LunchBox

I bought Almi a cute doggie lunchbox for school. Though I really don't enjoy packing lunches, the alternative is having her eat our school lunch. Yuck! They're full of sugar, preservatives and fat; the fruit is rarely ripe; they don't offer dairy free options; they don't serve whole grains; they're too processed,etc. I could go on and on. Not something I want my child to eat! So I suck it up and pack her one. (ok, it's the first week of school and I may be lazier come November but for now I am holding strong to my convictions!!)

Here is a lunch I prepared this week. Some leftover chicken the nanny made, some julienned baby carrots, 1/2 banana and 2 boxes of raisins. Unlike my old daycare, I have no idea if she is eating it all because they don't communicate that but at the last place the feedback pretty much was she ate whatever I prepared so I try to keep these super healthy since she's refusing veggies fairly often now at home.

My First Bento

For someone who likes a variety of foods at one meal, sushi and tapas are always winners. At-home cooking can be a chore because along with my meat/starch/veggie I could easily want some carrots&hummus or chips&salsa or olives or a cheese stick. You get the idea. I like a lot of variety. Well, Bentos allow for quite a variety of foods in one meal. I think that's why the meals always look so appealing to me. They can be quite beautiful and labor intensive or they can be made with some leftovers while you are cleaning up dinner. Already, packing a lunch for daycare has become the bane of my existence. I hate putting thought into it. But then I found these cute Bento-like containers. I went to a local Asian food mart in search of Bentos and they had only one Bento for sale but it was still too expensive so instead I bought two cheaper containers (one for each of us) with three compartments and now packing lunches is much more fun. I can't wait til she's a little older and I can get more creative with them!

garbanzo beans, chicken/apple sausage, sliced banana

I realized after I posted this picture that it wasn't the container that I bought for her. Here is a picture of the container I actually bought.

I love the three partitions.

The little containers above are from some Gerber baby meals. I hated the thought of just throwing them away and I'm glad I didn't. They are perfect for lunches or little snacks on the go.