Bento, Please

You have probably heard of the latest craze: bento boxes! It gives parents a way to entice their kids to eat healthier foods by cutting them into fun shapes and arranging them into pictures. Some of them are so elaborate, they truly are works of art.

A popular way to get those fun shapes is to use cookie cutters, especially metal ones that are strong enough to cut through soft sandwiches, fruit pieces, etc. It takes more work to do the cutting, of course, but it can look really cute. Imagine your food table at your party with heart-shaped PBJs and star-shaped watermelon. Squee!

I have had pretty good luck with the larger cutters that are sandwich-sized, so I thought I would try the smaller mini ones, too. Here are the results:

First I started with two sandwiches, one with mini cutters and the other with a large cutter.

Second I planned my cutting to get the most shapes possible out of that one piece. It's a little like Tetris. Then I pressed down firmly and gave it a little wiggle to loosen the pieces of bread. Last you pull it away (you might have to punch out the interior piece).

And voila! The larger one looked great; they usually do. The little ones were... a bread-y mess. Maybe four were recognizable shapes, but others had rough edges or fell apart with the insides oozing out. It was peanut butter jelly putz. Boo.

You could still say it was a partial success because the large one worked, but the mini ones were a fail. I have used them before on watermelon slices - which hold their shape better than bread - and they were great with that. So large ones work for sandwiches, but the mini ones should be kept with the fruit.

Anyone else have any bento fails that you want to share? I'd love to hear about it!