OK, so who thought I wouldn’t be posting a bento box update this week? Huh? Huh? Show of hands…

Yes, I did in fact make Wyatt a bento for preschool every day this week — this week that also happened to be the first week we were home from the hospital with a new baby. If this doesn’t convince you all that bentos are easy to put together, I don’t know what will!

I tried to put as much of each lunch together the night before as I could and then just finish each one up in the morning, but a couple nights I was so tired that I had to do everything in the morning.

Tuesday I sent a chicken apple gouda sausage, catsup, a half banana, mini-blueberry muffin and frozen peas. Everything but the banana was pulled out of the freezer and defrosted in the box over night. And guess what the only thing he ate in this lunch was? The peas. I couldn’t believe it either.

We were completely out of fresh fruit on Wednesday morning, so I had to pull together stuff from the pantry. I filled baking cup with applesauce (a regular applesauce cup won’t fit in our bento boxes), then added frozen strawberries and some baked tofu.

Thursday I sent some noodles with butter, parmesan and garlic in the Thermos. I also sent some grapes, animal crackers and a little rolled up deli turkey.

The baby slept much, much later than Wyatt and me on Friday, so I had a little extra time to make his lunch and I cuted it up a bit. (I also used the time to play with my boy, eat breakfast with him and give him lots of cuddles and kisses — I have my priorities in order!) I sent blueberries, steamed green beans left over from last night’s dinner, and baked tofu strips. I wedged a couple of strawberries in too to give the box some stability. Then I added a teddy bear and a little man cut from fruit leather for cuteness.

Have a good weekend everyone! We are looking forward to having our big boy home from preschool with us.

This week was a bit strange for us, so I did my best to keep Wyatt’s lunches simple. Tuesday was his first day back at preschool after a two week break and it was also the day our new baby was due. Not knowing exactly when I would go into labor, I tried to make Wyatt’s lunch in advance each night so his aunt and uncle wouldn’t have to worry about it if they got a call to come over in the middle of the night.

Since Tuesday was Wyatt’s first day back at preschool after his time off, so I decided to keep his lunch pretty simple and full of his favorites. There were blueberries, of course, chicken-apple-gouda sausage with catsup for dipping and half of a hamburger bun.

Wednesday, Wyatt really, really wanted me to send broccoli in his thermous so he could run fast and jump high at preschool. He had actually asked for it on Tuesday too, but we were out! Needless to say, when your 3-year-old is begging you to put broccoli in his lunch, you make a trip to the store to get some. The rest of the lunch consisted of: farmer’s market strawberries and raspberries, low-fat salami and saltines. I put the berries and salami together the night before, then added the saltines and heated the broccoli up in the morning. By the way, he only ate about half the broccoli. I still count that as a success.

Thursday I basically sent the same lunch as the one Wyatt took to school on Tuesday. More blueberries (frozen when I put them in the box) with a strawberry for color, chicken-apple-gouda sausage and a hot dog bun.

Friday’s lunch was also a repeat: Strawberries and blueberries, pretzel thins and salami.

No baby yet! But he should be here by the end of next week.

In the last few weeks, I’ve seen an marked increase in people coming to this blog after having searched for terms like “school lunch ideas” and “preschool lunch packing.” School is starting up again around the country and parents need ideas for what to send to preschool, kindergarten and elementary school in their kids’ lunch boxes.

Since Wyatt’s school is on vacation for the next two weeks and I’m not posting about what I’m sending in his lunches, I thought I’d take the time to put together a round-up of the things I send in his bentos. I have to tell you — after making out this list, I was really surprised by all the different things he eats! I’ve also added a few extra things to the list that people have suggested to me or that other kids might eat as well.

Almost everything on here can be eaten cold or at room temperature. I always send his lunch with an ice pack in the box, but other parents swear by frozen juice boxes. I don’t like to send juice boxes myself because I like to dilute Wyatt’s juice with a little water (or just send water), so I send a little Rubbermaid container with a beverage in it.

Carbs/Tummy-fillers

• whole grain crackers
• pretzel sticks
• mini-muffins — Wyatt favors blueberry muffins, but I also send corn muffins or any other kind of muffin really. I try to make them myself so I can make them healthier with whole wheat flour, less sugar, etc.
• goldfish crackers, cheddar bunnies or other snack crackers
• pretzel thins
• mini-rice cakes/crackers
• rice balls
• pasta — I toss with a little butter, garlic salt and parmesan. You can also send warmed pasta in a thermous
• granola bars — I like to make my own but I send store-bought ones too
• banana bread, zucchini bread, etc.
• cereal bars — we get ours at Trader Joe’s but Nutrigrain bars are more widely available
• dried cereal — Cheerios, Puffins, etc.
• mini-bagels — Wyatt likes his plain, but other kids would probably eat cream cheese on theirs
• hot dog buns

Fruits

• apples slices or chunks (dip in pineapple juice to prevent browning)
• berries — strawberries, blueberries, raspberries
• cherries
• grapes
• bananas — I usually only send a half banana
• melon chunks — watermelon or cantaloupe
• raisins, dried cranberries, etc.
• canned peaches (or fresh, of course)
• applesauce
• pineapple chunks
• orange wedges or canned mandarin oranges

Veggies

• frozen peas — these will thaw by lunch time
• frozen corn — these will thaw too
• carrot sticks — I steam or parboil them because my son won’t eat them raw, but I know other kids will
• grape tomatoes — I cut them in half and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar
• steamed green beans
• broccoli spears

Proteins

• chicken or turkey sausage with catsup for dipping
• deli meats — turkey, ham, salami (I like to roll these up)
• beans
• peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• meat or cheese sandwiches
• peanut butter “sandwiches” made with crackers or graham crackers
• taquitos with salsa for dipping (Wyatt likes pineapple salsa from Trader Joe’s)
• baked tofu — a good one to cut into shapes
• quesadillas (I like to cut these into shapes)
• mini-burritos
• hard boiled eggs — my son wouldn’t touch these with a 10 foot pole, but maybe your kid will!

Dairy

• yogurt
• cheese cubes
• cheese slices (cut into shapes)
• cottage cheese — Wyatt won’t eat this but other kids might
• Laughing Cow cheese wedges — open the wrapper if your kid can’t do it herself
• string cheese — again, open the wrapper — or start it — if your kid can’t
• Babybel cheeses — I like to cut a shape out of the wax

How to “cute things up”:

• Cut things into shapes! Use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches, cheese, tofu, etc. into various kid-friendly shapes. I use animal, star, heart, gingerbread man and circle cutters. You probably have a few cookie cutters in your cabinets already, or you can buy some fun new ones. Also, remember that you don’t need a cutter to cut shapes. Use a regular knife to cut sandwiches into strips or triangles. Cut cheese and tofu into matchsticks or cubes.
• Use mini-versions of regular foods (or cut them smaller). Mini muffins, bagels, and crackers seem to go over better with preschoolers than regular size.
• Add sprinkles to chopped fruit.
• Add cute bento dividers to lunches.
• Use lots of color. I try to have at least three different colors in each lunch I send. It’s appealing to the eye, but it also is a good way to ensure that your child is getting lots of fruits and veggies.

Did I leave something off this list? What do you send in your kid’s lunch?

This was a short week at preschool because their summer vacation starts on Friday.

Monday night, I finally made some home made blueberry muffins. I subbed in whole wheat flour for a quarter of the flour called for in the recipe and they came out sooooooo good. So of course Wyatt got a mini-muffin in his lunch on Tuesday. I also sent a rice ball, turkey roll-ups and a bunch of grapes.

Wednesday I sent crackers (hidden under the salami), salami, strawberries and another muffin.

Thursday’s lunch was super fruity. I sent some fresh peach chunks, a bunch of strawberries and a strawberry jam sandwich cut into a little man shape. I was going to send PB&J, but when I pulled out the peanut butter jar, Wyatt announced that he doesn’t eat peanut butter any more. Great.

I’m probably not going to be posting any bento photos for the next couple of weeks because Wyatt won’t be going to preschool, but I do have a couple of bento related posts I’m hoping to pull together during that time that illustrate some answers to questions I get asked a lot. Stay tuned!

There’s nothing too special in this week’s preschool lunches, though I did try something new on Wednesday.

Tuesday: Mini blueberry muffin, grapes, blueberries and ham chunks. This box came home completely empty! Mom scores!!

Wednesday: Technically, I don’t think I can get away with calling this a “bento”. I got Wyatt a new thermos so I could send warm foods in his lunch and this is our first pass. He totally loved it and wanted to take it to the playground after school. In fact, he was so into the thermos that he didn’t even notice that I’d packed his beloved blueberries in a separate container, but he did eat them as a snack while I was getting dinner ready. I also sent paella with extra sausage in the thermos and mango lemonade.

Thursday’s lunch was very simple: hamburger bun, banana, and ham chunks. As usual, simple is a winner though — he ate nearly everything.

Today’s lunch was a bit of a scrounge, as Friday lunches often are. I pulled a chicken sausage with garlic and basil out of the freezer, through in some border-line stale goldfish and peanut butter sandwich crackers and plucked off the last edible grapes from thise week’s bunch. The pink container has catsup for the sausage.

This week, lunch packing was more challenging for me than it usually is. Zach was out of town from Sunday-Wednesday so I had to do the whole morning routine by myself every day. I can do it, of course, but I’m not used to doing it, so we found ourselves rushing, rushing, rushing every day. I’d stocked up on groceries for the week Sunday morning, but somehow I found myself without a lot of my regular lunch staples, so I ended up hitting the freezer for lunch items more than usual. This is a perfect scenario to show why I love having a freezer stocked with little lunch items. The other thing about this week is that somehow I ended up sending blueberries to preschool every day. Normally, I try to shake things up a bit more, but they are just so good right now, they’re fairly cheap and Wyatt loves them. I don’t think that he’s ever turned down a blueberry, in fact.

Monday I sent a lunch with all of Wyatt’s favorites: blueberries, mini-blueberry muffin, chicken apple sausage and blueberry catsup (ha ha! not really — it was just regular catsup).

Variations on blueberries: 2

Tuesday morning I lost the chicken apple sausages somewhere in our freezer but in the process of looking for them, I found some of the chicken taquitos I sent a few weeks back. I put them in the bento box along with some pineapple salsa and a good sized pile of strawberries and blueberries. This lunch was a great success — the box came back completely empty of food.

Variations on blueberries:1

There’s nothing wrong with sending your kid to school with the same lunch two days in a row — particularly if they eat it all — so Wednesday I did just that. So here we have chicken taquitos, pineapple salsa, strawberries and blueberries and I added a half a banana for good measure.

Variations on blueberries:1

Thursday morning I couldn’t find a meat-based protein in our fridge or freezer to save my life, so I decided to give Wyatt breakfast for lunch. He got two blueberry muffins, blueberry yogurt (under the counter-intuitive happy strawberry food separator) and some strawberry chunks. And no, the yogurt didn’t spill — I know this because it came back to our house in absolutely un-touched, pristine condition.

Variations on blueberries: 2

Zach went to the store yesterday so we have lots of good fruit and other fresh victuals in our house. I sent blueberries, of course, a mixture of grapes and bing cherries and a sandwich made of flat bread, salami and catsup. The thought of eating that combo, frankly, makes me want to gag, but Wyatt seems to like it.

Variations on blueberries:1

Have a good weekend everyone!