When we think of lunches for school or even for work we tend to think of a sandwich or salad which are both great options but sometimes you want something a little more interesting.

Last year, when I was working with a general contracting company, I had to take my lunch and I got pretty tired of sandwiches pretty quickly. My friend Chaz French had been raving about his Mr. Bento lunch jar for quite some time so I decided to invest in one. It took me a while to locate one here in Canada but finally found one at a little Asian market in Toronto. It was $65 and worth every penny. It even comes with it’s own spork and carry case. (My son was particularly excited when he saw the spork lol).

The jar is insulated so it can keep your food hot or cold all day. It comes with 4 bowls, the larger 2 stay in the bottom of the jar with either hot or cold food and the 2 smaller bowls stay at the top of the jar with things that can be kept at room temperature.

My lunch options expanded considerably once Mr. Bento came into my life. In mornings I could fill the jar itself up with boiling water for a few minutes. While that was sitting I’d heat up rice and curry or beef stew and mashed potatoes or fried rice and shrimp stirfry from the night before to fill the 2 larger bowls. I’d fill the smaller bowls with some sliced up fruit or veggie sticks and some nuts mixed with Nestle Raisonettes. Empty out the jar and dry, add the bowls, close and off I went. Even 5 or 6 hours later the hot food in the bowls would still be steaming.

Being a frugal sort it took me a few days to talk myself into “splurging” $65 on the Mr. Bento jar but I’d have spent more than that eating out a few days over a month so it really paid for itself quickly. Those of you in the USA can order the same Mr. Bento jar for around $42 at Amazon.com . Unfortunately Amazon Canada doesn’t carry it.

Mr. Bento has caught the love and imaginations of others too it seems. A quick search on Flickr yields literally thousands of photos of lunches people have packed in their Mr. Bento jars. I don’t think you’d ever run out of ideas if you kept up with the Flickr pool.

Now that I’ve sung the praises of Mr. Bento I will say that I don’t think it’s suitable for young kids but it would be perfect for tweens, teens, college students and adults who take their lunch to work.

And now the contest info.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about non-traditional breakfast foods, Nestlé Foods is sponsoring a contest for one lucky FridgeForagers.com reader to win a $500 Walmart gift card for Back-to-School shopping.

You’ll have an opportunity to enter every day for 5 days (today is day 2) so check back here daily to enter to win! The winner will be selected randomly on Monday, August 24th at 11:59pm (eastern time) and will have 24 hours to respond.

CONTEST is open to residents of Canada and the USA only.

How to enter:

1. Subscribe to the Fridge Foragers email newsletter. You may have seen the sign up form when you visited today – if not you can also sign up by entering your name and email address in the Subscribe box at the top of the right side column on this page.

AND

2. Leave a comment. Tell us what one of your favourite lunches is for school or work.

Note: You must subscribe to the newsletter and leave a comment to qualify to win.

Additional/Optional ways to enter, leaving each one in a separate comment:

• Twitter the giveaway, including a link back here and my handle, @Merlene -1 entry
• Share on facebook or similar social networking site and leave a comment telling me. -1 entry
• Create a Whrrl story using photos of your recipe and I’ll give you an additional (include link to story)-25 entries!

FINE PRINT

This giveaway is sponsored by Nestle. Giveaway closes on August 24th at about 11pm EST.