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! 

Cool for School: Lunch for the Picky Eater

I used to brag on here that M was an adventurous eater. She would eat bits of whatever we were having at meal time and she would woof it up all by herself. I felt sorry for those parents who were making chicken fingers and PB&Js all the time for their picky eaters, as I was whipping up a roasted beet salad for M. I should have known that my kid would be just like every other 2 year old out there - a picky eater.Now I am lucky if she eats 1/100 of what is on her plate. Doesn't matter whether it is chicken fingers, or grilled pork...the kid hardly ever eats. She will have one or two days a week where she eats non-stop, and then the other 5 days she eats like a freaking bird. No matter what I make she will pick at it for a few minutes and then tell me "all done. I want to go play."

When it came time to pack her lunch for camp this summer, and now pre-school, I was terribly nervous about what to put in her lunch box. She would be away from home for 4 hours, and wouldn't be able to ask for 100 different things like she does at home (all of which she has one bite of of course.) What if she hated what I sent for a snack and was starving? And then hated what I packed her for lunch and threw a fit? This gave me more anxiety than actually dropping her off at school!

So I did research, as I have mentioned here on the blog (see this post and follow me on pinterest as I have a board about toddler food ideas), and decided to go the route of the Bento box lunch - lots of little compartments for lots of little snacks, instead of the traditional sandwich-and-sides lunch route.

M seems to be digging this whole idea too, as she comes home with an empty lunch box every school day. So I figured I would share some of my lunch ideas on a weekly basis to inspire all you moms making lunch for your kiddies! I would love to hear what you are packing these days (for lunch, not heat :) as I am always looking for something new to try...

Here are some of her lunches from last week!

Goldfish, mini carrots, cheese cubs, rotisserie chicken, grapes and yogurt pretzels

Turkey and American cheese, veggie chips, oranges and gummy fruits

Kiwi, mandarin oranges, goldfish, strawberries, bananas with peanut butter, and turkey and cheese

Sources of Stress: Summer Camp & Toddler Lunch Ideas

In just two short weeks M (now 2.7 years old) will be attending summer camp at the same place where she will begin pre-school in the fall. We had decided that it was better for us to send her to "school" before the baby comes in August, so that she does not think we are replacing her and shipping her off three days a week to some strange place alone once the baby arrives.

Now M has been home with me for her entire life. We have attended classes every week with friends, but for the most part it is her and me all day long, every day. I knew that school would be somewhat of an adjustment, as she will have to follow someone else's orders and do as she is told, but she is so easy going (well, most of the time) that I thought she would be just fine. So to prepare her for summer camp at school we visited her school for the first time since our initial visit in January last week. I went into this visit with complete confidence that my daughter would take to being in a classroom of kids like she had been going all her life - and boy was I wrong. She did nothing but whine, threw a fit in front of the entire class, and screamed "I wanna go home now!" We were only there for 20 minutes of the two hours we had planned to be there, when the school director asked us to leave and come back this week (in the nicest way possible of course, as it wasn't doing us any good to stay in the state M was in). 


I, of course, being 8 months pregnant and hormonal, broke into tears as soon as we left as our visit was a total disaster. The school asked us to come back this week for a second visit - and thankfully this week's visit was the polar opposite of our first one. Yes there were some moments of whining and a few loud screams, but over all she had a great time with the kids at her new school. I was able to talk to one of her teachers, and she eased most of the fears I have about M starting school on her own in a few weeks - is it ok that she isn't fully potty trained? What if she throws a fit? What do I pack her for lunch? I left the school feeling 100 times better than I had the week before, as M told me "school is fun" when we got into the car after our visit. 


But now I am stressing over little things - like what to pack her for lunch every day? At home meal time can go one of two ways: I make her dinner, she eats the entire thing without batting an eye, no matter what it is or I make her dinner she takes one look at it and says "no thanks," requests something else, I make it and she says "no thanks" and ends up having a piece of cheese and an apple sauce for dinner. Most of the time she eats what I make, but I fear that meal time at school might be a disaster! What if I pack her something she doesn't want? And she throws a fit and doesn't eat it? And then is a cranky beast? 


This is such a silly thing to stress about, but because I am thinking about it so much I have been doing a little research via Pinterest on Toddler lunches. I also bought her some Bento box-type lunch boxes on Amazon, as well as some sandwich punches, and cookie cutters so that I can cut out veggies and fruits in fun shapes. I am totally going to be that mom who makes her kids lunches in to Sesame Street characters...just you wait!! 


Here are some of my favorite pins on Pinterest that are full of great ideas for toddler lunches! Just click on the photos to go for more details and follow me on Pinterest... 

Source: weelicious.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Source: blogs.babble.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Source: kidsactivitiesblog.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Source: easylunchboxes.smugmug.com via Jessica on Pinterest