A Family Picnic Bento

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting in the last 4 days or so.  DH didn't have training on Friday, yesterday was Labor Day, and today is the first day of school.  So, as you can imagine, we spent the weekend as a family, just hanging out.  There were no bentos needed - well, except for last night.

We decided to have a picnic in a local park last night, hang out, and play games.  It was a nice way to end our weekend and begin the school year.  We had planned to pick fresh veggies and fruit at a local farm as well but it was closed for the holiday.  It's too bad because in order to go again with DH and DD, they'd have to take time off from school and that's not going to happen.

So, last night's bento was a dinner bento.  I used some neat containers I picked up at Albertsons years ago.  I thought they were for veggies and dip until I saw another site where someone used them as bento.  It's a great idea because the little cups allow you to serve each person.  The meal contains things you've seen before - not that exciting.  But, this bento was a family project.  Everyone helped to make it.

We packed a lot of food here because DH enjoys a solid dinner and everyone had been running around all day.  We finished it all too.  :)  There are mozzarella caprese skewers with balsamic vinaigrette, veggies and dip (DH's responsibility - he didn't think they were very pretty) and pasta with roast chicken.  DD made the caprese skewers, I did the chicken and pasta. 

And I didn't mention dessert.  Give the size of the meal, we packed a very small sweet.  It's just enough for a taste really.  But, it's yummy nonetheless.  In the middle of the bento, there's chocolate cake cut into little cubes and topped with frozen strawberries.  DD had made the chocolate cake the day before.

What did it look like when we got to the park?  Packing for density does have an advantage - nothing moves around much and the meal looked just as good as it did in my kitchen.
Dinner was packed into a shopping bag along with three small bottles of soda, a table cloth, silverware, napkins, and two games.  The only major change in the bento is that when the strawberries defrosted, the juice melted into the chocolate cake.  I think you'll agree that this was a yummy change.

How did I serve the food given that there were 3 people on the picnic and there are only two containers of chicken and pasta?  Well . . .  I had already placed a little pasta underneath the chicken.  I pulled out a portion of chicken, added some more of the pasta and then topped the original pasta container with chicken.  So, DH got a whole container of chicken and almost a whole container of pasta while DD and I shared the other.  DD stole a little more pasta from DH toward the end of the meal.

Here's the family at the park.