Everyday Bento: 50 Cute and Yummy Lunches to Go

Bento are Japanese boxed lunches. They are colorful, healthy, and beautifully presented. Wendy Thorpe Copley does a great job keeping these elements in her creations. She stresses the benefits that come with using bento: reduced waste from packaging, healthier food, a cheaper meal, and the fact that even picky kids are more likely to like well-presented food.

This book is for parents of few children and excess time. The “recipes” are actually time-consuming crafts. The meals are cute, but at the cost of a large amount of effort. For example, one set of instructions says to cut out guitar shapes from bread, cheese and meat for a sandwich; cut up carrots and green beans; cut circles out of fruit leather for mini vinyls; and fill a small container with ranch dressing for a rock ‘n’ roll themed bento. A ballerina theme needs a ballet slipper sandwich (a stencil is provided for cutting the meat into the correct shapes), radish roses (which need to be soaked overnight to expand properly), and heart-shaped watermelon pieces. The finished bento ARE adorable, but be prepared for the incredible amount of work it will take to put them together.