Cam’s Tuesday bento has sliced carrots, tiny grape tomatoes, & cucumber flowers in the bottom tier. She has apple slices, salami & turkey rolls, Colby jack cheese cubes & some crackers in the top tier.
To keep sliced or cubed apples from browning you can soak them in a little pineapple juice diluted with water. Lemon lime soda works well too. Of course you can always soak them in water that has had a few drops of lemon or lime juice added but we find that this can make apples taste too tart.
You may have noticed that there was no “Daily Bento” last Friday. Cam bought her lunch that day but told me on the way home from school that she would not be doing that again. The fruit cup that they served was less than satisfactory, the brownies had vanilla frosting on them, and the lunch lady did not give her enough time to choose what she wanted. Needless to say, the whole experience has turned her off from buying her lunch.
So we’re back to bento! And that’s fine with me.
Her Monday bento has sliced carrots & green beans in the bottom tier. The top tier has tiny grape tomatoes, Colby jack cheese slices wrapped in salami, cheez-its, and 3 vanilla creme brulee flavored rice cakes.
My daughter has become a yogurt lover pretty much over night. She always liked it in smoothies but I could never get her to eat it by itself. All that changed this afternoon. She’s become a full fledged yogurt maniac. So I figured why not make her day & put some in her bento?
Her bottom tier has strawberry yogurt with chopped fresh strawberries & a few rainbow sprinkles since today is her Aunt Jill’s birthday. Her top tier has ham roll-ups, cucumbers cut with apple-shaped cutters, and sliced grape tomatoes. Not pictured is a biscuit left-over from dinner that she requested I add to her lunch.
Cass
I found out last night that all of the sandwiches I had been making my daughter for lunch had been (purposely) accidentally dropped on the floor so that she wouldn’t have to eat them. The beginnings of an evil genius? I think so.
The kindergarten kids eat lunch at 10:45 in the morning which is crazy early. Especially when you consider that most of them eat breakfast at 8. So it’s no wonder that most of their lunches go uneaten. When the school year first started, I would pack leftovers from a previous dinner, I would send her with colored pasta, I would make cute little bite-sized pb&j sandwiches. And for all my efforts, I would get to throw those things away at the end of every day because she wouldn’t touch them. What annoyed me even more was the fact that she would normally eat these things at home. So naturally, when I should be worrying about asteroids & zombie apocalypses like a normal person, I’m consumed with anxiety about my kid not eating enough. That’s nuts.
I’ve decided after much trial, error & disappointment over the last 4 weeks of school that I’m just going to make things easy on myself. My daughter seems to prefer a more “snacky” lunch loaded with fresh produce. In fact, I’ve seen that little weirdo choose a bowl of spring greens with a little sea salt sprinkled on top for snack over everything else in the house on more than one occasion. So that’s what I will be packing her from here on out unless she specifically requests something else. Lots of fresh fruits & veg, some kind of protein, something with a little crunch & no sandwiches.
This one is pretty straightforward. Just some carrot & celery sticks in the top tier. The bottom tier held sliced strawberries & one of our homemade oatmeal bars that we made together last night. I also packed her a sliced banana in a separate container.
Tuesday’s bento was a super easy one. In the first tier, there is half of a ham sandwich & some naturally colored Goldfish Space Adventures crackers. In the second tier, I cut cucumber slices with leaf-shaped metal cookie cutters & put them in a silicone heart-shaped cup next to sliced grape tomatoes & carrots.
I can’t forget to mention her little friends peeking out from behind her tomatoes & cucumbers. These are food picks that she will actually use to eat her lunch with. No big utensils required.
.jpg)
We Should Be Folding Laundry 