Bad Mama Bento

I’m a Bad Mama.  The stuff in the top tier are some sort of pseudo-food pizza pocket thingies you make in the toaster oven.

However, since my son just completed the best school year of his life, topping it off with the best report card he’s ever gotten, I think he can have a pizza pocket lunch for his last day at school, don’t you?

Many of us in the bento maker community do get a bit self-congratulatory about our healthy lunches.  To be honest, a desire to eat healthily is a driving factor for many people who make bento in the US.  It doesn’t have to be.  You can put M&Ms in a bento (and I just realized I’m going to have to repack this lunch, as I’d promised my son a Lindt truffle in his lunch for tomorrow), you can put in fried processed food.  You can put anything into a bento.

But that’s the real beauty of bento making — its flexibility.  Sure, sure, for the most part people who make ’em try to give some attention to making sure that there are lots of colors in the veggies (ensuring a good nutritional variety), and generally don’t use a lot of pre-packaged stuff.  But you really could cut up a twinkie, and arrange it sushi-like in one of the tiers if your heart so desired.

In fact, I would totally make these Twinkie sushi as a snack bento if it were something Really Special, like a long trip, or… say trying to convert my little nephews to the joy of bento so they’ll whine for them and drive my brother crazy.

Though with my luck, and knowing  my seafood-loving little bro, they’re already into the real thing.