July 5th, 2008 @ 8:17 am
This was a short week because of the 4th, so I only have three preschooler bento boxes to show this week.
One of my big new discoveries for lunch packing is that Wyatt loves this alphabet pasta. We’ve made it twice for dinner now and each time our meal has been a delight. He loves to show us each letter before he eats it and talk about what words start with the letter. This is a lovely change from the usual arguments and threats about him staying in his seat. So anyway, Tuesday I packed some leftover alphabet pasta, leftover carrots from dinner, a Laughing Cow cheese wedge and the last of the farmer’s market strawberries from last week.
Zach went to the farmer’s market Tuesday, so we had an embarrassment of riches as far as the berries go on Wednesday morning. I decided to load up the box with fresh strawberries, raspberries and a few frozen blueberries. There’s a PB&J sandwich man in there as well.
We didn’t do a proper run to the grocery store this week, and by Thursday we were running really low on lunch supplies. I ended up sending leftovers from our Wednesday night dinner: Mexican meatballs, leftover white rice shaped into heart and star shapes with onigiri molds and more farmer’s market stawberries. The lunch was a spectacular failure. Only a few of the strawberry chunks were missing when I opened his lunch box to clean it that night.
bentos · food · photo · preschool
Aunt Diane
said,
July 5, 2008 at 1:30 pm
OMG-you can pack my lunch anytime! Did the little darlin’ eat his supper the night before? I would have. Maybe he just had a busy day at school and was too wired to eat.
Hugs
gourmet mom
said,
July 5, 2008 at 4:06 pm
What gorgeous lunches! I love your ideas! Thank you so much for sharing:)
Ms.________
said,
July 7, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Love those unique shape pasta.
Wendy
said,
July 7, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Aunt Diane — Yes! He did eat his supper the night before. That’s why I was surprised he didn’t eat them for lunch.
Helen
said,
July 8, 2008 at 1:31 pm
looking good. how many different bento boxes do you have now?
Wendy
said,
July 8, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Hi Helen — We have four bento boxes now. The original yellow and blue tiered boxes (I only use the larger tier now though because using both held too much food) and two new single tier boxes. I should take a picture of those fully assembled, now that I think about it….
Sarah
said,
July 9, 2008 at 11:05 am
I just came across your blog and am in heaven. This is just what I needed. Thanks for the inspiration! I am posting you on my blog tomorrow.
Apologies if I am missing the obvious post but do you have an actual bento lunchbox that you recommend? I need to get three for my little guys.
Thanks again. You are certainly a daily stop for me!
Wendy
said,
July 9, 2008 at 11:29 am
Hi Sarah — I have a post about the bento supplies I use here:
http://wendolonia.com/blog/2008/04/30/bento-supplies/
I got my son’s bento boxes at Ichiban Kan. They have just restocked their bento line and you can see the boxes I use here:
http://www.ichibankanusa.com/s.nl/sc.7/category.11258/.f
At a minimum, you should get a box and a belt to keep it closed. I only use the larger tier of those bentos for my son because both tiers hold too much food for him.
I also have purchased a few boxes like this one:
http://www.ichibankanusa.com/s.nl/it.A/id.2445/.f?sc=13&category=171 which hold almost exactly as much as a three year old can eat.
Have fun with the bentos! I can’t wait to see what you put together for your kids.