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!

I got my hair cut tonight! Wooo! No more split ends and now it will be harder for the baby to barf all over it. I’m sure he’ll find a way though….

Seeing as I am eight plus months pregnant, you can imagine that I am nesting just a little bit. Through a circuitous chain of events, this nesting instinct  caused me to spend a few hours this morning making cloth napkins. Here’s how it happened:

1. I’ve been feeling the need to stock-pile frozen dinners so we can easily fix food when the baby is born.
2. Since our regular freezer is pretty full already, I decided we needed our deep freeze back so we have a place to put the dinners I’m going to make.
3. Erin and Bryan helped us move our deep freeze from their house to ours yesterday. We decided to put it in the storage room downstairs.
4. To get the freezer into the storage room, we had to move a shelf with a bunch of boxes of stored crap on it.
5. Once I saw all the boxes of stored crap, my nesting instinct kicked in and I wanted to get rid of it all.
6. I made Zach carry a bunch of the boxes upstairs so I could go through it and post stuff to Freecycle.
7. One of the boxes was labeled “Quilting Fabric”. I figured it would be funky stuff that I’d never use because it wasn’t packed in with my regular fabric stash. But to my surprise, it was all awesome-ness manifested in cloth from top to bottom.
8. Seeing all that awesome-ness made me want to make something right away and I decided that cloth napkins were the way to go.

Because if there’s one thing that will make life easier once a newborn is in the house, it’s cloth napkins.

Anywhoo, this is how I made them:

Step 1: Cut four 16 1/2 inch squares from each of two coordinating fabrics.

Step 2: Line up two squares of fabric, right sides together.

Step 3: Sew the two pieces of fabric together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. This particular picture was a bad choice because one of my squares wasn’t exactly square and so I couldn’t match the edges up precisely. (You will probably be more careful than I was though and your edges will all match up.) No matter, I just sewed a 1/4 inch from the inner edge of the smaller piece and it all worked out OK.

Important! Don’t sew the seams all around the edges.  You will need to leave a 2-3 inch gap on one side so that you can turn the napkins right side out.

Step 4: OK, now turn the napkins right side out by pulling them through the gap you left. Try to make the corners as sharp and pointy as you can. I clipped a little of the excess fabric of the corners of mine and that helped.

Step 5: Once you have a nice square of pretty fabric turned right side out, iron the seams flat. You will also want to turn under the edges of the fabric at the gap and iron it as flat as you can with a nice sharp crease.

Step 6: Sew a neat hem about 1/8 inch from the seam. Be especially careful as you go over the gap. If you stay 1/8 inch from the edge, that will close the hole up and your napkin will look real pretty there.

Step 7: Sit back and admire your lovely new napkins. Attractive, environmentally friendly and perfect for use when there is a new baby in the house!

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.

And my hair is all crazy!