From the category archives:

lazy bentos

lazy bentos [february 6 - february 10]

February 9, 2012

Since Emma’s class is having their Valentine’s Party tomorrow, and since I am bringing pizza for the party, I only have two lunches this week.

Monday

teddy bear turkey + mustard sandwich; sour cream & onion pirate’s booty [she didn’t like it]; slice of cheese, cinnamon toast crunch and strawberries in an Easy Lunchbox

Wednesday

bear strawberry cream cheese sandwich [I didn’t realize I did two bear sandwiches this week!]; parmesan goldfish crackers – because bears eat fish, haha!; half a banana w/ princess stickers and a few grapes that she requested in this two-tier bento box

A few things I’ve noticed – I need to get more scrapbook paper. I need to quit letting Emma pick out her chips/crackers at the store, because she NEVER likes new things. She takes after her momma that way. We need to branch out into different fruits.

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lazy bentos [january 30 - february 3]

February 3, 2012

in lazy bentos

Man, the weather this week is unbelievable! I can’t even believe it’s February – and I’m in the South where mild winters are normal. This is just … spring.

As far as lunches go, nothing spectacular this week. I tried to prepare more things the night before [like during supper cleanup] so I could just wash/cut some fruit and toss it in the box the next morning, and it seems to have helped make our morning routine a little less hectic.

Monday

leftover rotisserie chicken, laughing cow light creamy swiss cheese, pirate’s booty, mini apple burritos [tortilla spread with cream cheese, sprinkled with a little cinnamon sugar and then rolled around apple slices that I dipped in juice to keep them from browning] – all packaged in Emma’s new favorite bento box

I didn’t realize until I finished preparing the lunch that it was all white, but Emma didn’t seem to mind.

Wednesday

turkey and mustard sandwich, light creamy swiss cheese [we got a HUGE pack at Costco, and Emma loves them, so you’ll see these for a while, ha!], pretzels, strawberries and grapes

Funny story: Emma was actually watching PBS while I was preparing her lunch, and Smart Cat said that the healthy food of the day was grapes, so she asked me to throw those in. Thank you, Smart Cat!

packed in this box and this box – I have found that I, personally, prefer the hinged lid boxes

Thursday

I know I don’t normally do this, but I wanted to share the lunches I fixed for me and Emma at home. A little quirk about me … I don’t like for my foods to be touching, and I won’t eat the part that has touched something else, especially if it’s something dry that touched something wet. *shudder*

So … I absolute love our Easy Lunchboxes, even when we’re just eating at the table at home.

Emma: turkey and mustard wrap, pirate’s booty, pickle, grapes

me: turkey sandwich, tomatoes and cucumbers

Friday

pretzels, turkey and mustard wrap cut into little rolls, apples slices, light creamy swiss cheese packed in this cute two-tier box

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lazy bentos | week 4

January 27, 2012

in lazy bentos

This was a pretty basic week for us, but I will introduce you to my worst bento picture ever.

Monday

It was pitch black outside due to rain, so I only had the light over our kitchen table, and let me just openly admit … I do NOT know how to edit photos taken in artificial light. I assure you, her string cheese is not orange plastic. Yikes.

Anyway … GoGo Squeez applesauce, half of a toasted bagel with cream cheese, goldfish crackers [outer space theme] and string mozarella/cheddar cheese packed in this box [in pink, which is no longer carried there]. She came home with one tiny piece of cheese, so it went over well even though it doesn’t look very appetizing in this photo.

Wednesday

strawberries, oyster crackers, leftover rotisserie chicken from previous night’s supper [not pictured: box of raisins] – her appetite hasn’t been that great lately, so I packed a smaller lunch than usual, but she still came home with almost everything uneaten. Typical preschooler behavior.

This lunch was packed in our new favorite two-tier bento box.

Friday

sliced salami and pepperoni, squirrel-shaped flatbread, organic honey graham sticks [under the squirrels], pretzels and grapes – packed in this adorable [and inexpensive!] little 2-tier box

I had a friend ask if the boxes are hard to open for kids, and I am pretty sure Emma can get them open – I need to ask her teacher. I’ve honestly never worried about it too much, because her teachers are always right there while they eat lunch. The blue and pink boxes that I posted here are so easy to open, I actually have to use a cute yellow strap to keep them closed.

I also had a couple of people ask me how I take these pictures, which is funny since I included SUCH a bad picture this week. But I typically do this setup when the weather is nice:

Super fancy! ;)

And last but not least, I have had a lot of comments and emails and facebook posts about how YOU started doing this and are having great results with your kids eating their lunches – THANK YOU for sharing!! I don’t know how it works or why it works or what it is about small food in cute boxes, but kids eat it. So please keep sharing your stories.

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the lazy bento’er :: week 3

January 20, 2012

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I took pictures of Emma’s two school lunches last week and posted on Friday morning since she didn’t have school on Friday, but then as I was fixing the girls’ lunches later that day, I realized that I kind of do this whole food separation / bento thing a LOT.

So I thought I’d show you their Friday lunches for fun.

And let me just say that this was hurried photo-taking since Miss Lucy had much wailing and gnashing of teeth waiting for her plaaaaaate MOOOOOOM!!

Lucy got pretzel sticks, pickle, green olives, deli ham and a piece of bread cut into a squirrel shape

Emma got much of the same – pretzel sticks, pickle, olives and ham and mustard sandwich in shape of butterfly

Did you notice that my 4 1/2-year old and my 1-year old eat basically the same amount?? Yeah. Also, I don’t usually cut Emma’s food into small bites, but when I start cutting Lucy’s stuff, I tend to just keep going with Emma’s. Sometimes, I send her to school with her grapes cut in half … her teacher probably thinks I’m crazy.

They both got a small bowl of grapes with their lunch, as well – I just hadn’t had a chance to wash and get those prepared when I was taking pictures. And then *I* had to eat so we could run out the door to our play date.

We met a couple of Emma’s class mates at Barnes and Noble for an afternoon play date, and since their café doesn’t have much in the way of dairy-egg-peanut free snacks, I packed a box for Lucy to take with us.

This is a typical snack box for her when we go out, because I never know where we’re going to end up, and I never know if they will have allergy-free snacks. Pretzel sticks [I think we are finally nearing the end of this bag, thank goodness!], the rest of the squirrel-shaped bread and grapes.

And just in case you were wondering, all of our bread is the Publix premium dairy-free wheat bread.

No school on Monday

Wednesday

strawberries + blueberries, marbled cheese cubes, pickle, rolled up ham slices in boxes from All Things for Sale [cat box / squirrel box]

I am struggling with lighting for my pictures lately – might have to enlist some help from Emma with a deflector. Oy.

Friday

We had to take one of Emma’s classmates to school with us this morning, so this was a rush deal. And then he looked at me like I had three heads when I went to take a picture of it.

This week’s letter was “S”, so I sent squirrel-shaped strawberry cream cheese sandwiches, marbled cheese cubes, a pickle, and strawberries in an Easy Lunchbox.

One thing I’ve noticed from making and photographing these lunches is that I don’t mix it up enough. Poor Emma gets the same things over and over and over. We are going to try to branch out a little more over the next few weeks.

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the lazy bento’er

January 13, 2012

in lazy bentos

This was a short week at preschool, so I only had to fix two lunches.

Monday

whole wheat pita with ham and mustard, banana [she requested stickers, but my current supply is lame], whole grain goldfish crackers, raisins – not pictured: GoGo Squeez applesauce

Wednesday

Emma’s class studies a different letter each week, and this week was “S” – so I tried to accommodate as well as I could with our poor supply of groceries. Star-shaped ham and mustard Sandwich, Shredded cheese, olives, pretzel Sticks and Strawberries.

And I can’t help but smile when I put the lid on those boxes that state, “Our daily life overflows with happiness.” It’s a nice reminder for those mornings that aren’t necessarily overflowing with happiness at the time.

all bento boxes are from AllThingsForSale.com

And this is what Lucy does while I’m taking pictures of the boxes …