Sunday, June 6, 2010

box up your lunch

School lunch? Let's face it, it's pretty cheap and certainly convenient. When Stephanie was in first grade, she was hesitant to try many of the school lunches and took her lunch to school on most days. As the years went by, she tried more and more of them and seemed satisfied with them. Heather likes some of the school lunches, but would prefer to take a home lunch. There are many a day when I have begged asked the kids to have school lunch because I am running late.

All along, I have known that the school lunches were not the best choice for the kids ~ but I gave in to the convenience. Then we watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I was resolved to help them take their lunch more often. I'll admit, that resolve comes and goes with my organization level. The last couple of weeks? Not so good. The couple of weeks before that? Awesome.

I'm also trying to make their home lunch a little more interesting ~ more fun ~ with a little more variety. In comes the bento-style lunch.



I bought these compartment style containers (Glad brand, I think) for their lunches. These are convenient because there is not a jumble of plastic containers in their lunch bag to keep track of and make sure they get home. Plus we are not using plastic bags which can be pricey and bad for the environment. I did use paper cupcake liners, but on another day remembered I had some silicone cupcake holders. Even better. This was one of the first bento-style lunches I made for the kids. Turns out, they requested more cheese, meat, and crackers for the next time.

Stephanie and Heather have really enjoyed these new lunches. They even thank me for making their lunch when they get this kind of lunch. I realize this post is coming at the end of the school year for most of you. Many of you are even out of school already. Us? We have four and a half weeks left of school. But it's never too early to plan for next year! Or maybe you want to take a bento-style lunch to work.

If you want some more bento box lunch ideas, visit Another Lunch. These lunches are amazing!

What's in your lunch box?

1 comment:

Carpool Queen said...

I'm going to have to look for these lunch boxes. I'm a bad lunch packer and I need to get better at it -

Thanks for the inspiration!