Happy Birthday Bento

For a special occasion like a birthday, it's fun to go above and beyond the usual sandwich or leftovers when packing a lunch. But what if the only thing you have IS sandwiches or leftovers?

Never fear, it's easy to add a fun Happy Birthday message to any ordinary food and make someone feel extra special on their birthday!

WHAT'S FOR LUNCH:

• potato salad topped with cheese letters, carved carrot flowers, and sugar snap peas
• chicken rolls filled with yellow and orange carrots, and asparagus
• diced strawberries and cantaloupe

Leftovers are my favorite thing to use for making fun bento lunches! I made this lunch for my husband's birthday using leftovers from a previous dinner. It was super easy to add some fruit, veggies, and a Happy Birthday message made from cheese. If you have some alphabet and number tools on hand, you can always add something special to an everyday lunch.

TOOLS I USE:

Here are the tools I use, and how I store them. I keep this container on top of my fridge so I can easily add some little details to our family's food when I'm packing lunches:

In the top row I keep this set of alphabet cutters  (you can go to the website by clicking on the image). This is a very versatile set that I use a lot. It's the one I used for the "Happy Birthday" in the lunch shown above. Each letter is about ¾ of an inch tall. I like this set because it comes with an "&" cutter (Did you know those are called ampersands? Fun fact). Sometimes I need to spell "and" and there is just not room, so that little cutter is great!

In the second row from the top I keep this set of alphabet picks (click on the image to visit the site). When I am in a big hurry to say something on the lunch I'm making, this is great to use. Just poke them into your food, and you're done! I added a little "I <3 U" to my husband's birthday lunch with these picks. I recommend buying more than one set of these, so you can spell more words - there is only one of each letter in this set:

Down on the bottom of the tray, right in the center, is another set that is really useful. It cuts out really tiny letters that are only just under ½ inch tall. This set comes in three wheel shapes, which is helpful so you don't have to worry about losing lots of teeny tiny individual cutters:

In the other compartments in my box are these alphabet and number tools, that you can find on Amazon. I have searched for the best prices on these, so if you feel inclined to buy any, I would appreciate it if you use my affiliate links ( the images above are also affiliate links).

I have one more set that I got recently, that I find really useful ( but I keep it in its own container). I love it because it's the only set I have that has very small numbers. It's the Sweet Creations set found in the link below, and it looks like this:

The purple cutters on the blue background are ones I don't actually own - yet. But I found them while searching Amazon for the best prices on the other cutters I featured, and they look so fun I had to add them in! The style of letters reminds me of Disneyland 😀

HOW TO USE THESE CUTTERS:

I found out through trial and error that you can't just use these little babies like cookie cutters, and you can't just use any old food with these tools. With plastic cutters soft food is best. Cheese, deli ham or turkey, cucumbers, zucchini or steamed carrots all work well for these tools. And there is a trick to getting the food out!

But this post has run a little on the long side - so I have decided to make a Part 2 tomorrow to show you the rest of the tips I've learned while working with these fun little tools ( including how to get the food out).