For anyone who has never come across Bento Boxes, they are based on a traditional Japanese way of presenting food - think of them as a little lunch box of lots of different bits to eat. However, in the UK at the minute they seem to be the way of presenting lunch time yummies to toddlers.
The Bento craze seems to have literally exploded around the UK, and my Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feeds are littered with pictures of what beautiful Bento Boxes people are presenting to their little people. You give them 5 or 6 small portions of different foods, which are usually separated out into different holders and presented in an overall tub. And it's the word 'presented' which is important, because it seems that presentation is the key. You can't just serve your child a sandwich - perish the thought! The sandwich must be 'Bentofied' (I just made that word up) which means it has to be cut using shaped cookie cutters so that instead of a normal sandwich, you get a crown shape, or a teddy, or a duck. (When I was little, the height of sandwich excitement was getting triangles instead of squares!)
And it doesn't stop at the sandwiches. Little shapes are made out of every food stuff imaginable - cheese, crackers, cucumber, fruit...you name it. It isn't just shapes either, you can buy special accessories to go with your toddler's Bento Box to give it that extra cool factor, such as food picks with character toppers. I must admit, the overall effect can look great, and I have heard lots of people say that it encourages their fussy toddler to eat a wider variety of food stuffs, which is fantastic.
But...who seriously has the time to stand and cut bunny shaped sandwiches, or make ladybird crackers and cheese, or stick a toothpick in to every piece of heart shaped cheese you've cut? If you do, I am super impressed, and would love your secret of time management! I am a big fan of "bitty" lunches, which is I suppose where Bento started off, but cubes are the height of my presentation method, and I even resent spending my time doing that! I do think, though, that it has probably encouraged some mummies to be more adventurous with what they give their little person, and include a wider variety of fruit and veg in their lunch, rather than just giving them a plain sandwich. And I think that's great, and I try to do the same with Isabelle - so I suppose it's the idea that it has to be presented in a certain way, and all separated out in to little cases which I can't quite get to grips with. Why not just put it on a plate?
Not only do I not have time to stand and create a lunch masterpiece, I also think it's totally bonkers to do so! In our house, we have a very simple attitude towards Isabelle and food - if she wants it and she is hungry, she will eat it. If she doesn't eat it...she doesn't eat it. I think partly this attitude comes from my total lack of interest in food. I hate cooking, I'm not very good at it, and I'm not hugely fussed on eating meals either - I'm by no means a 'foodie'.
Not only am I way to lazy to put it a Bento Box together but I also don't want to set myself up for the inevitable fall when she refuses to eat a sandwich because it's only a square, not a horse, or she refuses to eat her blueberries because there is no Minnie Mouse stick in them. I understand that this might make food more attractive to some little people, but I do worry about what happens when it stops working, or when you find one day you just don't have time to do it, and your little one gets something totally alien to them - normally presented food.
I know Bento Boxes really are working well for lots of families across the country, and that some kids are much happier eating that way, and that's great, but I certainly won't be dusting off the moustache shaped sandwich cutter (yes, I do own one!) any time soon, so poor Isabelle will have to make do with her square sandwiches and cubes of cheese for many years to come.
