Cool for School: Bento Box Lunch

Like all toddlers, M has become a picky eater, so I like to give her a lot of little options for lunch, rather than one or two things. Enter the "Bento Box" lunch. Bento is technically a home-packed or take-out meal common in Japanese cuisine, with each little component of the meal compartmentalized in its own little section of a box or container. I needed something that a toddler could open herself (so not a lot of individually topped boxes) so I took it upon myself to make my own "box" using the Easy Lunchboxes I found on Amazon, and put 4 silicone muffin cups that I got from Michaels craft store (like these here) in the large side of the lunchbox.

Here are some of her latest lunches:

Fig Newtons, trail mix, Mandarin oranges, Bon Bel cheese, grapes and PB& J roll-up

Raspberries, hazelnut wafers (dessert), bunny pretzels, cheese,  cous cous and beans (leftover from dinner the night before) and turkey with American cheese stars

Raspberries, Goldfish, strawberries, cubes of cheese, soy crisps and Mickey Mouse PB & J

Strawberries, cut up cheese stick, raisins, chopped up protein bar, Fig Newtons and mandarin oranges (a day when I needed to go grocery shopping!)

Cantaloupe stars, pretzel flats, gummy fruits, pink beans, grapes and turkey and cheese

Other things I like to put in here: 

- Carrots and Hummus

- Tuna on crackers

- Dried Cranberries

- Pirate's Booty

- Honeydew Melon or watermelon

- Rotisserie chicken

- Veggie Sticks or chips

- Yogurt covered pretzels or raisins

- Dried figs or dates

- PB & banana sandwich

- sliced hard boiled egg 

- mini muffins

If you are making a sandwich, use a cookie cutter or sandwich cutter to make it more exciting and cut fruits and veggies into fun shapes too! I used these mini cookie cutters for the hearts and stars shapes you see above. 

For more ideas, read my previous posts on Toddler lunches!