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Caterpillar Bento Box

Caterpillar Bento Box

Prep Time 20 Minutes

Your hungry little caterpillar will love this butterfly themed bento box. Fruits and veggies are so much more exciting (and more readily eaten) when they are cut into fun shapes. Of course feel free to adapt the box to suit your child’s tastes, but remember that they may be willing to try new things when they are presented in such a fun way.

by Alison Needham

What you'll need

  • 1/4 cup cooked butterfly-shaped pasta (bowtie), tossed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt
  • 1 slice of lunch meat
  • 1 slice of yellow cheese
  • 1 slice of white cheese
  • Cantaloupe, sliced from the end of the melon
  • Apple, sliced through the midsection
  • Flower-shaped cookies
  • 10 slices of cucumber
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 radishes
  • 1 olive slice
  • Kale or lettuce, for garnish
  • Special equipment: 2 layer bento box or side-by-side compartmented lunch container, 4 silicone muffin cups, flower-shaped cookie cutter

How to make it

  1. Line a twp-section bento box with lettuce, if desired.  Roll the lunch meat into a cylinder and place in one section. Cut the yellow cheese slice in half, then cut each half into a wing shape using kitchen shears or a sharp knife. Cut the white cheese into small circles and use them as “dots” on the wings. Place the wings on either side of the lunch meat. Garnish with a sliver of cucumber skin that you’ve shaped or folded to look like an antenna. Place the cooked pasta in one of the silicone cups. Set that portion of the bento box aside.
  2. Nestle the remaining three silicone muffin cups in the kale in the empty layer of the bento box, two on the top corners and one in the bottom middle. Stagger the cucumber slices over each other in the remaining open space (over the kale or lettuce) so that it resembles a caterpillar. Use two small slices from the tip of one carrot for the eyes, and half a sliced olive (or a slice of celery) for the mouth. Use another sliver of cucumber to shape into an antenna.
  3. Press the flower-shaped cookie cutter into the melon and apple slices until you have enough flowers to fill one of the silicone cups. Using a knife, remove a notch down the length of the carrot and radishes. Repeat, spacing the notches evenly around the vegetables until they are notched all around. Cut the carrot and radishes into slices (they will look like flowers) and fill another of the silicone cups. Place the cookies in the remaining cup.

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