Everyday With Rachael Ray magazine had a terrific idea for taking the boring out of school lunch. How about creating kid-friendly bento boxes? The website features three easy to make recipes, including this one for dessert. (It would make a great party finger food, too.)

Candy Sushi
From Every Day with Rachael Ray August – September 2006 issue
1 serving

Ingredients:

1. 4 large marshmallows
2. 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3. 1/2 cup rice cereal
4. 2 cherry or strawberry twists, such as Twizzlers
5. 2 fruit roll-ups

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, melt the marshmallows with the butter over low heat.
2. Add the rice cereal and stir to coat; let cool slightly.
3. Cut the cherry twists to the length of the fruit roll-ups.
4. Unroll the fruit roll-ups and peel off the plastic film. Place half of the rice cereal mixture on the edge of each roll-up.
5. Place the twists in the center of the rice mixture and roll up the candy sushi.
6. Cut into 2-inch pieces.

If you like the idea of creating bento boxes for your child’s lunch (or maybe yours!) check out The Vegan Lunchbox. Jennifer is writing a book based on her blog, too.

Until then, you may want to explore the world of bento boxes via these books:

• Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go – traditional bento recipes, easily recreated
• Simple Menus for the Bento Box – Western cuisine presented in an aesthetically Asian manner
• Cafe Japan – good book for beginners.

If you’re intrigued to give bento style lunches a try, you may want to order a Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless-Steel lined Lunch Jar ($36-42). This would be a great way to pack a healthy lunch for school or work with everything from soup and steamed rice to fish.

Lunchboxes.com sells a bento box that features a main compartment that holds five smaller containers of varying sizes to separate different lunch foods. Some have covers to keep liquid food in, while the other containers can hold solid foods in place by the fold-down lid. Theirs comes with a spoon, fork, and guide to nutritious eating. It’s available alone for $19.50 or as a kit with a high-quality insulated carrying case and water bottle for $29.50. This is a great one for the kids to use.

I’m going back to Weight Watchers once school starts to loose the, um, 15 pounds I’ve packed on since last October. This will be my reward for going back and losing the first 5 pounds. I’m going to check out my local Asian markets first, to see what kind of bento boxes they stock.

 For more bento box recipes and inspiration go to:

• Recipe*Zaar’s Back to School Special: Bento Box (or Lunch Box) Recipes! – lots of links to recipes and great photographs, too.
• PBS Food on Onbento – Obento is another word for bento. Click through the pages to see some incredible pictures of work by Yayoi Brown, a mom and obento maker.

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