A new year, A new State, and still going 'bento'

Hi y'all!

Well, we've moved south of the mason/dixon line now, and E-boo is in second grade now. Since we were in a whirlwind last year, we didn't start off with the bento idea, and by the time I unpacked all my gear, E-boo decided she really did like school lunch.

My wallet felt the punch from that decision all year. The problem is that the school lunch doesn't appeal to her, so she chooses 'extras' like cheese sticks, yogurt and other good foods to add to her tray. They add up big time.

This year I've renewed my committment to serving her a healthy, filling and fun lunch, and compromised by letting her have Fridays as her choice for a home lunch or pizza at school. We made it through the first 8 days just fine and I'm eager to get into the full swing of making these great, fun, colorful lunches for her and little K-bug to enjoy.

My other inspiration is that K-bug will be going off to preschool (they call it K-4 here) in just another week or so, and I will be sending lunch for her on her late stay days (Tues/Wed/Thurs) so I might as well get used to making things up in quantity!

Guess I'm going to have to start using other containers for my home made icecream!

Bento On!

Although I've been really bad about posting (In spite of the ease of moblogging) I have continued to make bento-style lunches for E every day. She's really been enjoying picking out her own lunch components.

I've been finding fun new things at Trader Joe's too - last week was mini pitas. She's loving having these tiny sandwiches in her lunchbox, and I feel good knowing they are healthier than plain old white bread.

A couple of recent bentos:


This one contained what we've nicknamed "the lunch monster" which was really rolls of turkey and ham and cheese with baby carrots in the middle and a celery mouth. It was accompanied by more baby carrots, mini celery sticks, rice cracker mix (thank you again Trader Joe's!) and red seedless grapes. For snack she had fish crackers and cheese along with a juice box and had milk in the Rubbermaid milk box.

This one was literally thrown together last minute from whatever I could scrounge up in the fridge - leftover ham strips, cheddar cheese, a handful of salad mix and some baby carrots. She said she used the dip in the middle for all of them and it all came home empty.

This one was something E specifically requested (it was an exact duplicate of another day that week). Turkey and cheese rollups, baby carrots, grapes and colorful goldfish. She just adores these lunches! I'm still hoping to find a way to make her a hot lunch, because I could do SO much more - but for now (almost 3 months!) this works wonderfully for her and me!

I hope to get back on the bandwagon with the updates - we've had alot of repeats so I didn't think they were all picture-worthy.

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.