It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. Hopefully the weather will stick around long after September first, the day Owen starts kindergarten. I’m not fretting too much about it, since he’s only going for a half day — one that’s shorter than his preschool day. That’s right, folks — my son will be released for the day at 11:05.
Even though he doesn’t have to bring a lunch yet, I’m always looking for fun lunches to keep him eating colorful and nutritious foods. I’ve hit the jackpot this week, because Parenting magazine knows what’s hot — bento box lunches.
Mother of God, this is lunch on steroids. Once I got past the fact that it’s probably not as easy as tossing an almond butter and jelly sandwich together, I realized that they really would be fairly quick and simple to do, especially because the creativity part is taken care of if I use Parenting‘s ideas. I can chop, right?
Some ideas I will definitely steal — I’ve got to remember how sticking anything on a toothpick makes it taste better. Well, it does when you’re five years old. The edamame stacked on a toothpick looks so damn cute. If I ever pack him chicken nuggets, hot dogs or the like, I’ll stick the ketchup right inside of it — that’s handy. And I can’t credit Parenting with this one, but I’m on that hot dog octopus pictured above like white on rice.
What seems easy — I can definitely cut lunch meat into strips and loop it to look pretty, like they did in almost every box, and I can even get a few cute cookie cutters to make shapes out of veggies. And I can chop — did I mention that already? And, my kid already likes homemade sushi, so I can do a traditional bento box for him too.
Problems — Some of the fancy folded sandwich pieces, like the bunny’s ears and the flower petals, won’t work with the sprouted bread we use, which is more crumbly than bread made from wheat flour. Yeah, that darned gluten is good for some things, I guess. I’m also thinking that using rice and quinoa, although adorable, just wouldn’t get eaten. If my kid has 15 minutes to eat with a gaggle of friends and needs to use a fork, it ain’t happening.
I can definitely work with these ideas to make fun lunches. I’m inspired — how about you?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Aug 20, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
It looks super cute! Forget school, I would totally take a bento box to work if I weren’t too lazy to make it.
Semi-related question – is it safe to put toothpicks in a little kid’s school lunch? I have no idea, since I don’t have kids. I just got a mental image of a kid with splinters in his mouth.
*POST AUTHOR*
That’s a good question — the Parenting bento pages have toothpick warnings on them, to make sure to take toothpicks out before eating for kids 4 and under.
Owen loves eating things off of toothpicks, and I think he did when he was as young as 4, but we’re bad parents, so there you have it!