Bento-ish Creations

I am perpetually stumped when it comes to what to put in my kiddos lunchboxes.  Who am I kidding?  Meal planning in general is not my strong suit, but I am working on it.  :)  I've been stalking several websites like this one and this one in recent months...looking for new ideas.  These special lunch boxes can be quite pricey, and even though I liked the idea of it....didn't want to commit to investing in two of these puppies until I gave it a trial run.  I'm making a really short story long here, but the short of it is that I bought some of these nifty divided Z*plock boxes at Tar*et and they're working out great.  They've got a little more space than an actual bento box, but I'm finally able to spice things up, and the kids love their lunches!  This method is also great because it forces me to be more thoughtful about my prep and so I make them in the evening, which makes for one less thing to do before we walk out the door at 7:25am.

So without further ado, here some of my efforts at a basic bento-style lunch. It's a start, but I'm always looking for new ideas of foods to try out... if you have any ideas, please share. :)

turkey, carrots, cheese cutouts, triscuits, raisins, animal crackers, applesauce

sometimes I roll the napkin with a bit of pipecleaner for pizazz ;)

turkey, cheese cutout (thanks aunt carrie for the cool cookie cutter!), goldfish, yogurt raisins, leftover hushpuppies from dinner the night before, cantaloupe

my note to graham, we had a little incident with a bully the first week of school...these are hard truths, even for us adults.

pb&j, gummies (sometimes I sneak in a "treat" on Fridays), pretzel sticks and  frozen blueberries-I use the foil-lined muffin papers to hold in the moisture

strawberries, yogurt for dipping in the little tub, banana (washed before cutting to avoid contaminants), choc. chip fiber bar cut in half, pretzel sticks



some days, if I'm feeling a little more creative, I go with a theme :)