One of Poh Ling Yeow's bento box creations. Photo / Anna Kucera
One of Poh Ling Yeow's bento box creations. Photo / Anna Kucera
Gone are the days of tiny packets of chips and dry white bread and Marmite sandwiches filling up your children's lack-lustre lunch-boxes.
Now the answer for parents looking to make the perfect lunch that's healthy, fun and actually appealing to fussy little eaters is bento boxes.
We know what you're thinking: They look fiddly and time-consuming. But Poh Ling Yeow, ambassador for SunRice, has shared her top tips for easy bento box hacks that will entice your kids and keep them full of the good stuff.
Poh Ling Yeow working on a bento creation. Photo / Anna Kucera
Healthy eating fuels growing brains and bodies, so a child's lunch should have a combination of different nutrients. Be sure to include something from each of the key food groups; grains and whole grains, fruits, veggies, protein such as meat or beans, and dairy, such as cheese or natural yogurt.
2. Cut some shapes
Pastry and cookie cutters are your new friends. Use them to cut different shapes out of wholemeal wraps, omelettes, cheese, ham, cucumber, seaweed sheets, melon, apple - the possibilities are endless.
3. Channel your inner rainbow
We eat with our eyes, so keep your bento creations vibrant. What's more, colourful veggies and fruits are often the most-nutritious. Use a variety of red, yellow, orange, purple and green fresh produce to create vivid lunch-time masterpieces.
4. Fuel energy levels
Once cooked and cooled, rice is excellent for moulding into bento presses, or shapes. It's naturally gluten-free too, so it's a good carbohydrate option for those with gluten issues.
Use silicone baking cups or dividers to keep foods separate. And tackle even the trickiest of eaters by camouflaging valuable nutrients in your bento creations: Mix grated carrots and zucchini with rice and roll into balls or the shape of their favourite character. Whip up savoury mini egg muffin cups, loaded with greens and pepper. You can even blend fresh produce into yummy dips!
6. Keep it tight
Pack all your goodies tightly to prevents foods from moving around – you want your shapes to stay in place – and ensure they remain separate.
7. Make it crunch time
Bento is all about the textures. Use different ingredients to make your bento box as fun and visually-appealing as possible. Carrots, celery and peppers are all great crunchy items that can be chopped into bite-sized pieces and used to create character's limbs, or fun shapes and patterns.
Blueberries, seeds, nuts and grapes all make amazing eyes. Broccoli is perfect for creating trees and pieces of apple are ideal for teeth.
8. Add egg-cellent colour
Turn little lunches up a notch by adding colour to your boiled eggs. Simply hard boil and remove the shell then soak the egg in water and vinegar with different natural food colours to stain them. Try beetroot (pink), turmeric (yellow) and red cabbage (blue).
