Interesting lunches

I've been meaning to write a food related post for a while.  But like everything else around here, it took me sometime to get to it. So, I was all geared up to write about frugal cooking and healthy eating when something caught my interest when I was looking for some craft related thing.  Enter the Bento.  Apparently Bento is a lunch in a box popular in Japan.  Practically, what this means is a box lunch somewhat artistically arranged, using different colors and textures and foods, utilizing cookie cutters, dough presses and other food decorating gadgets, as well as muffin cups and other little containers to make everything pretty and interesting and exciting for kids or adults.  Now, I do not like fads of any sort, it's completely unrealistic for me to make this kind of a thing for every member of my family on regular basis, plus there is no way in this family of big eaters with high metabolisms, that anyone no matter of what age or of seemingly diminutive frame would ever be satisfied with 3 carrot sticks or a muffin sized portion of anything despite its' aesthetic value.  But I can certainly tell  a good project idea when I see one and the kids would definitely enjoy making or receiving something like this for a special occasion, like a birthday or Rosh Chodesh.  It also might be a good way to introduce some extra healthy foods to the reluctant, skeptical and conservative.  So in the end of the day, I am happy I made an acquaintance of the Bento and now I can also enjoy thinking up ways to make it frugal :)