Tag Archives: Non-Sandwich Lunches

Daily Bento & A Quick Product Review

29 Nov

I ordered one of these bento boxes from Pottery Barn Kids last Friday:

They are $16.50 (except for the lavender box which is only $11.99) and all come with free shipping. Guess which one I ordered…

Yep.

I obviously haven’t had this box long enough to do a thorough review yet so here are some quick pros and cons:

Pros:

  • Compartments – I like compartments. No need for baran or silicone cups.
  • Lots of room – Measurements are 7″ wide x 8″ long x 2.5″ high so while it is roomy, it should still fit in most lunchboxes.
  • Seems durable  – Time will tell.
  • Dishwasher safe on the top rack which is nice.

Cons:

  • All the compartments (except the largest one) are the same size. Some people will love this. I however, would have preferred if they had extended the largest compartment a little to fit a standard sized juice box or an uncut sandwich and left two smaller compartments for smaller items like nuts or dried fruit.
  • May be too large for smaller kids. My kindergartener eats about 5 bites at lunch so this box is a little large for her now but I have no doubt that she’ll get good use out of it when she’s a little older.
  • That little door on the top left compartment does not stay closed when the lid is open.
  • Not leak proof.

So even though there are a couple of things I’d like to change if I could, overall I do like it so far.

If you’re interested, this bento box can be found here: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/spencer-bento-box-containers

In today’s bento, I packed chicken and cheese roll ups, grapes, carrots, green beans, tortilla chips, graham crackers, and a fruit and oatmeal bar. Whew! That’s a lot of food.

I also want to mention that PBK included a $10 gift card in my package which I thought was super awesome of them. I’m not sure if that’s a special thing that they’re doing for the holidays and I can’t guarantee you’ll get one too if you order but you just might.

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Daily Bento

12 Nov

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I’m proud to say that Cam is in the no cavity club for another 6 months at least so that made my weekend happy.

For her Monday bento, I shredded up some leftover turkey and just put it in a little silicone up. There are a few Angry Birds graham crackers next to it. In the opposite section I packed celery sticks, carrot sticks, and a few grapes. I also quickly cut some colby jack cheese into star shapes & tossed them in as well.

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Daily Bento

7 Nov

Behold the bento that almost wasn’t. Pictured above, is actually the 2nd bento I made last night. As I was putting the first one in the fridge, it slipped out of my hand and all of my super nimble cat like reflexes weren’t enough to keep it from hitting the floor. Luckily, nothing actually spilled out of the bento box, it just got sloshed around and jumbled up inside the box.

So we press on because this is real life and sometimes we drop things and therefore sometimes we end up making lunch twice.

For today’s bento, I put some diced chicken breast leftover from dinner the previous night, in a silicone cup with some sliced carrots. Next to that are some french green beans (hericot vert) with some yellow grape tomatoes on top. In the other part of the bento, I put two banana muffins and a few chocolate covered almonds.

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Daily Bento

2 Nov

Happy Friday!

Cam’s hot pink bento has raw broccoli in a heart-shaped silicone cup and strawberries in the bottom tier. In the top tier, I wrapped salami around sliced mozzarella cheese and then used small animal picks to keep them from coming unwrapped and to make it easier for her to pop them into her mouth. I also packed her some Scrabble Jr. Cheez-It’s in another heart-shaped silicone cup.

I have a feeling she’ll probably spend more time spelling out words with her crackers then actually eating them.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Daily Bento

29 Oct

Camryn didn’t want a sandwich today. She asked for fruit and veg with a little chicken on the side. Her class eats fairly early and I’m finding that most days, she’s still full from breakfast so she hasn’t been eating all of her lunch. Other days she wasn’t even touching her lunch and when I asked her why she hadn’t eaten she said that she was too busy making up stories with her friend *eye-roll*. So obviously lunch isn’t high on her list of priorities at 10:45 in the morning.

Per her request, I made her a fruit salad of watermelon, orange segments and pineapple in the bottom tier. She has grape tomatoes, carrot sticks and sliced rotisserie chicken on picks in the top tier.

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Daily Bento

9 Oct

Well, I did it again. I needed to be up at 7, but somehow turned off my alarm & woke up frantic at 8. This is becoming an inconvenient trend. Especially since we need to leave no later than 8:15 to get my daughter to school on time.

I thought for a second about not doing a bento post today but then, after some consideration, I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to keep things real & show you that bento making doesn’t have to be time consuming. Of course it looks much better if you have more time to make things look “just so” but if you’re pressed for time you can still do a pretty decent job. They key is planning.

It helps me to have a game plan the night before. If I can make the bento at night, I do. Then I can just pull it out of the fridge & put it in the lunch box. I don’t recommend cutting fruits or cheese the night before. Fresh fruit & cheese can go downhill pretty fast once you cut it. But you can slice meat & veggies, portion out chips, crackers, goldfish, pretzel sticks, fruit snacks, dried fruit, or anything else that will keep overnight. Keeping all your bento supplies in one spot close at hand helps speed things along too.

Tuesday’s bento came together in about 5 minutes. One tier held 3 blueberry mini muffins that we made last night. The other tier has carrot sticks, cheese hearts, salami rolls & a diced apple. I also made a smoothie for her thermos & packed some extra crackers.

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Daily Bento

4 Oct

I used Camryn’s larger Hello Kitty bento today because her smaller ones just wouldn’t fit everything she wanted. I’ll be very surprised if she eats all of this. In any case, what you see pictured above is what she asked me to pack. She has grape tomatoes, sliced celery, sliced carrots, mukimame (shelled soy beans), Space Adventures Goldfish, & a couple muffins we made on a whim last night (I included the recipe below).

In her purple container she has yogurt over fresh strawberries & a few rainbow sprinkles.

Instant Oatmeal Muffins

1 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup yogurt – we normally use vanilla but all we had in the fridge was strawberry which worked just fine.

1/2 cup milk

1 tbsp veg oil

1 egg

1 packet of Instant Oatmeal – any flavor. We used banana bread.

1 tbsp flax seeds

chocolate chips – if desired

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray or drop in liners.

Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flax seeds & an oatmeal packet in a large bowl & whisk together.

In a separate bowl, mix yogurt, oil, egg & milk until combined.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture & stir to combine.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Scoop the batter into the prepared tin, filling each cup about 2/3 of the way. For mini-muffins, use a mini-muffin tin & scoop 1 tbsp of batter into each muffin cup.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly pressed.

* The flax seeds are totally optional. My kid eats them like they’re going outta style so I put them in everything. If you don’t like ’em, leave ’em out.

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Daily Bento

3 Oct

Today’s bento has teeny seedless cucumbers, grape tomatoes, cheese cubes & salami rolls in the bottom tier. I found the cucumbers yesterday at the produce market near my house. At 3 for $1 I couldn’t pass them up.

The top tier has pancake sandwiches filled with nutella & sliced bananas. My pancake recipe is below.

Cam’s Favorite P’cakes

1 cup self rising flour

1 cup Silk Fruit & Protein (we like peach/mango)

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

Whisk everything together in a bowl until just combined. Batter should be slightly lumpy. Heat a pan or griddle to medium. Add desired amount of batter and cook until bubbles form on top & edges are dry. Flip & cook until golden brown.

I used half a tablespoon of batter to make these tiny pancakes. For regular sized pancakes, use about 1/4 cup of batter.

* You can also use the same amount of regular milk, unflavored soy milk, almond milk, whatever floats your boat will work.

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Daily Bento

2 Oct

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.

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Daily Bento

1 Oct

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.

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