It's Beginning to Look a lot Like....

Fun fact: I rather hate summer! I am a Christmas child and I prefer winter, snow and ice.

So, to stay cheerful this summer I decided to keep the Christmas spirit alive for myself. I have a snowflake cookie cutter (and a moose too, which can double as raindeer because I have an imagination) and as of today I have some very silly mini-ice packs with a frosty theme:

Snowmen

Christmas Trees

Santas


There are two of each, they came from the Bento Obento Shop on ebay. I have ordered from them before, they ship very quickly and sent me a 'free gift' soy sauce container each time. Each ice pack is about an inch tall and a half inch wide. (Totally guessing on the measurements.) I cannot wait to try them out! They fit nicely in all my boxes.

-BCat

Dollar Store Bento Finds

I LOVE dollar stores. There is a Dollar Tree by my school and today I stopped in to see if there was anything "bento" about. I found these guys in the "Baby" section!


Fun fact: Giraffes are very much a Joneko thing. I am sending these in my next package to her! The small canisters come in sets of two that include the spoon. They are meant for baby food, but are also good for small portions of chili, soup or applesauce or... whatever. (No rule saying you cannot use them for dry foods too!) The larger container is almost as big as a classic one-tier bento. Perfect for a light lunch.

(I put some cupcake papers in the large container for sending to Jo. They make good, inexpensive dividers. Alas, they are not sustainable. I am looking into a set of silicone baking cups that I can reuse.)

I picked up some koalas for myself because... really, it was a dollar for two and a spoon. I am fond of taking leftover chili with me to school and these are just perfect!

My final find was this little "sandwich" box. I actually got this on a previous dollar store run, but they are still in stock.
There are also a similar sized matching snack canister, which are round. I was not interested in them though, round containers are more difficult to pack sometimes. Both were by the "boring" tupperware and plastic organizers. This box is "small," I used it last night for a "dinner snack" while working at the library. It held a small salad, five ravioli "pillows" and a cupcake paper full of raisins without my having to smosh anything!

P.S. My "non-dollar store" bento boxes were posted on my other blog. Instead of reiterating the posts here I think I will just link you to the "bento box" catagory/label on that blog:

http://decemberite.blogspot.com/search/label/bento%20box

American Bento?

You're going to notice as we post our lunches/dinners/whatever meal our bento is for the day that I don't really have a lot of the pretty supplies that Colleen does. Rather, mine aren't traditionally "bento." I do actually have a two-tiered, very typically male bento (with the henohenomoheji face even!), but components were lost in the wash by family members and thus it's far from air-tight. That, and since I'm trying to be a little healthier and slim down a little bit, allowing myself a nearly 900-calorie bento meal isn't very helpful.

But then I stumbled upon the most random end-cap at Waldbaums ever (not that I'm complaining):



Now...what does this look like to you? Because to me it looks like a bento set -- complete with box, snack container, and silverware. In fact, it looks like a perfect facsimile of a single-tier, even down to the size. (The Cars container, which was supposed to come with the round bowl and lid you see on the greenish set in back, is about... 5"x7" I want to say. I'll have to take a proper ruler to it to be sure.)

I passed this end-cap every time I got groceries, and I can't seem to keep myself from going at least once or twice a week. It was part in amusement and part in total fascination -- "What's with these American bentos?" I ended up buying a couple of snack containers for Colleen because they ended up being about thirty cents each. Eventually I got myself a sandwich box...which I've so far used for guacamole.

Finally, because Lightning McQueen there kept watching me go, I checked the price, assuming it'd be at least ten bucks. So when it said it was less than two...well come on, I did need a new lunch box.

It just goes to show you that these things can crop up in the strangest, most unexpected places, so keep your eyes open. Granted our friends on the clearance end-caps might not have been popular enough to make it in the mainstream supermarket, but the better for us!