Wednesday, February 2, 2011

My bento-style lunch pix for my first grader

Ok, first of all, where did January go? I swear I didn't get the allotted 31 days!

Be that as it may, I do have some photos for you. I've been doing sort of American-food bento-style lunches for Pumpkin for school. They work well - she's a bit picky, doesn't always want the same thing, and has a short lunch time. So, by packing a healthy bit of this and a bit of that, and making it pretty if I can, I think she's eating more/better than she would if she just had a sandwich/fruit/treat every day.

Not that some days I don't wonder how she survives since almost everything's still in the box.

I try to include 2 sources of protein (pb in sandwiches/wraps counts), 2 fruits-or-veg, and two grain-y carb-y things. Usually there's a small treat, but not always. I use a small plastic container I got at Tar-zhay in the fall that measure 5 1/4" by 3 1/4" by 2 1/4" roughly. The bottom says it holds 1.7 cups or 0.4L. It comes with a small reusable ice pack that snaps into the lid. Penguin has the same one in blue, and often likes to have her own lunch packed, even though we are usually eating lunch at home anyway.

Without further ado, just a few pix:



*Oh yeah, those little green cups are silicone mini-cupcake cups. Two of them can fit on top of each other, so I often stack them, one with dried cranberries and the other with peanuts or similar.