When you are making a bento box, how do you decide what to put in it? Is it what colors complete the picture you are making, or is it more of a nutrition selection? For me its those but its more what will get eaten and won’t end up mashed up before lunchtime.
My lunch eater loves fruit of all kinds - pineapple, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, bananas, apples, pears, etc. Almost any fruit that is sweet is on the favorite list. The problem is that many of those fruits don’t travel well. Bananas easily get squished, and berries end up in a paste as often as not. There are two fairly easy solutions to these problems - jelly, and containers.
If you have fruit that is very squish-able, such as grapes, you can always mix up an agar-agar jelly with the fruit, grapes in this case, inside the jelly. This will keep the fruit from rolling all over, and cushion it from any potential impact. Plus its way cooler to eat fruit that’s in jelly than just fruit by itself! It also lets you add another color to the bento to go for that rainbow of color, or possibly bring the fruit in line with your selected monotone theme.
The container is another possible solution. Fruit gets squished when it rolls around, or when its not packed in a hard container. If you get a good bento box, and use hard dividers as well as foil or paper cups to help keep foods separated and secure - your squish ratio will drop to nothing. I often use paper muffin cups because they are disposable and often fruit won’t leak through if its whole. If you need a waterproof solution, try either foil cups or silicon cups - both of which should be recycled.
Fruit and veggies are an important part of bento, and you should not leave out fruit just because it sometimes get squished. Do a little extra work and it will go the distance, just like the rest of the food!
