Here are this week’s lunches:

Monday

Monday, I sent Wyatt to school with a squirrely lunch: salami, apple, grapes, Scrabble Cheez-its, garlic naan cut into squirrel shapes and a couple of cheese acorns — one for each squirrel. This lunch was packed in our Laptop Lunch Box.

While I was packing his lunch, Wyatt asked me to please be sure to pack the red container next to the hinge on the outer box. When I asked him why he told me he likes to take the lid off and tuck it between the red container and the wall of the bigger box and that keeps the lid from closing on his lunch while he’s eating. Clever boy! I never even thought about that.

Augie doesn’t attend preschool on Mondays so I often try to do something fun with him in the morning. This particular day, he decided that we should go to a park and have a picnic lunch. He even picked the containers we would use — kitty and panda — out of the big basket of bento boxes.  Since Augie is a big eater and I’m doing Weight Watchers right now, I packed us identical lunches: tomatoes, grapes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and goldfish crackers. The sandwiches were slightly too big to fit in the panda and cat bento boxes, so I cut the sandwiches to fit in the box with a big beer mug.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Augie’s lunch was pineapple, apple slices, mini-sausages, garlic naan cut into circles and a few grapes.

I don’t often send apples in the boys’ lunches because if they get even a little brown they won’t usually eat them, but I had some juice  leftover from the pineapple can so I dipped the apple pieces in that to keep them from oxidizing. Augie didn’t eat one of his pieces, so I took a quick picture to show how well it help up. Not too shabby!

Wyatt’s lunch was basically the same: garlic naan circles, apple chunks (also dipped in pineapple juice), mini-sausages, pineapple and goldfish crackers.

Wednesday

Stripey bento! Augie’s lunch was packed in a hinged lid box (similar to this one). I arranged the contents — sausages, strips of naan, grapes, and goldfish crackers — in long strips.

Wyatt’s lunch was raisins, goldfish crackers, a couple of cat cookies, grapes, clementine wedges, a squirrel naan and mini-sausages.

Thursday

On Thursday, Augie had meatballs, edamame, raisins, fish crackers, cat cookies and a teeny, tiny, lady apple. This is the first time I’ve tried the lady apples on Augie and he seemed to like it pretty well. When I tried sending them in Wyatt’s lunch a few years ago, they didn’t go over so well.

Wyatt had school lunch, so no bento box for him.

Friday

Today, Augie had yellow bell pepper chunks, leftover chicken from dinner, blueberries and some Triscuits.

Wyatt had a donut hole, potato chips, blueberries, a Laughing Cow cheese wedge, chicken and clementine wedges.

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Oops! I was super busy last week and didn’t manage to get all the lunch pictures pulled together into a blog post, so I’m coming to you with a special Saturday edition of The Week in Bentos this week. Exciting!

And because I’m posting a day late, I’m including pictures of today’s lunch at home. Even more exciting!

Monday

Wow! We’ve been waking up late a lot in the past few weeks, but Monday we were really late. We were so late that even though I had Wyatt’s lunch 3/4 packed, I didn’t have time to finish filling it, so he had school lunch.

Tuesday

Tuesday, Wyatt actually got to eat that lunch. He had a whole wheat dinner roll, a clementine, raspberries, Scrabble Cheez-its, deli turkey and a few slices of salami (the remnants of lunch meat that were left in the cheese drawer from the week before). This was all packed in our Laptop Lunch Box.

Augie’s lunch for preschool was a whole wheat bun that I split and filled with homemade blackberry jam (not visible in the photo), a clementine, grapes and soy cheese cut into star shapes for a little protein. This was packed in our little bird bento box.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Augie had shelled edamame, clementine wedges, green grapes and sliced baked tofu. He also had a separate box of white cheddar popcorn that I forgot to take a picture of. He specifically asked me for the popcorn because one of his friends at preschool brings it in his lunch and as Augie put it, “I want to eat him’s popcorn, Mama!” We can’t have that, now can we! I love it when my kids ask for things in their lunches because a.) they rarely do it and b.) it gives me good ideas.

Wyatt’s lunch was packed in the Easy Lunchbox: sliced, baked tofu, green grapes, clementines and popcorn.

Thursday

On Thursday, Augie had kissing squirrel sandwiches filled with ham and soy cheese, red grapes and more edamame.

Wyatt had a few pita chips, grapes, Scrabble Cheez-its and Darth Vader and Boba Fett ham and cheese sandwiches. The sandwiches were cut and decorated with our Star Wars cookie cutters.

Friday

On Friday, Augie’s lunch had a ham “rose”, Triscuits, grapes, carrot sticks and peas.

And Wyatt had tortilla chips, hoisin chicken tenders cut into chunks, scrabble Cheez-its, and grapes. The chicken was leftover from dinner on Thursday. I sauteed some chicken tenders, then I just improvised the sauce by mixing together hoisin sauce, soy sauce, garlic from a jar, siracha, and a dab of sesame oil. Wyatt loved it but Augie wouldn’t even try it, so Wyatt got to take it in his luncheon tray.

BONUS: Saturday Lunch!

This is an example of a typical weekend lunch for us. Augie had a pb&j sandwich, applesauce and Cheez-its. I took a few extra seconds to spell his name out on the plate with his crackers, which I admit was a little silly since he can’t read.

Wyatt can read though and he was thrilled that I spelled his name out too. We were out of W crackers so I had to substitute an E on its side but he assured me that he didn’t mind that.

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Before I dive into the photos I took of my kids’ lunches this week, I want to make a slight detour and share an article with all you bento packers and everyone else who is trying to feed their children healthy, appealing food. Earlier this week, my friend Whitney shared an article with me about what sorts of meals most appeal to children. The article references a study that found that children gravitate toward plates with seven different foods in six different colors while adults prefer three foods in three colors. There are other interesting facts in the article too, including this lovely tidbit:

“While plates that are designed with partitions aren’t necessary for preparing a diverse set of foods, Japanese style bento boxes would match better with our findings since they tend to have significantly more pockets.”

Needless to say, I love this article because it provides scientific confirmation that this way that many of us parents serve food to our children isn’t coddling, indulgent or “a waste of time” (a phrase I’ve heard just a few too many times).

Science! Yay!

Now, let’s get to those photos!

Monday

Holiday! No lunches.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Wyatt’s lunch was packed into the Laptop Lunch Box: rainbow goldfish crackers, raisins, half of a gigantic whole wheat dinner roll, green grapes, deli turkey, crackers, and a Laughing Cow cheese.

Augie was home sick from preschool on Tuesday with a bad cold and he had almost no appetite, so I pulled out all the stops to try to get him to eat a little. I ended up putting together this little woodland scene inspired by Hey! Jen Renee’s plate lunches (I even went out and bought the IKEA cookie cutters last week): soy cheese trees, squirrel and hedgehog pb&j sandwiches and grapes. He was delighted!

Wednesday

On Wednesday Augie had sliced deli turkey, carrots, sugar snap peas, rainbow goldfish crackers and green grapes. It was packed in a bento box very similar to this one (the only difference is the color).

Wyatt was home sick on Wednesday and we ate mac and cheese for lunch.

Thursday

Thursday, Augie had salami, crackers, grapes and apple chunks that he asked me to put in for his dessert. This was packed in a single layer box with a hinged lid. You can see more examples of lunches packed in these boxes in the Bento Box Gallery.

Wyatt’s lunch was packed in an Easy Lunchbox: salami, whole wheat bun, tortilla chips, grapes and clementine wedges.

When I opened his lunch box in the afternoon to clean it out, this is what I found:

There was barely anything gone! As usual, he told me that they got to the lunch room late (which seems to be routine) and then on top of it two kids in his class kept trying to reach into his lunch box to eat his food so he had to fend them off. I was SO annoyed. The poor kid must have been starving.

Friday

Today Augie got a special bear lunch. His nicknames — since before we even brought him home from the hospital — have always been some form of “Bear”: Augie Bear, Little Bear, Mr. Bear, or just plain old Bear. My new IKEA cutters included a bear cub, so I had to use it on a PB&J sandwich. I also included grapes, clementine wedges and fish crackers. The idea is that the bear likes to eat fish, see? I thought about including a honey stick, but I knew his preschool teachers would hate me for it so I left it our. I also think it would have been cool if I’d had blueberries to put in around the bear but we didn’t have any. Of course, this was sent in the panda bear bento box!

And finally, Wyatt’s lunch today was another dinner roll, clementines, fish crackers, grapes, salami and a Laughing Cow cheese wedge.

Have a great weekend!

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This was a bad week for packing lunches, my friends. We overslept almost every single morning this week and when that happens, I go into panic mode trying to get the kids to school on time. The first thing that gets booted from my to do list on these mornings is packing a lunch for Wyatt because I know he can just buy one at school. If I could have done the same for Augie, I would have but unfortunately if I don’t pack him a lunch, he doesn’t eat so I carried on in the face of adversity. Heh.

Monday

I packed most of Wyatt’s lunch for Monday on Sunday night so it was mostly ready to go in the morning: home made banana bread, goldfish crackers, blueberries, clementines, salami and crackers.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Augie had turkey meatballs, flatbread, blueberries, orange bell pepper and cucumbers.

Wednesday

Wednesday’s lunch for Augie had clementine wedges, cucumber spears, sugar snap peas, deli turkey and crackers.

Thursday

Thursday, we didn’t over sleep! Hurray! Hurray! Augie’s lunch was packed into the panda bento box. It held blackberries, orange pepper strips, cucumber spears, deli turkey, crackers and soy cheese cut into flower shapes.

Wyatt had Lauging Cow cheese, garlic naan cut into circles, green grapes, blackberries, salami and crackers. This lunch was packed in the Laptop Lunch Box.

Friday

Today Augie had meatballs, garlic naan, grapes, orange bell peppers and cucumbers. It was packed in this reliable and inexpensive bento box.

Wyatt ate school lunch for a record third day this week.

In other news, the hard drive on my laptop is going to die any second now. I’m backing up like crazy but everything locks up or shuts down every five minutes or so. I’m actually pretty surprised that I managed to get this post put together without a major problem today! If I’m quiet next week, that will be the reason why.

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All righty then! We are back to school and trying our best to get into a routine again after the lazy days of winter vacation. This has not been an easy task because we were all in the habit of staying up too late, sleeping in and taking our sweet time getting out of the house in the mornings. In fact, I overslept twice this week and fell back on school lunches for Wyatt to make the morning go a smidge more smoothly.

Monday

No packed lunches because it was the last day of vacation! We had a Costco chicken for lunch.

Tuesday

And on Tuesday we were back at it! Augie’s lunch had shredded leftover chicken, cucumber and bell pepper strips, goldfish crackers (we still have some of our holiday box left) and grapes.

Augie discovered his inner love for crudite after attacking countless veggie platters at social events over the holiday break and now he’s obsessed with bell pepper strips. I’m not sure how long it’s going to last, but I can assure you that I’m going to supply them for exactly as long as he asks for them.

Wyatt — alas — has not discovered any sort of love of vegetables in the last few weeks so his lunch looks pretty familiar: a jelly sandwich, clementine wedges, grapes, goldfish crackers and chunks of chicken on skewers. The robot pick is from this set.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Augie had deli turkey that I just tore up with my fingers — nothing fancy today. He also had cucumber and bell pepper chunks, pretzels and clementine segments.

This was one of the over-sleeping days, so Wyatt had school lunch. Chicken nuggets and corn to be precise.

Thursday

Augie’s lunch on Thursday was nearly identical to the day before: turkey, snap peas, clementines, pretzels and raisins.

Wyatt had Laughing Cow cheese, turkey roll-ups, clementines, raisins and pretzels.

Friday

Today, Augie had salami, carrot sticks, oyster crackers and blueberries.

Wyatt will eat school lunch.

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Hey lunch packers! We’ve been sticking around the house for the most part over Christmas break so I haven’t been packing very many lunches. I have to admit I’ve been enjoying the break from hectic mornings and the scramble to find things to pack in bento boxes. Last week Augie was in preschool though so I did put a few meals together for him. Let’s do a little catch-up and take a look at the lunches I made him.

Tuesday

Tuesday I packed canned peaches that I’d rinsed and drained thoroughly, a dinner roll, carrots, sugar snap peas and a few homemade meatballs that I made using this recipe from A Year of Slowcooking.

Wednesday

Wednesday I got a little festive and made a tofu Christmas tree with a cookie cutter and some food-safe markers, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, and a piece of corn bread.

Thursday

Thurday’s lunch was packed in the kitty bento box (similar to these panda, frog, and piggy bento boxes): grapes, dinner roll, holiday gold fish crackers, tomatoes, ham and sugar snap peas.

Friday

And finally on Friday, I included red and green Christmas veggies (tomatoes and snap peas), a pb&j gingerbread man and more holiday goldfish crackers.

Are you on a break too? Have you been packing lunches?

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Ahhhhh…the last full week of school before winter vacation. Augie will still be going to preschool next week, but Wyatt will be off and I’m very much looking forward to a slower pace in the mornings starting on Monday. But this week was a full week of lunches and I bet you’re absolutely dying to see them. Dying!

No? Well, here they are anyway!

Monday

Monday, Wyatt took the Laptop Lunch Box to school, as is his custom. It held: two cream cheese spritz cookies, grapes, Cheez-its, clementine wedges, turkey meatballs and catsup.

Tuesday

We had turkey meatloaf for dinner on Monday night and the kids begged me to put it in their lunches for Tuesday. Augie’s lunch had the meatloaf, of course, as well as rice, clementines and canned peaches that I drained and rinsed under running water to reduce the added sugar and mess.

Wyatt had cookies, Laughing Cow cheese, whole wheat crackers, meatloaf, Cheez-its and canned mixed fruit with sprinkles. Looking at this now, I realize I should have put sprinkles on Augie’s peaches too. Next time. This lunch was packed in the Easy Lunchbox.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Augie had baked tofu that I cut and decorated to look like a snowman (I used food markers and these cookie cutters), edamame, homemade banana bread and sugar snap peas.

Wyatt had banana bread, Laughing Cow cheese, crackers, grapes, snap peas and his own tofu snowman.

Thursday

On Thursday, Augie had grapes, banana bread chunks, turkey meatballs from the freezer, leftover green beans from dinner and grape tomatoes. See how I made this lunch Christmas-y by putting the red and green veggies together? That was totally on purpose. I absolutely planned that.

Wyatt’s lunch had garlic naan, a clementine, turkey meatballs, catsup (in the blue box), banana bread and grapes.

Friday

Today Augie had a gingerbread man lunch. I cut his pb&j into a gingerbread man shape and surrounded it with grapes in the bottom half of our Panda Bento Box. The top half had Triscuits topped with soy cheese that was cut with a little gingerbread man cutter. I filled in the rest of the space with dried apricots.

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This was kind of a blah week for lunches, quite honestly. I spent a ton of time each morning nagging and supervising bickering kids so I didn’t have a ton of time leftover for creative lunch-making. I did manage to muster a Santa toothpick late in the week though. That counts, right?

Monday

Monday the cupboards were bare so Wyatt ate school lunch.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Augie hand selected our Panda bento box and asked me to use it for his lunch. I was thrilled to accommodate him! He had tofu chunks, grape tomatoes, goldfish crackers, peanut butter and strawberry jam on a mini hamburger bun and clementine wedges.

Wyatt had a small brownie, tofu, goldfish and Cheez-its, clementines, raisins and a mini hamburger bun with jam. This was packed in our Laptop Lunch Box.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, Augie had grapes, clementines, deli turkey and Cheez-its.

Wyatt also had grapes, Cheez-its, the ever-present clementine wedges, salami and a mini hamburger bun.

Thursday

Thursday’s lunches were nearly identical to Wednesdays. I swapped raisins in for the clementine in Augie’s lunch.

And I put turkey in instead of salami for Wyatt. (I even put everything in the same places in his lunch box!)

Friday

Augie got a fresh lunch on Friday though: turkey meatballs, corn, clementines, whole wheat crackers and mango chunks.

When I asked Augie at breakfast if he’d like some mango he insisted he’d never had it before (which is not true) and that mango is yucky. I told him he’d had it before and liked it a lot, but he didn’t believe me so I gave him a little piece to try. After he ate it, he looked at me with wide eyes and said, “Mama, I LOVE mango! Why yous never give me mango before dis??” Heh.

Wyatt’s lunch was hella boring and repetitive again: clementines, hamburger bun with jam, Cheez-its, and grapes with a Santa pick stuck in them. The Santa is courtesy of my girl Melissa at Another Lunch who sent me some last December when I couldn’t find Santa picks anywhere. Thanks, lady!

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I’m starting in on the Christmas and winter themed lunches this week! Wooo!

Monday

Wyatt’s lunch on Monday was packed into the Laptop Lunch Box: a biscuit, two chocolate star cookies, clementine, grapes, a mini blueberry muffin and salami slices.

My husband has been traveling a lot for work lately and Monday morning he took off for another week away. I packed him this little snack box for the plane: salami, aged gouda cheese slices, a clementine, grapes and whole wheat crackers. I almost peeled the clementine for him out of habit, but then I remembered that he can handle that by himself. Heh.

Later in the day, Augie asked me if we could have a picnic lunch outside in the yard, “On a blanket, Mama!” The weather was good, so I was happy to accommodate him. I didn’t feel like carrying multiple bowls and plates and drinks and stuff outside, so I decided to make my first ever muffin tin meal and put a little bit of this and that in the different compartments for the two of us to eat. I put in salami slices, grapes, harvarti cheese, cucumber spears (Augie’s new favorite veggie), dried cranberries, walnuts, a little ham and chocolate star cookies. This experiment was a great success and I’m going to be doing this a little more often going forward, I think.

Tuesday

On Tuesday Augie’s lunch was leftover hoisin chicken (recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, SOS! The Six O’Clock Scramble to the Rescue), clementine wedges, peas, dried cranberries and graham cracker goldfish (under the craisins).

Wyatt had a very similar lunch: garlic naan, hoisin chicken, cranberries with graham crackers underneath and clementines.

Wednesday

I got confused Wednesday morning and thought it was the first day of December, so I broke out the first Christmas bentos of the year one day early. Doh! Augie had a few carrot sticks, baked tofu cut and decorated with food markers to look like a Christmas tree, garlic naan cut into star shapes, clementine wedges and a few dried cranberries.

Again, Wyatt’s lunch was basically the same but configured slightly differently: garlic naan stars, space themed goldfish (though if you ignore the rocketships, they look a little Christmas-y too), dried cranberries, clementines and Christmas tree tofu.

Thursday

On Thursday, Augie had salami slices, whole wheat crackers, clementine wedges, and some Rainier cherries that I canned after we went cherry picking last summer. Those suckers are awesome, by the way — a little mushier than fresh cherries, but the flavor is spot on. I like them on oatmeal, but Augie would just sit and eat a whole jar with a spoon if I let him.

Friday

For today’s lunches, I went with a snowman theme. Augie had clementines, rounds of garlic naan, goldfish crackers, dried apricots and tofu cut and decorated to look like a snowman with food markers.

Wyatt’s lunch had a few extras — chocolate star cookies and some grapes that I skewered onto a snowman pick — but was otherwise the same as Augies lunch with the goldfish, naan, clems and fancy snowman tofu.

If you look very closely, you can see that the boys’ tofu chunks are each cut slightly differently. I did Wyatt’s first and the hat came out looking pretty janky. For Augie’s, I switched to a different cutter for the hat — I used the arrow from this set — and I think it came out much better.

Have you started packing winter or holiday themed lunches?

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We’ve got a short week because of the holiday, so I’m posting this week’s lunches early.

Monday

No lunches Monday. Augie wasn’t in school and Wyatt had school lunch.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, Wyatt had garlic naan cut into circle shapes, spacey goldfish crackers, cubes of leftover pork tenderloin, dried cranberries and clementine wedges. Someone asked me the other day why I always peel Wyatt’s oranges and the reason I do isn’t because he can’t do it himself — it’s because he only has about 10 minutes to eat lunch! If I left his clementine unpeeled there is no way he would have time to peel it and eat it. I try to do as many things as I can to allow him to be able to eat quickly and this is one of them!

Augie’s lunch had frozen peas (thawed in the fridge over night), pork tenderloin chunks, goldfish crackers, a bite of garlic naan and clementine wedges. The naan was cut out of the scraps leftover after I cut Wyatt’s bread.

Wednesday

Today Augie has cucumber sticks, green grapes, a garlic naan dude, deli ham roll-ups and a few goldfish pushed into the extra spaces. The cucumber is something new I’m trying out. I’ve tried to feed both of the kids cukes for years with no success but last week Augie saw one of his friends eating some and wanted to try. He decided he liked them and specifically asked me to buy a cucumber for his snack when we were at the grocery store the other day. Um…sure!

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