School lunch was, for me, always the low point of the day. In my memory, the cafeteria is always hot and crowded, steaming with that distinctive odor of youthful bodies, hot dogs, and disinfectant. The noise knocks you backward.

By junior high, I abandoned lunch in favor of the library, and an extra large snack when I got home. A recent study shows that school-aged kids consume close to 40% of their daily calories in after-school snacks, and I’m not at all surprised.

I’m sure school lunches are better now — most things at school are— but when kindergarten loomed, and my maternal anxieties spiked, packing a lunch became a way of being with my daughter in the middle of her day. Add to that a formative couple of years in a Japanese neighborhood in Hawaii, an obsessive-compulsive streak, and there’s only one outcome possible: o-bento.

The theory of the Japanese packed lunch is simple: small amounts of lovingly-prepared, beautifully-arranged food in specially-designed boxes. A bento should have five items in five colors: red/orange/pink, white, purple/black/brown, yellow, and green. The foods should be cooked in different ways—boiled, steamed, sautéed, grilled, and pickled. Rice should make up half the total lunch, and the remaining ingredients should include a protein, fruit, and pickles. It should always showcase seasonal ingredients—and food should be garnished in ways that allude artfully to the season.

The practice of bento — at least in my kitchen — is not so elegant. Between my own culinary limitations and my kids’ preferences, I’m lucky to get four colors and any garnish at all. I don’t spend the 45 minutes each morning the average Japanese mom spends packing lunches, either. But I do find myself planning supper with an eye to lunch materials, and whenever I’m in Seattle or Portland, I make a side trip to Uwajimaya to scope out the bento accessories: little plastic soy sauce bottles shaped like pigs and teddy bears, brightly-colored wax paper cases, rice ball molds. Someday I’ll take out a second mortgage and buy the insulated Mr. Bento, with its separate thermal dishes for hot and cold food, stacked in a trendy zippered bag, or the Laptop Lunchbox system.

In the meantime, I use a motley collection of watertight containers, and pack them in cloth bags I’ve made myself. And I’ve made some interesting discoveries along the way. My son will eat all of a stegosaurus-shaped sandwich, but not even half of a regular one. Frozen whole grapes will thaw slowly over the morning, but stay cool enough to be appetizing. Spearing pineapple chunks on a bamboo hors d’oeuvre pick makes them taste better. A foil cup full of edamame is both a protein and a vegetable—and they look like little jewels, the tenderest jade green. It is possible to carve a radish into a little redcap mushroom with white spots. Almost any wrap can be cut into sushi-sized rolls and tucked neatly into a bento. Although origami animals are a valued lunch accessory in first grade, second graders scorn them. The tinier the food, the better: baby carrots, mini gherkins, champagne grapes, mandarin orange sections, BabyBel cheese. A refreezable icepack is NOT optional, but required. And finally, homemade Oreos are the perfect dessert, and there will be some left over for after school with a glass of milk.

Homemade Oreo-Style Sandwich Cookies (adapted from Retro Desserts, by way of www.smittenkitchen.com)

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

The Chocolate Cookies:
11/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a Silpat-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

The Filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy. To assemble the cookies, plop a teaspoon or so of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Melynda Huskey blogs on food, craft, and Moscow at The Things That Make Us Happy Make Us Wise (www.melyndahuskey.wordpress.com).

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