not just for kids..

as an adult i find bento boxes are great for portion control, and making everything pretty encourages me to slow down a bit and enjoy each bite.  A bento is just a Japanese style lunch box, so don't get intimidated, while the really fancy ones are true works of art (just see the book "Face Food" if you don't believe me) they can be fast, basic, and easy...and loads of fun.  

If you want to get an idea of whats available in the boxes themselves, just type "Bento Box" into your favorite sales /auction site, or search engine.  I have bento boxes that are cute (Hello Kitty and one shaped like a hamburger) and boxes that are elegant enough to be displayed as artwork, its all out there.

Nice article, but how do you actually prepare the foods that are supposed to go into the bento boxes? For that, I highly recommend "The Manga Cookbook" at http://www.mangacookbook.com

It's got an entire section called "Buld A Bento." Yummy!

@kim

Nothing extravagant about bento lunches and definitely not just for kids. I have been packing bento lunches for about 3 months now. It's a great way to control your diet and watch portion control. It's all in the prep work. Spending and hour on Sunday evening prepping food for the week, means I spend less than 15 minutes a days preparing a nutritious meal (and snack).

Thanks for the shout out about my speed bento blog, Tina! I posted about the Newsweek article, details of the lunch pictures,  and the pro/con arguments for deciding if bento lunches are an emerging trend in the U.S. here at Lunch in a Box: http://lunchinabox.net/2008/06/11/newsweek-are-bento-lunches-a-trend/

This is funny. Recently I found a parenting blog which satirically touches upon extravagant parenting. Worth a look.

http://bestparentever.com