The 12 Days of Christmas in Bento

 

If I have done anything useful with this blog, I hope I have done a good job of showing you that it is even more fun to play around with healthy food than it is to  decorate cakes and cookies. We don't have to celebrate special events with just sugary stuff - why not dress up your fruits, veggies, sandwiches, and salads for the holidays?

Back in 2012, I had lots of fun making the 12 Days of Christmas in bento for my family. My photography and food skills were quite a bit different a couple of years ago - but sometimes it's fun to look back and see the contrast between what I did then and how I do things now. Plus I thought it might be helpful to gather the lunches all together in one post ( in case you want to make something similar?) It really was fun - I am positive that YOU can do an even better job of it than I did! I used one of my favorite brands of bento boxes - EasyLunchboxes 3-Compartment Bento Lunch Box Containers. You can learn more about them at easylunchboxes.com.

This could be a long post, so let's get right into it:

1. A Partridge in a Pear Tree:  This lunch ( which I made for my true love) contains ground beef, wild rice, broccoli ( the tree), bell pepper ( the pears) and cheese. On the side are fruits and nuts.

 

2. 2 Turtle Doves:  This is an example of a really last minute lunch - It's just a simple sandwich, fruit, and chips. I made it fit the theme by cutting birds out of cheese and adding a holly pick. SO easy, and my son still thought it was awesome.

 

3. Three French Hens: I think I had the most fun with this one ( well, this and the leaping lord). I made my hens out of gluten free chicken nuggets, with facial features of cheese, nori, and red pepper. I had to give them berets ( made from purple potato), so there would be no question that they were very French Hens!

 

 

4. Four Calling Birds:  Another simple sandwich lunch! To make the calling birds, I actually used a tulip mini cookie cutter for the body, and a small leaf shaped bento cutter for the wing. A nori punch dot for the eye, and a few music note picks to suggest singing birds and that was it!

 

5.  Five Gold Rings: Okay, this was another favorite of mine. This lunch was made from leftover stir-fried chicken over rice, and the 5 gold rings are mini bell pepper rings. I was pretty happy about how this one turned out, and it was yummy, too!

 

6. Six Geese A Laying:  Click on the link to see how I rounded up some leftovers to make a goose on a nest for lunch!

 

7. Seven Swans A Swimming: You know, a lot of my bento are made using leftovers from the previous night's dinner. This one included! It's easy to make leftovers fun again with a few bento cutters 🙂

 

8. Eight Maids A Milking: One maid and one cow made of cheese, ham, potato, and nori top the sandwich in this lunch. One the side I represent a bucket of milk with a mini bucket of yogurt  🙂

 

9. Nine Ladies Dancing: This time the leftovers were from take out pizza - even that can be dressed up for Christmas!

 

10. Ten Lords A Leaping: Here's another of my favorites - he was really fun to make ( although time consuming!). Click on the link to see what my son had to say about his pants 🙂

 

11. Eleven Pipers Piping: Okay, I must admit that I was phoning it in just a little bit on this day, but I still made it fit the theme! I used the piper cookie cutter I had and just pressed it into the top of the sandwich bread ( before I assembled it). I have some fancy snowflake cookie cutters (that I have never used for cookies yet) to decorate the side dish with a cheese snowflake to make it look a little more festive!

 

12.  Twelve Drummers Drumming: Once again,  cheese, peppers, and nori came to my rescue to make this cool little drummer. My favorite part? Using 2 little smiley shapes from a nori punch to make his mustache!

 

There you have it - all 12 Days of Christmas in bento!

You may be wondering - why does this crazy lady go to all this trouble for a bunch of lunches that are just going to get eaten anyway? Okay, it's a fair question.

Let me tell you what has been going on behind the scenes as I have been sitting here editing all these photos and writing this post. My kids have been passing by, looking at what I've been doing, and saying things like - "Ooooh, I remember that bento! that was so cool!"  I have been hearing a chuckle or two over my shoulder as I write. It has sparked some memories of the Ghosts of Lunches Past, where my family have started talking about the reaction they got from other people when they opened their lunches, and other food memories.

And I have noticed something. The past 4 years that I have been making bento for my family have not been for nothing. They all have some nostalgic memories of crazy and fun food that I have made for them - these lunches are woven into the fabric of our family story as much as any of the other traditions we share. It really is all worth it.