Tuesday Wyatt got a delicious plum from our neighbors tree. He also got some turkey roll-ups, a bun and a fruit leather bear.

Wednesday saw a lunch box filled with baked tofu, some awesome berries from the farmer’s market and a whole wheat white hot dog bun. (I’m all tricky with the enhanced nutrition!)

Thursday morning both the kids slept late and we didn’t get up until nearly 8 a.m.! Since Wyatt needs to be at school by 9 we were in a tremendous rush to get dressed, eat breakfast and get everyone out the door. Lunch was pretty simple — sliced tofu and some blueberries in a snack sized box. I also sent some broccoli in the thermos at Wyatt’s request but when I went to put his lunch dishes away I discovered that he ate none of it.

No school on Friday, so no lunch box.

Have a happy 4th of July!

We were running late on Tuesday, so I had to throw Wyatt’s lunch together in a hurry. He got a half banana, a dinner roll, a hot dog cut into strips and some catsup to dip it in. All he ate from this lunch was the bun.

Wednesday I sent peaches with sprinkles, turkey pepperoni, and a bun decorated with food markers. He ate every lovin’ bite of this bad boy. Yay me!

Thursday’s luncheon consisted of a few grapes, a slice of deli turkey cut into strip and rolled up, a challah bun and a whole lotta berries.

Lunch on Friday was turkey pepperoni folded over and skewered on little picks, a couple of Hello Panda candies (in the pink box), Cheerios and a whole heck of a lot of berries.

For all you bento lovers out there, I just saw this article on the Ichiban Kan blog saying that they are shutting down their online presence. I am in no way affiliated with Ichiban Kan, but I’m saddened to hear that this will be happening as they are the only online source of bento boxes and supplies I’ve found who offer their products at consistently reasonable prices. If you have been waiting to place an order with them, this may be your last chance for a while. From their blog:

While we do hope to re-establish our online presence in the future when a better financial situation arises, we will be indefinitely closed.

As soon as items are sold out, our online store will be closed.

Hurry, hurry before everything is sold out!

Ichiban Kan

Hi guys! I’ve got extra bentos for you this week because Wyatt and I went to the zoo with some friends on Saturday and we took our lunches along with us.

Here’s the lunch I packed for Wyatt. Look familiar? I am so bored of blueberries, salami and buns, but he loves them so there’s no good reason not to send them. I also packed a couple of Hello Panda candies and a grape gummi candy.

This is my lunch: fruit salad, salami, aged gouda cheese, bun and three McVitie’s chocolate digestive biscuits. I found the biscuits at the Berkeley Bowl. The have an English food section in the ethnic food aisle! My grandma grew up in England and has gone back every year since she moved here at 17 and she often brought these back for us from her trips. I absolutely adore them, but they’re so hard to find in the States. I took three in my lunch, but the kids looked at me with big wide eyes when I got them out, so I gave two to them and only got one for myself.

Tuesday’s preschool lunch had watermelon chunks, baked tofu and oyster crackers. The oyster crackers are Wyatt’s new favorite.

Wednesday saw more oyster crackers, blueberries and some baked tofu. Wyatt refused to eat the baked tofu — probably because it was a different brand than I normally buy. Frustrating.

Thursday’s lunch had more blueberries, turkey meatballs on skewers, and some garlic toast that I cut up into heart and star shapes. I also put in a little container of catsup after I took this photo.

Friday’s lunch was a bonanza of elephant shapes cut with a cookie cutter! I cut them out of the tofu and we’re trying cheese in Wyatt’s lunch again (he refused to eat it for awhile), so I cut it into shapes to make it more appealing too. I also sent some bing cherries and oyster crackers. I tried using the bing cherry juice to make a purple frame around the elephants on the tofu, but it didn’t turn out so great. Itjust looked kind of messy. Oh well!

Also, I took a picture of the baked tofu when I was at the store the other day so folks who are looking for it would know what the packaging looks like. This is the Soy Deli brand, but it all looks pretty similar.

Tuesday morning was one of those mornings where I didn’t think I’d come up with anything for a lunch, but I managed to pull something together by the skin of my teeth. There was a block of tofu in the fridge, so I sliced that up and stuck it in. I also dug around in the cupboard and found a cup of pineapple tidbits. It killed me to send canned fruit when the stuff in the markets is so great right now, but we were out of all fresh fruit except lemons and I thought sending a lemon in my preschooler’s lunch would be way lamer than sending pineapple. We also had one banana chocolate chip muffin left so I put that in too. I put too many chocolate chips in the muffins and they kind of crossed over into un-frosted cupcake territory, so I felt a little chumpy about that too, but the muffins did have whole wheat flour in them so I decided that was healthy enough to make it acceptable.

Wednesday, we were all stocked up on fruit again so the lunchbox had salami, a bun, blueberries and watermelon chunks.

Thursday’s lunch had more blueberries, another bun, and leftover turkey meatballs from dinner the night before. I quartered the meatballs and stuck the pieces on skewers.

Friday morning I made a fruit salad with strawberries, blueberries and cantaloupe and sent that along with more salami and yet another bun. For a treat, I sent a little box with two Hello Panda! candies in it.

Tuesday’s lunch had a whole wheat “white” hamburger bun, some deli ham roll-ups grapes and a gigundo strawberry. To give you an idea of how big the strawberry was, after I hulled it, I popped a grape inside. Crazy!

Wednesday morning I heated up some leftover alphabet noodles with butter, garlic and parmesan cheese and put it in the thermos. Wyatt’s hands are on the thermos because it smelled so good that he wanted to eat it right then! Mean mom that I am, I made him wait for lunch. (In my defense, he’d already had two pancakes and a big banana for breakfast.) I made up a smaller “snack box” of strawberries and salami to supplement the pasta. The little pink box has two strawberry “Hello Panda” candy/cookie thingies that I got the last time I was at Tokyo Fish Market. This lunch was a super success and came home without a crumb inside.

I still hadn’t been to the store for the week on Thursday morning, so I had to scrounge up lunch from the freezer and pantry. I pulled two blueberry mini-muffins from the freezer, found  a container of peaches in the cupboard and made the last slice of ham into roll-ups.

Friday’s lunch had a half hambuger bun in it, along with cherries and baked teriyaki tofu. Ta da! After a two week absence, tt was back on the shelf at Trader Joe’s. Wyatt and I both were quite relieved.

I picked up a few new bento boxes this week and I thought I’d share them with you.

The three on the right side are ones I found browsing at Ichiban Kan. I checked their web site and it looks like they’ve posted them for purchase there, so you might want to grab some while they’re still in stock. These boxes are a bit smaller than the ones I typically use for Wyatt’s lunch. The giraffe box looks like the usual size, but when I got it home, I saw that it was a bit smaller. The bird and squirrel boxes are ones that I’ll use for snacks or for transporting baby food on the go. (I have no affiliation with Ichiban Kan — I just like their products.)

I know a lot of my people are frustrated because they can’t find a source for bento boxes in their area so I try to keep my eye out for containers that will work at “regular” stores. The purple and red box on the right is one I found at The Container Store. It’s called a Snack & Dip and it’s on sale right now for $2.99. It has a built in well in the center that’s meant for dips, but I can see it working for berries, crackers or anything else I might normally put in a silicon baking cup. I’ve found similar items at Target and even at my grocery store, so it’s a good idea to keep your eyes open for things that will work for bento boxes when you’re out and about.