruit, veg and animal biscuits.
We make a tractor.
Spread peanut butter on bread.
Top one side with banana.
Drizzle honey on the banana.
Press the two slices firmly together.
Cut out a tractor.
Cut various animals out of cheese and apple.
Place the sandwich(es), eggs, cheese and veg in the Bento.
Add a little box with fruit and some animal biscuits.
The Minion Bento: whole wheat pasta-salad with quails eggs and fresh fruit decorated with Minion prickers.
Because the Minion pasta is half wheat we mix them 50/50 with a whole wheat pasta.
Cook the fresh peas.
Cook Minion pasta.
Quarter the tomatoes.
Drain the tinned corn.
Fold the veg into the pasta with a tablespoon of olive oil.
Sprinkle grated Parmesan on top of the pasta salad.
Spoon the pasta salad in a container then place the boiled eggs on top.
Cut fresh nectarine, pineapple and honey melon in pieces, sprinkle on blueberries. Pack the fruit in a separate box. Stick in the prickers last minute.
The Dinosaur Bento: Cheese/broccoli patties, 1 quails egg, watermelon, strawberries, de-stoned cherries & dinosaur biscuits.
Put foil around the patties, place an egg in the Dinosaur nest ;)
Add a box of fruit and 2 Dino biscuits.
Recipes from earlier which are great for the Bento Box:
More earlier recipes which are great for a Bento Box:
- mini muffins cheese & onion
- chocolate chip cookies
- porridge oats flapjacks
- vanilla biscuits
- whole wheat carrot cupcakes
- banana bread
- homemade tortilla chips
- banana peanutbutter smoothie
- mini-pizza's
- tropical smoothie
- mini banana bread
- vegetable patties
- energie flapjacks, fig, raisin & apricot
- apple cakes
- Italian tomato bread
- rolled oats cookies
After these suggestions we would like to let you know that of course there is absolutely nothing wrong with a delicious brown bread sandwich. In fact, we like to eat it ourselves and do so often! But in the packed lunch for children it is very nice if there is a surprise now and then. Whether your sandwich has turned into a star, a tractor or a dino, a rabbit or whatever you can come up with!
We wish you lots of fun and creativity with the Bento Box!