She Liked it!

Thank GOD she ate her lunch - all but a couple carrots!

I also for some insane reason decided this morning that we had entirely too much fruit in the fridge and I decided to make up a fruit and veggie platter for E's class.

I used my Dots Large bowl, and put my Small Square (Thank you Pampered Chef!) in the middle. On the outer ring I put sliced apple (dipped in OJ to prevent browning) in red and green, and green grapes. I made small slices of the half orange I had left and ringed the bowl with those. In the middle I used baby carrots and put some mini celery sticks sticking up like candles in the middle. E literally said, "Wow mommy - that is the neatest snack I get to share with my class!" and was very thrilled with the whole ordeal.

The bowls came back empty so I guess it was a hit. I'd hate to think they're tossing this stuff out!

Tomorrow's bento is still in the works. I've got baths to do (I HATE bath nights alone) and other cleanup I need to catch up on too!

I Couldn't Resist

I was so excited about the way the "orange and yellow day" bento lunch/snack came out, that I had to take pictures! My camera was NOT cooperating (The hubby has my little camera in Paris right now) so the color is way off on these. The snack below:

We did a juice box, orange Goldfish crackers and cut up melon.

The lunch below:

Cut up colby/cheddar cheese stick, carrots, cut up orange segments,
and macaroni and cheese with some grilled chicken.
I think she's going to eat every bite!

(At least I hope so!)

I haven't had a chance (or at least had a chance to concentrate) to write anything up for the school to use. I really should try to do that now! Here I go...

A Rainbow of Lunches

This week the school is asking parents to send foods in their child's lunch with certain colors - in an effort to encourage a diversity of fruit and vegetable items that kids eat.

Monday - ok, I spaced. I didn't make time to hit the grocery store like I planned, and had ZERO items with Monday's color, Purple.

Tuesday was a little better - White. I sent E into school with cheese and crackers for a snack, and, cheese, mushrooms, and grilled chicken, and a piece of seafood (I'm guessing crab?). She didn't do so hot and ate just a bit of everything, but at least she ate all the grilled chicken and even mentioned she wanted that again.

Today was Red day - since we had gone to the salad bar at the grocery store I had quite a variety of items. Since I was half asleep this morning I started preparing the Green lunch, but then I was reminded it wasn't green day, it was in fact Red. So I started re-making lunch. Her snack was a juice box, strawberries and watermelon chunks. Her lunch was turkey rolled up, a babybel cheese (it comes in a red wrapper!) sliced red apple, and red (pink) goldfish crackers.

If I don't get a chance to post later - this is the plan for the rest of the week:

Thursday (Yellow/Orange) - snack: melon chunks, goldfish (orange colored!) and lemonade (juice box from rader Joes!). Lunch: Mac & Cheese, carrots and ranch, and a peeled orange. I also may send in some Yellow apple slices to share with her class.

Friday (Green) - Snack: Green apple slices, celery sticklets, and juice (green juice box). Lunch: Cucumbers, broccoli, goldfish (green!), and some sort of meat...just not sure what :).


I have to admit - while this has been alot of fun - its been a pain to have to shop so specifically for these different items!! I'm glad I had a thought to go to the salad bar, because at least I could just buy a small amount of all of these different colorful foods. I'm probably going to do that once a week now just so she can get a better variety of fresh fruit and veggies, and most of the prepwork will be done for me, and it will really be a matter of proportioning the foods out over the week.

Bento on!

Bentos are Making an Impression!

So the lunches have been fairly simple the past week, but they seem to have been attracting some attention from E's teachers!

I talked to her teacher just for a general idea of how she's doing adjusting to the new Kindergarten environment, and the teacher made a comment about how she thought E's lunches and snacks were not only cute and interesting, but very healthy.

Today I brought in some grapes to share with the class, and another teacher said that she's seen the lunches too and thought that it was great that I put so much effort into my child's lunch every day.

So I feel pretty great right now :) It is still kind of a pain to make them every day, but I guess the warm fuzzy that I get not only knowing that I know EXACTLY what she's eating every day, but according to her teachers, the lunches are very healthy and I've even been encouraged to do some sort of workshop or note for parents to also give them ideas about how to do the same thing for their kids.

It also makes the pessimist in me think, "Is the world really so bad now that my paying attention to my child's lunch is a big deal?" It is a conscious effort on my part, but I would have guessed that if nothing else, E would be asking to have school lunches already like her friends. Instead, I'm hearing that her friends want lunches like her.

All I really care about - E eats her lunch every day. I don't pick her up at 2 and immediately hear, "Mommy I'm hungry!" I usually hear, "Mommy I ate all my lunch and I liked it!" and she doesn't ask for her snack until 3 when she knows it's snack time.

Anyhow, now I'm thinking about what I'd write to inspire other moms to also make lunches for their kids with more healthy food.

Bentos 6, 7, and 8 - playing catchup!

Bento 6's snack was a yogurt, animal shaped cheese cutouts, and some mushrooms and cheese came back, because I was informed, "I can't eat the shapes because the animals might be sad."
Ok - so no more animal shaped food!

Bento 7 did NOT include animal shaped items and both the snack and lunch box came back empty :D

Bento 8 went to school today - very similar to the previous day's, except I did a turkey dog, cut fancy, and cooked, then I put the "Pac-Man" shaped slices in a silicon cup surrounded by servings of pickle, cheese, and carrot shreds. I put a couple pieces of pita cut up in there too in case she had the urge to make mini turkey dog sandwiches. Her snack was a cheese stick, cut into cubes, celery slices (she doesnt like the sticks now because they're "Too thready") and a yogurt.
I was also informed that she "needs a fruit snack" so she got one yesterday and today. It's an apple-strawberry organic fruit leather-type thing.

I'm thinking that my bento philosophy has sort of derailed from the true point of bento in a few ways. First of all, I am still using some prepackaged items, which is causing just as much trash as if I had just sent said item to school with her, without the kid-friendly prep work done.
In order to improve this situation, I'm going to try to come up with some more leftover friendly recipes so that I can send her with some different hot lunch options in the coming weeks.

I also had the foresight to make my younger lunch-muncher a mini bento of her own. She was delighted by the turkey and cheese on a pita cut into wedge shaped sandwiches, with a silicon cup of carrot shreds and milk on the side. She tore into it and pretty much cleaned out the little container. I definitely need to do this more! Not only did it take me 30 seconds to get her lunch ready today, but she seemed delighted with the shapes and textures.

Lunch tomorrow for school will most likely be soup and crackers. Not sure how creative I can get with that.

If there are any mom's sending a hot lunch to school bento-style, please share how you are packaging it! I cant figure out what else to get besides the 'hot food thermos' and she doesn't really have an opportunity to heat up her food.

Bento 6

Today's bento didn't go over as well as I had hoped! Elizabeth didn't like the tortilla wrap, and therefore didn't eat her sandwich or much of the extras with it.

I think I've got her pegged now - Tomorrow's snack will be another yogurt drink (those go over so well!), and carrots and mushrooms with ranch dip. The lunch will be a turkey and cheese on a pita with some veggies sticks and a half a pickle. I think it might finally be the right combination!

No picture, I can't find my camera!!

Bento 5 and recap of last week...

Bento 5 consists of an apple cereal bar and banana chips and yogurt for the snack (can almost guarantee she won't eat the banana chips, but I'm going to keep trying!) and for the lunch I made turkey and cheese rollups, sliced mushrooms, dill pickles, shredded carrot and a babybel cheese. She'll buy milk at school.
I goofed last week and never got around to posting the 3rd and 4th bentos. Honestly, I can't remember the third days, and the fourth wasnt very exciting or bento-ish. She got soup on Friday, which she went nuts over, but said it was hard to eat (the container is a bit too deep, but the only thermal thing I could find in the right price range).

We also had an incident on Tuesday which scared me and made me mad. The cherry tomatoes (grape actually) caused a problem, and not that she just didn't eat them.

Apparently, she ate some of the other stuff in the lunch, then tried a tomato - she's eaten these before, mind you. She decided she didn't like the tomato, so instead of spitting it out or chewing and swallowing, she kept the tomato, intact, in her mouth for the next 2 hours.

When I picked her up at 2:15, she was rather quiet, even for her. She wouldn't talk to me and I thought maybe she didn't have a good day at school. As I got to the car, I looked at her and asked her if something was wrong. She shook her head yes, and then opened her mouth. Out popped the tomato!!! I was HORRIFIED!!! Not only was that a huge choking risk, but that means my daughter went an entire afternoon without speaking TO ANYONE or being spoken to. I noticed something was wrong within a minute or so of seeing her, no one noticed in two hours???

Anyhow, thats not entirely lunch related, but I'm looking into alternates for school now. I just really cannot mentally handle worrying about things like that. She's the quiet and reserved kind, and now it seems like she's completely being left behind because she just blends in.

Now I'm caught up. Hope she likes this lunch (I have a good feeling about it!).

Bento Recap - and Day 2's lunch...

Wow! I was entirely impressed that she ate every scrap of her lunch! It looked like she tried the banana chips in her snack, but didn't finish them. Poor thing said that she wanted her bleu cheese but she was afraid to ask the teacher for help opening it, and thus didnt open it. But a few banana chips and a cup of dressing? I'll take it!

She asked me specifically if I could make her a really special lunch again tomorrow...I might be on to something here. I plan to blow her mind on Friday by sending her with her favorite soup. While her classmates are eating congealed cheese pizza, she'll be having her favorite - Italian Wedding Soup - with some crackers, maybe some celery sticks too.

I definitely need the LV lunch bag to come in YESTERDAY. I broke down and ordered it last night, There's just NOT enough room in there for a decent lunch and a decent snack.

I didn't hear any teacher feedback, but we'll see. I totally want to be that mom that the teacher thinks, "Wow, this mom actually CARES what her kid eats!". They probably don't think that, do they...ah well :)

So, the menu for tomorrow:




For the actual lunch, we have: Apple shaped pepperoni and cheese pieces, salad mix, carrots,
a couple of pumpkin turkey cutouts (She got to pick the shapes and was thrilled), 3 grape tomatoes and a little container of ranch to go with her organic baby carrots. On the side we have applesauce (I swapped the snack and lunch sides) and Lemonade from Trader Joes.



Its hard to see, but mostly for decoration I made a couple of turkey bologna and carrot rollups (in place right above the ranch dip. I thought she'd think it was funny, we'll see!

And for a snack we have a danimals and choco chip cookies (swapped the applesauce out).

I actually had hoped it would be fancier, but I think she'll love it again (or thats my hope!).

Lunch - First day of Kindergarten!

I've been reading a bunch about these fantastic "work of art - museum-quality" lunches on a bulletin board for months now. They are called "Bento" or "Obento" and are a Japanese lunch style which combines reusable materials, healthy foods in proper proportion, and just plain awesome looking lunches!

Today was my first bento lunch experiment. I had been scouting for weeks to find the right containers, get meal ideas, etc...and decided to try to 'pink bag it' for at least a week.

Side note - The Man of the house says that now that I've invested in the containers, I need to do it for at least a month before I decide to stop. I agreed but only on the condition that I could purchase MORE containers, especially ones that nest better, mostly so I could make up more than one lunch at a time (these things are works of art -or they should be - and art takes time!).


Without further ado -




Bento Snack - Cut up whole grain cereal bar, banana chips and a juice box.
The size of the box (namely height) allows the silicone baking cups to fit against the lid of the box and therefore partially or completely seal the contents of the cup, so things stay crunchy.

The containers are by Lock and Lock, and I seriously need more of them! Again, my one wish is that they nested.





Bento Lunch - Teddy bear turkey bologna shapes, leaf pita shapes, a mini salad with bleu cheese dressing, and teddy bear fat free animal crackers. I'll have her buy milk at lunch (one less thing to transport).

This one is also in a Lock and Lock, but a slightly taller one that has 4 removeable containers inside. I'll have to experiment some more to see what I can actually do with them.










And to complete the ensemble, we have an Arctic Zone lunch bag which mostly fits it all!

I'm looking at a bag from Lillian Vernon, which aside from being cute AND personalized, also looks like a better fit for the containers, ice packs, etc...and has a separate area for the non-cold items.

Time to finish getting the girls ready, then we're off!