That's how I bento roll

I know what you're thinking, or at least at some point while reading my blog, you've had to think this thought "Sure I could make cute Bento too if I had all the time she does!" Well I don't really have all that much time. The only reason I even bother with it is because it helps my son to eat so much better. Everything about Bento helps him to eat better and if your kid is on the GFCFSF diet then you know you need all the tricks up your sleeve you can get! I have quickly devised a system that works for us to save time. I make food and freeze it ahead of time. Pancakes, sausage, chicken nuggets, and french toast sticks are all usually hanging out in our freezer. I focus on just adding different foods to little silicone cups and adding food picks and flags. If the mood strikes I will coordinate it a little better with a punched out smiley face on a hard boiled egg, car sandwich or hot dog octopus. I hate wasting time so I have invested in the tools I need to make things easier on myself. I dedicated a corner of the kitchen as the GFCFSF counter and food prep area. Everything I need is within reach for his meal preps. All his Bento gear and eating utensils are all right in front of me organized into mini drawers for quick assembly. All I really do is grab various foods and add them to little cups and picks. The overall effect is impressively cute without adding a lot of work. Check out tonight's dinner. I was inspired to take a little extra time since there were two new foods I wanted him to try so I made his dinner extra cute. I don't usually make Bento for dinner because we all eat the same meal then but tonight was a rare occasion. Anyway look at the dinner in small sections and you'll see it was not much hard work just a lot of cups and divided sections. Here's what is in this dinner. Hot dog cut into sticks, roasted garbanzo beans, hard boiled egg, mustard, blackberries, olives, red bell peppers with dip, salad with dressing bottle, and a mini apricot. It sounds like a lot of food but it's all small portions which is a great thing. He's much more likely to eat a small portion of a variety of veggies than he is to eat a whole side salad. Bento size salad always gets eaten now, especially if he wants another blackberry. Lets remember here though that last year I would have been laughing myself out of town had I read this. Veggies of any kind might as well have been the boogie man as far as little man was concerned but now? Man has Biomedical Intervention changed everything for us. Including getting him to eat more foods. Anyway back to the bento. Here are a few pictures of my bento prep area, you can see I put the gear into these $5.00 Plastic drawers from Target. They are super handy to stay organized with the gear. That makes it easier to throw some food in a box and run.Here's the various food picks and mini forks we use. The Occupational Therapist wanted my son to use small pencils and crayons to work on fine motor skills. I found these mini forks and they fit the bill for sure. He has to practice fine motor skills to use his mini forks and to open his sauce bottles pictured up at the top of this post. We have many different types. They are supposed to be for soy sauce but I use them for dressing on salads and it really helps him to eat the salad. he likes the little bottles very much. This is the drawer for my food dividers. They are just another way to add some fun to a bento and for kids who don't like food to touch...well these things are a life saver!

Here are the smaller silicone cups I use for the bento boxes. I also have a drawer for the larger size silicone cups (All are about $1.50 - 3.00 for a pack of 6-10 pieces. These are the workhorse of my bento boxes. They make the food look cool and all I have to do is fill a couple of them up and add to the box. Can't be easier and it helps him to eat veggies and other foods he does not like too much.

Bento cutters, in case I'm feeling like getting jiggy with it. Mostly borrowed from my cake decorating supplies but you'll also see some scrapbooking punches in there too. See Wilton for lots of local Bento cutters.

So there you have it. My precious bento gear and tools. These make it easy for me to do bento boxes for my son and the bento style of presenting food is an invaluable resource for my kiddo on the spectrum. Good luck and for any of you interested in giving it a try check out my links page for web sites that sell the gear online. It's really really easy and not time consuming like you think it would be. If you've got a picky eater you should give it a try. It might just be that giant sigh of relief at the dinner table that you've been waiting for. I know it's been like that for us. Ta for now!