I love this book, I’ve had it on my shelf for about five years now, and it regularly comes out for ideas and inspiration.
Bento Power by Sara Kiyo Popowa
I was asked to run a few classes for home-schooled children recently, and wanted to bring healthy delicious food for them to enjoy, and be a little creative with. The final session this term was Bento Boxes.
I have my own little wooden bento, which is fabulous for packing light meals in whether traveling from home, or when on holidays.
While I am familiar with the various components of the Bento, everything seems to go in fives, this time I was after ideas for sprinkles. I prepared the recipes for the session, but kept turning the page to Sara’s “Little Pots of Tricks”.
So another of my weaknesses is glass jars – yes, I know, she’s just a bit weird. I am continuously collecting jars, to be used by those attending my classes, but also for me to fill and use here, or fill and share with my family and friends. The trouble is I fall in love with some that I really don’t want to give away, they are generally pretty shaped little jars, and often I just have one or two of each. I just keet putting them into the box of favourites, knowing that one day I will find a use for them. Gary is fabulous, and diligently removes the labels from all the jars I gather, he cleans and dries them thoroughly, before I sort and stash them. You will often hear Gary say, with a smirk on his face, that there is an empty recycling bin that would be the perfect place for all of my glass jars.
Nice clean jars ready for me to lid, sort and stash.
So with the thought of having snacks on hand ready to grab as I walked (rushed) out the door, and my little (hmmm….) stash of favourite jars, this morning I started filling some. I just started with a few, looking into my pantry to see what I had on hand. Today I’ve used:
🥄nuts
🥄seeds
🥄dried cranberries
🥄choc chips
🥄sultanas
🥄a little homemade glacé orange, cut into little wedges
🥄shredded nori
🥄homemade granola
But for the future, I’m thinking of dehydrating fruit and veg chips, and toasting some coconut chips and edible flowers to include. Maybe even adding some pieces of homemade sourdough discard crackers…
I immediately sent pics to my beautiful sisters, as we are always sharing ideas, both food and gardening, and I think they are about to go in search of a few of their favourite little jars and follow suit.
If you are looking for a beautiful book to add to your collection, or share with a loved one, then I can totally recommend “Bento Power” by Sara Kiyo Popowa, published in Great Britain in 2018 by Kyle Books (ISBN: 978 0 85783 499 7). If you like to try before you buy, pop into your local library and see if it’s on the shelf, if it isn’t a sister library may have it, so ask the frinedly librarian to check, and they will be able to get it in for you.
Until next time…
Happy packing and snacking, and
Bon appétit!
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