Back to School with Bento

Anyone who knows me knows that I've long been passionate about food.  My food obsessions have ranged forward from the unhealthy (900 calories a day, anyone?) to gourmet (yummy, but time consuming) to trendy (30 minute meals) and everywhere in between.  I often think about the past food paths I've taken and how each one fit into my life at the time.  Right before I got married, I set out to write a cookbook.  I researched and collected hundreds of recipes and tested them all out on my very happy (and full!) boyfriend.  I must have done it right, because he did marry me!  Then, during my pregnancy, I had a nesting phase which led me to cook and freeze 42 casseroles for use during the up-all-night baby days.  After both girls came along and I was forced to increase my hours at work due to restructuring, I entered the 30 minute meal era.  When I moved to New York, I came to realize that regional cooking was interesting and fun...and this NE region is quite different from my mid-western fare.  I easily made the switch from tacos and spicy barbeque to riggies and greens!  Most recently, as I've read about and researched the commercial food industry, I made the switch to local, seasonal cooking and food preservation.
I thought my food culture was here to stay, but over the past couple weeks, I began another shift in my food thinking.  This shift came about as the first day of kindergarten began to approach for my oldest daughter.  I watched Jamie Oliver's show about school foods and I've read menus of our local school cafeterias and I know that I want my daughter to be eating healthy foods that will keep her energy up all day long.  I'm just not sure the school food is what she needs.  So, I headed to the store, let her pick out a new lunch box with water bottle and thermos.  But, as I should have predicted, this was not enough for food obsessed mama!  I came across a book with creative lunches packed in the Japanese Bento style.  Lots of healthy choices in a creative presentation for the enjoyment of the eater.  I am hooked.  Of course, being a locavore isn't just about food, and I just can't bring myself to order a bunch of cutsie food storage from Japan.  I am hoping I will find it right here at home.  Most importantly, I've discovered a huge array of healthy food choices for lunchboxes that will leave the plain-Jane pb&J in the dust.  I do have to consider that my 5 year old is a rather p-i-c-k-y eater, but I'm hoping that with her help, we can find some good lunch ideas.
Lucky for me, I read cookbooks like they are novels.  I love to hear the idea behind the food and peek into the life of the creator.  I am armed with a few lunchbox books and lots of motivation.  Hopefully the time to create a healthy lunch each morning before I leave for work at 6am will come.
Stay tuned, and I'll let you know the good, the bad, and the returned-home-uneaten food stories as the weeks go on!