A Week Or So Of Bento(ish) Lunches.

Even though I don't pack my daughter's lunch for school yet, I found lunch goes much more smoothly if I make hers in the morning while the kids are eating breakfast and I'm getting The Man a lunch together anyway.  It solves the 'We're just back from an outing and she's starving and I'm scrambling to get my shit together' problem.  We walk in and I set her up [with her videos] at the kitchen table and grab the lunch out of the fridge.

In this dollar store dish (that came with a lid,) in the big section is a silicone cup of cucumber slices, some grape tomatoes with three picks and a silicone cup of meatballs (left over from dinner) with another pick.  The smaller section holds a fruit salad of raspberries, cantaloupe and blueberries.

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My food photos are wonky and not all that appealing, I'm afraid. I have to research how to do it better.  I was a photo major in undergrad (TFS!) and when we were assigned a 'Food Photography' lesson, I failed miserably.  At the critique, my teacher said my food looked like it was going to slide off the table.  Not much has changed, I guess.

In this container: silicone cup of apple slices (dipped in OJ to stop them from browning), carrot 'coins', raspberries, a babybel cheese with a cut-out shape and a few TLC crackers.  In the smaller side: some grape tomatoes on a pick and a silicone cup of pickles.

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This was the first bento that ever made it out of my house!  It's a snack bento box that I ordered online.  It has a cute locking lid.  In it is a silicone cup of yogurt raisins, some organic turkey rolled up on two animal mini-forks, some carrot coins and some blueberries.

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Are you noticing that my kid LOVES HER SOME GRAPE TOMATOES? lmfao. Also, that I have but TWO silicone cups?  (I bought very limited supplies, not wanting to invest a lot of money until I decided if I liked this way of serving food.)  Big part has grape tomatoes on a dolphin pick (my kid also loves her some picks!) A cucumber with the seeds HACKED OUT with what is supposed to look like a star, a silicone cup of Giant White Bean Salady thing from Wegman's olive bar.  There are some stars cut from organic American cheese. 

The small part has some olives (with American cheese star) and a piece of barran to separate out the OVER-GARLICKED pasta salad.

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My girl is not partial to sandwiches, but I wanted to give it a try.  In the big part: strawberry slices, cucumber slices and a PB & J that I cut with a butterfly cookie cutter (cheapie from the dollar store.) I put a piece of fruit leather that I cut with a smaller cookie cutter.  (My daughter found it too hard and didn't love it, so I'm replacing it with some softer, only fruit in it fruit snack.) 

In the small part: the rest of the bean salad, some ever-present grape tomatoes (can't wait for our gardens' to be ripe) and a small cup of yogurt raisins.

All these are going to start to look the same, I think.  Anyway, there's a silicone cup with organic applesauce, with a little cinnamon sugar on top and some cheddar-jack cheese that I cut into teeny-tiny sticks (for whatever reason, this appeals to my kid,) some organic turkey that wouldn't roll, chunked up and held by animal mini-forks and some raspberries. 

The small section holds The Effing Grape Tomatoes, cucumber slices and olives.

Comments

[Erica]

Please would you pack my family's lunches? These are AWESOME.

Also, I'm now ashamed of my non-awesome lunches. My kid's getting the shaft, yo.

[ClumberKim]

If my kids ate in a month the amount of fruit and veg you have in one bento lunch, I could die happy.

Seriously, you can make lunch for me ANYTIME.

[Tessie]

OMG. LOVE. So, are the picks disposable, or do you reuse them?

[beth from sj]

Wow! I'm impressed - my kids are 10, 9, & 7 and by the end of school I was stuck on lunch ideas LOVE the silicone cupcake holder thing - perfect idea. Does your daughter like peanut butter - one thing I do pack are celery slices w/ peanut butter, always a fave in my house.

[beth from sj]

One more thing - does she eat the meatballs cold?

[The New Girl]

Tess: The picks are reusable. I got them from Japan. FANCY, right? They are super cute and I love them.

Beth: I put the empty cup in the lunch and put the meatballs in warm.

[Christine]

I lurve these! I also love the idea of making them ahead of time. I am so ordering those pics.

Thanks for posting these pictures, most of the other lunches I see online make me feel like poking my eye out b/c I am such an inadequate mother. These are so inspirational and doable. Thanks!

[Amelia Sprout]

I adore that your kid eats olives, grape tomatoes, and cucumbers. I totally thought my kid was the only one.

I like all of the ideas. Next year we will be packing snacks for district preschool, year after that, kindergarden. I am totally stealing these ideas.

[Elle]

These are awesome! I love the idea of bento boxes. Gots to get some. I've been trying to find that site you mentioned in a post awhile back(the lunch box?).